NewsLite

SINGAPORE – She was only 12 when she was diagnosed with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), an inherited condition that causes hundreds or thousands of polyps to form in the colon and rectum.

And when she turned 15, housewife Felicia Lee, now 42, had to have part of her colon removed.

FAP is a rare genetic condition, affecting about one in 8,000 people. It results in the development of numerous colon polyps, which are non-cancerous growths. They significantly increase the risk of colorectal cancer, often at an early age.

The condition is caused by mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene, which is a tumour suppressor gene that normally controls cell growth.

SYDNEY - Wildfires in Australia's New South Wales burnt through thousands of hectares of bushland on Saturday (Dec 6), prompting the authorities to urge evacuations at the highest danger rating for thousands of residents in the nation's most populous state.

The alert was for the Phegans Bay and Woy Woy area in the the state's central coast region, with a population of more than 350,000 people, about 45 km north of the state capital Sydney, Australia's largest city.

As many as 16 homes were lost as bushfires burned across the region, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.

"Leave now if the path is clear towards Woy Woy," the state's Rural Fire Service said on its website.

MUMBAI/BENGALURU - Crowds at Indian airports eased on Saturday (Dec 6) but hundreds of passengers were still gathering outside Bengaluru and Mumbai airports as 385 IndiGo flights were cancelled, in the fifth day of a crisis that has hit the country's biggest airline.

Air travel across India has been in turmoil this week after IndiGo cancelled thousands of flights, prompting the government to announce special relief for the carrier and operate some trains to help clear the backlog.

It is the biggest crisis ever for the 20-year-old airline, which long prided itself on on-time performance and lured passengers with low-cost fares.

IndiGo has admitted it failed to plan properly ahead of a November 1 deadline to implement stricter rules for pilots around night flying and weekly rest, which ultimately led to problems around roster planning this week.

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE/BEIJING - Homeowners at the complex destroyed in one of Hong Kong's deadliest fires were incorrectly told the contractor that authorities blame for the blaze had a clean safety record, documents viewed by Reuters show.

Residents were given the assurances by Will Power Architects, which was retained by their homeowners' corporation to evaluate bids for a renovation contract, according to a PowerPoint presentation created by the consultant.

In fact, the contractor, Prestige Construction & Engineering Co., had been penalized by the city's safety regulator more than a dozen times in the seven years before it was hired by the corporation to renovate the complex, according to the agency's records, including for improperly installing scaffolding and faulty electrical connections.

The fines were issued for violations of an industrial-safety ordinance between 2016 and 2019, according to Labour Department records. Offences under the code are typically prosecuted in a magistrate's court.

When we hear the term "bachelor party", most of us think of late nights filled with drinks and games.

One groom, however, decided to take the road less travelled.

Mere hours before his wedding dinner banquet on Saturday (Dec 6), Dave Luo went on a half-marathon in this year's Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon with one of his groomsmen.

And guess what? He'll be back for the full marathon with all three groomsmen on Sunday morning.

I'm a 33 year-old millennial and I'm not on TikTok. I don't post videos and I don't scroll endlessly at 2am while lying in bed, gaslighting myself that "I'll sleep in five minutes".

I don't have anything against TikTok, but I've made a conscious decision to opt out of the app. I'm honestly okay with missing out on the latest dance trend, Zhen Zhen's newest rant, or not knowing that "nani ga suki" earworm (which I only discovered recently thanks to my husband).

When the app first exploded, I was curious. Friends would send me links to funny videos, and I'd laugh along.

But over time, I realised something weird was happening to me. I'd open a video and suddenly, *poof* I would have wasted an hour practically doing nothing but just watching multiple bite-sized videos. I felt unproductive, fatigued and uninspired.

A 31-year-old Malaysian man was arrested on Nov 20 for attempting to smuggle duty-unpaid cigarettes into Singapore via Woodlands Checkpoint.

In a Facebook post on Friday (Dec 5), the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said its officers had directed a Malaysia-registered motorcycle for enhanced checks.

During the checks, ICA officers uncovered 570 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes hidden within various compartments of the motorcycle.

The Malaysian motorcyclist was arrested and referred to the Singapore Customs for further investigation.

"A special kind of ugly."

That is what one netizen called Singaporean Chinese people.

An illustration comparing the facial features of men from various regions of China recently made its rounds on the internet, sparking debate online.

While one X post with over 5.7 million views described the depiction as "lifelike", several netizens responded that the picture seems biased against those from the southeastern areas of Guangdong and Guangxi.

Bruno Mars nearly pulled the plug on his and Lady Gaga's hit Die With A Smile.

His collaborator, James Fauntleroy, has spilled that the Locked Out in Heaven singer had all but abandoned the demo until he learned about Gaga's role in Joker: Folie à Deux.

Speaking to Variety, Fauntleroy said: "He [Bruno] was such a genius for pulling that out of the back of his subconscious memory because of the timing of that movie, which is also how Lady Gaga came into his mind as a collaborator.

"Then when we found out that wasn't gonna be a thing, he had already kind of started the ball rolling because the power of Bruno compels you."

BEIRUT - Lebanon's president on Friday (Dec 5) defended his decision to expand talks with Israel as a way to avoid further violence, but the head of armed group Hezbollah called it a blunder, lifting the lid on divisions at a watershed moment for the country.

Israel and Lebanon on Wednesday both sent civilian envoys to a military committee monitoring their ceasefire, a step towards a months-old US demand that the two countries broaden talks in line with President Donald Trump's Middle East peace agenda.

President Joseph Aoun told visiting representatives of the United Nations Security Council that his country "has adopted the option of negotiations with Israel" and that "there is no going back".

"These negotiations are mainly aimed at stopping the hostile actions carried out by Israel on Lebanese territory, securing the return of the captives, scheduling the withdrawal from the occupied areas, and resolving the disputed points along the Blue Line," Aoun said in a statement on Friday, referring to the UN-mapped line that separates Israel from Lebanon.