Catch the latest news video reports on The Big Story, The Straits Times' weekday online news programme.

A cleaner who was staying on Kusu Island on Sunday night (April 17) was the first to spot the fire that destroyed three Malay shrines at the top of a hill on the island.

The cause of the fire, which started at about 6.20pm, is still unknown, said the shrine's caretaker, Mr Ishak Samsudin, adding that the shrines will have to be rebuilt.

The fire was spotted on Sunday by Mr Hari Haran, 26, who has been cleaning the island and tending to its trees for three years.

Separately, Singapore's domestic recycling rate remained at 13 per cent in 2021 - unchanged from 2020's figures, a 10-year low. This comes even as households produced more waste as economic activity resumed after the first year of the pandemic.

The National Environment Agency, in its annual waste and recycling statistics released on Monday, said households generated 1.82 million tonnes of waste in 2021, up from 1.77 million tonnes in 2020.

For both years, only 13 per cent of domestic waste was recycled. Between 2017 and 2019, the domestic recycling rate hovered between 17 per cent and 22 per cent.

Journalist Shabana Begum shares more on the report.

In other headlines, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is visiting Singapore on Monday, her first overseas visit since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is her second visit here as New Zealand prime minister, after the first one in 2019.

Overseas, Shanghai authorities said three people infected with Covid-19 died on Sunday, the first time during the current outbreak that the financial hub reported deaths among coronavirus patients.

And don't miss this week's Smart Parenting segment. Ms Hajaani Jegatheesan, a St Andrew's Junior College graduate who repeated her first year in JC, explains the importance of giving junior college repeat students the help and support they need.