Singapore on Tuesday unveiled plans to offer free train rides during morning peak-hours to ease severe congestion on its metro rail network.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said it would launch a one-year trial on June 24 to provide free travel to commuters who arrive at 16 designated metro stations in the city center before 7:45 am on weekdays.

Elevators in Singapore public-housing blocks are still sometimes being used as toilets, infuriating residents despite a long government campaign to eradicate the dirty habit, a report said Sunday.

A suburban town council has put up notices showing a bare-bottomed woman apparently urinating in a lift and a man smoking in another, the Sunday Times newspaper said.

Singapore, one of the world's most densely populated countries, is campaigning to get its 154-year-old Botanic Gardens declared a UNESCO world heritage site.

If selected by the U.N. cultural body, the lush and serene 74-hectare (182-acre) park on the edge of downtown Singapore will join the Royal Botanic Gardens in London and the Orto Botanico in Italy on the prestigious list.

Bangladesh President Zillur Rahman, a veteran ruling party politician named to the largely ceremonial post in 2009, died Wednesday in a Singapore hospital, an embassy official said. He was 84.

"The president died at a hospital here in Singapore at 6.47 pm local time," Bangladesh High Commissioner in Singapore M. Mahbubuzzaman told Agence France Presse by phone.

The guests lean over the side of the boat to catch the morning breeze as their catamaran eases off from a jetty in Singapore. A typical cruise, except for the fact that the passengers are dogs.

"Actually, this is their third cruise," said Andy Pe, 43, the doting owner of two Black Labrador Retrievers, a Yellow Labrador, a Golden Retriever and two mongrels. "They enjoy the sea breeze and water so much."

Indian leaders appealed for calm and security forces headed off fresh unrest by turning New Delhi into a fortress on Saturday after a student who was savagely gang-raped died in a Singapore hospital.

Police threw a ring of steel around the center of the Indian capital after news of the 23-year-old medical student's death was broken in the early hours by the Singapore hospital that had been treating her for the last two days.

An Indian gang-rape victim is showing signs of severe organ failure after taking a turn for the worse, the hospital treating her said Friday after medics criticized a decision to fly her to Singapore.

The 23-year-old was airlifted to Singapore Thursday after the attack on a bus in New Delhi on December 16, a crime which has prompted widespread street protests in India amid simmering anger at the level of violence against women.

Singaporeans have reacted to a survey depicting them as the world's most emotionless people with many saying the city state's competitive culture leaves them no room for feelings.

"Singaporeans are the least likely in the world to report experiencing emotions of any kind on a daily basis," U.S.-based pollster Gallup said in a report on a three-year study conducted in more than 150 countries.

Singapore has opened a new cruise terminal capable of berthing the world's biggest luxury liners, in a bid to boost the city-state's position as a regional travel hub.

The Marina Bay Cruise Center Singapore was opened late Monday with company officials saying it will allow the island-state to tap the growing number of people in Asia taking leisure trips on luxury vessels.

Britain's Prince William and his wife Catherine paid tribute to British and Commonwealth war dead on Thursday as they wound up a three-day visit to Singapore on a sombre note.

The royal couple, on the first leg of an Asia-Pacific tour celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's 60-year reign, laid a wreath at a cemetery dedicated to soldiers who died defending Malaya against the Japanese during World War II.