Asia

A growing dispute over former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak’s house arrest has thrust the attorney general’s powers into the spotlight, raising the spectre of a constitutional clash – though legal experts say it falls short of a full-blown crisis. Najib, 73, was due to move from Kajang Prison to his Kuala Lumpur home on Friday after his political party, Umno, paid a 50 million ringgit (US$12.3 million) fine, fulfilling a condition of a royal pardon issued in September allowing him to...

Indonesia will tighten controls on state ⁠surveillance equipment and consider ⁠sweeps of its presidential palace for bugging ⁠devices, a minister said on Monday, following last week’s discovery of illegal wiretaps on the president, top officials and more. The wiretapping scandal led to the arrest of four senior police officers accused of unauthorised monitoring of phones, among them a former national police chief ‌who had recently been appointed President Prabowo Subianto’s chief of staff. The...

A viral social media prank targeting Japanese police is sweeping across the country, with children as young as seven being caught in the act. Known as “Shorinji racing”, the trend involves minors shouting “Shorinji-ja” (“We are Shorinji”) at police officers in person or through false emergency calls from public telephones while peers record them, according to Jiji Press. Some have kicked doors and torn down posters at local police boxes, or koban. The perpetrators then flee or hang up before...

Nearly eight years after a psychiatrist’s murder prompted South Korea to pass a new law that increased penalties for assaulting medical staff, another attack this month has doctors asking why the country’s hospitals are still unsafe. The attack at Severance Hospital in Seoul last Wednesday left the victim, a psychiatry professor surnamed Kang, with a severe hand injury that required surgery and cuts to his face and head. South Korea’s leading medical bodies have called for urgent new security...

Ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina requested on Monday a new passport and identity card so she can return from self-imposed exile in India, according to a letter seen by Reuters, her first ‌such communication since fleeing in 2024. The request marks the clearest step by Hasina to act on her plan to return to Bangladesh in December, more than two years after a deadly uprising ended her long rule, raising the prospect of fresh political and legal tensions in a country where her party...

Kota Laksamana in Melaka could be developed into Malaysian state’s new capital if Umno-led Barisan Nasional wins the seat in Saturday’s poll, according to caretaker chief minister Ab Rauf Yusoh. He said the proposed transformation would be supported by the Straits of Melaka Waterfront Economic Zone, which would bring together tourism, commercial and industrial activities along the state’s waterfront. “Kota Laksamana will become the state capital of Melaka. That is what I hope for,” he said...

Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore have all recorded rising numbers of child abuse cases in recent years, but child welfare advocates say this may be a sign of progress rather than worsening violence, as greater awareness and improved reporting bring more cases to the attention of authorities. “The good news is that more people are reporting,” said Hartini Zainuddin, a veteran advocate for abused children in Malaysia. Official figures show growing caseloads in all three countries, but differences...

In a Pakistani village nestled in rice fields, Abdul Hafeez Khoso remembers the vast industrial zones he saw in Germany when he visited to file a pioneering climate legal case. “They’re spreading pollution: up in the sky there are no borders, it can affect anywhere,” the 43-year-old said, describing areas far larger than his village of 800 people. “This is a problem for the whole world – that is why it should be resolved at the global level.” Khoso and 38 other farmers from Pakistan’s southern...

Global climate talks starting on Monday are unlikely to yield new targets on curbing greenhouse gases, but negotiators have plenty to do to implement measures already agreed, according to Singapore’s environment minister. “I think that we are not expecting a major upgrade in mitigation targets” at ‌the annual UN talks in Turkey, Grace Fu told reporters. “But we have enough, even within the Paris Agreement, with what we have already agreed on. There is enough to work on.” Delegations from nearly...

Artificial intelligence promises to make government bureaucracies leaner across Asia, but its biggest effect on public-sector employment may not come from the widely feared wave of lay-offs. Instead, analysts say the technology is more likely to reshape existing jobs and narrow opportunities for young graduates hoping to enter the civil service, even as governments seek to improve efficiency without sacrificing job security. Unlike the Netherlands, which aims to cut an estimated 25,000 full-time...

The Philippines wants to buy more of India’s BrahMos missiles and have them adapted to its terrain, in a move analysts say signals Manila’s search for alternative arms suppliers as the US remains entangled in its Middle East conflict. Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr told a security summit in New Delhi last week that his country hoped to expand on its 2022 purchase of the supersonic cruise missile arsenal to strengthen its external deterrence. Indian sources later told Reuters...

More than 13,000 people visited South Korea’s Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo, Gyeonggi province, over a 10-day period to catch a rare glimpse of a North Korean self-propelled howitzer visible from the observatory. Despite the heightened tensions between the two Koreas, a total of 13,243 people visited the park from October 26 to Wednesday, up 7.5 per cent from 12,321 during the same period last year, according to Gimpo city on Sunday. The increase came after images published by local media...

Indonesia has not executed anyone for over a decade, with its new Criminal Code designed to make capital punishment a “last resort” – yet the number of prisoners on death row continues to climb. A new report on the persistent use of capital punishment by the country’s courts has raised questions about such rulings, handed down despite an unofficial moratorium on executions. There were 639 people on death row as of April this year, an increase from 596 as of August 2025, according to a report by...

A crew member of a helicopter battling Indonesian wildfires was killed on Sunday when the aircraft crashed into a river as it scooped up water for an airborne drop, a local disaster agency said. The crash in Borneo Island’s South Kalimantan province was the second in days involving a firefighting aircraft, after a military helicopter plunged into the waters off Borneo on Wednesday, killing three people. Two Australian pilots survived Sunday’s crash and were “safe”, Berton Panjaitan, a spokesman...

Japanese police arrested a 33-year-old man who admitted to stabbing a bookshop worker in Osaka on Sunday, a spokesman said, adding that the suspect said he “held a grudge against society”. The man, identified as Satoshi Okamoto, allegedly used a kitchen knife to stab the worker – who called police immediately afterwards – at a branch of national chain Maruzen & Junkudo in the heart of Japan’s second largest city. Police did not elaborate on the victim’s condition, but there was no fear for his...

Washington’s decision to upgrade Pakistan’s F-16 fighter jets has drawn accusations of double standards from critics in India, who question why the United States is strengthening a nuclear-armed ally while waging war against Iran over its nuclear programme. Although the US$686 million military modernisation package does not include nuclear weapons, analysts say that improvements to the fighter jets’ navigation, communications and survivability could boost Pakistan’s existing nuclear strike...

When Japan’s “symbol of affordability” Uniqlo decided to increase the price of its basic socks last month, it sparked a backlash before the clothing titan made an immediate U-turn. That came after Italian-style family restaurant chain Saizeriya issued an almost grovelling apology as it decided to add 20 yen (US$0.13) to the price of its trademark Milanese Doria, lamenting its “lack of effort”. The very public angst, including in one of the world’s most recognisable clothing brands, highlights...

For most of his life, Osman Uki lived in a world dictated by the sun, relying on kerosene and leftover cooking oil to light his home in a remote indigenous village in Malaysia. That changed in April when solar power finally reached Kampung Bertang in the state of Pahang, allowing families to power electric lights, refrigerators and rice cookers. For Osman, one of the biggest changes is what happens after sunset. “We are happy with the light we have at night. The kids can read at night now. We...

Cooking and bathing became difficult when taps ran dry in Batam, an Indonesian island where residents are protesting against data centres springing up to power the global artificial intelligence boom. The area had suffered a “long drought” caused by low rainfall, the local water utility operator said, as a strong El Nino cycle exacerbates dry weather. But, as in other countries, anger has been directed at the data centres, warehouse-like facilities that keep apps and AI tools running, with water...

Long before Moe Harukawa was killed, she lived in fear. The 21-year-old shop assistant had reported her ex-boyfriend to police and a court had ordered him to stay away from her. Yet weeks later, Taiki Hirokawa, 26, walked into Harukawa’s workplace – a packed Pokemon store in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district – and stabbed her repeatedly in the neck and torso before turning the knife he was carrying on himself. Both later died in hospital. Harukawa’s gruesome murder in March at the hands of a man who...

When her prescription for Mounjaro became too expensive, Bey* did what a growing number of Malaysians are doing: she found a cheaper vial online. The 34-year-old from Kuala Lumpur started on the weight-loss drug about a year ago and hasn’t looked back since. “I didn’t feel like eating, I didn’t feel hungry,” she said, recalling flying to Jakarta for a “food trip” recently during which she barely ate. Reviews on Threads and TikTok led her to online sellers offering “tirzepatide”, Mounjaro’s...

New Zealand’s ruling centre-right National Party and main opposition Labour were nearly deadlocked in the popular vote after initial counting in the nationwide general election on Saturday. Results from the Electoral Commission show that with more than 95 per cent of the ballots counted, both parties were polling just short of 30 per cent of the popular vote, with just a few thousand votes separating the two. A projection from New Zealand’s Electoral Commission ‌showed the current three-party...

Malaysia’s king warned on Saturday that any attempt to ⁠challenge his order ⁠letting former prime minister Najib Razak go ⁠from jail to house arrest could amount to defying his decree, a day after authorities delayed Najib’s transfer. Najib has been in jail since 2022 after being found guilty of corruption and money laundering in a case linked to a multibillion-dollar ‌scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad. He has consistently denied wrongdoing. He was due to be transferred home on...

New Delhi ranked as the world’s ⁠most polluted major ⁠city on Saturday ⁠morning, according to Swiss group IQAir, as the Indian capital faced severe pollution forecasts a day before Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. India has ordered schools in and around Delhi to offer online classes and encouraged people to work from home ahead of Diwali on Sunday, which is usually marked by the widespread use of firecrackers ⁠that further worsen the air quality. IQAir ranked Delhi ‌first for air pollution...

Garment workers in Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest clothing exporter after China, are demanding that their wages more than double – and their protests have brought a halt to production in factories supplying global brands including H&M, Zara and Walmart. Tens of thousands of workers have marched through Dhaka and the key industrial towns of Gazipur, Ashulia and Narayanganj in recent days demanding higher pay. Protests turned violent in several hubs, with factories vandalised and roads...

North Korea rewards ⁠its top hackers, tasked with heists like the Binance crypto hack that netted a cool US$6.3 ⁠billion, with perks such as spacious apartments in the capital and huge hard currency awards in return for ⁠gruelling hours of work. Leader Kim Jong-un has assembled an army of world-class hackers using such incentives in a programme more than a decade old that picks 200 of the smartest middle school students each year to study computer engineering, defectors and analysts say. A...

Myanmar’s military-backed government may find its reluctance to address the international community’s concerns a greater obstacle to economic recovery than the threat of tougher international financial restrictions, according to analysts. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money-laundering and terrorist-financing watchdog, warned on October 30 that it could consider further measures against Myanmar if it failed to remedy shortcomings in its financial safeguards by...

Russia’s seizure of the assets of a Japanese company could prove to be Tokyo’s red line after a series of bitter exchanges between both nations and ties that continue to spiral. The Japanese government on Friday lodged a formal complaint with Russia and demanded that Moscow immediately reverse a decree announced the previous day that transferred the assets of Japan Tobacco International (JTI) to Russian control. Analysts say the decree, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is likely a...

All across Asia, anti-establishment protests have been flaring up, led by a generation that came of age in the digital era. Memes are mobilising a young, permanently online cohort against specific government policies, insults and injustices – its many members determined to seize their own destinies before the future they fear takes root. Asia is home to 60 per cent of the world’s adolescents and young people, or some 1 billion in total, according to UN estimates. Gen Z, roughly defined as those...

Travelling through South America earlier this year, I was repeatedly reminded of China’s growing importance. At Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires, I spotted the logo of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. ICBC acquired an 80 per cent stake in Standard Bank Argentina in 2012, establishing a significant presence. In Buenos Aires, my friend Diego García, a publisher, offered a useful perspective: Argentina does not have to choose between China and the United States. It should...