Asia

The Philippines’ latest push for seabed rights in the South China Sea could complicate its efforts as this year’s Asean chair to build regional consensus, analysts say, adding another layer of complexity to already slow-moving talks on a code of conduct for the disputed waterway. On July 28, Manila delivered an official presentation of its partial submission on its extended continental shelf in waters the Philippines considered its territory to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental...

Indonesian rescuers searched for possible missing passengers on Monday after rescuing 231 people from a ferry that caught fire the previous day off the main island of Java, leaving at least five people dead. Passengers described leaping overboard and staying afloat for hours before rescue. The Mutiara Sentosa 2 ferry was travelling from Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya in East Java to the city of Makassar in South Sulawesi. Initial reports said it was carrying 271 people, including 39...

In getting into a sexual relationship with his 13-year-old niece, a man sexually exploited her, raped her during staycations and “punished” her with sex acts when he grew jealous about a schoolmate she was dating. The 38-year-old Singaporean man, who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity, was sentenced to 21 years’ jail and 16 strokes of the cane on Monday. He pleaded guilty to six charges that included statutory rape and sexual assault. Another 17 charges were considered in...

Thailand has issued a full-throated rebuttal of comments by a UN human rights specialist whose visit last week to Cambodia found 20,000 people remain displaced by the border war, as the neighbouring nations engage in a battle for international opinion over their deadly territorial dispute. Thailand and Cambodia fought a brief but bloody border war in July and December last year that killed scores and displaced roughly a million people across both sides of the disputed frontier. A December 2025...

Only days ago, the Japanese yen’s descent showed no signs of stopping, having already dropped to a 40-year low. But by Monday morning – after a rare intervention on the currency’s behalf by Tokyo and Washington – it surged as high as 155.23 per US dollar, its strongest level since early May, according to Chinese financial data provider Wind. The joint action took on an extra layer of intrigue after a Reuters photograph revealed that a “to-do” list from US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during...

Malaysia’s call for major powers to apply international law “consistently, not selectively” could signal growing regional unease with how big players are seen to invoke rules only when convenient. Defence Minister Khaled Nordin delivered the message on Monday at the 37th International Military Law and Operations Conference in Kuala Lumpur, where he said major powers had a special responsibility to uphold global stability without bending the rules to suit their interests. “Malaysia sees you as...

Malaysia’s attempt to recast Forest City from a China-backed “ghost city” into a hub for global wealth and mobile talent is facing an early governance test after police last week uncovered two alleged online scam syndicates operating across 32 luxury homes. The raids have sharpened questions over whether oversight is keeping pace with Putrajaya’s drive to revive the waterfront project beside Singapore. Johor police chief Ab Rahaman Arsad said 335 people were detained during coordinated raids on...

Most Indians are unhappy with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government over its handling of exam scandals that touched off student protests across the country, according to a nationwide survey by one of the country’s largest pollsters. Just over half of Indian adults polled by CVoter last week said they were “not happy” with the government’s handling of recent leaks of the country’s medical exam, which resulted in the invalidation of tests for millions of exam-takers, the polling firm said on...

Recent arrests in Singapore of young people who succumbed to extremist ideologies and planned attacks, including school stabbings, have sent a chill across the city state, with authorities noting that the speed of radicalisation has doubled. Over three months this year, three teenagers have been detained, sparking public discussion on school security and whether more can be done to protect students or encourage critical thinking. Last Monday, the Internal Security Department (ISD) said three...

Myanmar’s detained democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi met the nation’s Red Cross representative on Monday, the president’s office said, the first publicised meeting between her and a foreign official since she was ousted in a 2021 coup. The military deposed Suu Kyi in February 2021, jailing the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and triggering an ongoing civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people on all sides. The coup leader and former junta chief, Min Aung Hlaing, was installed as civilian...

In Thailand, the murders of five people – two young Russians and a Thai family of three – allegedly masterminded by a repeat offender just weeks after his release from jail, have stirred criticism of the justice system and raised questions over public protection from violent criminals. The bodies of Russian nationals Diana and Roman Nazimov were found in a shallow grave on Friday in a forested patch of land in Chonburi province several days after their mother reported them missing. After a...

Two women who died in an explosion at an Aeon shopping centre following a powerful earthquake in Japan’s Kumamoto prefecture last week were instructed by their employer to return inside to put sales proceeds in a safe, according to the company. Two executives of Habita, which operates the variety store where the women died, said on Sunday they apologised to the family of one of the victims, 22-year-old Kurumi Otake, at her wake and handed over a written account of events. Otake evacuated from...

Ho Chi Minh City’s bustling jewellery quarter has fallen unusually quiet. Customers are not browsing for engagement rings or necklaces any more – instead they are clutching old receipts and certificates, hoping to sell diamonds they no longer trust. The discovery of what appears to be Vietnam’s biggest-ever diamond smuggling network has rippled through the industry. Investigators allege more than 30,000 stones worth over 1.5 trillion dong (US$57 million) were brought into the country over the...

When Japanese entrepreneur Moe Kasugai was a student at Seoul’s Yonsei University, she was struck by how some of the prestigious South Korean college’s brightest graduates struggled to land a job. So in 2019 she launched a service to connect South Korean jobseekers with Japanese employers. “I was surprised that they couldn’t find a job because they were so smart,” the 35-year-old said in Seoul at a two-day job fair organised by KOREC, her start-up, last month. “Many could speak Japanese, ‌so I...

Turkey’s ascension to Asean dialogue partner marks the west Asian country’s bid to position itself as a middle power, according to analysts. The upgrade on July 21 breaks an Association of Southeast Asian Nations moratorium in place since the UK’s admission in 2021. Turkey joins the US, China, Russia, Britain, Australia, Japan and South Korea. In a social media post on the same day, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara had increased its cooperation with Asean members and raised trade...

The Malaysian ruling coalition’s poor showing in the Negeri Sembilan poll on Saturday marks its third straight defeat in eight months – an embarrassing run that is forcing its largest party to confront the cost of governing with former rivals. Pakatan Harapan (PH) won 11 of the state’s 36 seats on Saturday, down from 17 in 2023, while Barisan Nasional (BN) secured 18 and its electoral partner, Perikatan Nasional (PN), took seven. The setback followed PH’s near-wipeout in Sabah last November,...

Ukraine’s use of cheap, adaptable drones to slow Russia’s military advance has become a model for countries looking to modernise their armed forces, with the Philippines the latest to explore what defence lessons it can learn from Kyiv. Some analysts see a proposed drone partnership with Ukraine as a potential game changer for Manila, offering a short cut to more agile, asymmetric capabilities as tensions persist in the South China Sea. Others are more cautious, urging the Philippines to first...

A suicide bomber targeted protesters at an anti-militant rally in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least 14 people, including police officers, and wounding more than two dozen others, officials said. The attack happened in Kabal, a town in Swat Valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where demonstrators had gathered near a police station, chanting anti-militant slogans and demanding peace, district police chief Omar Khan said. According to witnesses, shortly before the attack,...

An Indonesian ferry caught fire at sea on Sunday, killing five people and leaving another 41 missing after some jumped overboard, search and rescue officials said. A total of 225 people on the vessel were rescued, said the regional Surabaya Search and Rescue Agency, which provided the latest figures in an afternoon update. Some passengers jumped into the sea and were picked up by a nearby ship, according to Basarnas, Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency. Four other vessels were on...

Sri Lanka deployed hundreds of troops and elite commandos on Sunday to contain riots at an overcrowded prison in which an inmate was killed and six others wounded, police said. Deputy police inspector-general Sanjeewa Medawatte said the situation was under control after inmates destroyed multiple buildings on Saturday inside Mahara Prison, just outside the capital Colombo. “We got reinforcements from the armed forces and the Special Task Force commandos to restore order and send the inmates back...

Housekeeping services employing Filipino staff have gained in popularity amid growing demand in Japan for such domestic support, with one provider seeing their workforce roughly double over the past decade. Since the Japanese government began allowing foreign nationals to provide housekeeping services in national strategic special zones in 2016, workers from the Philippines have been a top choice due to their cheerful personalities, diligence as well as expertise. In February, a Filipino...

McDonald’s in South Korea has suspended sales of its limited-edition Chungju corn cheese croquette burger after receiving multiple customer complaints about small stones being found in the product, cutting short a promotional campaign for one of its fastest-selling seasonal menu items. The company halted sales of the latest menu item in its Taste of Korea campaign on Thursday, nearly two weeks before its scheduled end on August 12. “There were complaints that customers bit into stones, and this...

On what was once a palm oil plantation outside Bogor, Indonesia’s government is planting the seeds of a new institution designed to nurture the next generation of leaders. But President Prabowo Subianto’s ambitions for the University of the Republic of Indonesia (URI) do not stop at statecraft – officials have also billed it as the answer to the Southeast Asian nation’s shortage of technological talent. “We have such abundant natural resources, but to this day we are technologically behind,”...

An elderly woman who developed heatstroke while taking shelter in a car was the latest fatality from a powerful earthquake that struck Japan’s southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto last week, officials said on Sunday as concerns over heat-related illnesses grow in an area that is also suffering extreme temperatures. The woman in her seventies with heatstroke was found in a car, Kumamoto officials said, as they raised the death toll from the quake to 36. The magnitude 7.1 hit Kumamoto prefecture on...

Rescuers have found the body of celebrated mountaineer Nirmal Purja as they sift through a massive avalanche that killed all 10 members of an expedition on Pakistan’s Broad Peak, officials said on Sunday. “The ground rescue team has reached Nirmal Purja ‘Nims Dai’ at approximately 5,700 metres on Broad Peak,” said Naila Kiani, a spokeswoman for the Alpine Club Pakistan. She said the bodies of seven climbers had been found so far. The bodies of three others - Wang Zhong, Nima Sherpa and Kili...

As a teenager, Ashley Wong spent many Sundays in church, waiting for a feeling that never quite came to her. Family and friends spoke of finding comfort and solace in Christianity during times of trouble, but prayer seemed to offer no such salve for her soul. “There was a detachment that I couldn’t place,” said the 26-year-old marketing executive, who identifies as a freethinker. “I feel like maybe it just wasn’t for me.” Going to a church “felt more like a chore than anything”, Wong said. “I’ve...

On a midsummer Thursday night, the entertainment district of Hongdae in Seoul is slowly coming alive. Short for Hongik University, Hongdae neighbours several university campuses and typically attracts thousands of young people to its flashy streets. Just a few blocks away from the main clubbing area, the atmosphere is quieter with hardly any patrons at a row of pubs and restaurants. “Hongdae is not what it used to be like,” said Chris Kim, a 27-year-old who works in the fashion industry. “My...

New Zealand’s defence diplomacy has shifted into overdrive this year, with Wellington sealing three major Pacific security agreements in less than four months. Since April, the country has signed a defence pact with Papua New Guinea, locked in a security declaration with the Cook Islands and floated the idea of joining a fledgling Australia-Fiji defence alliance. Analysts say the common thread is China and concerns about its expanding security and policing links in the Pacific. “Security...

The crushing defeat of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in the Negeri Sembilan polls has raised doubts about his political strategy, as state rival but federal ally Barisan Nasional (BN) grows in dominance. Analysts say BN’s effective cooperation with opposition party Perikatan Nasional (PN) could reshape Malaysia’s political landscape ahead of the next national election, due by February 2028. BN won 18 of the 36 assembly seats in Negeri Sembilan on...

China’s export boom is reaching its limits. The country’s next phase of growth will come not from shipping more goods abroad, but from exporting its factories, technologies and brands. China is running up against the limits of its old model. It is obvious as the economy looks increasingly K-shaped. Weak consumer confidence and a prolonged property slump continue to sap domestic demand, forcing manufacturers to rely ever more heavily on overseas markets. Exports have become the Chinese economy’s...