Asia

At least eight workers have died following a toxic gas leak at a ship-breaking yard in the southeastern Bangladeshi district of Chattogram, officials said on Friday. The incident occurred at the Ferdaus Steel Shipbreaking Yard in Sitakund subdistrict, an area that hosts many ship-breaking yards where old vessels mostly imported from around the world are dismantled. Soon after the leak, many workers lost consciousness and were rushed to a local hospital. Six out of seven people taken to...

Vladimir Putin’s unprecedented visit to the disputed southern Kuril Islands signals a broader joint effort by Moscow and Beijing to pressure Japan, according to analysts. They said the coordinated push aimed to target Tokyo over a range of friction points, including Western sanctions on Russia and Japan’s stance on Taiwan. The Russian president paid a symbolic visit to the Kurils – a volcanic chain north of Hokkaido that Japan calls the Northern Territories – on Thursday, just ahead of...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr on Friday said talks with China on joint oil and gas exploration had “moved forward” – signalling hopes of a deal before he leaves office in mid-2028, despite ongoing tensions in the South China Sea. Marcos also confirmed for the first time a “provisional understanding” with Beijing over resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre at Second Thomas Shoal, although he insisted this did not mean Manila was seeking China’s permission or surrendering...

For Indonesian families who lost loved ones in the 2018 Lion Air crash that killed 189 people, the latest development in the US courts has deepened their pain that justice remains out of reach. Keith Griffin, a Californian lawyer who worked with disgraced Hollywood celebrity lawyer Tom Girardi in compensation suits related to the crash, was sentenced by a federal court in Chicago last week to one day in prison with credit for time served, meaning he avoided any further time behind...

A tunnel under construction at a hydropower project in India’s northern hill state of Uttarakhand collapsed overnight, leaving at least seven workers dead, officials said on Friday. A rescue operation was launched after a sudden rush of water and debris entered the tunnel at the Vishnugad-Pipalkoti hydroelectric project in Chamoli district later on Thursday night, said top district official Gaurav Kumar. Of 22 people who were working in the tunnel, 12 have been rescued alive and another three...

The disbarment of Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh in Singapore is a professional blow for the leading opposition figure, but is not expected to further damage his political standing. Singh, 50, was struck off the roll of advocates and solicitors in a disciplinary hearing on Thursday, a decision that political analysts say reflects the hardline stance of the country’s legal system against dishonesty. On the political front, after years of parliamentary scrutiny, a court conviction and an...

A UN investigative report accusing Myanmar’s military of carrying out a “sustained campaign of deliberate attacks on civilians” has muddied Min Aung Hlaing’s push for regional acceptance – but analysts say it is unlikely to derail his efforts to win recognition for his post-election government. The report by the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), a body appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, documents a year-long investigation into alleged “war crimes and crimes against...

A man who decided to burgle homes on his first visit to Singapore after finding the country “rich” was sentenced to three years and eight months’ jail on Friday. Huang Xiaozong broke into a suite at the Capella Singapore and two houses in Serangoon, stealing more than S$100,000 (US$78,000) worth of valuables. The 41-year-old earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of housebreaking, with one count of trespass taken into consideration for sentencing. The Chinese national visited Singapore for the...

A Malaysian university has drawn anger over plans to host controversial analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, the former lover of a Mongolian woman whose body was blown up with military-grade explosives in one of the country’s most notorious murders. The controversy has spread beyond social media to the International Islamic University Malaysia’s own academics, who on Thursday called for a review of Abdul Razak’s appearance at the university’s International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation...

Malaysian Formula One (F1) fans hoping to catch the sport’s one-off return to Sepang International Circuit (SIC) after almost a decade are facing a frustrating race of their own, with many complaining of confusing ticketing arrangements and broken links. Tickets for the Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, to be held at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit from October 2 to 4, went on sale on Thursday, triggering a scramble among local fans eager to attend the country’s first F1 race...

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto acknowledged on Friday that his government had yet to fulfil all its promises, an unusual note of self-criticism as he sought to reassure Indonesians and investors while pressing ahead with his ambitious economic agenda. Analysts said the shift in tone was notable but saw little evidence that Prabowo was changing course on his more state-directed economic policies. In his annual state address ahead of Independence Day and a later budget speech, Prabowo said...

Record rainfall left thousands of travellers ‌stranded at Tokyo’s Narita airport on Friday morning as flooding in the surrounding area disrupted transport, knocked out power to 20,000 homes and claimed at least eight lives. More than 360mm (1 foot 2 inches) of rain fell in 24 hours in parts of Chiba prefecture, which adjoins the capital ⁠Tokyo, inundating roads and railways and knocking out power to nearly 25,000 households ‌during one of Japan’s busiest holiday weeks. The eight dead included...

South Korea is banking on moonshots in a post-AI economy to stem sluggish growth potential amid an ageing population and deepening reliance on its semiconductor exports. From quantum chips and fusion power to a lunar landing, Seoul this week unveiled a strategy to build seven next-generation industries over the coming decades. The aim is to secure a foothold in technologies shaping a post-AI world before superpowers the United States and China pull further ahead. The move marks mounting urgency...

When Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the Mecca defence agreement, they executed a structural overhaul of the Middle East’s security architecture. The pact codifies a defence commitment, where an armed attack on one is treated as an assault on all. Building upon September’s Saudi-Pakistan defence agreement, this tripartite arrangement bridges the financial capital of the Gulf, the...

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by surging waters across Myanmar and Laos, with Thai farming communities along the Mekong River bracing themselves for difficult days ahead as authorities warn persistent heavy rains may bring flash floods. Each year monsoon rains bring extensive flooding across the region. Environmental campaigners say the damage is exacerbated by changing weather patterns and deforestation, as well as the string of dams across arterial rivers – like the Mekong –...

Malaysia’s foremost Islamist party has set an early pace ahead of national polls, calling on the country’s Malay-Muslim majority to endorse its renewed efforts to broaden the reach of sharia law. On Wednesday, the Kelantan state assembly – which is dominated by the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) – unanimously passed amendments to the Kelantan Syariah Offences Enactment Bill, in a bid to circumvent constitutional barriers that have prevented the criminalisation of certain acts under Islamic...

An Australian jury on Thursday convicted a former Catholic bishop renowned for hosting alcohol-fuelled house parties of sexually abusing two young Indigenous men. The District Court of Western Australia jury convicted Christopher Saunders, 76, of 13 out of 19 charges of sexual abuse that allegedly occurred between 2008 and 2019 in his sprawling diocese on the country’s tropical northwest coast. Prosecutors alleged he lured young Indigenous men to his church-owned house with free alcohol and...

Indonesia hopes ⁠to start ⁠the mass production of home-grown ⁠electric cars no later than 2028, President Prabowo Subianto said on Thursday, in an effort to increase the adoption of electric vehicles in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. The president said the government is currently building a huge factory complex to manufacture the electric cars in the Subang region of West Java province. Prabowo was referring to a 60-hectare development that aims to produce up to 50,000 vehicles annually and...

Vietnam’s construction of its most ambitious warship to date signals its ambition to develop a self-sufficient defence industry and assert its maritime interests. However, the country is expected to remain dependent on foreign technology for high-end engines, sensors and other critical systems even as it builds its defence manufacturing capabilities, according to analysts. The frigate is being built at the Vietnamese defence ministry’s Song Thu shipyard in Da Nang City, the military newspaper...

Thailand’s possible acquisition of a supersonic cruise missile from India would help the Southeast Asian country defend its interests against Cambodia and could even fuel a “mini-arms race” between the two neighbours, analysts have said. The BrahMos system could strengthen Thailand’s deterrence at sea while giving Bangkok more options as tensions with Cambodia persist and neighbouring navies modernise, they added. Several defence-focused news outlets have reported that Thailand is evaluating the...

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited on Thursday Russia’s far eastern Kuril Islands for the first time, prompting a “strong” protest by Japan, which also claims the territory, and drawing diplomatic backing for Tokyo from the United States. Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged by tensions over the contested islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and seized by the Soviet Union in 1945. The Kremlin posted a video of Putin in the Kuril Islands, with Russian media saying...

Employed mothers in Malaysia have defended emergency leave rights amid debate over unfair workplace expectations and the challenge of balancing family and long hours. The dispute erupted after a woman complained on live radio that colleagues with children were taking emergency leave too often, piling extra work on their single counterparts. The anonymous caller told the hosts of Hot FM’s breakfast show on Tuesday that she was fed up with a female colleague repeatedly using emergency leave when...

Welcome to Open Dialogue, a series from the South China Morning Post where we bring together leading voices to discuss the stories and subjects occupying international headlines. In this edition, we invited a leading Chinese scholar of South Asian affairs and a former Indian foreign secretary and ambassador to China to reflect on the deep fault lines in India-China relations. They debate whether the biggest barrier is history or politics, clash over the border, Pakistan and India’s ties with the...

Surrounded by a clutter of carton boxes, bottles of dishwashing liquid and rows of dry snacks, Ramasamy Vellasamy holds court behind a cashier. For nine hours a day since 1986, he has been running a provision shop on the ground floor of a housing block in northern Singapore and knows the neighbourhood and its residents like the back of his hand. Despite Samy Provision Shop’s enduring presence, it was barely breaking even, said Ramasamy, who lamented the struggle of adapting to the ever-shifting...

A Singapore court barred Pritam Singh, the chief of the main opposition party, from practising law following his criminal conviction for lying under oath to a parliamentary committee. The Law Society of Singapore brought the case after Singh was convicted last year, months before a national election, on two charges of giving false answers to a parliamentary committee. Singh was fined S$14,000 (US$10,940), and the High Court later dismissed his appeal. The disciplinary proceedings are the latest...

India is looking to join France’s sixth-generation fighter programme in a long-term bid to secure a role in the next era of air warfare, from advanced aircraft technology to the industrial work of designing and building future combat systems. But analysts said the move, while potentially a major step in India’s defence partnership with France, would do little to ease the country’s immediate shortage of combat jets. The defence ministry told Indian lawmakers last week that it had “initiated...

Fears of a new industrial revolution in which artificial intelligence replaces manual labour have yet to materialise in Southeast Asia – but white-collar workers should brace themselves. Nearly one in four workers in the region face generative AI (GenAI) disrupting or affecting their jobs, according to a July report by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Clerical, administrative and professional positions were most at risk, the report stated. Manual trades, craft and agricultural work...

At Jantar Mantar, New Delhi’s designated protest site, India’s future spent weeks enduring the heat and demanding change. But what kind of change, and why? These were young people, many of them highly educated but still without a job despite sitting numerous government recruitment exams. Their anger was not because they had been cheated. It stemmed from worse: their qualifications had simply stopped meaning anything. China has a word for this dilemma. India does not, and that missing word...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he hoped more countries would join a defence agreement signed last week between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan aimed at stabilising a region wracked by conflict. The so-called Mecca Joint Defence Agreement was signed on Friday as the Middle East grapples with fallout from the US-Iran war, which has dragged in regional players and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. “Our vision for it is not limited to the three...

Malaysia is taking palm oil from the frying pan to server racks, as it banks on its biggest agricultural commodity to crack a code plaguing its data centre boom – keeping servers cool. Researchers at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) are developing a palm-based liquid to cool computer servers without relying on copious volumes of water, as the country grapples with high resource demands to support its rapidly expanding digital infrastructure. The new approach – termed the Sawit EcoTherm...