Asia

Singapore’s air pollution worsened to the highest in the world as haze from Indonesia wildfires blankets the region days before the city state’s annual Formula One weekend. Air quality levels in Singapore were in the “very unhealthy” range as of Wednesday afternoon, according to data from IQAir. Nearby Kuala Lumpur, which was earlier in the top spot, ranked as the second-most polluted city globally. In the Malaysian state of Johor, about 140km (87 miles) northwest of Singapore, some 200 schools,...

Despite Malaysia’s insistence that its long-standing non-alignment policy extends to cyberspace, analysts say the country’s reliance on American and Chinese technology could make such a stance difficult to sustain amid the rivalry between the two superpowers. Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said on Monday that Malaysia would “always remain neutral” in cyberspace, arguing that cyber threats could come from non-state actors and should not be viewed solely through the lens of geopolitical...

Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption authority arrested former first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa on Wednesday over allegations that her charity misused donations collected for a children’s hospital. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government has revived long-dormant corruption investigations involving members of the once-powerful Rajapaksa family, which dominated Sri Lankan politics for nearly two decades. The 73-year-old wife of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was arrested in Colombo and driven to...

Bhavya Gupta was a Grade 4 student when the 2012 horrific gang rape and murder of a medical college intern who was on a private bus in New Delhi, which sparked nationwide outrage and led to the execution of four attackers, prompted her teacher to mention the case in class to raise awareness about women’s safety. “My teacher gathered all the girls in the classroom and told us about it, and after that our school uniform changed from skirts to pants. I also remember adults around me talking about...

Monsoon floods in Thailand have killed 60 people since mid-September, officials said, as surging waters exact an increasing economic toll – destroying homes and crops, killing livestock and flooding factories. Bangkok buckled at the end of September as 300mm (11.8 inches) of rain – around one month’s worth – hit its creaking drainage system over just three days. The floodwaters have largely retreated from the capital, giving city officials crucial breathing space to clear the stinking,...

The recent arrests of 11 suspected terrorists by authorities in Indonesia underline how terrorism remains a persistent security challenge, with analysts warning that militant networks are communicating online through smaller and decentralised cells despite stronger enforcement. The Indonesian National Police’s counterterrorism force, Special Detachment 88 (Densus 88), said on Sunday that 11 suspected terrorists had been arrested in raids across West Java, Central Java, Central Sulawesi, South...

Scientists Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving a long-standing riddle of asymmetric “mirror image” molecules, a discovery hugely important for pharmaceutical manufacturing, the award-giving body said on Wednesday. Soai, 76, is Japanese, and Kagan, 95, is French, and their work built on a discovery by the 19th century French chemist Louis Pasteur. “This is the most exciting day in my life, I am very glad to share this prize with professor Henri Kagan,”...

A former Buddhist monk in Thailand was convicted on Wednesday of misusing donations to a highly praised hospice he established for people with HIV/Aids and given the maximum term of 50 years in prison. Alongkot Poonmook, formerly known as Phra Ratcha Wisutthiprachanat, was forced to leave the monkhood after he was arrested last year along with an associate, Seksan Sapsubbsakul, who served as a fundraiser for the project. The Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases found both...

A 47-year-old man will be charged on Thursday over a series of perfume thefts at Changi Airport, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said on Wednesday. The thefts date back to November last year and involved almost S$1,410 (US$1,102) worth of perfume, the police said in a news release. SPF said it was alerted to the first theft on November 5, 2025, after a retail assistant discovered that a box of perfume was missing from a shop’s display shelf. Closed-circuit television footage showed that the...

Malaysia’s Melaka will hold a state election on November 14 as the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition nears a pact with Islamist rivals, leaving Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s alliance facing another difficult contest after a string of recent defeats. The filing of nominations would begin on October 31 and early voting on November 10, Election Commission chairman Ramlan Harun said on Wednesday. A total of 687,897 registered voters are eligible to elect the state’s 28 assembly members, with...

Singapore occupies a “peculiarly sensitive existential point” as it seeks to retain strategic options amid a great power rivalry, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has said, doubling down on the city state’s stance of refusing to take sides. He also warned that the global landscape would remain unsettled if China and the United States failed to address their respective domestic issues. Speaking at the Milken Institute Asia Summit 2026 in Singapore on Wednesday, Balakrishnan identified...

A marooned three-metre-long (nine feet) shark in South Korea has drawn more than a million visitors to the coastal city of Busan, boosting local retail sales and triggering a trademark war, as authorities rush to stop opportunistic vendors from cashing in on the viral phenomenon. The shark, nicknamed “Bukangi” in reference to the park where it has become trapped, has become an internet darling and tourist sensation after non-stop local media coverage about multiple failed efforts to encourage it...

The 521kg (1,148lbs) of suspected methamphetamine seized by Laotian authorities from a private jet was not sourced from Malaysia, with the drugs believed to have originated in Laos and been destined for Manila, the Philippines. Bukit Aman Narcotics Crime Investigation Department (NCID) director Hussein Omar Khan said police were informed by Laotian authorities on Tuesday that the cross-border smuggling attempt had been foiled at Luang Prabang International Airport last Thursday. Hussein said the...

Malaysia’s repatriation of Myanmar nationals ahead of a visit to Kuala Lumpur by the war-torn country’s leader appears to mirror efforts by other Asean countries seeking to mend ties with Naypyidaw. Several Asean members have stepped up engagement with Myanmar at the bilateral level recently, raising questions about whether a gradual normalisation between the bloc and the country could undermine efforts to end its civil war, according to analysts. Nearly 1,500 Myanmar nationals repatriated from...

The US military in Okinawa will impose a curfew from midnight to 5am for a month starting Friday following the arrest of a marine on suspicion of robbing and murdering a local woman, its regional coordinator said on Tuesday. All US military personnel on Okinawa will also observe a 48-hour operational pause from noon on Wednesday, during which there will be “no off-base liberty, including a complete prohibition of alcohol consumption on or off base”, said Lieutenant General Benjamin Watson,...

Jeff Kingston used to take long walks with his dogs across the hills of Gunma in central Japan. But not this year. He has good reason. Kingston says he has encountered bears in those mountains more than 100 times over the years and been charged by aggressive bears around a dozen times. In 2014, a black bear knocked him down and attacked him across the skull with its claws, leaving a gash that required nine stitches. “This year, I have actively refrained from going into the hills precisely...

Four Indonesian seamen who were kidnapped and held hostage by Somali pirates aboard an oil tanker for more than five months arrived back home on Tuesday. The men were among 17 crew rescued a week ago when maritime police from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northern Somalia stormed the Palau-flagged MT Honour 25 tanker that was hijacked in April. Before the vessel could be recaptured, the pirates had already killed five crew members – three Pakistanis, an Indian and a Myanmar national...

Risks to Southeast Asia’s energy supplies are multiplying faster than nations are coming up with solutions to meet rapidly rising demand for electricity, according to an International Energy Agency report released on Tuesday. Southeast Asia has a seemingly insatiable appetite for energy, but the region is now in a pinch as energy costs rise, partly due to the Iran war. Fast-growing Southeast Asian economies also need more electricity to power data centres and keep homes and businesses cool. To...

Indian police detained several opposition lawmakers in the capital of New Delhi on Tuesday for trying to breach barricades during a protest march to demand the resignation of the election chief over a controversial revision of voter lists. The march presents a fresh political challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi midway into his ‌third term, just months after similar protests forced the resignation of his education minister over exam paper leaks. Parties opposing Modi’s government along with...

A Singaporean woman has been added to a US list of “the worst of the worst criminal aliens,” becoming the third citizen from the city state to appear on the register, after convicted sex offender Amos Yee and money launderer Lim Seok Pheng. Jing Emtage, 54, was sentenced in July last year to two years and two months in prison on seven counts of second-degree promoting prostitution across multiple Washington state massage parlours she ran with her husband, Gerald Emtage. Gerald Emtage, 49, was...

Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto is seeking to keep potential rivals in his inner circle as he faces growing political pressure by appointing influential figures from across the political establishment to a presidential advisory council, according to analysts. The council, which advises the president on the direction of government policy but has no power to set or control it, comprises allies of former presidents, political commentators and Muslim leaders. “These are figures who have...

India’s recent push to become more involved in helping end the Russia-Ukraine war comes as the costs of the conflict continue to mount for New Delhi, amid the threat of US tariffs on major buyers of Russian energy and a recent drone attack on an Indian-owned pharmaceutical plant in Ukraine. Sunday morning’s drone attack destroyed a large part of Kusum Group’s factory in Sumy, killing one person and injuring several others. The company, which has manufactured generic medicines in Ukraine since...

Eight public service officers have been referred to Singapore police after a review of 191 officers’ property transactions, Coordinating Minister for Public Services Chan Chun Sing has told parliament. The review followed a working paper by the US-based National Bureau of Economic Research, which identified 2007 to 2011 as the period of concern. The Public Service Division (PSD) extended the scope to 2014 as a matter of prudence, Chan said on Tuesday, because many new MRT station locations...

When Chinese coffee giant Luckin Coffee moved into the unit next to his neighbourhood cafe in Singapore, Folk Yard owner Chew Yit Shan grew nervous. Luckin launched with an aggressive promotional deal of S$1 (78 US cents) per cup, served in just two minutes. In the first few months following its arrival, Chew saw sales at his independent cafe drop by 15 per cent. But once the initial hype had died down and the promotions ended, Chew said regular patrons returned and coffee sales bounced...

Governments and financial institutions in Southeast Asia urgently need to find a way to safely and quickly share data if they hope to contain a surge in scams, cybersecurity experts warn, as artificial intelligence enables criminal operations in the region to expand their reach rapidly. Criminal enterprises stole as much as US$114 billion from victims across the Asia-Pacific in 2025, according to a United Nations report released in July, more than triple the amount from two years earlier, aided...

She spent some of her teenage years helping her mother at a sundry shop in Malaysia after school, and throughout that period kept a dream of achieving something higher alive. Now, 36-year-old Suriati Sukardi is a pilot, flying AirAsia’s commercial A320 and A321 Airbus aircraft. Before that, she had landed a job as the airline’s flight attendant and served the company for eight years since 2017 while continuing to eye and seek an opportunity to climb further in her career. In 2019, her prayers...

North Korea’s laying of landmines along its heavily fortified border with the South has laid bare how misaligned the two nations have become over their de facto land boundary, after three South Korean soldiers were wounded in an explosion last month. Seoul blames Pyongyang for the blast near the military demarcation line (MDL) on September 21, in which one soldier lost a foot. On Tuesday, its Foreign Ministry said in a statement it was preparing a response to force an apology for the blast,...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi defended her absence from a Group of Seven online meeting, responding over social media to some critics who questioned why she did not attend despite her apparently free schedule. “This was a last-minute meeting arranged by the chair, France, and allowed for substitute representatives. I understand that UK Prime Minister Burnham did not attend in person and had someone fill in for him, and that European Council president Costa was also absent,” she posted...

US F-35 stealth fighters have joined Indian warplanes for military exercises near the Pakistan border in recent days, marking the first time America’s most advanced multirole combat aircraft has taken part in joint drills in India. The US jets’ participation in the drills “signals a degree of military confidence and interoperability that is difficult to manufacture through communiques”, Sushant Singh, a South Asian studies lecturer at Yale University and former Indian Army officer, told This...

We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. AirAsia chief mocks Singapore Airlines’ food – and social media hits back AirAsia co-founder Tony Fernandes has caused a stir online after taking aim at Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) in-flight meals, claiming the food served by the carrier lagged behind his own airline’s...