Asia - South China Morning Post

Sediment containing rare earth was retrieved from ocean depths of 6,000 metres (20,000 feet) on a Japanese test mission, the government said on Monday, as it seeks to curb dependence on China for the valuable minerals.

“Details will be analysed, including exactly how much rare earth is contained” in the sample, government spokesman Kei Sato said, calling it “a meaningful achievement both in terms of economic security and comprehensive maritime development”.

Japan is accelerating a decade-old...

Pakistan’s government says the national cricket team will be allowed to take part in the coming T20 World Cup but must boycott its group game against arch-rival India.

India and Sri Lanka are co-hosts for the 20-team tournament, which starts on Saturday.

Pakistan will play all its games in Sri Lanka – including any in the knockout stage – because of political tensions with India.

The two teams are scheduled to meet in a Group A game in Colombo on February 15 in what is often a tournament...

Voters are less likely to support female politicians when they are wearing face masks, while there was no such effect for their male counterparts, according to a study by a Japanese university research team.

The findings, published last month ahead of Sunday’s general election, underscored the differences in how the public perceived politicians following the Covid-19 pandemic, when wearing masks became more common for politicians across the world.

“Differences in how masked faces are perceived...

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, has extended its lead from last week in a new poll on the race ahead of the February 8 election, with 36.1 per cent backing the party, up 6.9 percentage points, the survey showed on Sunday.

The Centrist Reform Alliance, a new major opposition force, was second with 13.9 per cent, up 2.0 points. At the single-constituency level, the survey conducted over two days from Saturday showed that 44.0 per cent would vote for...

Pakistani police and military forces killed more than 100 “Indian-backed terrorists” in counterterrorism operations across the restive southwestern province of Balochistan over the past 40 hours, government officials said on Sunday, a day after coordinated suicide and gun attacks killed 33 people, mostly civilians.

The raids began early on Saturday at multiple locations across Balochistan, and left 18 civilians, including five women and three children, and 15 security staff dead, authorities...

Myanmar’s junta called for ex-civil servants who quit their jobs in protest over the coup five years ago to report back to work, pledging to remove absent state employees from “blacklists” on Sunday.

After the military snatched power in a coup on February 1, 2021, tens of thousands of public workers, including doctors and government administrators, left their posts in a surge of civil disobedience.

Some found private employment, while others joined pro-democracy rebels defying the military in a...

In a new memoir No Borders: Journeys Across Islands And Continents, renowned historian Wang Gungwu traces his life across Malaya, London, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, sharing both personal anecdotes and perspectives on the changes in China and the modern world. In the excerpt below, Wang reflects on his impressions of Singapore after arriving from Hong Kong with his wife Margaret in the 1990s, the differences between the two cities, and his work on contemporary China with Singapore’s...

India’s government dismissed a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel made by Jeffrey Epstein in an email in 2017.

The US Justice Department released 3 million pages of material related to the late financier, a convicted sex offender, on Friday.

In an email addressed to a Y. Jabor in July 2017, Epstein referred to Modi’s trip to Israel, saying the Indian prime minister “took advice. and danced and sang in Israel for the benefit of the US president. They had met a few weeks...

As Southeast Asia accelerates into electric vehicle manufacturing, industry leaders in the Philippines say their country risks falling behind neighbours that have moved quickly to support the sector, with policy uncertainty raising doubts about Manila’s commitment to long-term growth.

Those concerns sharpened last month when President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr vetoed 92.5 billion pesos (US$1.56 billion) in unprogrammed appropriations from the 2026 national budget, a move that also swept up funding...

From the principled and the populist to the outright eccentric, Thailand goes to the polls on February 8 with its main prime ministerial candidates wielding lofty promises to turn the country’s flagging fortunes around.

Here are the main contenders and some of their policies.

Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut – People’s Party

Better known as “Teng”, the former tech executive took over leadership of the People’s Party in 2024 aged just 37. He leads them into the election as the most popular candidate to...