Asia - South China Morning Post

South Korea’s president has withdrawn ‌his nomination of Lee Hye-hoon to head ‍the country’s newly created budget ministry after she was accused of unlawful real estate investments and mistreating staff.

The plan to appoint ⁠the former conservative lawmaker from former president Yoon’s People Power Party was viewed as an attempt by President Lee Jae Myung to promote national unity with some cross-party appointments. Lee’s liberal government was elected after ‍his predecessor, Yoon Suk-yeol, was...

European Council president Antonio Costa arrived in India on Sunday, as the EU and New Delhi seek to seal a free-trade pact, capping nearly two decades of negotiations between the economic behemoths.

Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are chief guests for this year’s Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on Monday before the 16th EU-India summit on Tuesday, where they hope to shake hands on the accord, described as the “mother of all deals”.

“The summit will be an...

The South Korean government is moving towards regulatory actions against Grok, xAI’s generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, following mounting concerns over its alleged involvement in generating and distributing sexually exploitative deepfake images.

The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) has launched a preliminary fact-finding review into Grok after the allegations were reported on Sunday.

The preliminary process is to confirm whether the violation actually occurred and...

Fans gathered at a Tokyo zoo on Sunday to bid farewell to the last two giant pandas in the country, long a symbol of Sino-Japanese friendship, two days before they leave for China.

The departure of Xiao Xiao and his sister, Lei Lei, will leave Japan without any pandas for the first time since 1972, when China gifted a pair to Japan following the normalisation of bilateral ties.

Prospects for a new panda loan by China remain uncertain amid soured ties following remarks last year by Prime Minister...

As a Singaporean urban farming company in the land-scarce city state, Archisen found itself in need of more land, ready talent and lower costs of production that would allow it to access the local market.

The Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ) has provided an attractive solution, according to chief executive Vincent Wei.

The economic zone, the world’s first involving two countries, was officially launched a year ago, with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his Singaporean...

The Philippines is reviving a popular disaster monitoring and simulation programme that was defunded nine years ago by then president Rodrigo Duterte – a move that some have blamed for resulting in a swathe of corrupted construction projects now plaguing the country.

Last month, Congress said it would allot 1 billion pesos (US$16.9 million) in the 2026 General Appropriations Bill for the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (NOAH) project, a clutch of programmes that identifies risk...

As Japan welcomes a growing number of Muslim visitors, a quieter but increasingly visible question is unfolding across airports, shopping centres and sightseeing hubs: where can these travellers pray?

The number of foreign visitors to Japan hit a record last year, including those from Muslim-majority regions, drawn by the country’s food, pop culture and seasonal scenery.

Between January and November last year alone, about 560,000 travellers came from Indonesia, 540,000 from Malaysia and 240,000...

Indonesia has placed “resilience” at the heart of its foreign policy this year, pitching it as a way to keep the country from being buffeted by intensifying rivalry among the world’s major powers.

But analysts say the concept, though rhetorically appealing, lacks clear objectives and a long-term strategy – running the risk of Jakarta’s diplomacy becoming more transactional and drifting away from its stated values of non-alignment, multilateralism and respect for international law.

In his annual...

Some weighty themes were addressed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, from the apparent return of the Monroe Doctrine and US “manifest destiny” in geopolitics, to a replay of the 19th-century “Great Game” among competing nations elsewhere. But one critical issue that did not receive sufficient attention was the prospect of a global financial system crisis undermining such monumental assumptions.

These annual gatherings of the supposedly great and good, from national leaders to business barons...

A video showing three of Nepal’s most recognisable political figures walking side by side set social media abuzz late last year, stirring widespread speculation that a new political alliance was taking shape ahead of a looming national election.

But there was a catch: the meeting depicted never took place.

The clip, depicting Rastriya Swatantra Party leader Rabi Lamichhane, Kathmandu’s former mayor Balendra Shah and ex-power sector chief Kulman Ghising, was a fabrication – one of a growing...