Asia - South China Morning Post

A controversial church facing possible disbandment over religious-political collusion in South Korea is aggressively expanding its presence across Australia by targeting young people at universities and shopping centres, according to a former member who has accused the group of weaponising fear to shield it from criticism.

The Shincheonji Church of Jesus, founded in 1984 by Lee Man-hee, who claims to be the second coming of Jesus Christ, has an estimated 200,000 followers in the East Asian...

The 15-year-old male student accused of murdering his schoolmate at a school in Malaysia’s Selangor state has been declared fit to stand trial, following a psychiatric evaluation.

His lawyer, Kitson Foong, informed the press that he conveyed the report’s findings to the Magistrate’s Court during closed-door proceedings on January 16. The court subsequently ruled that the accused is fit to stand trial and enter his defense.

According to the lawyer, the psychiatric report also recommended the teen...

As tensions between the United States and Iran threaten to plunge the Middle East into chaos again, regional military powers Turkey and Pakistan have revealed they are planning a tripartite defence partnership with Saudi Arabia.

Thursday’s disclosure comes as Iran’s neighbours await clarity on US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 25 per cent tariff on the Islamic Republic’s trading partners earlier in the week – a measure which threatens to disrupt supply chains across the region.

The...

A Malaysian man previously convicted of child abuse has been arrested again on suspicion of forcing his son, 10, to shoplift daily necessities.

Police in Bahau, in Negeri Sembilan state’s Jempol district, were alerted to what initially appeared to be a simple case of theft on Wednesday, The Sun newspaper reported. Staff from a wholesale supermarket had caught the boy trying to steal a 200-gram pack of instant coffee.

But officers soon uncovered a troubling pattern of child exploitation, Jempol...

Impeached former South Korean president Yoon Seok-yeol was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday after being found guilty of resisting arrest and other offences linked to his attempted imposition of martial law in 2024.

The verdict marks Yoon’s first conviction among eight ongoing criminal trials, in one of which prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for his alleged role as the “ringleader” of an attempted insurrection. The 2024 decree unleashed a wave of political unrest, triggering...

The defence chiefs of Japan and the United States on Thursday agreed that the bilateral alliance is “unshaken” and pledged to reinforce its deterrence capabilities amid concerns in Asia that Washington’s focus is shifting from the region.

Following his meeting with US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon near Washington, Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said he was reassured that the administration of President Donald Trump remains committed to peace and stability in the...

A garbage landslide that killed 19 people and left more than 20 missing in the central Philippines last week has prompted outrage from civic and green groups over poor enforcement of environmental laws for contributing to the disaster.

The deadly avalanche of debris struck on January 8 at a 15-hectare (37-acre) landfill in Binaliw village, Cebu City, when more than 100 sanitation workers were on site. Officials said recent earthquakes and heavy rainfall might have destabilised the soil,...

The constant threat of genital mutilation of her daughter and son-in-law by loan sharks was so harrowing that a woman in Malaysia has resorted to disowning her own flesh and blood.

“The loan sharks are vile. They threatened to sever the private parts of my daughter and her husband,” said the 60-year-old housewife who only wanted to be known as Heng.

“A loan shark also sent me gory photos of people with severed genitals, claiming he had carried out the acts himself. It was so upsetting that I...

Japan’s Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), its next-generation fighter project in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Italy, may be given a boost now that the development of a similar aircraft has been put on hold.

Germany, France and Spain have indefinitely postponed the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), prompting suggestions that some or all participants may instead turn to the rival GCAP.

On December 30, German defence media outlet Hartpunkt reported that the “faltering” project, long...

When contemporary Europe engages with the world, it increasingly presents as two distinct Europes operating within the same institutional framework. This duality – a Europe of strategic dependence vs a Europe of normative assertion – creates a contradiction.

For partners, particularly in China and across Asia, this is not merely an abstract identity crisis but a practical geopolitical puzzle that complicates engagement and challenges assumptions about Europe’s global role.

One Europe, embedded...