Asia - South China Morning Post

Ahn Sung-ki, one of South Korean cinema’s biggest stars whose prolific 60-year career and positive, gentle public image earned him the nickname “The Nation’s Actor”, died on Monday. He was 74.

The death of Ahn, who had been fighting blood cancer for years, was announced by his agency, the Artist Company, and the Seoul-based Soonchunhyang University Hospital.

“We feel deep sorrow at the sudden, sad news, pray for the eternal rest of the deceased and offer our heartfelt condolences to his bereaved...

It started in earnest in March, with a swathe of palm-oil estates seized from a tycoon caught up in corruption allegations. Nine months later, a drive overseen by Indonesia’s defence minister has brought an area the size of Switzerland under state control.

The campaign, outwardly a push to improve governance, is a show of force by President Prabowo Subianto, an ex-general who has regularly railed against both Indonesian elites and foreigners for profiting off the country’s resource riches at the...

North Korea’s reclusive leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the Sunday test-firing of hypersonic missiles in a drill made necessary by “the recent geopolitical crisis”, state media quoted him as saying.

The report on Monday by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) confirmed and added details about North Korea’s first missile launch of 2026, including that it employed a “cutting-edge” new weapon system using hypersonic missiles first tested in October.

Kim was not present for that launch, reports at the time...

The Philippines as Asean chair for 2026 will have to decide how much to intervene in the Thailand-Cambodia row. However, observers warn that the bar for the bloc in conflict-resolution “is not very high”.

Analysts expect flare-ups throughout the year between the Southeast Asian neighbours due to long-standing historical differences, despite attempts to establish a truce last year.

These include a deal brokered by US President Donald Trump in October in Malaysia, and a meeting on December 29,...

Nepal’s former prime minister KP Sharma Oli gave a statement on Sunday to a government commission investigating the deadly crackdown on a youth-led uprising that toppled his government in September.

Oli had previously said he would not appear before the commission, accusing it of lacking a “constitutional basis”.

“He has given a statement,” commission spokesperson Bigyan Raj Sharma told reporters, adding that it happened when officials reached Oli’s residence to deliver a summons for...

Elon Musk’s Grok is facing mounting criticism and threats of government action around the world after the artificial intelligence chatbot created sexualised images, including of minors, on the social media platform X in response to user prompts.

Malaysian authorities said in a statement on Saturday that they are investigating images produced by Grok after complaints about the misuse of AI to manipulate images of women and minors to produce indecent, grossly offensive or otherwise harmful...

When India reached a free-trade agreement with New Zealand in a record time of nine months towards the end of last year, the speedy conclusion signalled New Delhi’s intention to diversify away from the United States – an approach that is only expected to gather pace.

Ever since US President Donald Trump imposed import tariffs of 50 per cent on India last year, among the highest levied by Washington, the South Asian nation has maintained a resolute approach to the punitive levies, even as it has...

Indonesian rescue teams on Sunday recovered the body of a Spanish football coach who worked with Valencia CF’s women’s team, more than a week after a tourist boat capsized in waters near Komodo National Park, a search official said.

The discovery followed the earlier recovery of one of Fernando Martin’s daughters, while two other children remain missing.

Martin, 44, was travelling with his wife and four children when the wooden tourist vessel KM Putri Sakinah ran into trouble off the coast of...

A man who broke into the home of South Korean singer-actress Nana and was jailed on robbery charges has now filed a counter-complaint against her – and his handwritten prison letter, released through local TV, is stirring anger among social media users.

According to JTBC news programme Crime Chief, the intruder sent five letters from detention through an acquaintance, insisting that he did not attack Nana or her mother and that he was instead stabbed during the struggle.

He wrote that he had...

Southeast Asia has become “ground zero” for the global online scamming industry, according to the UN, costing victims billions of US dollars each year. Scam operations are run by Chinese crime syndicates from fortified compounds in countries like Myanmar, which has been embroiled in a nationwide armed conflict since 2021.

The size of the scam industry has led to sustained security crackdowns in recent years. This has included a number of joint operations involving police forces from multiple...