Asia - South China Morning Post

In dark blue suits, the elders of the Khoo clan gathered outside the prayer halls of the Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi, a grand 190-year-old clanhouse in George Town, the capital of the Malaysian state of Penang.

One by one, they stepped inside for the Tung Chen ceremony, held annually on the first day of the winter solstice, a ritual that draws together members of the Khoo clan, one of the oldest Peranakan communities, from far beyond Penang.

As smoke filled the air, Khoo Kay Hock, a senior...

Thailand and Cambodia agreed to an “immediate” ceasefire on Saturday, the two countries said in a joint statement, pledging to end weeks of deadly border clashes.

At least 47 people were killed and more than a million displaced in three weeks of fighting with artillery, tanks, drones and jets, according to official tallies.

The conflict spread to nearly every border province on both sides, shattering an earlier truce for which US President Donald Trump took credit.

“Both sides agree to an...

Singapore saw plenty of drama unfold this year, from pickleball courts to the Supreme Court.

The city state was gripped by election fever in May, when the People’s Action Party maintained its dominance at the polls.

On the trade front, Washington’s imposition of a 10 per cent tariff on Singapore elicited a strong reaction from Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. The jury is still out on whether US President Donald Trump would introduce levies on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, which could deliver...

A massive crash in snowy weather killed two people and injured 26 on an expressway in Japan late on Friday as the country kicked off its end-of-the-year holiday season.

The Gunma prefectural highway police said on Saturday that the pile-up on the Kan-etsu Expressway started with a collision between two trucks in the town of Minakami, about 160km (100 miles) northwest of Tokyo.

A 77-year-old woman from Tokyo died, while a body was found in the driver’s seat of a large truck, police said.

Out of...

Campaigners against nuclear energy have condemned Japan’s decision to resume operations at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power plant, claiming that the facility will be unable to withstand a major earthquake as it was “built on tofu”.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), the operator of the Niigata prefecture plant, on Wednesday applied for a final examination of the facility to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). Approval is likely to be a formality as the prefectural assembly already gave the nod on...

Taya says her life was looking up as Myanmar crept out from decades of isolation.

She had a job in marketing, enough money to shop in Yangon’s new retail plazas and fuel her quiet dreams of opening a small bakery, as her generation enjoyed unprecedented economic and personal freedoms.

But that was before Myanmar’s short-lived experiment with greater democracy ended in a coup in 2021.

With the military once more in charge, the economy is in free fall, and inflation has surged to well over 20 per...

Prosecutors in South Korea have indicted 10 people, including former Samsung Electronics executives, for allegedly leaking the company’s technology to Chinese chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT).

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday said five people had been arrested, including a former Samsung executive who allegedly recruited key personnel and leaked the company’s proprietary technology to CXMT, according to a report by Yonhap News Agency.

They face charges for...

India, the world’s largest rice exporter, could see its shipments to the US become more expensive if President Donald Trump follows through on a threat to impose higher tariffs after accusing the country of dumping rice.

Industry executives said the move was unlikely to significantly dent export volumes, but warned of potential wider repercussions, including pressure on prices in other markets, efforts by importers to divert shipments and renewed strain in trade talks where agriculture and dairy...

Fifteen people were injured in a stabbing attack in a rubber factory in central Japan on Friday during which an unspecified liquid was also sprayed, emergency officials said.

“All fifteen people were sent to hospital,” said a firefighting department official in the city of Mishima, southwest of Tokyo.

The official, declining to be named, said that of the 15 injuries, eight were the result of stabbing and seven due to the liquid.

Some local media outlets, quoting unnamed sources, said the liquid...

An elusive wild cat long feared extinct in Thailand has been rediscovered three decades after the last recorded sighting, conservation authorities and an NGO said on Friday.

Flat-headed cats are among the world’s rarest and most threatened wild felines. Their range is limited to Southeast Asia and they are endangered because of dwindling habitat.

The domestic cat-sized feline with its distinctive round and close-set eyes was last spotted in a documented sighting in Thailand in 1995.

But an...