Asia - South China Morning Post

Since Japan recorded a spike in deadly bear attacks, Koji Suzuki has struggled to keep up with booming demand for grilled cuts of the animal at his restaurant.

Cooked on a stone slate – or in a hot pot with vegetables – the meat comes from bears culled to curb maulings that have killed a record 13 people this year.

Suzuki’s eatery in the hilly city of Chichibu near Tokyo also serves deer and wild boar, but bear has surged in popularity after months of headlines about the animals breaking into...

Former lawyer M Ravi, known for taking on human rights cases and his pro bono work, has died in Singapore. He was 56.

Friends of Ravi confirmed the news on Wednesday. The cause of death has not been disclosed.

Police said that they were alerted to a case of unnatural death at Tan Tock Seng Hospital at 6.50am on Wednesday.

“A 56-year-old man was admitted to the hospital unconscious, where he was subsequently pronounced dead,” police said.

“Based on preliminary investigations, the police do not...

After finishing his postgraduate studies in May, Tan Kwan Ann expected the job hunt to be difficult, but not so disheartening.

The 33-year-old, who specialised in structural biology at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), sent out more than 600 applications while waiting for the formal conferment of his doctorate, but heard back from almost none of them.

“It seemed like I was excluded from society and made me feel very lousy. It made me question if it was my fault that I chose to...

Award-winning Malaysian director Chong Keat Aun has shared behind-the-scenes footage of his latest film, Mother Bhumi, including a clip showing actress Fan Bingbing learning how to draw a talisman, China Press reported.

According to Chong, he persuaded his father to guide the Chinese actress on creating a talisman to ward off curses, a ritual that was crucial to the film’s plot.

Fan stars in the film as Feng Yin, a widowed farmer who uses magic to help her community in Malaysia’s Kedah state.

He...

Vietnam’s Communist Party will nominate current General Secretary To Lam to stay in the top job, according to people familiar with the matter, paving the way for him to push on with a reform programme that is reshaping the nation.

In a rare and politically significant move, Lam will also be put forward to hold the dual role of the nation’s presidency, the people said, asking not to be identified because they are not authorised to speak publicly. This could face a challenge when it gets to the...

As Hamdaniyah Surbakti, a 62-year-old resident of Aceh province, began to pick up the pieces of her house that was destroyed by last month’s severe floods, she inevitably thought about the 2004 tsunami that devastated Indonesia and other parts of the world.

“It was worse than the 2004 tsunami,” said Hamdaniyah, referring to the recent torrential rains and flash floods that swept across northern Sumatra.

“When the tsunami came, it only hit one area around [the provincial capital of] Banda Aceh....

A man who took a passenger’s luggage on a Singapore Airlines flight from Dubai to Singapore was jailed for 20 months on Tuesday.

Liu Ming, a 26-year-old Chinese national, pleaded guilty to one charge of theft.

The act was financed by a criminal syndicate and Liu had boarded the flight specifically to steal high-value items from business class passengers, the prosecution said.

His case follows other convictions for on-board theft this year, including one case of an offender who had accomplices on...

Two former senior aides to South Korea’s ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol have testified in court that Yoon pressed ahead with a plan to impose martial law despite objections from cabinet members and top officials, with their statements offering a rare insight into the events that led to the short-lived decree.

Testimony by former National Security Office chief Shin Won-sik and former presidential chief of staff Chung Jin-suk on Monday shed new light on Yoon’s thinking behind his martial law...

The UN said on Tuesday that Myanmar’s junta was using violence and intimidation to force people to vote in coming military-controlled elections, while armed opposition groups were using similar tactics to keep people away.

“The military authorities in Myanmar must stop using brutal violence to compel people to vote and stop arresting people for expressing any dissenting views,” United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

Myanmar’s junta is set to preside over voting starting...

A police officer injured in the Bondi terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia has woken from a medically induced coma, his family said.

New South Wales (NSW) police constable Scott Dyson, 25, was one of two officers wounded when investigators allege Naveed Akram and his father Sajid opened fire on a crowd of more than 1,000 people at Sydney’s Archer Park on December 14.

The attack killed 15 people and injured dozens more.

Accused gunman Naveed Akram, 24, faces 15 murder charges and...