Asia - South China Morning Post

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth met their Australian counterparts on Monday in Washington for annual talks focused on Indo-Pacific security and countering mainland China’s increasing assertiveness in the region, including in the South China Sea and directed at Taiwan.

Rubio, Hegseth, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles gathered at the State Department, with many eyes also on the Russia-Ukraine war, a fragile ceasefire in...

A big quake off Japan injured at least 30 people, authorities said on Tuesday, damaging roads and knocking out power for thousands in freezing temperatures.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said the magnitude 7.5 quake at 11.15pm on Monday – downgraded from its first reading of 7.6 – raised the chances of similar or larger tremors in the coming days.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said 30 people were injured in the quake off the coast of the northern Aomori region, which triggered tsunami...

A 15-year-old girl from Myanmar is the first foreigner to have their Singapore long-term immigration status revoked for possessing an e-vaporiser pod containing etomidate, or a Kpod.

A vape pod containing the drug was found in her possession during a routine check by police officers on November 14, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Health Sciences Authority (HSA) said in a joint press release on Monday.

She has been issued a Special Pass to allow her to remain in Singapore to assist with...

Two months before Bangladesh heads to the polls for the first time since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government, the most established party still in the race, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), is facing deep uncertainty as its two top figures are either gravely ill or stuck abroad.

BNP chair Begum Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister, is battling serious complications involving her heart, liver and lungs and is expected to be flown to London from Dhaka for treatment, while her son Tarique...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr is facing his lowest ratings yet since taking office in 2022, a trend observers warn could be a signal that his efforts to quell the spiralling corruption scandal around the country’s flood control projects are backfiring.

Marcos’ satisfaction ratings fell to 21 per cent in November – a drop of 14 percentage points from August, and his steepest decline since February this year, according to findings released by independent public opinion firm WR Numero...

US President Donald Trump’s new global security road map has dropped any reference to denuclearising North Korea as a goal, fuelling speculation that Washington may be angling to boost the chances of a diplomatic breakthrough with Pyongyang in 2026.

The target of ending North Korea’s nuclear threat had been a constant in the National Security Strategy of every US president since the emergence of Pyongyang’s programme in 2003, but was conspicuously absent in Friday’s document.

The omission of any...

Late one night in southern Nepal last month, whispers spread of an unusual wedding taking place. Inside a modest home, an 18-year-old girl was about to be wed to a Chinese national nearly twice her age.

The match was illegal. Nepal’s minimum age for marriage is 20, and the bride’s youth alarmed onlookers. Police were called and the ceremony in Bara district was swiftly brought to a halt.

But the episode shone a spotlight on the trafficking of young Nepali women into marriage with Chinese...

Every quarter, Knight Frank publishes an index tracking the movement of prime residential prices and rents in leading cities around the world. Although the index is just a snapshot that should be treated with caution given significant differences in the performance of submarkets within cities, its findings are nevertheless revealing.

In the sales market, five of the six cities with the fastest growth in prices last quarter were in Asia. In Tokyo, prices rose a staggering 56 per cent on an...

Malaysia’s former economy minister Rafizi Ramli has renewed his attack on Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s reformist agenda, alleging that anti-corruption officers targeted candidates who challenged the leader’s daughter in internal party polls earlier this year.

In an episode of his Yang Berhenti Menteri (The Minister Who Quit) podcast streamed on Friday, the Pandan MP and former Anwar ally alleged that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had investigated several contenders for the...

The first giant panda cub born in Indonesia is noisy, nursing well and showing other signs of good health, the conservation park where he was born said on Sunday.

Indonesian Safari Park released video and photos showing the fuzzy newborn in an incubator and squirming and squealing while being cuddled by his mother.

The mother, 15-year-old Hu Chun, gave birth to Satrio Wiratama - nicknamed Rio - on November 27 at the park in Cisarua, West Java province.

The name symbolises the hope, resilience,...