Asia - South China Morning Post

Thailand on Wednesday relaxed decades-old alcohol sales restrictions, allowing consumers to buy wine, beer and spirits during previously prohibited during certain afternoon hours in a six-month trial.

The predominantly Buddhist country still maintains strict alcohol laws, limiting sales to specific hours and banning them on religious holidays.

Liquor stores, bars and other purveyors were banned from selling alcohol from 2pm to 5pm, but the eased rules permit sales from 11am to midnight during...

Indonesia is facing renewed calls to curb deforestation and tighten oversight of forest concessions after a rare tropical cyclone tore across Sumatra, unleashing floods and landslides that have killed more than 700 people and left hundreds missing.

The disaster has prompted a nationwide debate over whether the tragedy was driven primarily by climate change-fuelled extreme weather or by decades of ecological destruction in a region that has been transformed by plantations, mining and large-scale...

Opium poppy cultivation in war-torn Myanmar has surged to its highest level in a decade, rising 17 per cent in the past year as conflict and economic hardship push more farmers into the illicit trade, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Poppy cultivation climbed to 53,100 hectares (131,000 acres) this year from 45,200 hectares in 2024, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a report, underlining Myanmar’s position as the world’s main known source of illicit opium amid declining...

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on Wednesday praised the citizens who confronted martial law troops a year ago, saying their collective defence of democracy made them worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the attempt by impeached president Yoon Suk-yeol to impose military rule, Lee described the incident as an unprecedented test of South Korea’s democracy that the public overcame peacefully.

“I am convinced that we, the people of the...

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 will resume on December 30, Malaysia’s transport ministry said on Wednesday, more than a decade after the China-bound flight disappeared in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.

Flight MH370, a Boeing 777, was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in 2014.

Multiple search operations for the plane have been conducted since then but all proved fruitless. The most recent search in the...

Thousands of Filipinos returned to the streets over the weekend to protest against the country’s flood control corruption scandal, but the smaller turnouts compared with earlier demonstrations have stirred concern that the movement may be losing steam.

Political analysts said Sunday’s modest crowds reflected a combination of fatigue and disillusionment among activists in the Philippines. They warned that dwindling public mobilisation could ease pressure on President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s...

India revoked its order to smartphone makers on Wednesday to require the installation of a state-run cybersecurity app days after the plan triggered a major backlash from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s opponents and privacy activists over surveillance fears.

The Indian government had confidentially ordered companies including Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi to install new phones with an app called Sanchar Saathi, or Communication Partner, within 90 days, Reuters was first to report on...

Masato Watabe made no effort to hide the killing. A little over an hour after he held his hand over his victim’s mouth until she was no longer breathing, he called the emergency services. Taken into custody, 79-year-old Watabe admitted to police that he alone was to blame for her death.

Instead of blanket condemnation, however, Watabe has attracted sympathy in Japan, which is struggling to come up with solutions to a rapidly ageing population and growing pressure on families to take care of the...

Google’s YouTube said it would obey Australia’s world-leading ban on social media accounts for children under 16, a capitulation which means all the most popular platforms with young users have agreed to comply after campaigning against the law.

Google initially received an exemption on grounds its main purpose was video viewing and education, not social networking. Canberra later broadened the scope of the ban to include it following complaints by other platforms.

“We will comply with the law...

A year after former president Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law, South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is pushing ahead with a bill to create a separate court dedicated to handling cases linked to the decree, in response to widespread public distrust of what critics describe as a “biased” judiciary.

President Lee Jae-myung warned on social media ahead of the December 3 anniversary of the decree: “If we leave hidden acts of insurrection as they are, insurrection will certainly...