Asia - South China Morning Post

A gentle breeze stirs the wooden houses of Sarang, a sleepy fishing village on Sabah’s northern coast, its tranquillity seemingly at odds with the mounting troubles facing the resource-rich yet persistently impoverished Malaysian state.

For years, Sabahans have endured water shortages, power cuts and some of the lowest wages in the country.

Each time the taps run dry or the lights flicker out, local fisherman Johan Toikin is reminded of the central government’s failure to fulfil the commitments...

In 2004, Joshua Cooper Ramo, now co-CEO of Kissinger Associates, coined the term “Beijing Consensus” as an alternative to the Washington Consensus, the neoliberal framework of economic policies devised in the 1980s by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and US Treasury.

China had just joined the World Trade Organization and, within the country, there was considerable scepticism that a Beijing Consensus existed.

Come 2007, and as the global financial crisis broke out – first with the US...

At least seven people, including two children, were killed and around 100 injured when a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck Bangladesh on Friday, the government said, with buildings damaged in many areas including the densely populated capital Dhaka.

Tremors were felt in eastern states in neighbouring India that border Bangladesh, but there were no immediate reports of major damage there, authorities said.

Muhammad Yunus, the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, said the injured included...

Washington’s approval of a US$93 million arms deal for India signals warming ties between the two sides after months of trade tensions and a potential prelude to a visit by US President Donald Trump to New Delhi next year, according to analysts.

The supply of Javelin anti-tank missiles and Excalibur precision-guided artillery rounds to India comes as the two countries seek to end a dispute over US tariffs and negotiate a broad trade agreement.

Analysts say the weapons purchase could help reduce...

The pilot of an Indian combat plane died after the aircraft crashed on Friday during a demonstration flight for spectators at the Dubai Air Show, the Indian Air Force said.

The Indian HAL Tejas smashed into the ground at the vast Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central, sending a vast fireball into the air and thick black smoke into the sky.

Police vehicles, ambulances and a helicopter rushed to the site of the crash, spraying firefighting foam to extinguish the blaze.

Onlookers,...

Across Southeast Asia, millions of young people are launching start-ups and driving rapid digitalisation, with new unicorns emerging in a sign that the region is becoming a global force in entrepreneurship, according to former Indonesian president Joko Widodo.

Speaking at the closing of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on Friday, Widodo said the next unicorn – meaning a privately held start-up valued at more than US$1 billion – might emerge not from Silicon Valley or Shenzhen but from Jakarta,...

A boiler at a glue-making factory in eastern Pakistan exploded on Friday, killing at least 18 people and injuring 21 others. The force of the blast destroyed the factory building and damaged several nearby homes, igniting a huge fire and spreading panic through the area, officials said.

Police said they arrested the factory manager and were looking for the factory owner, who fled shortly after the explosion at the industrial facility in Faisalabad, a city in Punjab province.

The cause of the...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has confirmed that an arrest warrant has been issued for former lawmaker Zaldy Co and 17 others accused of involvement in anomalous infrastructure projects.

The move marks the first major enforcement action since authorities began probing so-called “ghost” flood control projects, referring to substandard or non-existent works now at the centre of a sprawling corruption scandal.

Marcos announced the development in a video posted to his social media...

As countries and economies around the world scramble for a slice of the growing artificial intelligence pie, Southeast Asia is also aiming to usher in a new dawn of higher productivity, fuelled by more investment and research opportunities in the technology.

But tech experts warn that a deepening economic and tech divide is looming as nations in the region adopt AI at a different pace.

On Wednesday, Google DeepMind announced the opening of a research lab in Singapore, focused on researching and...

As South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa convenes the Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg, two things are likely to be on many minds: the empty chair and the spirit of ubuntu.

Wikipedia defines the ubuntu philosophy as encompassing “the interdependence of humans on one another and the acknowledgement of one’s responsibility to their fellow humans and the world around them”. For the purposes of South Africa’s hosting of the G20 summit, that Zulu term means multilateralism – anathema to US...