Asia - South China Morning Post

South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk-yeol may have begun laying the ideological groundwork for a self-coup long before his failed attempt to impose martial law last December, according to newly disclosed legal documents.

Political analysts say the revelations suggest Yoon’s push for emergency rule was not a sudden response to security tensions, but part of a long-standing pattern of authoritarian inclinations dating back to his early political career and even his years as a...

Singaporean Amos Yee on Thursday was released from a United States prison on parole.

Yee, now 27, was serving time at Danville Correctional Center in Illinois after being sentenced in 2021 to six years’ jail by a US court for possession of child pornography and grooming.

According to a victim’s information network, Yee had been released on November 7 and immediately taken back into custody.

He was then released again on November 20.

Yee has been registered as a sex offender, according to checks...

A passenger bus in Cambodia crashed off a bridge into a river on Thursday, killing at least 13 passengers and injuring two dozen others, police said.

The bus was travelling from Siem Reap, home to the country’s fabled Angkor Wat temple complex, to the capital Phnom Penh, when it crashed in the predawn hours in the central province of Kampong Thom, the deputy police chief for the area, Siv Sovanna, said.

All those on the bus were Cambodian nationals, he said.

A preliminary investigation suggested...

This month, the Russian Academy of Sciences completed a study assessing the comprehensive strength of 193 countries across economic, technological, demographic, military, infrastructural and other dimensions. This annual assessment of national power is conducted using advanced methods of multivariate statistical analysis.

The latest results, calculated for 2025 and 2026, show the global balance of power has finally shifted from the United States towards China. Also, several regional power cores...

A family in Malaysia was alerted to a massive snake when they discovered a broken ceiling in their bathroom on November 12, 2025. They later spotted the five-metre (16ft) python, weighing 60kg (132lbs), after zooming in on the hole with a phone camera.

Animal rescuers subsequently released the reptile back into the wild, far away from residential areas.

The Quad nations have completed a major round of naval drills, pressing ahead with their defence cooperation even as political tensions test the cohesion of the regional security bloc.

The decision to continue joint exercises reflects a “growing convergence of strategic interests” among the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue’s members and defence remaining high on the agenda despite trade and other disagreements among some of the bloc’s members, according to analysts.

Comprising Australia, India,...

Oscar-winning Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh melted hearts on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon after sharing that she has more than 100 Labubu dolls, a secret number fans never saw coming.

Yeoh revealed that she has over 100 of them tucked away at home.

“Oh maybe a little more than a hundred of them,” she shared casually on the show, as if having a miniature mythical creature colony is completely normal.

Host Fallon, understandably gobsmacked, blurted out, “You have 100 Labubus?”

Without...

A Cambodian beauty queen has stirred controversy in Thailand after giving a political speech accusing Bangkok of provoking conflict during a pageant segment in Phnom Penh, with social media users accusing her of using an international dispute to grab attention.

A day after Chouri Laorhours was crowned Miss Teen Cambodia, her tearful speech was posted on the pageant’s social media account.

In a video, Laorhours carries a Cambodian flag and starts her speech in Khmer. Speaking “on behalf of all...

A two-year-old Russian boy has died from complications after being stung by a box jellyfish at Chenang Beach in Langkawi, Malaysia’s Kedah state, following five days of fighting for his life.

Sinar Harian reported that Vladimir Lakubanets died on Wednesday at the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital (HSB) in Alor Setar after suffering serious complications from the sting, which occurred last Saturday.

His father, Nikita, 32, said the incident happened suddenly while his son was playing in shallow...

A South Korean ferry ran aground after the helmsman became distracted by his mobile phone, a member of the coastguard said on Thursday.

All 267 passengers and crew were safely brought to a nearby port after the ferry crashed on an uninhabited island off South Korea’s southwestern coast.

The passenger vessel was travelling from Jeju Island to the port city of Mokpo when it ran aground after 8pm (local time) on Wednesday, authorities said.

A preliminary investigation found that “the officer...