Asia - South China Morning Post

A cache of confiscated explosives detonated inside a police station in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing at least nine people and injuring 32 others, police said on Saturday.

The blast occurred in the Nowgam area of Srinagar, the region’s main city, late on Friday when a team of forensic experts and police were examining the explosive material, said Nalin Prabhat, the region’s police director-general. He ruled out any foul play, saying it was an accident.

The dead included six police and...

At Jeil Market in South Korea’s Bucheon, Gyeonggi province, few ever imagined that a truck would surge into the crowd, as one did on Thursday, killing two people and leaving 19 others injured.

“The truck came barrelling in just as I stepped forward to help a customer checking radishes,” a vendor said. “If I had stayed where I was, I could have died. Later, I told her how grateful I was.”

Police have attributed the crash to driver error on the part of the 67-year-old at the wheel of the 1 tonne...

It has been six months since the national polls concluded in Singapore, but the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) is not resting on its laurels. A popular line among party faithfuls is that the PAP begins preparing for the next election the day after winning one.

But a recent series of salvoes against its main opponent, the Workers’ Party (WP) and leader Pritam Singh suggests a new intensity, if not strategy. Observers point to a calculated PAP approach outside election season as its...

South Korea and the United States have released a long-awaited joint document detailing their recent trade and security agreements, including Washington’s approval for Seoul to build nuclear-powered submarines.

However, analysts warn that key gaps in the fact sheet could lead to both governments interpreting their partnership very differently, particularly on sensitive defence provisions and the feasibility of South Korea’s submarine ambitions.

The publication comes two weeks after President Lee...

Southeast Asian economies, along with China, Japan and South Korea, have a “transformative” opportunity to enter the world’s critical mineral supply chain, said Yasuto Watanabe, director of the Asean+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO).

Critical minerals – essential raw materials for the production of hi-tech gadgets, cars and aerospace equipment – will make the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (Asean) supply chain “more resilient and sustainable”, said Watanabe, who also...

For four long months and counting, the residents of Bang Ban, a low-lying district in Thailand’s ancient city of Ayutthaya, have lived their lives under water.

Elderly residents must be ferried to safety by raft, schools stand closed and under the muddy surface, ruined rice fields rot.

Even Ayutthaya’s 700-year-old stupas have been submerged, their crumbling towers jutting through a murky brown deluge that shows no sign of retreat.

Annual floods are not unusual here. Each monsoon season, the...

A restaurant in central Thailand was bursting with a stream of customers coming for a unique dining experience: enjoying a meal while sitting in floodwaters, surrounded by live fish they bring into the establishment.

Since an adjacent river breached its banks 11 days ago, the flooded riverside restaurant has become an internet sensation, drawing customers keen to pose in the lapping brown water or toss fish food to photograph the feeding frenzy.

Families enjoyed lunch at Pa Jit restaurant in...

US President Donald Trump called Thailand and Cambodia on Friday to bolster the peace deal he brokered after fresh clashes erupted between the Southeast Asian neighbours, the White House said.

Trump co-signed a truce between the two countries on October 26 during a tour of Asia, touting it as one of several peace deals around the world that he believes should win him the Nobel Prize.

But Thailand suspended the deal on Monday after a landmine blast, and the two sides traded accusations of new...

Beijing on Friday expressed deep concern and issued a stern warning to Tokyo against shifting its non-nuclear policy, after comments by the Japanese prime minister about Taiwan sharply escalated tensions.

Sanae Takaichi, who took office on October 21, has been considering revising Japan’s long-standing non-nuclear weapons principles, Japanese media reported on Friday citing government sources.

This came after Japan’s defence minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, urged the country to consider acquiring...

Malaysian rapper and filmmaker Namewee says he did everything he could to save Taiwanese influencer Iris Hsieh, but to no avail.

“I saw a human being die before my eyes for the first time.

“I did everything I could to save her but nothing could be done. This image will remain in my mind forever,” Namewee, whose real name is Wee Meng Chee, said in a Facebook post on Friday.

This was his first public statement since he was released from detention over the police investigation into Hsieh’s...