Asia - South China Morning Post

Cambodia’s prime minister said a villager was killed when shooting broke out on Wednesday along the volatile border with Thailand, as the ceasefire partly brokered by US President Donald Trump that ended five days of combat between the two nations appeared to be breaking down.

The reported death occurred two days after a Thai soldier lost a foot to a landmine while patrolling another area of the border. Thailand blamed Cambodia for the blast and announced it was suspending honouring the terms of...

The Philippine government is facing mounting legal and political uncertainty after reports emerged that the International Criminal Court (ICC) may have issued an arrest warrant for Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa – the former national police chief widely seen as the main enforcer of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s violent war on drugs.

Dela Rosa, a long-time Duterte ally and now a sitting senator, oversaw the Philippine National Police during the early years of Duterte’s presidency, when...

The three-member Aukus defence pact may soon expand beyond its primary aim of boosting Australia’s submarine fleet to also include Japan and South Korea, according to analysts, with both North Asian powers potentially co-developing or acquiring similar nuclear-powered vessels and taking part in hi-tech projects.

These developments could transform Aukus – a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United States and Britain – into a more expansive Indo-Pacific defence...

The year began with promise for US-India relations. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington reinforced both countries’ intent to sustain the partnership’s momentum. Their personal rapport, forged during US President Donald Trump’s first term, appeared to offer political capital for a results-driven agenda. India entered 2025 buoyed by a bipartisan consensus in Washington that New Delhi was central to the Indo-Pacific balance.

Yet as the year closes, optimism has faded. A...

Malaysia’s top prosecutor said on Wednesday that inquiries into the murder investigation of Taiwanese influencer Iris Hsieh found no evidence linking Malaysian rapper Namewee to her death, and he would be released on police bail on Thursday.

Attorney General Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar confirmed the information with This Week in Asia, saying that there was no lead to show that Namewee was involved in causing Hsieh’s death in Kuala Lumpur.

“The investigation is still ongoing, instructions for further...

The Indonesian government’s hallmark programme to provide free meals to combat malnutrition in the country has contributed to nearly half of food poisoning cases this year, an official told lawmakers on Wednesday.

Thousands of people have been sick since the much-hyped billion-dollar scheme of President Prabowo Subianto was launched in January, with critics calling for its suspension over hygiene concerns.

Dadan Hindayana, head of the national BGN agency which oversees the programme, told...

US President Donald Trump’s recent call for the military to immediately restart nuclear weapons testing, apparently ending a 33-year moratorium that began under president George H.W. Bush in 1992, has sent shock waves across the globe.

The announcement was made via social media moments before the much-anticipated meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit, the first meeting between the...

The governor of a Philippine province still reeling from being hit by two typhoons has defended his decision to fly out of the country despite the government banning officials from foreign travel so that they can lead disaster response.

Isabela Governor Rodolfo Albano III also doubled down, saying that he would stay until the end of an agricultural fair in Germany because it was “very important” for his province.

“I’m going to [go] home as soon as possible but if everything is OK there, I think...

Hundreds of South Korean engineers who were arrested and detained during an immigration raid at a Hyundai-LG Energy Solution battery plant in Georgia in September are preparing to sue US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), alleging unlawful detention and mistreatment.

According to industry sources and a report by ABC News earlier this week, roughly 200 of those detained in the weeklong ordeal are preparing to file a lawsuit against ICE, alleging racial discrimination, human rights...

A Malaysian academic whose claim that the Romans learned shipbuilding from the Malays went viral has defended her assertions, saying that she has been a victim of “media lynching”.

Solehah Yaacob, an Arabic language and linguistic associate professor at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), stood by her theory in a social media post on Sunday.

Referring to the lecture, which she delivered in December 2022 and was posted on social media on October 31, she said her statement was...