Asia - South China Morning Post

A former Philippine lawmaker accused of masterminding a vast public works corruption scheme allegedly tried to move part of his fortune out of reach of investigators by flying his private aircraft abroad.

A Gulfstream jet and two helicopters linked to disgraced congressman Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co were sent to Singapore and Malaysia in recent months, just as authorities were preparing to freeze billions of pesos in suspected ill-gotten assets.

Philippine aviation regulators say the aircraft cannot...

Indian customs officers have arrested a plane passenger after discovering two endangered gibbons stuffed inside a checked bag, the latest animals seized from smugglers at Mumbai’s airport.

One of the tiny apes from Indonesia was dead, while the other, in a video shared by Indian Customs, was seen cradled in the arms of an officer, softly hooting before covering its face with its arm.

Customs said the passenger, who had travelled from Malaysia via Thailand, was given the rare apes by a wildlife...

Despite the superficial conviviality of Donald Trump’s whistle-stop tour through Asia this week, we watched first-hand the dysfunctional reality of the US’ disengagement from the world of multilateralism.

Trump delivered a speech at the US-Asean Summit in Malaysia, but skipped the main Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders’ meeting in South Korea. Overall, he was more interested in cutting bilateral deals on the sidelines of the summits.

In Malaysia, he finalised unilateral tariff...

The first meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung could not have gone off to a better start, with analysts noting the two leaders’ warm rapport sealed with handshakes, smiles and vows to look to the future.

While they projected goodwill during their summit ahead of the Apec forum in the South Korean city of Gyeongju on Thursday, long-standing tensions over history and territorial disputes, and domestic political pressures arising from the...

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said military ties with India have “never been stronger” following a meeting with his counterpart Rajnath Singh, signalling that trade tensions have not affected broader strategic cooperation.

During the Friday meeting, the two renewed a 10-year defence framework, with Hegseth calling the India-US partnership “one of the most consequential” in the world. This was their first in-person meeting and took place on the sidelines of a gathering of defence chiefs from...

A Malaysian man, 33, has been sentenced to a decade in jail for manslaughter after accidentally killing his girlfriend’s three-year-old daughter by stepping on the child’s chest as he entered the room in darkness to feed her.

Ahmad Ashraf, a technician who weighed 138kg (300lbs) at the time, was caring for the toddler on July 20, 2022, in his home in Kota Tinggi, as his girlfriend was ill and receiving hospital treatment.

According to local Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily, the child...

The Philippines and Canada are set to sign a visiting forces agreement permitting joint drills and troop deployments on each other’s soil amid China’s expanding regional influence.

Canadian Minister of National Defence David McGuinty will be in Manila on Sunday to hold bilateral meetings with Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr and sign the agreement, according to an advisory released by the Philippine Department of National Defence on Wednesday.

The signing of the agreement...

A Malaysian court on Friday sentenced a woman to five years' jail for neglect leading to the death of her six-year-old autistic son, in a case that has shocked the nation and raised questions about the lack of support for families with special needs children.

The body of Zayn Rayyan Abdul Matin was found in a stream near his home in a suburb outside Kuala Lumpur on December 6, 2023, a day after he was reported missing by his parents.

Authorities have speculated that Zayn could have been murdered...

Singapore police have seized more than S$150 million (US$115.90 million) in assets tied to the Prince Group, a multinational network accused of running vast scam centre operations, the Straits Times newspaper reported on Friday.

The assets include six properties as well as bank accounts, securities accounts and cash tied to the network and Cambodian businessman Chen Zhi in relation to money laundering and forgery offences, the police said on Friday.

This seizure came after Britain and the United...

A Japanese atomic bomb survivors group that won the Nobel Peace Prize has strongly criticised US President Donald Trump’s surprise directive to begin nuclear weapons testing, calling it “utterly unacceptable”.

More than 200,000 people were killed when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, the only time nuclear weapons have been used during warfare.

Survivors, known as hibakusha, have battled decades of physical and psychological trauma...