Asia - South China Morning Post

In the forests of rural northern Japan an old terror is stirring, as a record year for deadly bear attacks revives memories of a historical massacre that has haunted rural communities for generations.

Authorities on Wednesday confirmed that a man in his seventies, discovered lifeless in Iwate prefecture on October 10, had died as a result of a bear attack while foraging for wild vegetables. His death brought Japan’s nationwide toll from bear attacks to nine so far this year, surpassing all...

North Korea is circumventing UN sanctions by using cryptocurrency to trade raw materials and military weaponry, and by deploying large numbers of IT workers abroad to launder funds and generate income for Pyongyang, an international sanctions monitoring group has reported.

Under leader Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang has ramped up cyber operations in recent years, turning hacking into a key source of foreign currency in the face of biting sanctions over its nuclear and weapons programmes.

The...

Despite weeks of frantic diplomacy, the chances of South Korea and the United States sealing a trade deal before next week’s Apec summit appear to be slim, with strong domestic backing enabling Seoul to resist a compromise seen as perilous to the national economy.

Under a framework agreement reached in July, US President Donald Trump’s administration offered to cut tariffs on South Korean imports from 25 per cent to 15 per cent – but only if Seoul committed US$350 billion in investments into...

Wee Ee Cheong leans back in his chair in the boardroom of UOB Plaza and behind him a deep green bonsai peeks into view from a shelf, poised like it is meant to be part of the conversation.

Wee’s minders had told us not to be surprised if he talks about his beloved plants. It is his hobby, after all. A lush bonsai graces the cover of the bank’s annual report for its 90th anniversary, a nod to the enduring roots of Singapore’s only remaining family-controlled bank. But he shows little interest in...

Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit, who supervised royal projects to help the rural poor, preserve traditional craft-making and protect the environment, died on Friday. She was 93.

The Royal Household Bureau said she died in a hospital in Bangkok. Since October 17, she had been suffering from a blood infection but despite her medical team’s efforts, her conditions did not improve.

She had been largely absent from public life in recent years due to declining health. Her husband, King Bhumibol...

India trialled cloud seeding over its smog-filled capital for the first time, spraying a chemical from an aeroplane to encourage rain and wash deadly particles out of the air.

Cloud seeding is the practice of using aeroplanes to fire salt or other chemicals into clouds to induce rain.

New Delhi city authorities, working with the government’s Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, launched a test run on Thursday afternoon using a Cessna light aeroplane over the city’s northern Burari area.

“A...

Bird flu is spreading rapidly in Europe, with the highest number of countries in at least a decade reporting early outbreaks, raising concerns about a repeat of past crises that led to the culling of tens of millions of birds and higher food prices.

Meanwhile, Australian scientists have found hundreds of dead seal pups on Heard Island in the sub-Antarctic with signs that suggest they were killed by bird flu, authorities said on Friday.

The spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly...

The Philippine military has launched an unusually aggressive pushback against what it describes as a growing campaign to destabilise its personnel and ultimately unseat President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr.

Army and navy officials have warned that disinformation campaigns, rogue recruitment drives and seditious messaging – often amplified on social media – pose a growing threat to military cohesion. The crackdown comes amid fears of a reprise of coup plots that rocked the country in previous...

Women in Australia’s defence forces (ADF) launched a class-action lawsuit on Friday alleging widespread and systematic sexual violence, harassment and discrimination.

The case was served against the Australian government on behalf of women subjected to abuse at any time in a 21-year period between November 2003 and May 2025.

“The threat of war often isn’t the biggest safety fear for female ADF personnel; it is the threat of sexual violence in their workplace,” said lawyer Josh Aylward of legal...

In East Timor’s presidential palace in the capital Dili, President Jose Ramos-Horta leans back in his chair, radiating a calm demeanour ahead of a momentous occasion in his country’s young history.

“We are in the last few hours before joining Asean,” he told This Week in Asia. “Looking back, it has been a 23-year journey since independence was proclaimed … and when I look at where we were then compared to now, it is like heaven and hell.”

On Sunday in Kuala Lumpur, East Timor is set to formally...