Asia - South China Morning Post

Malaysian authorities have rounded up hundreds of homeless people in Kuala Lumpur ahead of next week’s Asean summit, in what has been criticised as a “performative” action to please visiting dignitaries rather than addressing a chronic social issue in the capital.

Around 545 people, including 180 foreigners, have been gathered since February in an operation known as KL Strike Force Aktiviti Orang Papa dan Kanak-Kanak, or “activities of the poor and children”.

Jointly led by several city...

Rows of grey buildings with thick iron bars line the streets of Sihanoukville, about 250km (155 miles) southwest of Phnom Penh. Near the city’s Chinatown stands Cambodia’s largest so-called yuanqu – a slang term in Chinese criminal circles meaning “scam compound”, derived from yuanqu, or industrial estate.

Inside these complexes, online crimes such as voice phishing and romance scams are part of daily life. Young people from South Korea and other countries are kidnapped or lured by Chinese-run...

The mother of the late Yap Shing Xuen has appealed to the public to stop spreading rumours and incorrect information about her daughter and her family.

During a press conference at Yap’s wake on Thursday, Wong Lee Ping said her daughter sustained more than 200 stab wounds after being attacked in a school toilet at SMK Bandar Utama in Malaysia’s Selangor state on Tuesday.

Fighting back tears, Wong, 44, said online media had under­reported the savagery of the attack when they stated Yap was...

Southeast Asia’s children are among the world’s most exposed to online risks – and among the least protected.

That is the warning from Dr Yuhyun Park, founder of the Singapore-based DQ Institute, a global think tank that develops international standards and research frameworks for digital intelligence and child online safety.

She said uneven progress in cyber protection between advanced and developing economies was leaving millions of children in poorer regions vulnerable to abuse, exploitation...

Three Singaporeans have been sanctioned for alleged links to a fraud empire involving a Cambodian conglomerate and its China-born chief executive, as part of the largest crackdown by the United States and United Kingdom on cybercriminal networks in Southeast Asia.

Of the three, Chen Xiuling, also known as Karen, has resigned from her position as an independent non-executive director at Taiwan-based live streaming platform 17Live Group, based on a company announcement on the Singapore Exchange...

Kanchha Sherpa, the only surviving member of the mountaineering expedition team that first conquered Mount Everest, died early Thursday, according to the Nepal Mountaineering Association.

The association’s president, Phur Gelje Sherpa, confirmed that Kanchha died at age 92 at his home in Kathmandu.

“He passed away peacefully at his residence,” Phur Gelje Sherpa said, adding that he had been unwell for some time. “A chapter of mountaineering history has vanished with him.”

Last rites will be held...

Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen has complained to Kuala Lumpur that Thailand has been broadcasting “ghost sounds” along the disputed border despite a Malaysia-brokered ceasefire agreement.

The former Cambodian prime minister wrote in a social media post that he had informed Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi of the scary noises disturbing residents in the Sereng and Prey Chan border villages for four consecutive nights from Friday.

During the meeting on Tuesday, Hun Sen...

Half of Filipinos believe that former president Rodrigo Duterte should be held accountable for the deaths related to his bloody drug war, with observers pointing out the findings of a new survey could further “lend legitimacy and support” to an international court’s investigation into the ex-leader.

The results come amid the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) rejection of the plea by Duterte’s defence counsel to allow his interim release from detention in The Hague.

The poll was conducted by...

South Koreans are cancelling holidays not only to Cambodia but also to neighbouring Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, spooked by government travel bans and reports of compatriots being kidnapped, trafficked or killed by regional crime syndicates.

A man in his fifties surnamed Son told the Korea JoongAng Daily he had just cancelled a December golf trip with friends to Phnom Penh. “It’s a waste to lose the cancellation fee,” he said, “but I just can’t bring myself to go...

A planned fundraising gala by an Israeli group that was cancelled at the Fullerton Hotel in Singapore has ignited a debate over how private venues should handle politically sensitive events, particularly amid global scrutiny of the war in Gaza.

The Friends of Israel Annual Aliyah Gala Dinner, organised by Keren Hayesod, was originally scheduled to be held at the five-star hotel on November 18. But the venue was quietly removed from the event’s website before the hotel confirmed on Tuesday that...