Asia - South China Morning Post

Indonesia said it had suspended TikTok’s registration status as an electronic system provider after it failed to hand over all data relating to the use of its live stream feature, though the social media app was still accessible to users on Friday.

Alexander Sabar, an official at Indonesia’s communications and digital ministry, said in a statement that some accounts with ties to online gambling activities used TikTok’s live stream feature during recent national protests and monetised...

A Thai gunman was sentenced to life in prison on Friday for the murder of a Cambodian opposition politician in Bangkok, a judge said.

French national Lim Kimya, a former opposition lawmaker in Cambodia, was shot dead on January 7 by Ekkalak Paenoi as the ex-MP visited Bangkok with his wife.

Cambodian opposition figures have accused the country’s powerful former leader Hun Sen of ordering the shooting. This week, Lim Kimya’s widow called for a full accounting of who was behind it.

“The actions of...

As South Korea steps up efforts to protect its citizens from online fraud, celebrities in the country are warning against increasingly sophisticated phishing and phone scams by relating their personal encounters with such cases.

Entertainer Ji Seok-jin said one of his celebrity acquaintances lost 300 million won (US$213,000) to a voice phishing scam, The Korea Times newspaper reported on Thursday.

“They’re very smart, but they were told to click a website link – and once they did, it looked...

A court in Melbourne ruled on Friday that one of Australia’s most famous drug kingpins must face a retrial after his defence lawyer was revealed to have been a police informant.

Tony Mokbel - one of the key figures in Melbourne’s years-long gangland war – was handed a 30-year prison sentence in 2012 after pleading guilty to masterminding an elaborate drug syndicate.

Violence linked to his group, known as “The Company”, claimed dozens of lives and was later immortalised in the hugely popular...

Seven & i Holdings and other retailers in Japan are warning customers of possible Asahi Super Dry beer shortages after a cyberattack paralysed production and distribution at Asahi Group Holdings.

Shoppers at some 7-Eleven stores are seeing notices that shipments of the country’s most popular beer, as well as other Asahi products like Mitsuya Cider soda and Seven Premium Clear Cooler, have been suspended.

That is as Lawson and FamilyMart warned that products from Asahi, which also offers food and...

Lawyers helping victims of the Unification Church’s aggressive donation solicitation practices in Japan said on Thursday that an arbitration had been concluded, ordering the church to pay a total of more than 50 million yen (US$340,000) in damages to three former believers in their eighties – the first such agreement between the two parties.

The arbitration case filed with the Tokyo District Court was one of over 180 cases brought by victims seeking around 6 billion yen over the issue, which...

As Singapore welcomes the return of the Formula One Grand Prix from Friday to Sunday, with road closures downtown and shopping centres brimming with fans hoping to catch a glimpse of their favourite drivers, the high-octane buzz is once again in full swing.

Now in its 16th year, F1’s inaugural night race has become one of the city state’s flagship international events. But with each edition costing more than S$100 million (US$78 million), the economic payoff is increasingly being viewed through...

For over a decade, commentators have warned of China’s looming economic decline. Today, the challenges are real: US-China trade frictions, weak household consumption, an overstretched property sector and a shrinking workforce. Making money in China may feel harder than before.

Yet to see China solely through the lens of stagnation is to miss the profound transformation under way. Far from collapsing, China is restructuring. More importantly, it has nurtured a generation of entrepreneurs and...

An Australian scholar and writer, arrested in Thailand on a defamation charge he said originated with the Malaysian government, claimed on Thursday that he was a victim of broader collaboration among Southeast Asian countries to silence critics.

Independent scholar and writer Murray Hunter, 66, said that he believes he was improperly arrested by Thai police on Monday for articles he had written about Malaysia in 2024 on his online Substack newsletter, and questioned how his case falls under Thai...

The United States is expanding its influence over the US$4 trillion global cryptocurrency industry amid favourable regulation under the Trump administration and the growing use of US dollar-backed stablecoins, according to participants at this year’s Token2049 event in Singapore.

The US is on a path to becoming the world’s “crypto capital”, said Bo Hines, the former executive director of the White House’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, at a fireside chat on Thursday to conclude the...