Asia - South China Morning Post

As the Philippines’ coastguard struggles to patrol vast, contested waters with a handful of ageing planes and helicopters, a single politician’s larger private fleet has become a lightning rod for public anger over corruption and the chronic underfunding of the country’s defence forces.

At the heart of the scandal is Zaldy Co, who until January chaired the powerful House Appropriations Committee – a position that granted him sweeping powers over the national budget.

The discovery of six...

Malaysia’s government is facing allegations of muzzling free speech after the social media account of a leading independent news portal was suspended shortly after publishing a story critical of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Prominent online news outlet Malaysiakini revealed that its Facebook pages were temporarily taken down late on Tuesday, hours after it had released an investigative report into the prime minister’s own social media use.

The report alleged that more than 260 suspicious social...

The Japanese government introduced stricter rules governing the conversion of foreign driving licences on Wednesday, with non-residents no longer permitted to use the system following a recent spate of accidents involving foreign drivers.

Applicants are now required to submit a copy of their Japanese residence certificate, in contrast to the previous system that allowed short-term visitors to list hotels or other accommodations as their address.

The number of questions on the knowledge test,...

Indonesian rescuers were racing against the clock on Wednesday in search of dozens of missing students suspected of still being buried under the rubble of a collapsed school in the province of East Java.

The death toll following the incident on Monday has risen to six, according to Yudhi Bramantyo, Deputy Chief of Operations National Search and Rescue Agency.

Five survivors were successfully rescued after a tunnel was dug at the base of the building to their location.

“Their conditions were...

The race to see who will head Japan’s ruling party – which will also determine the country’s next prime minister – has veered off course, with one contender mired in a scandal over orchestrated online praise and another facing accusations of xenophobia over remarks about foreigners kicking sacred deer.

The internal election for leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), scheduled for Saturday, has quickly crystallised into a two-way battle between Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, a...

The US has agreed to allow South Koreans to work to set up facilities at US investment sites under existing temporary visas and open new channels to help its ally send workers to do business there, according to Seoul’s foreign ministry.

But US officials at a working group meeting offered no new answers to South Korea’s argument for wider access to US visas for specialty workers despite reaffirming a commitment to advance trade and investment partnership, the ministry said on Wednesday.

The...

At least 69 people were killed in a powerful earthquake that hit a central Philippine province late on Tuesday night.

The magnitude 6.9 earthquake that hit at about 10pm trapped an unspecified number of residents in collapsed houses, nightclubs and other businesses in the hard-hit city of Bogo and outlying rural towns in Cebu province, officials said.

Rescuers scrambled to find survivors on Wednesday. Army troops, police and civilian volunteers backed by backhoes and sniffer dogs were deployed...

South Korea’s visa-free scheme for Chinese tour groups has ignited a partisan clash, fuelling concerns that weaponising anti-Beijing sentiment for political gain could undermine broader national interests.

The launch of the programme on Monday drew sharp criticism from members of the conservative opposition People Power Party (PPP), who raised alarm over security and public safety.

Hitting back, lawmakers from President Lee Jae-myung’s ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) have denounced such...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr is facing growing unrest from retired generals, with some veterans even urging active commanders to withdraw support for the president, according to multiple senior military sources.

At the centre of the discontent are two flashpoints: allegations that billions of Philippine pesos have been lost to fictitious flood-control projects and proposed pension changes that former officers say would leave them worse off than their civilian counterparts.

The...

US President Donald Trump’s H-1B visa crackdown will hasten US firms’ shift of critical work to India, turbocharging the growth of global capability centres (GCCs) that handle operations from finance to research and development, economists and industry insiders say.

The world’s fifth-largest economy is home to 1,700 GCCs, or more than half the global tally, having outgrown its tech support origins to become a hub of high-value innovation in areas from the design of luxury car dashboards to drug...