Asia - South China Morning Post

Five people died and two others were injured on Monday after an explosion and fire on a production line for rocket propellant at a factory in South Korea operated by Hanwha Aerospace, officials said.

The two survivors, including one who was badly burned, had escaped from the facility themselves, a fire official told a briefing.

“Authorities have yet to identify ⁠the victims because their bodies were severely damaged,” a health official told the same briefing.

A fire official said that an...

A Malaysian state chief minister is under police investigation after a viral video showed him shooting a sacrificial cow with a shotgun at an Eid ul-Adha event, triggering public anger and questions over gun use, animal welfare and Islamic slaughter rules.

Police in Perlis, a small northern state bordering Thailand, said they had seized the shotgun believed to have been used by Chief Minister Abu Bakar Hamzah at the korban (ritual sacrifice of livestock) ceremony in Kuala Perlis on...

Malaysia began enforcing age verification requirements for social media platforms on Monday, barring children under 16 from opening new accounts and requiring all existing users to confirm their identities using official government documents.

The measures come into force under the Online Safety Act 2025 and are being implemented by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) through two complementary frameworks: the Child Protection Code, which obliges platform providers to...

Jakarta residents have largely welcomed a new police-military campaign against violent street crime, after a wave of brazen motorbike muggings struck fear into Indonesia’s capital.

But rights advocates warn that deploying soldiers alongside police blurs a line between law enforcement and military power, reviving memories of extrajudicial killings in a country still haunted by its authoritarian past.

On May 15, Jakarta police announced the formation of a special, 24-hour joint patrol task force...

Australia’s populist One Nation party surged past the ruling Labor party to lead a nationwide opinion poll for the first time, highlighting voter disappointment with last month’s budget and reinforcing signs of a fracturing of the conservative side of politics.

One Nation’s primary vote advanced 4 percentage points to 31 per cent from a previous poll conducted ahead of the May 12 budget, while the centre-left government slipped 3 points to 28 per cent, according to a Redbridge Group/Accent...

Deep in the forested highlands of northern Myanmar, where the Irrawaddy River rises from two tributaries in the hills of Kachin state, a contentious infrastructure project is stirring again – and threatening to reopen wounds that never fully healed.

The Myitsone Dam, a US$3.6 billion Chinese-financed hydroelectric megaproject that was shelved more than a decade ago after igniting a storm of popular fury, is back on the table.

Myanmar’s military rulers have begun holding public consultations on...

A blast on Sunday at a building in northeastern Myanmar said to have been storing explosives for mining has killed more than 45 people, according to rescuers and independent media reports.

About 70 other people were injured in the explosion that took place around noon in the village of Kaungtup, in Namhkam township.

The area, located about 3 kilometres (2 miles) south of the Chinese border, is under the control of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, an ethnic armed group which has engaged in...

As the Shangri-La Dialogue drew to a close on Sunday, two issues dominated discussions throughout the event: defence spending and the varying level of commitment of countries to maintain peace in the region after calls by Washington for its allies and others to pull their weight.

Analysts said the 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product for defence spending proposed by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth was not something that most Asean countries – aside from Singapore – could commit to.

Hegseth...

The excitement around SpaceX, fuelled by the targeted US$1.8 trillion valuation for its initial public offering and its promising Starship rocket development, has revived a familiar claim: that SpaceX is on course to dominate the space market.

Commercially, that view is understandable. SpaceX conducts more space launches than anyone and at very competitive costs, its Starlink satellite internet company provides strong in-house demand, and it has a scale advantage unmatched by any other private...

Members of Asean might have conflicting claims in the South China Sea but mutual trust existed in the bloc, Philippine defence chief Gilberto Teodoro Jnr said on Sunday, singling out Beijing as the biggest obstacle to a code of conduct in the disputed waterway.

Teodoro delivered strong words for China in the final panel of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore, taking aim at Manila’s long-time maritime rival for disregarding an international arbitral tribunal, which ruled in favour...