Asia - South China Morning Post

Former chairman of Seven & i Holdings Toshifumi Suzuki, credited for the global success of 7-Eleven convenience stores, had died at the age of 93, according to the company.

Suzuki - known as the “father of the convenience store” in Japan - died due to heart failure on May 18, the company said in a statement on Monday.

“We would like to express our deepest gratitude for the kindness shown to him during his lifetime and respectfully inform you of his passing,” the statement said.

Suzuki is known...

A dispute over where churches and temples can operate in Malaysia’s richest state has become an awkward political test for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ruling coalition, which came to power promising to protect the country’s multiracial and multi-faith society.

The row centres on planning guidelines in Selangor, a wealthy and densely populated state surrounding Kuala Lumpur, that critics say could restrict non-Islamic places of worship in commercial areas, where many religious groups have long...

Around 20 people were injured at a luxury shopping complex in the Japanese capital of Tokyo on Monday after a man sprayed a substance inside, police and fire department officials said.

Tokyo police spokesman Yusuke Koide said that a man sprayed a substance at an ATM on the ground floor of the building, while a local fire department official said “around 20 people were injured” after a report of a “smell”.

The road in front of the mall – located in the touristy and upmarket shopping district of...

A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative country.

Siranudh Scott, a fourth-generation member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his older brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager.

Sunit, who is in his thirties, later denied the allegations in a video...

Singapore train operator SMRT will be stepping up pest control measures at its stations and depots after a video circulating online showed a rat on one of its trains.

In the video posted on social media on Saturday, a rat is seen scurrying around the cabin of a train as two people attempt to corner it. People are also seen lifting their legs to avoid it as it scurries past them.

“SMRT is aware of a post online about a rat sighting on board one of our trains on the East-West Line,” said SMRT...

Three people ⁠were killed ⁠and one was ⁠injured in an accident during lifeboat maintenance work at a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel operated by Malaysian state energy ‌firm Petronas on Sunday, the firm said.

Petronas, or Petroliam Nasional Berhad, said in a statement on Monday the incident occurred around 12.50pm at FSO Sepat off Terengganu state on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

Three ‌workers were pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital, while the injured ‌staff member...

Each morning, people in Thailand wake up to the latest viral videos on social media of drunken punch-ups, thefts, scams or acts of public indecency committed by some foreign tourists.

After months of warnings, Thailand on May 19 announced the cancellation of its 60-day visa-free entry rules for 93 countries and territories in a bid to curb crime, antisocial behaviour and abuse of the visa privilege by a portion of the tens of millions of tourists who have visited the kingdom annually.

Visitors...

Singapore’s economy expanded faster than expected in the first quarter as the global artificial-intelligence boom lifted the nation’s manufacturing and services, offsetting the drag from higher crude prices.

Gross domestic product grew a seasonally adjusted 1 per cent in the three months through March from the previous quarter, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said on Monday.

That is well above the government’s advance estimate of a 0.3 per cent contraction and the median forecast of a...

A photographer shooting the final day of the World Surf League (WSL) in New ⁠Zealand was injured by what organisers suspect was a sea lion or shark bite on Monday, forcing the event to be put on hold for several hours.

The New Zealand Pro semi-final between Brazilian world champions Yago Dora and Italo Ferreira at Raglan was halted after the ‌in-water photographer suffered puncture wounds and needed medical attention, the WSL said.

“This morning one of the water photography team suffered a...

Southeast Asia has been planning a unified electricity grid since 1997. Now, nearly 30 years later, its leaders are giving renewed impetus to the push to get energy flowing seamlessly across borders and seabeds.

In Cebu earlier this month, leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations put the power grid’s development high on their summit agenda, aiming to better insulate the region against the next big energy shock.

But as regional governments try to turn the decades-long dream of an...