Asia - South China Morning Post

When US President Donald Trump announced that 5,000 US troops would leave Germany, the immediate reading in Western capitals was political: another round in Trump’s running quarrel with European allies, triggered by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s criticism of Washington’s handling of the war with Iran.

For Beijing, the more interesting reading is structural. The drawdown coincides with a period in which Foreign Minister Wang Yi has spent much of 2026 cultivating a “partners not rivals”...

The death toll from a suicide attack on a security post in northwest Pakistan rose to 14 police officers, authorities said early on Sunday. A self-proclaimed breakaway group of the Pakistani Taliban has claimed the attack.

A suicide bomber and several gunmen detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near the post in Bannu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, late on Saturday, senior police official Sajjad Khan said. The attack triggered an intense shoot-out, and some...

Malaysia has ramped up health screenings at all international entry points, particularly in the maritime sector, to prevent hantavirus from entering the country, according to Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.

Dzulkefly assured the public that as of Sunday, there have been zero hantavirus cases reported in Malaysia or involving Malaysians, noting that the six lab-confirmed cases recently highlighted were all reported abroad.

However, he stressed that the country must remain vigilant against the...

Vietnam has become the latest country to enter talks to buy India’s supersonic BrahMos missile – and at least 15 more are reportedly interested – as defence ministries across Asia and elsewhere increasingly look beyond Western-made systems.

New Delhi and Hanoi are in advanced negotiations over a potential US$700 million deal, with talks progressing during Vietnamese President To Lam’s visit to India this week, where he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and other...

Two Singaporean nationals missing for ⁠days were confirmed dead on Sunday from the eruption of Mount Dukono on Indonesia’s Halmahera Island, the local rescue agency said.

Rescuers found the bodies around the crater rim and evacuation was under ‌way, agency head Iwan Ramdani said.

“Evacuation of the bodies is still hampered by eruptions that continue to occur and bad weather,” Iwan said, adding rain was falling in the area.

Some 150 personnel with two thermal drones have been deployed since...

Yasuyuki Watanabe has not seen his daughter in more than 15 years. But he is not celebrating the landmark custody reform that Japan has just implemented.

Until last month, Japanese law required one parent to hold sole custody of children after a divorce, leaving the other party reliant on informal goodwill or court-encouraged visitation to maintain a relationship with their child.

For Watanabe, 54, the result was a system seemingly designed to exclude him, where one parent could disappear from a...

Every year for the past three years, Edward Sugiana has made the same pilgrimage from Vancouver to a memorial hall on the southern fringes of Seoul that has become one of K-pop’s most sacred and sorrowful sites.

Inside a small private room, Post-it notes from fans cover the walls alongside flowers and photographs of the girl group Kara. Nearly seven years after her death, visitors continue to arrive to pay tribute to Goo Hara – a woman many never met, but whom thousands feel they lost.

“At the...

Sri Lankan authorities arrested a senior Buddhist monk on Saturday for the alleged sexual abuse of an underage girl, police said, marking the highest-profile case involving clergy in the country.

Pallegama Hemarathana, 71, was arrested at a private hospital in the capital Colombo where he had sought treatment over the weekend amid an investigation into the alleged abuse of the 11-year-old girl in 2022.

The crime is alleged to have taken place at a highly venerated temple in Anuradhapura, around...

In the 1980s, then Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad launched his “Look East” policy, urging his country and others in Southeast Asia to emulate the state-led economic development models of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, rather than those of market-dominated Western nations.

China subsequently emerged as a prime example of state-led development, but Japan is now leaning again towards a more dirigiste model under the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, not only in...

Vietnam has expanded its outposts in the South China Sea by hundreds of acres over the past year, according to a new report, as Hanoi and Beijing race to reinforce competing territorial claims through land reclamation.

Vietnam has added about 534 acres (2.16 square km) of land in the Spratly Islands, bringing its total reclaimed area to roughly 2,771 acres (11.2 square km), according to the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.

While Hanoi had appeared to be narrowing the gap...