Asia - South China Morning Post

A chilling voice note from her husband was all the warning Indonesian housewife Shanty Shanaya received of his impending kidnapping in some of the world’s most treacherous waters.

“I’m about to be attacked,” her 33-year-old husband, Captain Ashari Samadikun, said in the April 21 voice note threaded with fear as a group he assumed to be pirates approached.

He was captaining the Palau-flagged MT Honour 25 tanker, which was carrying fuel from Oman to Somalia – a route once notorious for pirates who...

After his party’s stunning conquest of West Bengal, Narendra Modi stands at a juncture that would have seemed implausible mere months ago.

The prime minister who lost his parliamentary majority in 2024, briefly inviting talk of a weakened leader, now controls roughly 70 per cent of India’s state legislatures through his ruling coalition, the National Democratic Alliance.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) sweep of West Bengal, winning 207 of 294 assembly seats and ending three consecutive terms...

Malaysia’s anti-corruption agency is seeking to charge two unnamed individuals over a 1.1 billion ringgit (US$278 million) semiconductor deal with British chip designer Arm Holdings, as former economy minister Rafizi Ramli returned for a third day of questioning in the same probe.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said the investigation was nearing completion after officers recorded statements from 22 witnesses, including Rafizi and his former aide, political analyst James...

Indonesia has unveiled a new vision to transform the holiday island of Bali into a global finance hub inspired by destinations such as Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore, but the tourist hotspot faces a raft of systemic and infrastructural hurdles before it can attain the lofty goal.

Indonesian Chief Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto earlier this week said the government was finalising regulations to establish a financial hub in the Kura Kura Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on Serangan island, 500...

Asia’s next food crisis is under way. After the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz collapsed, sending shock waves across energy, fertiliser and food systems. Fuel, freight and fertiliser costs are rising sharply, amplified by skyrocketing insurance premiums – feeding directly into the price of every tonne of fertiliser that still reaches the market.

The scale of disruption reflects the strait’s outsize role in global trade. It carries around one-third of globally...

Japan has long grappled with what to do about hikikomori – the social hermits who seal themselves off from the world, sometimes for years, retreating from all human contact.

In the past, these recluses were thought of as a youth problem: troubled teenagers, rudderless young men. But that framing no longer holds.

Japan’s shut-ins are growing old, and the parents keeping them alive are growing older still.

The average hikikomori is now 36.9 years old, according to the Asahi newspaper, citing a...

Across much of India, an energy crunch caused by the Iran war has prompted long queues for cooking gas cylinders. That is not a problem for Gauri Devi.

On a stove with blue flames, she flips a chapatti flatbread, burning biogas produced from cow dung – an alternative fuel helping ease pressure on supplies.

“It cooks everything,” the 25-year-old said in her courtyard kitchen in Nekpur, a village in Uttar Pradesh, about 90km (55 miles) from New Delhi. “If the pressure goes down, we let it rest for...

Four paintings linked to one of the world’s most audacious financial frauds stood on easels at Malaysia’s anti-corruption headquarters on Wednesday: a Picasso, a Miro, a Balthus and an Ultrillo – all allegedly bought with money stolen from the Malaysian people.

The unveiling of the works at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) headquarters in Putrajaya marked the first public showing of artworks recovered from the multibillion-dollar Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal since...

A group of 13 Australians related to alleged Islamic State (Isis) jihadists is returning home from Syria, Australian authorities said on Wednesday, warning some will face arrest.

The four women and nine children, who had been living in Roj camp in Syria, are expected to land in Sydney and Melbourne airports on Thursday, according to local media.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said he received an alert on Wednesday morning when the group’s travel booking was made.

“The government is not...

Japan’s prime minister touched down in Australia on Sunday with a set of shared anxieties – about Trump, China and the fragility of supply chains that the two insular nations have long relied upon – to which she sought some small relief.

By the time she departed, Sanae Takaichi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had signed an economic security pact, unlocked nearly US$1 billion in critical minerals funding and laid the groundwork for what observers describe as the most comprehensive...