Asia - South China Morning Post

A notorious North Korean hacking group is likely behind the theft of nearly US$300 million in cryptocurrency over the weekend, an affected party has said, in the biggest known crypto heist this year.

It is the latest such incident linked to North Korea, whose sophisticated cybercrime programme uses stolen cryptocurrency to help fund its nuclear weapons development, according to a United Nations panel.

Digital currency news site CoinDesk said the heist on the vault of online investment tool...

A Singaporean man who was seen in a viral video assaulting a Filipino woman at Lucky Plaza shopping centre was charged on Wednesday over the incident and a previous alleged attack on the same woman.

Andrew Suresh Markandan, 47, was handed two charges of voluntarily causing hurt to Alibutdan Vilma Litgio and two charges of mischief by damaging her property.

He is accused of first assaulting the victim at about 7.25pm on March 30 last year at Hotel 81 Bugis. He allegedly slapped her and punched...

Far-flung Pacific nations ⁠are reeling from the impact of a global ⁠fuel crisis as authorities scramble to manage energy supplies while families must grapple ⁠with fuel curbs and higher costs for food and access to healthcare.

Global oil supplies are running down as the US-Israeli war with Iran disrupts traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which typically carries about 20 per cent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows.

Aid agencies have warned that the crisis has driven up prices...

A Japanese prefecture is paying its singles to use dating apps as the country grapples with record-low birth rates.

Kochi prefecture announced on April 10 that it would subsidise private matchmaking app fees for its young residents, according to a Sankei News report.

Residents aged between 20 and 39 will get a subsidy of up to 20,000 yen (US$125) for the 2026 financial year to use apps that have received “internet-based marriage partner introduction service certification”.

One of these verified...

A senior New Zealand minister has sparked outrage by deriding a planned free-trade deal with India as a “butter chicken tsunami”.

Wellington is poised to sign a free-trade agreement with India in New Delhi next week.

The New Zealand government has hailed it as a “once in a generation” deal that will give its businesses access to the world’s most populated country’s vast domestic market.

But its ruling coalition partner, the right-wing populist NZ First party, has pulled support over fears it...

Indonesia’s decision to raise prices for some non-subsidised fuel products could push more households towards subsidised grades, economists have warned, raising the risk of tighter supplies and piling pressure on a state budget already straining to contain politically sensitive energy costs.

State-owned energy company Pertamina’s move highlights Jakarta’s challenge in aligning fuel costs with global markets while insulating lower-income households from rising prices. By allowing the price of...

Myanmar’s new military-backed government wants to hold peace talks with ⁠opposition armed groups by the ⁠end of July, the country’s ⁠junta leader-turned-president said, but two key rebel groups rejected the offer on Tuesday.

State media reported that President Min Aung Hlaing, who led a coup five years ago that plunged the Southeast Asian country into a civil war that continues to ‌rage, told a government meeting that he wanted rebel groups that were not part of a ceasefire deal to join talks to...

Malaysia’s Karex, the world’s ⁠top condom producer, plans ⁠to raise prices by 20 per cent to ⁠30 per cent and possibly further if supply chain disruptions drag on due to the Iran war, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

Karex is also seeing a surge in condom demand as rising freight costs and shipping delays have left ‌many of its customers with lower stockpiles than usual, CEO Goh Miah Kiat told Reuters in an interview.

“The situation is definitely very fragile, prices are expensive … We have...

South Korean police have moved to detain Bang Si-hyuk, the founder of K-pop giant Hybe – the entertainment company behind groups including BTS – in a case that has spilled beyond finance and into the politics of Seoul’s uneasy alliance with Washington.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it had requested an arrest warrant for Bang through the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office, citing alleged fraudulent stock trading in violation of the Capital Markets Act.

The case took on a...

Indonesia’s parliament passed a law on Tuesday to protect the rights of domestic workers after more than two decades of deliberations and multiple delays.

The bill was first introduced in 2004 to protect the country’s 4.2 million domestic workers, almost 90 per cent of them women, according to data from the Ministry of Manpower.

They were previously not legally classified as workers, meaning they were forced to operate in an informal and unregulated economy, exposed to exploitation and...