Asia - South China Morning Post

A Scottish crime boss is to be deported to Spain on Wednesday after he was arrested on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in connection with large-scale drug trafficking and money laundering, authorities said.

The 45-year-old, identified as Steven Lyons, was taken into custody by immigration officers at Ngurah Rai International Airport on Saturday on arrival from Singapore, Untung Widiyatmoko, head of Indonesia’s branch of Interpol, said on Tuesday.

The immigration system had flagged him as...

Tokyo’s Shibuya ward – home to the famous scramble crossing and one of the Japanese capital’s busiest shopping and nightlife districts – is abandoning its long-standing policy of asking people to take their rubbish home.

Instead, it is turning to on-the-spot fines as visitor numbers surge and litter piles up.

Under a new campaign branded “If you throw trash, you lose cash”, anyone caught dropping rubbish will be fined 2,000 yen (US$12.50), with enforcement starting on June 1 after a grace...

Rising fuel costs linked to the Middle East conflict could push more Filipinos deeper into debt, analysts have warned, with one regional study describing the Philippines’ credit card burden reaching a “critical” risk level.

Although credit card ownership in the Philippines remains relatively low, data indicates that cardholders appear to be using them far more intensively as living costs outpace income growth.

Credit card receivables in the Philippines have been growing consistently at more than...

As with any conflict, the war in Iran has driven people to choose sides and adopt partisan positions. This includes the view that, despite the acts of aggression by the US and Israel, the Islamic Republic somehow “deserves” the attacks due to years of regional instability caused by its Axis of Resistance.

This is not to suggest that the Iranian regime has always been a victim. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ transgressions through the Quds Force have been well documented.

But let’s be...

The Philippines said on Tuesday it will rename more than 100 island features in a bid to reinforce its “sovereignty” in the disputed South China Sea, including areas claimed by China.

The features to be renamed under President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s executive order belong to the Spratly archipelago, site of repeated confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels.

Beijing claims the South China Sea in nearly its entirety despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal...

A Japanese prosecutor who publicly accused her boss of rape condemned her office on Tuesday for failing to protect victims, after it rejected her request for an independent probe into harassment within the organisation.

Very few women in Japan speak out about sexual assault but Hikari (not her real name) came forward in 2024 to accuse Osaka’s then top prosecutor of raping her six years earlier.

Kentaro Kitagawa, head of the Osaka District Public Prosecutor’s Office, was arrested and admitted the...

The Iran war could provide an impetus for the Philippines and China to reach an agreement on disputed energy resources in the South China Sea, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said recently. Marcos, the rotational chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year, emphasised the need for a “reset” in relations with China given that regional states are confronting “very serious” economic and foreign policy restructuring.

Marcos’ statements came shortly after the Philippine...

As a child, Saraswati Nepali was not allowed to drink from the same water jar as her classmates.

When she was thirsty, she had to walk the 20 minutes home and back: the cost of being born a Dalit in a society that deemed her “untouchable”.

Now, Nepal’s new government says it is finally ready to acknowledge that injustice.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah’s administration announced on Sunday that the state would, for the first time, offer a formal apology to the Dalit community.

It also pledged to...

A Malaysian court on Tuesday ⁠ordered jailed former ⁠prime minister Najib Razak ⁠to pay US$1.3 billion to a former unit of scandal-tainted state fund 1MDB, state media reported.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that Najib was liable for losses incurred by ‌SRC International, a former subsidiary of sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, state news agency Bernama reported.

High Court judge Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin ruled that Najib breached his fiduciary duties, abused his position...

The firing of an Indonesian immigration officer at a Batam seaport, following reports of extortion of foreign tourists, has raised questions about the prevalence of such practices across the country’s entry points.

Batam, in Indonesia’s Riau Islands province, is a popular destination for visitors from nearby Singapore as it boasts scenic beaches an hour’s ferry ride from the city state.

The island’s appeal has recently been marred by allegations of extortion by immigration officers at Batam...