Asia - South China Morning Post

Australian police said on Monday that they shot dead a fugitive gunman wanted for killing two officers, ending a seven-month manhunt for one of the country’s most-wanted criminals.

Desmond Freeman fled into dense bushland in August last year after shooting and killing two police officers on a rural property in Victoria state.

Hundreds of police have pursued Freeman through the region’s rugged terrain over the past seven months, pouring resources into one of Australia’s largest manhunts.

Police...

Planning to update your wardrobe this summer? Industry insiders have some advice: do it soon.

By the time autumn collections hit the racks, the aftershocks of war on Iran may have quietly picked your pocket.

Clothing manufacturers and industry analysts are warning consumers to budget for price increases of 10 to 15 per cent as South Asia’s US$50 billion garment export industry reels from a cascade of war-driven shocks.

Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has choked natural gas supplies to...

Petron, the Philippines’ only refiner, has procured 2.48 million barrels of crude oil from Russia as the Southeast Asian nation scours the world for alternative suppliers to support domestic energy needs with the war in Iran raging.

“If the current crisis persists and alternative crude sources remain unavailable or insufficient, Petron may again be compelled to consider purchases of Russian crude oil to augment the national fuel supply,” parent company San Miguel said in a statement to market...

Authorities in Vietnam have arrested more than 70 people, including government officials, accused of falsifying data from air and waste water monitors at power plants and other major emitters, state media said Sunday.

The state-run People’s Police newspaper said police had identified “nearly 160 environmental monitoring stations that had been tampered with, altered and had their data falsified” – accounting for more than half of the total number of stations nationwide.

Police arrested 74 people,...

Indonesia is looking to save up to 40 trillion rupiah (US$2.3 billion) by cutting back on its free meal programme, an official said on Sunday, in a first austerity measure taken in response to price pressures from conflict in the Middle East.

The meals, primarily intended for schoolchildren across the country, will be distributed for five days a week instead of six starting March 31 in a move that is expected to save “around 40 trillion rupiah”, National Nutrition Agency deputy head Nanik...

The European Union (EU) is a bystander in the Iran war, but it might end up sustaining significant collateral damage. On one hand, public opinion across Europe is opposed to a conflict that circumvents the core principles of international law. On the other, the continent remains deeply reliant on the United States for its energy and security needs. A definitive anti-war stance risks alienating President Donald Trump, leaving Europe strategically exposed. Talk about being caught between a rock...

Mongolia’s ruling party selected a new candidate for prime minister on Sunday after the last head of government, Zandanshatar Gombojav, resigned after only nine months on the job.

Uchral Nyam-Osor, the current party chairman who is serving as speaker of the Parliament, was nominated at a meeting of the Mongolian People’s Party, according to state news agency Montsame. Uchral first joined the party in 2009, and is seen as a compromise candidate amid different party factions.

Zandanshatar’s...

Top diplomats from key regional powers were gathering in Pakistan on Sunday to discuss how to end the fighting in the Middle East, but there were few signs of progress as Israel and the US kept up strikes on Iran, and Tehran responded by firing missiles and drones across the region.

Pakistan said foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt were taking part in the talks in Islamabad. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held “extensive...

At least one of the world’s largest LNG plants remained closed on Sunday after a cyclone knocked out power to thousands of people in Western Australia.

The outages were restricting already stretched fuel supplies caused by the war in the Middle East.

Woodside Energy, which processes fuel from one of the world’s biggest offshore gas operations, said on Sunday that its Karratha plant remained offline.

“We have commenced remobilising our workforce to some of our offshore facilities and inspections...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a test of a high-thrust solid-fuel engine for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching targets around the globe, touting the development as elevating the country’s “strategic military power to the highest level”, state media said on Sunday.

The test of the engine made of composite carbon fibre material produced a maximum thrust of 2,500 kilonewtons, up from 1,971 kilonewtons recorded during a similar experiment last September, the...