Asia - South China Morning Post

For Hong Kong’s Topaz Family Office, investing in hotels in Japan holds up as a sound decision even as a Middle East war clouds the macroeconomic environment.

The wealth manager has made Japan a central plank of its pivot into hospitality and real estate over the past two years, driven by a sharp post-pandemic tourism rebound. The investment thesis now looks increasingly robust thanks to multiple structural tailwinds and a growing pool of institutional capital flowing into the same trade.

“Japan...

Hands knotted by a lifetime of hard work, Supon Haochareon says Thai farmers in his position do not get to retire.

Instead, the 81-year-old and his wife Lamduan, 74, must tend more than 300 trees in Samut Sakhon, an hour west of Bangkok, agonising each year as prices slump and their coconuts grow smaller in the withering heat.

This month brought the lowest prices on record: two baht (six US cents) per coconut – less than a stick of chewing gum – virtually wiping out all profit from their...

For many of those rescued from Southeast Asia’s scam compounds, escape is not the end of the ordeal.

They leave behind the locked gates, surveillance and violence, but often return home carrying injuries, trauma and the stigma of having been forced to scam others.

Just as difficult is what comes next: trying to explain the experience to the people waiting for them.

“Some of them are not able to tell their family members or their community what has happened,” said human rights advocate Andrey...

There are places in the world where you expect war to intrude. And then there are places where its arrival feels surreal.

For me, the Sri Lankan city of Galle has always belonged firmly to the latter category. The old fort, perched above the Indian Ocean, has the feel of a tropical cousin to Cartagena’s walled city. Inside its ramparts is an improbable mix: Western expatriates, boutique hotels, a long-standing local Muslim community and wealthy Sri Lankans who have restored colonial houses into...

Pakistan’s president on Saturday warned neighbouring Afghanistan’s Taliban government that it had “crossed a red line” by launching drone attacks on civilian areas in Pakistan and said the administration in Kabul had brought “grave consequences upon itself”.

The statement by Asif Ali Zardari was the latest in what has become the deadliest fighting yet between the two neighbours. The cross-border clashes, which erupted late last month, have shown no signs of abating despite efforts by China and...

⁠Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn formally opened the new parliament on Saturday, as last month’s general election result faces court scrutiny over bar codes on the ballots that may have violated the law.

The bar codes might undermine the secrecy of the ‌ballot, said the country’s Office of the Ombudsman, which petitioned the Constitutional Court to consider the case.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s Bhumjaithai party won a clear victory in the February 8 election, but the ombudsman said...

Stranded for two weeks at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas as drones and missiles set ships ablaze nearby, 26-year-old seafarer Ambuj says he has not been home for six months and cannot wait to see his family.

Ambuj, who asked Reuters not to use his second name for security reasons, is one of about 23,000 Indians working on merchant, harbour and offshore vessels across ‌the wider Gulf region, which is bearing the brunt of the war between Iran and the United States and Israel.

Hundreds of tankers...

When the alert arrives on his phone, Yashwant Deshmukh knows exactly what to do.

The Dubai-based political analyst moves away from the windows, waits for the second message confirming the missile has been intercepted, and then goes back to work.

“It has become a drill,” he said.

For the roughly 9 million Indians living and working across the Gulf, the war on Iran has shattered one of the region’s most durable illusions: that cities like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Manama would remain apart from...

North Korea on Saturday fired about 10 ballistic missiles towards the eastern sea, South Korea’s military said, staging its own show of force as the rival South conducts a joint military exercise with the United States.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired from an area near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, but did not immediately say how far they flew. Japan’s Defence Ministry said the weapons landed in waters outside the country’s exclusive economic zone.

The...

Scam syndicates allegedly from Malaysia are increasingly relying on couriers and physical handovers when targeting victims in Singapore, as tighter banking safeguards make fraudulent online transfers harder for them to pull off, according to police and crime experts.

Recent police cases suggest some criminals are turning to cross-border transfers in which victims are pressured into handing over cash or valuables in Singapore before the proceeds are passed through “mules” working for scam...