Asia - South China Morning Post

A record number of people under the age of 20 in Japan were arrested for cannabis offences last year, with experts on social norms attributing the sharp rise to growing despair about the future and the influence of celebrities known to use drugs.

According to the National Police Agency (NPA), 1,373 people under the age of 20 were arrested for cannabis offences in Japan in 2025, an increase of more than a fifth from the previous year.

The figure is the highest since age-specific drug offence data...

Philippine carers have described racing to bomb shelters in Israel as the US-Israeli war in Iran sends missiles across the Middle East.

More than 1.1 million overseas workers from the Philippines are based in the region, with over 96 per cent concentrated in five countries closely tied to the fighting, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.

One Philippine carer has already been killed during an air strike.

A group of quick-thinking villagers swooped to the rescue of a runaway train in the East Malaysian state of Sabah on Tuesday, sacrificing a vital motorised rail trolley to force the carriage to stop.

The incident unfolded at about 7.30am as the train was carrying passengers – including teachers and families with young children – on their regular morning commute from Tenom to the Pangi subdistrict in southwest Sabah, on the island of Borneo.

The train suffered a brake failure, according to local...

Even if market researcher Joey Lau were a millionaire and could devote all her time to her family, she still would not want children.

The 34-year-old Singaporean said the risks facing young people today – from social media-driven mental health pressures to climate change – were too high to justify bringing a child into the world.

“I feel like the only reason that I would want to have a child is because it’s cute, it would give shape to my life and my parents would be very happy because they want...

South Korea will soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers.

The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met”, the ‌Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement.

Those conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as...

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has wasted no time positioning himself as a diplomatic broker in the Middle East, offering to mediate between Iran and the United States even as the bombs are still falling.

The problem, critics say, is that Indonesia stopped being neutral the moment it joined US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace”.

Jakarta’s offer came on Saturday, hours after US and Israeli strikes began hitting Iran. Prabowo was willing to travel to Tehran in person if all parties...

A Malaysian student has pleaded not guilty to desecrating the Koran and posting offensive content online, in a case that has stirred widespread anger in the Muslim-majority country during the holy month of Ramadan.

Vikneswaran K. Selvanathan, 21, appeared before the Sessions Court in Kuantan, Pahang, on Tuesday to face two charges: defiling a sacred object and transmitting “grossly offensive” material on social media in violation of Malaysia’s communications law.

He is accused of stepping on a...

A Malaysian national and a Filipino were killed on Tuesday when a helicopter crashed in a vacant lot about two hours southeast of Manila.

The Bell 505 helicopter carrying five people, including two Malaysians, took off from the capital and was en route to Quezon province, more than 400km (248 miles) southeast of the capital, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines and other officials said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the forced landing in clear weather in a grassy area of...

A Thai court issued arrest warrants for a foreign businessman and his wife accused of investment fraud and money laundering, with one victim allegedly conned out of more than US$30 million, police said.

Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) accused Ben Smith, also identified in news reports as South African Benjamin Mauerberger, and his wife, Cattaliya Beevor, of “cross-border investment fraud” dating back to 2016, according to a statement from the bureau on Monday.

Media reports have...

As judges in The Hague consider whether former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity case should proceed to trial, a parallel battle over the narrative has taken hold online.

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have accused Duterte of overseeing a campaign of extrajudicial killings linked to his signature “war on drugs”. Rights groups say the campaign left thousands dead during his 2016-2022 presidency, allegations he has repeatedly denied.

Analysts...