Asia - South China Morning Post

The biggest challenges that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has to tackle following its recent victory in the general election are the country’s sluggish economy, high inflation and unemployment.

Speaking at a webinar, panellists said voters would judge the new government on its ability to create jobs, tame inflation and steady relations with key partners, even as they commended the peaceful election.

Zafar Sobhan, editor of Counterpoint, said: “Let us not forget this was a key driver in...

The UN human rights agency on Friday called on governments to clamp down on scam centres, which have mushroomed in Southeast Asia and where hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked into forced labour.

The agency released a report documenting torture, sexual abuse, forced abortions, food deprivation, solitary confinement and other abuses.

“The litany of abuse is staggering and at the same time heartbreaking,” UN Human Rights high commissioner Volker Turk said, calling on governments...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to lift living standards as he opened a landmark congress, state media said on Friday, offering a glimpse of economic strains within the sanctions-hit nation.

The supreme leader took centre stage with a speech to start the Workers’ Party congress, a gathering that directs state efforts on everything from house building to war planning.

Held just once every five years, the days-long congress offers a rare glimpse into the workings of a nation where even...

Ousted South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol on Friday remained defiant in his first reaction to a life sentence for rebellion handed down by a Seoul court the previous day.

In a statement released by his lawyers, Yoon maintained that his abrupt and short-lived declaration of martial law in December 2024 was done “solely for the sake of the nation and our people”, and dismissed the Seoul Central District Court as biased against him.

Yoon, who was removed from office amid a political crisis set...

I would like to explore some rather interesting data buried deep in the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Economic and Social Trends 2026 report: an estimated 15.3 per cent of jobs worldwide depended on foreign demand in 2024. In other words, they depend on international trade.

The ILO report, based on data from 80 economies that account for 85 per cent of global employment, says this amounts to 465 million jobs. Of these, 278 million are in Asia and the Pacific and 96 million are in...

May Lau was jolted awake by loud, urgent knocking on her cabin door in the early hours of Friday – and she knew immediately something was wrong.

“They were knocking so loudly, I thought there was no way this was a drill,” she said in Mandarin.

“They told us to get up as soon as we could. I could smell the smoke in the air and I knew there was a problem. We didn’t even have time to take our things.”

A fire had broken out on deck nine of the World Legacy, a Liberia-registered cruise ship, as it...

Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto has called for a nationwide drive to replace corrugated zinc roofs with clay tiles, saying he wants to shed what he describes as a “rusty” image while cooling homes, reviving a struggling industry and boosting the country’s appeal to tourists.

But analysts warn that the plan – dubbed gentengisasi, or “mass roofing” – could burden the environment, require costly structural upgrades and face resistance outside Java island.

“I see in all our cities,...

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pledged on Friday to make Japan “strong and prosperous”, while hitting out at China and pledging to keep “hitting the growth button” following her party's landslide election win.

“China is intensifying its attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, while also expanding and stepping up its military activities in the areas surrounding our country,” Takaichi told parliament in a policy...

Singapore street performer Bryan Wong may have performed all around the world, but few gigs can compare to the one where Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong randomly turned up in the audience.

The 29-year-old acrobatics artist was performing his Circles In Circus act at Rainforest Wild Asia when he spotted Lee and his wife, Ho Ching, watching from the crowd.

In a video later posted to social media, Wong zoomed in to Lee’s face, joking: “Sir, I’m sorry, I’m going to zoom in to your face, thank you...

Twelve police officers have been arrested in Malaysia for allegedly extorting about 200,000 ringgit (US$51,000) in cryptocurrency from a group of Chinese nationals during a midnight raid on a house in Selangor, the country’s wealthiest state.

The arrests, announced on Thursday, came just days after Malaysia’s king had issued a blunt warning about corruption within the civil service and police ranks, cautioning that such practices were on his “radar”.

Selangor police chief Shazeli Kahar said the...