Asia - South China Morning Post

A six-year-old Indonesian girl killed in a traffic accident while visiting Singapore with her family has been laid to rest in her hometown of Jakarta.

Sheyna Lashira Smaradiani and her family were visiting the popular tourist area of Chinatown late on Friday morning when the accident happened.

A car struck Sheyna and her mother, Raisha Anindra Pascasiswi, as the family of four were crossing South Bridge Road near the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao reported....

When Drew Binsky stepped into a gosiwon in Seoul, the doorway alone offered a clue to the life inside. The entrance measured barely 61cm (24 inches) across – narrow enough to require a slight turn of the shoulders to pass through.

Binsky, an American travel YouTuber with millions of subscribers, documented his experience in his video “Inside Korea’s smallest apartment,” posted on February 1. The video tours several gosiwon facilities across Seoul and drew more than 1.9 million views within days...

Malaysian police recently engaged in a dramatic confrontation with a Singapore-registered car that was driving against the flow of traffic at the Johor Bahru land checkpoint, with an officer drawing his gun to stop the errant motorist from fleeing.

Dashcam footage related to the incident, which occurred on January 10, circulating on social media showed the vehicle travelling the wrong way through the Sultan Iskandar Building immigration complex near Malaysia’s border with the city state.

A...

Malaysia is moving to revamp its navy’s ageing strike capacity as it seeks to restore credible deterrence after years of procurement delays amid mounting pressures in the South China Sea.

The modernisation push follows repeated Malaysian protests about Chinese coastguard vessels patrolling near offshore oil and gas assets.

Malaysia’s navy is set to receive Norwegian-made anti-ship and land-attack missiles next month, according to the defence ministry, with deliveries of Turkey’s Atmaca anti-ship...

Criminals in Southeast Asia are harnessing inexpensive AI tools to target bigger pools of potential victims at high speed, keeping scam centres humming even as governments try to crack down, senior officials at Interpol say.

Previously, some scams were easy to spot – from poor quality online ads luring people to work in such centres to the scams themselves, typically designed to make people part with their money through the promise of romance or investment returns.

Now, scammers are using large...

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1. Japan’s ‘Iron Lady’ Takaichi sweeps election with historic win

2. ‘Dominated by non-Malays’: study on elected Kuala Lumpur mayor spurs race debate

3. ‘Not political gift’: sultan’s comment on pardons stirs debate over Najib’s case

4. Japan set to revive WWII military...

Nationalism, a deep network of local patronage and a promise to safeguard Thailand’s faltering economy catapulted Anutin Charnvirakul back into the prime minister’s office.

By his own admission, the win exceeded expectations. His Bhumjaithai Party secured 193 of the 500 parliamentary seats, according to early unofficial tallies late on Monday – “even more than I asked for”, Anutin told reporters – albeit from what looks likely to be one of Thailand’s lowest voter turnouts in decades.

Analysts...

Malaysian authorities are investigating a case involving a man dressed as Spider-Man who allegedly brought a seven-year-old girl from Terengganu state to solicit money from tourists in Melaka.

Melaka women, family and com­munity development committee chief Kalsom Noordin said the 50-year-old security guard claimed the child was his niece when he was intercepted by Melaka Welfare Department officers at a petrol kiosk in Cheng at about 6pm on Sunday.

“The girl was also made to wear a Spider-Man...

Indonesia is ready to build on its “strong relationship” with mainland China, its top economic minister has said, while Beijing is committed to upholding fairness and stability amid global uncertainty, according to Hong Kong’s former leader Leung Chun-ying.

Airlangga Hartarto and Leung were speaking on Tuesday at the South China Morning Post’s China Conference: Southeast Asia 2026, held in Jakarta.

Leung, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative...

A man was arrested for masturbating in public at a lecture hall during a seminar for secondary school students in Malaysia.

Cheras Assistant Commissioner Mohd Rosdi Daud said that a report of the matter was lodged on Saturday following the incident at a university in Cheras, a suburb in Kuala Lumpur.

“The suspect, a male in his mid-20s, was subsequently arrested by Cheras police in the Sri Petaling area on Monday,” he said in a statement.

“The motive for the incident is still under...