Asia - South China Morning Post

Controversial remarks in Bangladesh by a politician who questioned women’s ability to perform jobs because of their child-bearing role have caused an uproar ahead of the general election in a country where female workers form the spine of its mainstay garment sector.

Shafiqur Rahman, the chief of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, also ruled out the possibility of a woman assuming the Islamist party’s top post.

In a TV interview, Rahman said women with babies should be given the option of fewer...

A woman was told to leave after turning up in a skirt and a low-cut top at the RXZ Forever Legend motorcycling gathering in Kota Baru, Malaysia’s Kelantan state.

At the same time, another 30 women were given headscarves to wear after they were found not to be properly covered under the organiser’s dress code guidelines, Sinar Harian reported.

RXZ Forever Legend programme director Muhamad Huzaifah Abdul Halim said personnel had been stationed at the entrance to monitor visitors.

“The woman that...

The faint outline of a hand in a cave in Indonesia’s Sulawesi has been recognised as the world’s oldest known rock art, shattering a long-held scientific theory that human artistic expression first flourished in Ice Age Europe.

Dating back at least 67,800 years, the faded stencil was found hiding beneath a more recent chicken sketch in Metanduno cave on Muna Island.

Researchers say the finding, which was published in the scientific journal Nature on January 21, proves that ancient humans in...

Thailand’s conservative Bhumjaithai Party won Sunday’s election as its stability message cut through with the electorate, while the reformist People’s Party failed to convince voters it had the remedy to years of economic drift and political turbulence.

Caretaker prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s Bhumjaithai was forecast to win nearly 200 seats by Channel 3 on the basis of results from the parties. The progressive People’s Party trailed far behind, just above 100 seats, ahead of jailed former...

The ruling coalition of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi scored a landslide win in the lower house election on Sunday, with the results pointing to further defence build-up as the country’s leader doubled down on her stoic stance on China.

The conservative Takaichi, Japan’s first female leader who says she is inspired by Britain’s “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, secured 316 of the 465 seats in parliament’s lower house for her Liberal Democratic Party, according to a tally by public...

The tattoo on his arm reads “buc Lao” (Laos boy) but Kham Paneboun is not a Laotian citizen. In fact, he’s not really from anywhere.

In February last year, US Homeland Security detained him for a felony committed as a teenager, revoked his work permit and – after decades of legal residence – deported him to Laos, a country he had never set foot in.

Kham, 43, was torn from his wife and four children, aged three to 12, who remain in Texas – a family now paying for a “bad mistake” he made in his...

Social media-savvy young swing voters are emerging as a key demographic for political parties, and some digital platformers are trying to curb the adverse impact of disinformation and fake news on Generation Z by sharing tips ahead of Sunday’s general election.

Around 20 junior high and high school students took part in a recent workshop held in Tokyo designed to help them understand the importance of knowing where information comes from and accessing primary sources, as the emergence of...

A sign hanging from a rusty shipping container installed by Thai forces on what they say is the border with Cambodia proclaims: “Cambodian citizens are strictly prohibited from entering this area.”

On opposite sides of the makeshift barricade, fronted by coils of barbed wire, Cambodians lamented their lost homes and livelihoods as Thailand’s military showed off its gains.

Thai forces took control of several patches of disputed land along the border during fighting last year, which could amount...

Many tourism entrepreneurs in Nepal have welcomed the arrest of executives accused of orchestrating fake rescue operations on the country’s Himalayan trekking trails and swindling millions of dollars from insurers.

The arrests follow a nearly three-month investigation by Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau into a long-running insurance fraud scheme where travel and rescue companies allegedly staged helicopter evacuations from the mountains to pocket insurance money from foreign travel...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday hailed an interim trade agreement with the United States, saying it would bolster global growth and deepen economic ties between the two countries.

The pact cuts US “reciprocal” duties on Indian products to 18 per cent from 25 per cent, and commits India to large purchases of US energy and industrial goods.

US President Donald Trump, while announcing the deal Tuesday, had said Modi promised to stop buying Russian oil over the war in Ukraine.

The...