Asia - South China Morning Post

Jeffrey Epstein’s sphere of influence among businessmen, politicians and academics also reached India, with the disgraced financier spending years cultivating a relationship with a scion of the nation’s wealthiest family, according to a trove of documents released by the US Justice Department.

Epstein’s messages with the once-influential Indian businessman Anil Ambani stretch from early 2017 through 2019, the documents show, just months before federal prosecutors charged Epstein with sex...

For the India-China-US triangle, the new US-India trade deal, announced with Trumpian flourish on social media on Monday, has potentially significant economic, geopolitical and strategic implications.

US President Donald Trump’s post, which came after a phone call with Narendra Modi, said the Indian prime minister had committed to “BUY AMERICAN”, including over US$500 billion of US products. It also said Modi had “agreed to stop buying Russian Oil, and to buy much more from the United States and...

As commercial aviation giants converge in Singapore this week for a biennial air show, the region’s robust aviation growth and supply chain delays remain top of mind for the sector.

Experts and industry insiders at the air show told This Week in Asia that bottlenecks remained a bane for commercial aviation giants Boeing and Airbus, with airlines in the region eager for more supply to tap the region’s potential.

According to Reuters, the Asia-Pacific region is the world’s fastest-growing region...

Thailand’s rival parties held final rallies late on Friday in a last-ditch push to win over undecided voters among a public craving change but still deeply split over the remedy for years of ulcerous political and economic decline.

The People’s Party and Pheu Thai packed out their respective stadium venues in Bangkok on Friday, pumping music to encourage supporters as leaders delivered appeals for every last vote.

In contrast, the Bhumjaithai Party’s rally in a convention centre in the capital,...

Two people were injured when a cluster of gas-filled balloons intended for a birthday party exploded inside a lift in India.

A 21-year-old student, Himani Tapriya, suffered burns to her arm, neck and stomach while the delivery man, 32-year-old Raju Kumar Mahato, was also injured in the fireball.

CCTV footage of the incident shows Tapriya wheeling a bag into the small passenger lift. Mahato enters with a plastic bag filled with white, gold and peach balloons and balances them against the wall.

As...

If anyone anywhere this week spares a thought for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, it will almost certainly be linked to the Apec leaders’ meeting set for Shenzhen in November.

But this is to miss the massive value and purpose of the 21-member grouping inaugurated in Canberra in 1989. To witness Apec’s unique and distinguishing value, you should have been in Guangzhou this week, where over 1,000 have gathered without pomp or fanfare for the first senior officials’ meeting (SOM1).

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Asian investors should brace for more volatility in the gold and silver markets in the near term following a plunge in prices of the two metals after a record-breaking surge, with demand expected to rise again ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.

The outlook for gold remains strong over the long term, even as investors turned their focus to the US dollar in recent trading sessions, according to analysts.

Gold typically has an inverse correlation with the US dollar. Investors have shifted funds...

It starts as a distant series of distorted notes, carried on the wind through Tokyo’s suburbs. Gradually, it comes closer and the noise builds. Eventually, the van rounds a corner and I am subjected to the full power of a sound system that would not be out of place at a rock concert.

Flags flutter from the rear of the white van, which has its party affiliation emblazoned across the bonnet and down both sides. A man in a baseball cap declaring his political preference is behind the wheel and...

A dispute over a familiar Arabic phrase has erupted in Malaysia’s parliament this week after an opposition MP challenged a Malaysian Chinese minister over his repeated use of “Alhamdulillah” (“praise be to God”) in a debate.

The row flared during Nga Kor Ming’s speech in response to the king’s address for the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, when Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff, an MP from the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), took issue with his use of phrases associated with...

One of Australia’s most famous gangsters walked free on Friday after prosecutors said they would drop a planned retrial on drug trafficking charges.

Sixty-year-old Tony Mokbel – a key figure in Melbourne’s years-long gangland war – was jailed for 30 years in 2012 after pleading guilty to masterminding an elaborate drug syndicate.

But his case fell apart after it was revealed that his high-profile lawyer at the time, Nicola Gobbo, was feeding information to police while supposedly defending her...