Malaysia’s former prime minister Najib Razak is barred from political activity and media appearances under house arrest, according to the home minister on Thursday. Any breach will send him straight back to prison. The announcement will remove any ambiguity about Najib’s possible role in the Melaka state election on Saturday and help shore up the credibility of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government, already facing recriminations for not being able to stop the house arrest, an expert...

South Korean police sought an arrest warrant on Thursday for a 59-year-old man, surnamed Jin, suspected of killing a 15-year-old girl who was the alleged victim in a statutory rape case involving his son, as investigators continued efforts to establish the motive. The Seongbuk police station in Seoul requested the warrant on suspicion of murder. Jin was taken into emergency custody at around 1.40am on Wednesday after allegedly stabbing the girl to death at a shared accommodation property in...

Gibran Rakabuming Raka, who is stepping down amid a scandal over his academic credentials, was a symbol of the partnership that elevated President Prabowo Subianto into office.

Seven Chinese tourists, a dozen villagers and a couple of journalists forded streams and bushwhacked to the downed plane of Isoroku Yamamoto, the Japanese admiral. Machetes proved handy.

Nexperia’s Chinese unit says its domestic 12-inch wafer platform now covers all of its product categories, marking a key milestone in building an independent supply chain more than a year after its Dutch parent halted direct shipments of European wafers. Speaking at the 23rd China International Semiconductor Expo in Beijing on Thursday, Nexperia China CEO John Chang said the local division had partnered with domestic foundries while relying on its own facilities and local contractors to handle...

Indonesia’s Vice-President Gibran Rakabuming Raka formally resigned on Thursday in the midst of a scandal over his academic qualifications, leaving President Prabowo Subianto with a difficult choice over who should replace him. Gibran, 39, the eldest son of former president Joko Widodo, submitted his resignation letter to the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), a day after submitting a separate letter to Prabowo, bringing an end to a tense period that had seen mounting pressure for his...

A 17-year-old boy with autism was found alive on Thursday after six days lost in eastern Australian woodlands. The boy, whom police identified only as William, had begun camping with a teenage friend when he disappeared last Friday near Walhalla, a former gold-mining town 185km east of Melbourne, police said. A police helicopter crew found him surrounded by wilderness lying in a dry creek bed, and he was later reunited with his mother. William was in good spirits and mostly in good health, the...

That the United States suspected Nvidia’s leader was a Chinese spy target underscores the deep distrust between the two powers, even as their leaders try to stabilize ties.

For Malaysian content creator Iqbal Fatkhi, making news content credible to younger audiences sometimes means making it less like traditional journalism. Instead of polished broadcasts using formal language, the 33-year-old editor-in-chief of news portal CiliSos Media prefers conversational videos that speak to audiences on their own terms. “It’s ironic in a way that, to gain credibility, you have to look not credible in that sense,” he said. His approach reflects a broader shift in news...

A foreign man who allegedly hacked off a Malaysian policeman’s right hand during an attack at an apartment in Desa Amanpuri, Kepong, was shot dead. Armed with two machetes, the suspect charged out of a residential unit and attacked police officers, firefighters and health ministry staff at about 7pm on Wednesday. Selangor police chief Commissioner Shazeli Kahar said the suspect was shot after he was spotted near a playground, not far from the flat, between 7.30pm and 8pm, shortly after injuring...

Japan’s push to strengthen its armed forces is running into headwinds that money alone cannot overcome, analysts warn, pointing to prolonged delays in US weapon shipments and domestic manufacturing bottlenecks that undermine operational readiness. The issues have cast doubt on Tokyo’s ability to meet ambitious force expansion targets as the government prepares to overhaul its defence and security spending priorities. Observers say these setbacks highlight the need for Japan to build up its...

Nvidia shares fell more than 8 per cent at one point in US after-hours trading on Wednesday as CEO Jensen Huang’s prospects of hanging onto his role became more clouded after media reports of a board meeting and another extramarital affair. The drop in the American AI chip giant’s share price erased a 2.9 per cent rebound in the regular trading session, after the stock lost over 9.5 per cent in trading on Monday and Tuesday. It came as speculation mounted over whether Huang would keep his job....

Australia’s new mandatory safeguards on AI companies could serve as a model for Southeast Asia, analysts say, but the region needs to build its institutional and technical capabilities first. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Tuesday that AI companies operating in Australia must immediately report incidents in which their models behave in a rogue or misaligned way and must open systems for evaluation. The measures followed a breach of Australia’s government health data system in June...

With domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going global” and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter. On a weekday afternoon, the basement food hall of a central shopping centre was packed. Office workers queued for Chongqing noodles, while a different noodle joint...

Why hasn't Beijing used its diplomatic influence to undertake similar humanitarian operations in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine?

As a round of negotiations ended in Abu Dhabi, President Trump’s envoys said they would go to Moscow as the Kremlin demands discussions on European security structures.

In a memoir and interview, the Italian-born woman who married into the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty recalls political battles and the killings of family members.

Putin has put China in a risky position: it is difficult for Xi to decline a trilateral meeting and hard for him to embrace the agenda Russia and the U.S. have proposed

Former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s plan to return from exile in India could fuel renewed unrest and test Dhaka’s ability to maintain stability and pursue national reconciliation, analysts have warned. The prospect of her return has raised questions about how Prime Minister Tarique Rahman would handle a potential confrontation between supporters of Hasina’s Awami League and those who backed the student-led uprising that toppled her government in 2024. Tensions have intensified...

Huawei Technologies is preparing to launch a new smartphone brand, doubling down on its hard-won domestic comeback six years after spinning off budget marque Honor under the weight of US sanctions. Richard Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, confirmed in a social media post on Wednesday that the company would officially debut Osta, known as “Xingmang” in Chinese, on November 20. The unveiling will coincide with Huawei’s latest electric vehicle launches, according to Yu’s...

Alibaba Group Holding’s planned Hong Kong listing of its semiconductor design arm, T-Head, is poised to reshape China’s artificial intelligence hardware arena while unlocking billions of dollars in trapped valuation for the tech titan, according to analysts. The proposed spin-off serves as a test of whether the sum of Alibaba’s parts is worth significantly more than its current market valuation. Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares slipped about 1 per cent to HK$100.60 on Wednesday, the day...

In a makeshift studio inside his public housing flat in Singapore, Shane Soh stands before his smartphone, running his fingers through a towel as he extols its softness to viewers watching his live stream. A ring light illuminates his face while more than a dozen other products sit on a shelf behind him, waiting for their moment on camera. “Don’t just buy one towel today, but get bedsheets as well. It’s perfect for Hari Raya or Christmas, and the thread count is 1,800 … It’s the best kind of...

Najib Razak, Malaysia’s corrupt former prime minister, may be back home to serve the rest of his prison sentence, but that does not mean he will be living in comfort with wife Rosmah Mansor and the rest of his family, a member of his party has confirmed. Najib returned to his house on Jalan Langgak Duta at about 9.30pm on Tuesday, after the High Court cleared the way for his release from jail. The start of his house arrest also marked the end of Anthony Loke’s stint as transport minister. Loke,...

Hong Kong is expanding clinical trials of histotripsy, a non-invasive treatment that uses focused ultrasound to destroy tumours, as the city seeks to establish a role in developing the technology for kidney cancer. The CUHK Medical Centre, Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong and Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital would begin trials involving 30 patients targeting kidney cancer, the Li Ka Shing Foundation said on Wednesday. The trials mark the latest development in Hong Kong business tycoon Li Ka-shing’s...

Alibaba has applied to list chip-design unit T-Head in Hong Kong, as the Chinese tech giant braves a cooling initial public offering (IPO) market to raise funds for artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions. The Hong Kong stock exchange has approved the proposed separation and a confidential listing application was filed in September, Alibaba said in a statement on Tuesday. T-Head, which provides full-stack data centre chips, will remain a unit of the company. Alibaba also owns the South China...