Cargo ship slams into Chinese fishing boat in Singapore Strait

Malaysia’s royal crisis in Negeri Sembilan spilled into a new constitutional fight on Monday after the state’s chief minister refused to accept the ruler’s dismissal of the entire executive council – a dispute that has already brought down one government and triggered a snap election. The latest showdown comes less than a week after the executive council backed a disputed bid to remove the ruler, putting the palace and state government in conflict over both the throne and executive...

The United Nations is also searching for a replacement for António Guterres, who has served two terms as the secretary general and is stepping down.

Soybeans are the notable exception, revealing Beijing’s selective approach to fulfilling trade commitments ahead of the summit between President Trump and Xi Jinping.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has suffered a double whammy as his Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition scrambles to placate public outrage over disgraced ex-leader Najib Razak being granted house arrest and the shock resignation of his transport minister in protest against the royal clemency. But observers do not expect the administration, already reeling from PH defeats in two recent state elections as federal allies turned against the coalition, to implode just yet. Anwar and PH’s reformist...

The poet and lyricist Gulzar has profoundly shaped the idea of tender romance in India through his verse and songs in more than 150 musicals.

The fishing town of Nemuro depends on Russia for trade. But it’s also leading a fight to win back islands seized by Moscow in World War II.

Neither Beijing nor Washington can win the race for artificial intelligence dominance without relying on other countries, a Bank of America analyst said ahead of this week’s high-stakes bilateral summit, citing deeply entangled global tech supply chains. While China’s advantages had emerged in areas like power grids and manufacturing equipment, the country remained reliant on overseas suppliers for advanced chips, memory and some high-end materials, said Matty Zhao, co-head of China equity at...

The Philippines has suffered three deadly school shootings since June. In each case, at least one weapon belonged to a relative working in government or law enforcement, whether as an official service issue or a privately licensed firearm. On Friday, a student at Banga National High School in South Cotabato province shot dead two classmates, wounded several others and then killed himself. He reportedly used the licensed firearm of his father, who works in the Education Department’s risk...

Singapore’s retrenchment rate in the second quarter of 2026 hit its highest level since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in late 2020, driven by business reorganisation and restructuring, the manpower ministry said on Monday. There were 4,620 retrenchments in the second quarter of this year, up from the 3,830 retrenchments posted in the first quarter of the year, the ministry said in its labour market report for the period. It is the highest since the 5,640 retrenchments recorded in the...

A Japanese woman was left unable to breathe on her own after a veteran surgeon mistakenly removed healthy tissue instead of a benign tumour from her brain. Kyoto University Hospital apologised for the medical error and vowed to take measures to prevent similar incidents, local news outlet TV Asahi reported. The woman, in her fifties, was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour after consulting doctors for dizziness and unsteadiness. Although she was able to carry out her daily activities, she...

A record number of New Zealanders turned out at the polls this month, not for national elections but to vote for their Bird of the Year – the critically endangered black robin. The diminutive native lives on the remote Chatham Islands, 800km (500 miles) off the South Island’s east coast. In 1980, only five of the birds remained, including a single breeding female. Now there are about 350. The black robin topped the pecking order ahead of the famed flightless parrot, the kakapo, and the native...