SCMP Asian News

Hospitals must from next year submit birth records to the government, after the case of two infants stashed in a freezer exposed a gap in the law that was resulting in undocumented children.

More than three in four Malaysians have attempted to go cashless and almost all are now familiar with contactless payment systems, according to a study from global card issuer Visa Inc.

‘It’s just unacceptable’, said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, adding Australia ‘will disagree’ with China ‘where we must. And we do disagree over human rights issues’. Of the 8 suspects wanted under the national security law, 2 are based in Australia.

Neither India nor Brazil want to lose influence in the bloc, but observers say New Delhi’s recent tilt to the West mean its ‘makes sense’ for other BRICS members to back Beijing’s push to welcome Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and others into the fold.

Approval of Chinese group’s investment in Australian nickel producer shows there is ‘no blanket ban’ on Chinese investments in Australia.

Sikh separatists tried to set fire to the building – there was no major damage nor any injuries and police are investigating.

Indonesia and Australia signed deals to collaborate on mining key minerals – lithium and nickel – used for the production of EV batteries.

Average payment delays in China fell last year, according to a Coface survey, but it was still almost twice as long as Japan, and also more than for firms in Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and India.

Zin Mar Nwe stabbed her employer’s elderly mother-in-law 26 times after the older woman threatened to send Zin back to her employment agency, the High Court heard.

‘Hot-bedding’ involves sharing a mattress with a stranger and usually while sleeping in shifts. It’s increasingly being used by migrants and international students to combat the high cost of living and housing crisis.

‘The constitution stresses a Malay-Malaysia’, said two-time prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, as he predicted Anwar Ibrahim’s government would ‘collapse’ if it didn’t follow the Democratic Action Party’s ‘manifesto’.

Another heatwave has descended on northern Vietnam, leaving exhausted farmers with little choice but to take to their waterlogged fields in the dead of night, to sew rice by the light of their headlamps.

Observations of a ferocious class of black holes called quasars have shown how time in the early universe passed only about one-fifth as fast as it does today – proving Einstein, and fictional time traveller Dr. Who, correct.

In its heyday, Orchard Towers was full of go-go bars, strip clubs and discos. Now, the nightclubs that remain have until the end of the month to move out – leaving exotic dancers, live bands and sex workers in the lurch.

Japan’s annual ‘Rising Horse’ sees the animals forced to run up a steep hill and clear a two-metre high ‘wall’ while being slapped, yelled at, and hit with ropes, sticks and whips.

PM Lee says he is fully satisfied with the findings showing ministers Vivian Balakrishnan and K. Shanmugam had done nothing wrong in leasing the two state-owned bungalows.

The cause of the blast was not immediately clear but witnesses said they had smelled gas before the explosion.

Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is the latest film to be banned in Vietnam for depicting China’s controversial nine-dash line.

Australia’s resources exports and mining sector are heavily reliant on Chinese demand, with record export earnings set to fall to US$230 billion in 2024-25.

Piyush Gupta has built DBS into Singapore’s largest listed company, and Southeast Asia’s largest bank by assets. That very success is creating an elephant in the room.