Cheese, toilet paper, chocolate, shampoo: these are just some of the tasty treats and daily necessities in South Korea being hit by "shrinkflation" - an underhand practice businesses use to slyly raise prices by covertly reducing the amount consumers

In the quest to address dwindling birth rates across much of the Asia-Pacific, governments routinely say they want to encourage people to have more babies. But from Singapore to New Zealand, this push rarely extends to same-sex couples, who experts s

The plea from a doctor's receptionist came from the heart. In her letter published in the "Troubleshooter" column of the Yomiuri newspaper on April 28, the unnamed woman said she was tired of being "a punching bag" for patients' frustrations. People

Thailand's heatwave is so punishing that even the pigs on Charawut Puwianwong's farm are stressed. While the Bangkokians who can afford it huddle into malls to avoid the blistering sun, and tourists from Phi Phi to Pattaya lament water shortages spoi

As Philippine lawmakers prepare to investigate former president Rodrigo Duterte's so-called secret deal with Beijing over the South China Sea dispute, his camp has struck back by initiating a Senate probe into his successor Ferdinand Marcos Jnr's all

The transhipment of Iranian oil to bypass American sanctions is expected to be high on the agenda when a Treasury delegation from Washington meets Malaysian officials later this week, with the US Ambassador on Monday predicting "candid and frank" tal

The windows are boarded up, the paint is peeling and the garden is hopelessly overgrown. This single-storey property in the upmarket Negishi district of Yokohama, south of Tokyo, should be ripe for redevelopment - but has instead been left to gently

In November, Rajendra Kapri's son joined hundreds of Nepali men fighting for Russia in the war against Ukraine. But 22-year-old Gautam has not contacted his family for almost three months now. Kapri has since travelled over 100km (62 miles) from Dhad

On a warm September evening, Rachana Kharel was cooking in her home in southern Nepal's Bardiya district when she suddenly experienced a "strong current-like sensation" in her body. She then saw two bite marks on her legs and a snake slithering away.

A deepening sense of uncertainty surrounds South Korea's political stability after a meeting between the president and the leader of the opposition failed to yield any tangible results, with critics highlighting the continued absence of diplomacy in

At first glance, China's first-quarter gross domestic product numbers seem to validate the state's reliance on production to boost a slowing economy. Compared to the same period last year, GDP in the first quarter grew by 5.3 per cent, driven by a 6.

Nearly 80 years after 62 US airmen held as prisoners of war were buried in a mass grave after perishing in a fire that consumed the Tokyo Military Prison, a new effort is under way to identify their remains and bring closure to their families. That c

Malaysian beauty consumer Farhana* was planning to buy some new skincare products when she finally settled on Skintific, a brand widely marketed in Malaysia and Indonesia. "It is quite a big phenomenon here," the Kuala Lumpur resident told This Week

A surprise decision by Congress Party ex-president Rahul Gandhi to contest in a key constituency in India's Uttar Pradesh state for the first time has prompted speculation on whether it is a masterstroke by him or a sign of low confidence in the part

Japan has dispatched its top diplomat on a whirlwind tour of Global South countries in recent days, as Tokyo seeks to showcase its commitment to the emerging economies of Asia and Africa - where it continues to jostle with China for influence. Foreig

As anxieties mount over Israel's threatened assault on the southernmost portion of the besieged Gaza Strip turning what was already a humanitarian crisis into a catastrophe, mediators have decried the lack of genuine commitment from any side, driven

Hope and grief have defined Jenjira's 11-year quest to complete her family, as her unfulfilled longing for a motherhood denied drives her back, time and again, to Bangkok's best fertility clinics. Now aged 45, the aspiring mother is down to her last

In September, when the mother of 17-year-old Pinki Sahoo* in West Bengal's Dakshin Dinajpur had arranged her marriage to a construction worker, the teen informed her school in a desperate plea for help to stop the union. One of her teachers along wit

Pakistan's acquisition of the first of eight advanced Hangor-class Chinese submarines marks a strategic edge for Islamabad in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea, with analysts and former Indian military officials noting New Delhi is lagging in the unde

A proposed deal to allow troops from France and the Philippines to hold joint drills in each other's territory underscores the commitment by Paris to ensure the security of maritime trade routes in the Indo-Pacific region and support Manila's positio

A rare terrorism alert for South Korea's diplomats this week is fuelling tensions with Pyongyang while allowing a welcome respite for the South's ruling conservatives, who are still in shock from an election loss, observers say. Five overseas mission

China frequently calls upon other countries to be "rational", but it is worth asking whether it is applying the same standard to its own actions. Beijing's requests for rationality are usually made of countries that China deems to be acting against i

The Solomon Islands has "locked in" ties with China after lawmakers chose another pro-Beijing prime minister, even though its government is expected to face greater scrutiny and demand for transparency in its engagement with Chinese officials, analys

An across-the-board pay hike for Malaysia's civil servants has stirred worries over inflation and grumbles from the public over alleged preferential treatment for a key vote bank represented by a mainly Malay bureaucracy infamous for its inefficiency

Comments made by US President Joe Biden in which he described Japan as "xenophobic" have caused an uproar among the Japanese, with some saying he was "wrong" to use the term, while others argued that accepting more foreigners might mean ending up lik

An overhaul of Australia's foreign investment policies, which has resurfaced scrutiny of Chinese interests in the country, and news of an expulsion of suspected Indian spies have cast the spotlight on Canberra's national security. Analysts say Austra

When Sri Lanka announced in July 2017 that the underperforming Chinese-built Hambantota port was to be leased for 99 years to a Chinese government-linked company, Western and Indian media outlets went into overdrive by labelling the deal a classic ex

Microsoft will invest US$2.2 billion in Malaysia to develop cloud technology and artificial intelligence, in the company's biggest investment in the country unveiled on Thursday by the chief executive of the world's largest company during his whirlwi

United States and Philippine forces fired a dozen rockets in the direction of the South China Sea as part of this year's ongoing Balikatan joint military exercises, an act military officials insisted was not meant to provoke any particular country at

A recent visit by US Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs John Bass to Pakistan could mark a seismic shift in regional dynamics, with implications that could resonate as far as the Middle East, according to analysts. The visit by the former U