Lee Hsien Yang, the brother of Singapore's former prime minister, said he is a "political refugee" after the U.K. government granted him asylum from what he described as persecution at home.

The pope's arrival in Indonesia launches an 11-day voyage zigzagging across time zones that will also take him to Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.

Singapore made an exclusive deal to host Taylor Swift's Eras Tour concerts, locking out other Southeast Asian destinations.

Singaporean national Saridewi Djamani, 45, was convicted in 2018 of trafficking over 30 grams of heroin. She is first woman to be hanged since 2004.

The announcement of the scheduled Friday execution of a woman comes as human rights groups say Singapore is out of step with the global trend of more countries moving away from capital punishment.

Singapore on Wednesday executed a man accused of coordinating a cannabis delivery, despite pleas for clemency from his family and protests from activists that he was convicted on weak evidence.

Supporters and lawyers of the man said he had an IQ of 69 and was intellectually disabled, and that the execution of a mentally ill person was prohibited under international human rights law.

The Malaysian man recognized as having an intellectual disability has been on death row since 2010 for trying to smuggle less than 1.5 ounces of heroin into Singapore.

Singapore's government will stop covering the cost of COVID-19 treatment for those who are "unvaccinated by choice" next month, citing the strain they are placing on its health care system.

The Vice President warned China that its actions in the South China Sea amount to "coercion" and "intimidation."

The vice president spoke at a news conference in Singapore alongside Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who offered the use of his country's air force to assist with evacuations.

The long-planned trip is now complicated by the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which is drawing comparisons to the fall of Saigon in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

The government had previously said data collected by its widely used app would only be used for contact tracing. The program is seen as a key part of the country's success in managing the coronavirus.

The man had undergone mandatory testing before embarking on the ship. But after the journey was cut short, the man tested negative twice as authorities sought to confirm his status.

The arrangement, originally slated to begin Sunday, would have provided some travelers the ability to bypass a 14-day quarantine period. But new cases in Hong Kong have put the plan on hold.