Asia Pacific
The Japanese entertainment company that has acknowledged its founder sexually assaulted hundreds of boys over the span of five decades has taken a new name: Smile-Up.
More than 300 forest and peatland fires on Indonesia’s Sumatra island are causing hazy skies across the region, prompting government officials to ask people to work from home.
Typhoon Koinu has has strengthened while approaching Taiwan. Meteorologists on the island say the storm is expanding in size and is expected to make landfall in Taiwan by Thursday morning.
Cambodian court bars environmental activists from traveling to Sweden to receive ‘Alternative Nobel’
A court in Cambodia has barred three environmental activists from traveling to Sweden next month to receive the prestigious Right Livelihood Award.
Police and rebels say that five Papuan independence fighters were killed in a clash between security forces and a rebel group in Indonesia’s restive Papua region.
Jailed former Maldives President Abdulla Yameen has been transferred from prison to house arrest, fulfilling the campaign promise of his party candidate who won the presidential election runoff.
Pakistan has launched its second nationwide anti-polio campaign of the year Monday in an effort to inoculate 44 million children under the age of 5.
Pakistani Taliban fighters have attacked a police post in eastern Punjab province, killing one officer and injuring three others.
The Afghan Embassy says it is closing in New Delhi from Sunday due to a lack of diplomatic support in India and the absence of a recognized government in Kabul.
Indonesia is preparing to launch Southeast Asia’s first high-speed railway, a key project under China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
A year has passed slowly for Devi Athok, an Indonesian man whose two teenage daughters died in a crush of fans at a soccer stadium in East Java in October 2022 after police fired tear gas, setting off a panicked run for the exits that left 135 people dead.
Death toll from Pakistan bombing rises to 54 as suspicion falls on local Islamic State group chapter
The death toll from a bombing in southwestern Pakistan as people celebrated the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday has risen to 54 after two wounded patients died in hospitals overnight.
Media in the Maldives say opposition candidate Mohamed Muiz, who supports closer ties between the Indian Ocean archipelago and China, won the presidential runoff on Saturday with more than 53% of the vote.
In a good sign for China’s struggling economy, factory activity grows for the first time in 6 months
An official Chinese survey says the country’s factory activity has recorded its first expansion in six months.
India’s External Affairs Ministry says it’s examining a letter from the Afghan Embassy that says it plans to cease all operations in the Indian capital by Saturday.
Afghanistan’s Taliban representatives are in the Russian city of Kazan for talks on regional threats as Russia attempts to maintain its influence in Central Asia.
Police in Hong Kong and Macao say they arrested four more people linked to the cryptocurrency platform JPEX, which is suspected to have defrauded more than 2,400 people of almost $200 million.
Marcos says Philippines is not looking for trouble but will defend waters against Chinese aggression
The Philippine president says his country does not want a confrontation but will staunchly defend its waters after its coast guard dismantled a floating barrier placed by China at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles says the army will never again fly its fleet of MRH-90 Taipan helicopters following a crash in July that killed four soldiers.
A Chinese paramilitary policeman is reflected on a European flag as he directs foreign journalists at a news conference in Beijing; the opening ceremony of the 19th Asian Games is held in Hangzhou, China; an idol of elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha is taken for immersion on the final day of the 10-
The Chinese defense ministry has given its first public statement on the disappearance of the minister from public view about a month ago.
Vietnamese state media says a climate activist has been sentenced to three years in prison on charges of tax fraud.
An explosion in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, has killed a teenage boy and injured at least 162 people.
Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, a renowned agricultural scientist who revolutionized India’s farming and was a key architect of the country’s “Green Revolution”, has died at 98.
A court in Thailand has acquitted four national park employees, including a senior official, of the kidnapping and murder of an Indigenous rights activist who disappeared under suspicious circumstances more than nine years ago.
Malaysia’s government has banned a book following protests over what was perceived as an insulting depiction of an Indonesian maid, and the book’s author has apologized for the offensive material and says it was misunderstood.
Taiwan’s president has launched the island’s first domestically made submarine for testing. The submarine, if successful in its tests, will be a major breakthrough for Taiwan in shipbuilding and design.
Chinese-owned app TikTok says it regrets the Indonesian government’s decision to ban e-commerce transactions on social media platforms and particularly the impact it would have on the millions of sellers who use TikTok Shop.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for an exponential increase in production of nuclear weapons and for his country to play a larger role in a coalition of nations confronting the United States in what he described as a “new Cold War.”
The International Monetary Fund says that Sri Lanka has so far failed to make enough progress in boosting tax collection and other economic reforms sought by the IMF.
North Korea has expelled a U.S. soldier who crossed into the country in July. Pvt. Travis King’s case comes at a time of high tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
A Philippine admiral says Filipino forces will dismantle any floating barrier that China’s coast guard may install in the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Vice Adm.
Police say a shell of a rocket launcher has apparently accidentally exploded at a home in a remote village in southern Pakistan, killing eight people, including women and children.
A senior Qatar Airways executive has told an Australian Senate inquiry that there will be no repeat of an incident at Doha’s international airport in 2020 in which female passengers were subjected to invasive gynecological examinations.
China’s government has accused Taiwan’s ruling party of seeking independence, a day after the self-governing island’s president lobbied for Australia’s support in joining a regional trade pact.
The urgency for Southeast Asian nations to switch to clean energy to combat climate change is breathing new life into a 20-year-old plan for the region to share power.