Asia & Pacific

TOKYO—An U.S. Navy helicopter crashed on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan on Oct. 19, causing nonfatal injuries to sailors, the Navy said. The Navy’s 7th Fleet said in a statement that the MH-60 Seahawk crashed shortly after takeoff Friday morning while the carrier was off the Philippine coast. All affected […]

BANGKOK—Two tourists charged with vandalism for spray painting graffiti on a wall in northern Thailand face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty, police said on Oct. 19. Briton Furlong Lee and Canadian Brittney Schneider, both 23, were arrested at a guest house in Chiang Mai on Thursday and are being held at […]

JEJU, South Korea—Korean Air Lines Co Ltd is very likely to order more Boeing Co 787 widebody jets to mainly replace its existing aircraft, as it seeks to streamline its fleet and reduce costs, its president said on Oct. 19. “We have too many fleet types now. Consolidating in one large order will help reduce […]

An increase in orders to South Korea’s shipbuilders has the nation’s steelmakers sounding the alarm about a recent influx of cheaper Chinese imports into the country. The boost in demand by shipbuilders, especially for thick steel plates, resulted IN South Korea importing 149,488 tons of the plates in September, a monthly high for the year, […]

Every spring Japan’s famous “sakura”—cherry blossoms—color the landscape fuchsia pink and delicate white as they burst forth from their buds. People come from across Japan and around the world to see the explosions of color that paint the landscape. Tourists snap countless pictures. Weddings are planned to coincide with blossoming season. And this year, in […]

70 percent of illicit drugs in Taiwan came from China, necessitating further investigation and a zero-tolerance policy.

The bodies of five South Korean mountaineers who lost their lives climbing the Himalayas were returned to their home country on Oct. 17, with officials attributing the disaster to a “sudden gust of wind.” The team of nine, including four Nepalese, led by climber Kim Chang-ho, died in Nepal’s worst climbing disaster in two years […]

GoerTek will rebase production of AirPods in Vietnam, as reported on Oct. 12 by the Nikkei Asian Review, a Japanese economic publication.

Thanks to preservation efforts, the population of Nepal's endangered Royal Bengal tigers has doubled.

There is no stopping the Chinese when it comes to counterfeiting the most brands from all over the world, including TV programs. Under the Chinese Communist Party’s rule, China has become the leader in producing the largest amount of counterfeit goods. According to recent South Korean statistics, China ranked the highest compared to other countries […]

After a year of preparation, the elite South Korean climber who had already summitted 14 of the world’s highest peaks above 8000 meters, was attempting to scale a little known mountain through a new route.

GENEVA—The number of Yemenis on the brink of famine could rise to 12 million—or two in five of the population—from around 8.5 million in coming months due to escalating war and a deepening economic crisis, the United Nations food agency said on Oct. 15. Yemen has been torn apart by more than three years of […]

TOKYO—Confidence among Japanese manufacturers rose in October from September and is expected to remain flat over the coming three months, a Reuters poll found, suggesting caution over the effect of global trade frictions on the economic outlook. The monthly poll, which tracks the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) closely watched tankan quarterly survey, found non-manufacturers confidence […]

As China’s overseas talent-recruitment programs come under close scrutiny in the United States, Taiwan is also raising the alarm about the outflow of the island’s nationals to lucrative jobs on the mainland. Beijing has created several recruitment programs to attract overseas Chinese and foreign experts to work in China, for the goal of driving the […]

New Zealand media recently revealed the extent of China’s infiltration within the country. In an Oct. 11 report, New Zealand online news website Newsroom uncovered that some government offices were using surveillance cameras developed by Hikvision, whose controlling shareholder belongs to a Chinese state-owned enterprise. Hikvision’s surveillance technology has been employed in the large-scale human […]

“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” star Chow Yun Fat recently revealed to a Hong Kong movie site that he’s planning on giving away his entire fortune, an approximately $714 million net worth, to various charities. According to a website Jayne Stars, Chow has maintained a simple lifestyle by just spending HK$800 per month, which is estimated to […]

KUALA LUMPUR—Malaysia freed 11 ethnic Uyghur Muslims who fled to the Southeast Asian nation after a Thai jailbreak last year because they did nothing wrong there, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Oct. 15 Reuters, citing the men’s lawyer, reported last week that Malaysia had released the 11 from detention and sent them to Turkey, […]

WASHINGTON—By making a rare second trip this year to Vietnam, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is signaling how intensively the Trump administration is trying to counter China’s military assertiveness by cozying up to smaller nations in the region that share American wariness about Chinese intentions. The visit beginning on Oct. 16 also shows how far U.S.-Vietnamese […]

SEOUL—Korean Air Lines Co Ltd Chairman Cho Yang-ho was indicted on Oct. 15, on charges including embezzlement and breach of trust, South Korean prosecutors said, adding to a string of woes at the country’s biggest airline group. Cho is the latest head of a big business group, or chaebol, to face legal challenges in South […]

Since its release last month, Billion Dollar Whale—the latest exposé on Malaysian national Jho Low’s involvement in the elaborate One Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) money-laundering scandal—has sold out across major bookstore chains in Malaysia. The non-fiction investigative thriller, penned by Wall Street Journal reporters Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, details the rise and fall of […]