Asia & Pacific

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 […]

Tips for Chinese tourists in Russia include not cutting in line and going bare-chested in public.

NEW DELHI–Two U.S. senators have called on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to soften India’s stance on data localization, warning that measures requiring it represent “key trade barriers” between the two nations. In a letter to Modi dated Friday and seen by Reuters, U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Mark Warner—co-chairs of the Senate’s India caucus […]

SEOUL—Hong Ki-soo, a 34-year-old Seoul resident, doesn’t have fond memories of his mandatory military service. “It was really an awful time. I didn’t need it,” he said. Still, he has no respect for those who dodge serving, given that the country has a hostile neighbor to the north. “Once those [avoiding] are detected, they should […]

ISTANBUL—Nineteen people, including children, were killed when a truck carrying illegal immigrants crashed in the western Turkish province of Izmir on Sunday, Oct. 14, state-owned Anadolu news agency reported. The mangled wreckage of the open top truck lay toppled over in a canal, some 20 meters (66 feet) below a highway from which it apparently […]

KATHMANDU, Nepal—At least seven mountaineers were killed after their camp on a Himalayan peak in western Nepal was hit by a storm, police said on Oct. 13, in the country’s worst climbing disaster in two years. Police official Bir Bahadur Budhamagar said villagers who reached the site at the base camp of Mount Gurja, a […]