Asia & Pacific

TAIPEI —Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen vowed to boost national security, saying her government won’t submit to pressure from the Beijing regime or its attempts to assert sovereignty over the self-ruled island. Tsai’s remarks came weeks ahead of island-wide local elections in late November that are seen as a bellwether for her ruling party’s performance in […]

NUSA DUA, Indonesia—A magnitude 6 earthquake struck off the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali on Oct. 11, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, killing three people in Java and damaging some buildings while causing panic among residents. The quake, located in the Bali Sea, also shook buildings on the resort island and some residents […]

A 7.0 magnitude earthquake slammed Papua New Guinea on Oct. 10. The National Weather Service’s office in Honolulu tweeted that “a tsunami threat exists for parts of Pacific located closer to the earthquake, but it is too early to determine whether there is a tsunami threat to Hawaii.” The quake hit near the New Britain […]

TAIPEI—Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen called on China on Oct. 10 not to be a “source of conflict” and pledged to boost the island’s defenses against Beijing’s military threats. In a National Day address, Tsai said the best way to defend Taiwan was to “make it indispensable and irreplaceable to the world,” while remaining non-confrontational in […]

Koh is hoping the renewed relations between the North and the South would make it possible for him to visit his relatives in the North frequently.

PALU, Indonesia—Rescue workers in Indonesia stepped up their search for victims of an earthquake and tsunami on Oct. 9, hoping to find as many bodies as they can before this week’s deadline for their work to halt, as the official death toll rose to 2,010. The national disaster mitigation agency has called off the search […]

Mixed martial arts champion and national hero Khabib Nurmagemedov was swarmed by thousands of jubilant fans after returning home to the Russian republic of Dagestan following his Oct. 6 win over the Irish fighter Conor McGregor. Nurmagomedov’s fourth-round submission win at the UFC 229 event in Las Vegas, Nevada, was marred by a ringside brawl sparked […]

PALU, Indonesia—Rescue workers in Indonesia stepped up their search for victims of an earthquake and tsunami on Oct. 9, hoping to find as many bodies as they can before this week’s deadline for their work to halt, as the official death toll rose to 2,010. The national disaster mitigation agency has called off the search […]

A rare white tiger mauled a zookeeper to death in Japan, but the zookeeper’s family doesn’t want the tiger killed. Akira Furusho, 40, was found by colleagues bleeding from the neck in the tiger’s cage at a zoo in Kagoshima after he had gone inside to clean the cage. He was rushed to a nearby […]

South Korea is on alert after a recent Bloomberg report has revealed that Chinese “spy chips” have purportedly been mounted on servers made by San Jose-based tech company Supermicro. Business Korea, an English-language business and financial magazine in South Korea, reported widespread use of Supermicro servers among the country’s financial institutions, large corporations, and government-run […]

KUALA LUMPUR—Malaysia’s Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said on Oct. 9 that maintaining earlier fiscal targets would be “foolish”, as the government struggles with liabilities of around 1 trillion ringgit ($240.67 billion). Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who unexpectedly won a general election in May, has blamed the previous administration of Najib Razak for taking the […]

Microsoft Corp is investing in Southeast Asian ride-hailing firm Grab as part of a partnership that the two companies said will allow them to collaborate on technology projects, including big data and artificial intelligence. The companies did not disclose the deal value. Grab had earlier said it planned to raise roughly $3 billion by year-end, […]

China's One Belt, One Road investments into the timber industries in both countries—as well as rampant illegal logging—have created an environmental crisis.

An Indonesian official said that as many as 5,000 bodies could be buried in the mud—more than one week after a devastating 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit near the island of Sulawesi. As of Oct. 9, officials said that 1,944 people died in the quake and tsunami, mostly in the city of Palu and […]

PALU, Indonesia—The death toll from the devastating earthquake and tsunami on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island neared 2,000 on Oct. 8, but thousands more are believed unaccounted for and officials said search teams plan to stop looking for victims later this week. The official toll hit 1,948, mostly in the hard-hit city of Palu, said Jamaluddin, an […]

PALU, Indonesia—Children in the Indonesian city of Palu began returning to school on Oct. 8 to tidy up their classrooms and to help gather data on how many of them will be coming back 10 days after a major earthquake and tsunami hit their city. The 7.5 magnitude quake on Sept. 28 brought down many […]

Around 5,000 people might still be missing in the city of Palu, Central Sulawesi, more than a week after a massive quake and tsunami hit the Indonesian island, officials said on Oct. 7. Most of the missing are buried under rubble and mud in the worst-hit areas in the city, Petobo and Balaroa, which were […]

SEOUL—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held two hours of talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on Oct. 7, and said the two sides continued to make progress toward denuclearization. Shortly after arriving in South Korea following the visit, Pompeo posted a photo of himself walking along with Kim on Twitter, saying: […]

A company is taking heat for selling canned Pure Fresh New Zealand Air at a duty-free shop at the Auckland airport for nearly $100. Journalist Damian Christie posted a photo of four-pack of cans on Twitter on Oct. 3, captioning it with a biting comment. “You’ve got to be [expletive] me. Also, $98 so not […]

The Taliban have resumed their fight against ISIS in Afghanistan, showing that eliminating the local chapter of the terrorist group isn't just a goal of the United States.