Japan imports rice from South Korea for the first time since 1999, rice prices roughly doubled since last year in the country and has increased 15 weeks in a row, the government released 230,000 tons from its rice reserves in March of which only 0.3% reached stores by the end of the month which the agriculture ministry explains with a shortage of delivery vehicles and the time needed to prepare the grain for sale
At least 26 killed and several injured after terrorist attack against tourists in Indian Pahalgam during Tuesday afternoon, offshoot of the Pakistan-based Salafist terror group Laskhar-e-Taiba claims responsibility for the attack where picknicking and pony-riding tourists in an area nicknamed Mini-Switzerland were shot and Hindu men were forced to recite an Islamic call to prayer before they were killed
Hong Kong's oldest and largest pro-democracy political party The Democratic Party disbands after 30 years following warnings from Chinese government officials, the party is widely seen as moderates willing to work with Beijing and analysts say the move shows the Chinese unwillingness to allow even the mildest of dissenting voices to be heard in Hong Kong
Japan's Supreme Court overturns verdict and rules that a 58-year-old bus driver in Kyoto losing his USD 84,000 pension due to being fired for stealing USD 7 from passengers' fares is not excessive, states that the man's conduct could undermine public trust in the system and the sound operation of the bus service
Japan's population drops for the fourteenth year running, the non-foreign population dropped by record 898,000 and the population including foreigners fell by 550,000 people to 123.8 million, Tokyo and neighboring Saitama the only of 47 prefectures with population increases
Chinese authorities urges residents weighing less than 50kg to stay home to avoid being blown away in orange-level storm alert with winds up to 150 kph, gusts reaching level 13 out of 17 in northern part of the country, uprooting trees and damaging vehicles
At least 16 Maoist rebels killed by Indian security forces in Chhattisgarh in escalating action against the decadeslong Naxalite rebellion where more than 10,000 people have been killed, Home Minister Amit Shah writes on X that they have recovered a massive cache of automatic weapons and vows to eradicate Naxalism before the 31st of March 2026
Two killed and several injured in Kathmandu as monarchy activists clash with police, Nepal officially abolished the monarchy in 2008 two years after King Gyanendra Shah was ousted due to his coup d'état but there has been a growing demand in recent months for him to be reinstated as king and Hinduism to be brought back as a state religion
At least 154 dead and the death toll is expected to rise in Myanmar and Thailand after 7.7 magnitude earthquake with epicenter near Myanmar's second-largest city Mandalay and aftershocks of up to 6.4 magnitude
Increased debate regarding independence on the Micronesian Chuuk islands in response to the Trump administration's geopolitics, the islands are strategically important as they allow for vast control of the Pacific and they get million of dollars each year from allied US, former Chuuk State attorney general Sabino Asor says he thinks the islands are too dependent on the US and that it is ony a matter of of time before the US special relationship is unceremoniously axed, adds that being clustered in Micronesia has its advantages but that the islands do not always share the same priorities
Australian leaders call the surge in antisemitic attacks across the country a national crisis, more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents in Australia during the year after Hamas' attack on Israel which is three times the figure for the same period a year earlier, cars and schools set on fire or spray-painted with anti-Israel messages and arson attacks against a synagogue in Melbourne as well as against a Jewish child care center in Sydney, two nurses in a Sydney hospital suspended this week for saying on TikTok that they would kill Jewish patients or refuse to treat them
The Cook Islands signs comprehensive strategic partnership agreement with China, contents not disclosed with New Zealand prior to ratification despite repeated requests, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun says the relationship between China and the Cook Islands does not target any third party and should not be disrupted or restrained by any third party
India sets up deregulation commission to further reduce the State's role in governance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi says it is his conviction that there should be less interference of the government in the society, hundreds of compliances already ended and the income tax has been lowered and property rights have also been strengthened
Nationwide blackout in Sri Lanka after a monkey breaks into an electrical grid sub-station, Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody says the monkey caused an imbalance in the system and that the intrusion took place in a south Colombo suburb
Hundreds of protesters storm and vandalize a court building in Seoul during early Sunday after the court's decision to extend the detention of former President Yoon Suk Yeol who is accused of insurrection, 46 people arrested with more to come after clashes with riot police, the support for Yoon's party has sharply rebounded after the arrest and the PPP party has now edged ahead of the opposition with 39%
Kim Jong Un declares that serving hot dogs constitutes treason and that people caught selling or cooking them could face time in labor camps, Korean-American hot dog hotpot budae-jjigae which was created from meats discarded by US soldiers during the 1950s as well as steamed rice cakes tteokbokki also banned recently
179 of 181 people onboard suspected dead in crash during landing for a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 travelling from Bangkok to Muan International Airport in South Korea, the plane suffered from malfunctioning landing gear and veered off the runway into a wall, witnesses also report seeing the plane collide with birds
North Korea launches aggressive campaign against unmarried couples living together, declares such arrangements symptoms of a decadent capitalist culture and police has legal authority to intervene as it is already branded a non-socialist practice, couples caught face an ultimatum where they can register their marriage within 15 days or face public criticism sessions at neighborhood watch units or workplaces
Rakhine ethno-nationalist armed group Arakan Army captures strategically important regional army headquarters, follows series of significant setbacks for the Myanmar military government the last year, the Rakhine state has become a focal point in the nationwide civil war where guerrillas and ethnic minority armed forces seeking autonomy battle the country's military rulers
Brawl in Taiwan's parliament over legislation that make it more difficult for voters to oust elected officials, government members say the amendments would jeopardise the country's constitutional integrity
Queensland in Australia passes law where 10-year-olds can face life sentences for 13 serious crimes, automatic life sentence with a 20-year minimum non-parole period for murder, follows the "adult crime, adult time" election promise, state Premier David Crisafulli comments that there will be short-term challenges due to the overcrowded youth justice system but that the KPI is fewer victims of crime and that there has been an increase in victims every single year for the last decade
India intensifies border surveillance after reports that Bangladesh has deployed Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones in the area, the development follows intelligence reports indicating increased terrorist activity along the border after the August fall of the Bangladesh government
Martial law declared in South Korea by President Yoon Suk Yeol, recinded 6 hours later after vote by parliament, Yoon claims the political opposition is engaged in anti-state activities and sympathizes with North Korea and that all forces opposing the state must be eliminated
Four members of Pakistan's security services killed as thousands of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's supporters break through government barricades in Islamabad, the protesters demand his release from jail and government resignation over rigged elections, Khan sentenced for graft and revealing offical secrets and faces more than 150 other criminal cases, the clashes follow a court decision to ban rallies in the city, arrests of more than 4,000 Khan supporters and suspended mobile and internet services
Ishiba Shigeru elected prime minister by the Japanese parliament in first run-off vote since 1994, becomes Japans 103rd prime minister, Ishibas ruling coalition recently lost parliament majority but the opposition failed to unite around one candidate, paving the way for Ishiba
North Korea's payment for sending troops to the Ukraine war reportedly includes 600,000 tons of rice and technology transfer to its space program, believed to have sent 10,000 soldiers to fight for Russia and is ready to send more
Robot successfully retrieves melted nuclear fuel from damaged Fukushima reactor for the first time, collected fuel piece weighs less than three grams and experts say TEPCO's plan to complete cleanup within 40 years is too optimistic
42-year-old blogger Duong Van Thai is sentenced to 12 years in prison in Vietnam for the crime of making, storing, disseminating, or propagating information, documents, and items aimed at opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, fled to Thailand in 2018 but is said to have disappeared from there in 2023
Kurdish PKK claims responsibility for Wednesday's terrorist attack on state-owned arms manufacturer TAI outside Ankara, Turkey, in which five people died, claiming the company's weapons have killed thousands of Kurds, including children and women
China holds military drills around Taiwan and Xi Jinping visits Dongshan Island where China stopped Taiwanese invasion attempt in 1953, spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs says they seek peaceful reunification but will never commit to renouncing the use of force
Former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba is expected to become Japan's new prime minister after a vote in parliament next week after winning the Liberal Democratic party leadership vote with 215 votes to female challenger Sanae Takaichi's 194 votes
Marxist Anura Kumara Dissanayake is elected president of Sri Lanka in what has been seen as a rejection of the old-guard by voters, the country was declared bankrupt in 2022 and Dissanayake has gone to the polls to renegotiate the bailout agreement with IMF
Chinese Coast Guard vessel collide with two Philippine Coast Guard vessels in the area around the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, with both countries at odds over what happened
Japan's Prime Minister Kishida Fumio will not run for re-election as party leader ahead of the Liberal Democratic Party's vote in September and a new party leader will take over as prime minister, has seen support below 20 percent in surveys
Thailand's Constitutional Court dissolves the biggest party in the parliament, Move Forward, after the party's proposal to curtail the power of the monarchy is deemed threatening of the democratic system with the king as head of state, the party's leadership is banned from politics for 10 years
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, resigns and flees the country on Monday after major protests, and 84-year-old Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus takes over the post in a transitional government
Armed faction of the West Papua National Liberation Army in Indonesia, led by Egianus Kogoya, are according to audio message published by spokesman willing to release the New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens who was kidnapped over a year ago, the Indonesian army has said that military intervention would be dangerous and has instead prioritized diplomacy
Philippines and China reach agreement on Philippines-controlled reef Second Thomas Shoal which is also claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, the US has repeatedly warned that attacks on Philippine ships in the South China Sea might lead to intervention as the US and the Philippines have a joint military agreement
Curfew imposed and military deployed after at least 115 have died in student protests in recent days in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, the unrest comes amid controversy over quotas for certain groups in government jobs
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam since 2011 and the country's president from 2018 to 2021, Nguyen Phu Trong, dies at the age of 80, the news comes the day after he was awarded the country's highest honour, the Gold Star, and the government announced that he would step aside to focus on his health
52-year-old North Korean diplomat Ri Il-gyu who worked at the country's embassy in Cuba defected to South Korea, says he has been drinking tea with Kim Jong-Un and that the leader's blood pressure must be extremely high as he is always red like a Native American in the face, believes that the people of North Korea desire reunification even more than the people of South Korea do
20-year-old Indian Mujahid says his genitals were surgically removed without his consent at the behest of a man named Omprakash who allegedly assaulted and harassed him for the past two years and who upon awakening said that now that he is a woman they can get married and threatened Mujahid's father with life in case of resistance, the hospital says the sex change surgery was done with consent
North Korea's military erects walls and constructs roads inside the Demilitarized Zone separating the Koreas, 20 North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the land border earlier this week resulting in warning shots from South Korea amid heightened tensions caused by North Korea sending trash-filled balloons over the border
Singapore lifts the ban on having cats in publicly owned housing which came into force in 1989 with the justification that it is generally difficult to keep them indoors, that they tend to shed fur, that they can defecate in public spaces and make noise, however, more than two are not allowed and the owners need to follow certain rules
Warning shots were fired at the border between North and South Korea on Tuesday after North Korean soldiers reportedly briefly crossed the border in connection with a recent escalation in which balloons of garbage and excrement were sent from the North side that prompted South Korea for the first time since 2018 to turn on loudspeakers aimed at north with propaganda such as Korean pop
Pakistani man who applied to set up the nation's first gay club thrown into a mental hospital, widespread dislike for the application among local citizens and politicians alike in conservative Abbottabad, local MP says he would have doused the club with gasoline and set it alight
South Korea resumes loudspeaker propaganda campaigns against North Korea in response to hundreds of trash-filled balloons being sent across the border, says responsibility for the escalation of tension is entirely up to Pyongyang
North Korea sends excrement and trash filled balloons across border into South Korea in response to propaganda leaflets sent over country, the military analyzes the contents and public is asked not to touch them
China holds two-day military drill near Taiwan after China critic Lai Ching-te was sworn in as president on Monday, and Wu Qian, a spokesman for China's defense ministry, said Lai had seriously challenged the one-China principle and every time Taiwan independence provokes them, they will take the countermeasures a step further
North Korean dissident and defector Park Yeon-mi claims North Korean leader Kim Jong Un annually gets a pleasure squad of 25 female virgins to satisfy him, after officials visit every class to not miss someone pretty, but Bangladeshi website Blitz claims she is a pathological liar and employed by South Korean intelligence service
Traditional Zoroastrian burials increasingly difficult to perform in India because of the pharmaceutical pollution-induced 97 percent decline in vultures that is supposed to eat the body placed high on towers whose remains are then collected in a ossuary pit after a year, Hoshang Kapadia, 80, a resident of Karachi, says the purpose of tradition is to take less and give more, not to pollute the world
40-year-old man kills six people and injures three in a shopping center in Sydney, Australia in a knife attack and is shot dead on the spot by a female police, is not suspected to be an act of terrorism as the man previously known to the police
Presenter Alan Titchmarsh's jeans are being blurred in North Korea since the series Garden Secrets began airing on state television in 2022 after being banned in the country since the 90s because of its symbol of US imperialism, the trousers were symbol of resistance in East Germany until the fall of the Berlin wall
Japan's thousand year old festival, Sominsai, which involves nearly naked men purifying themselves in a river, praying for a fruitful harvest and then competing for a talisman, is being held for the last time at the Kokuseki Temple in Oshu because, according to monk Daigo Fujinami, the difficulty of organizing a festival of this size since there are so many rituals and work that must be done behind the scenes and according to the article because of Japan's aging population
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi are sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption shortly before the country holds elections on February 8, Khan is already in prison and his ban on running for office is extended from five to ten years
The Pacific nation of Nauru resumes diplomatic relations with China, causing Taiwan to cut ties with the country, only 12 independent states currently recognize Taiwan while three are island nations in the Pacific Ocean
The candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, William Lai, wins the presidential election in Taiwan, while mainland China views Lai as a separatist and urged Taiwanese voters not to vote for him
More than a third of unmarried Japanese under the age of 50 have never been in a relationship, according to research by Recruit Holdings Co. who since 2017 have conducted research on the topic, among men who do not want to get married the most common reason was the cost involved and for women it was that they did not want to compromise their freedom and independence
Students in Indonesia storm refugee camp for Muslim Rohingya from Burma shouting "kick them out" and "reject Rohingyas in Aceh" and UNHCR says the events were triggered by a coordinated online campaign of misinformation and hate speech, 1,500 Rohingya have arrived in Indonesia since November
Sri Lanka arrests 15,000 people in week-long Operation Yuktiya, which means justice, to crack down on drug trafficking as authorities say the country is being used as a transit country
Artificial rain is being used for the first time in Pakistan to tackle poor air quality with the help of a group from the United Arab Emirates who are increasingly familiar with the method used to create rain in the arid country
Kim Jong Un's daughter Kim Ju-ae heir apparent according to the South Korean intelligence chief, is around 11 years old, has made 19 appearances in the past year and has been named General Morning Star from previously being called a noble child
Four dead and around 50 injured in bombing of Catholic mass in the Philippines on Sunday morning, IS claims responsibility
North Korea will re-establish military on the border with South Korea, which withdrew from parts of the countries' agreement after North Korea's launch of a military satellite into orbit on Tuesday night
The first Asian Gay Games were held in Hong Kong last week and nearly 2,400 gay athletes took part, in contrast to what columnists say is an increasingly hostile environment for gay and transgender people in China
Poppy and opium production in Afghanistan has fallen by more than 90 percent since the US left and the Taliban banned the crop in April 2022, according to a report by the United Nations agency UNODC, leading to USD 1 billion in reduced income for farmers
Riots as pro-palestinians storm Dagestan airport in Russia where a plane from Israel were due to arrive, Russian defense ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says Ukraine helped plan what she calls an externally-led provocation
China's Defense Minister Li Shangfu and former Foreign Minister Qin Gang lose their seats in the cabinet, China's top executive body, it was announced by state broadcaster CCTV but no reason was given, Li has not been seen in public since August 17 on a visit to Belarus
Pakistan's former prime minister, 73-year-old Nawaz Sharif, is returning to Pakistan, after four years in exile in the UK where he stayed after permission to go there for medical care a year into a seven-year prison sentence for corruption, to face Imran Khan in next year's elections
Pakistan announces that the 1.73 million Afghans living illegally in the country have until November 1st to leave, Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti says the government will confiscate their assets and set up a public reporting system for suspected illegal Afghans
The Armenian government says 100,000 people have fled Nagorno-Karabakh since Azerbaijan stepped in and took control of the area which then had a population of 120,000, the ethnic Armenian separatist government says it will dissolve itself by the end of the year after 30 years of trying to gain independence
Japanese parents go to matchmaking meetings to meet other parents with single children to find suitable life partners for them, in 2021 the number of newly registered marriages fell to just over 500,000 which is the lowest number since 1945 and the median age of marriage for men was 34
China bans seafood imports from Japan after Japan began releasing filtered and treated cooling water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea, according to a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, it is irresponsible and selfish to shift the risk of contamination to other countries
The son of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, 15-year-old Adam Ramzanovich, allegedly abused 19-year-old Nikita Zhuravel who was arrested in May on suspicion of burning a Koran in public in Volgograd in Russia and then extradited to Chechnya and Adam Delimkhanov in the Russian lower house says considering the heinous crime of this subhuman Zhuravel, Adam acted very humanely by letting him live
Zoo in China's Hangzhou city denies its Malayan bears are humans in costumes after video of bear on two legs goes viral, zoo spokesman says such deception would not happen at a state-run facility and a human in a fur bear suit would not last more than a few minutes before collapsing
India bans the export of rice abroad except for basmati due to concerns about under-harvest, the country accounts for more than 40 percent of the world's rice exports that go to more than 140 countries
China's exports down 12.4 percent and imports down 6.8 percent in dollar terms in June compared to June 2022, in May the decline was 7.5 percent and US imports from China was down 24 percent in June
Thailand's 69-year-old Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha resigns after nearly nine years in office, seized power in 2014 by military coup
China begins to control the export of the rare earth metals gallium and germanium citing national security and now a license is needed to sell abroad, gallium is most common in semiconductors and transistors and germanium in rectifiers and transistors
Europeans and Americans cannot distinguish between Asians and Asians cannot become Westerners and should know where their roots are, said Wang Yi, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, during a meeting of the International Forum for Trilateral Cooperation between China, Japan and South Korea, the three countries expressed willingness to make efforts to improve cooperation between the countries
Vietnam bans new Barbie movies from cinemas because map in the film shows China's claims to territory in the disputed South China Sea, previously the movie Uncharted has been banned for a similar reason
Monkeypox outbreak among homosexuals in Thailand, 48 infected last month which is more than double compared to May, the head of the agency for disease control Dr. Tares Krassanairawiwong says 46 percent of those infected have HIV
Damages appeal by two Japanese women in their 60s and 70s for their sterilization under now-defunct eugenics program gets rejected by court due to 20-year statute of limitations, plaintiffs had sought the equivalent of over USD 500,000 on the grounds that they were deprived of self-determination in giving birth and raising children, something guaranteed by the constitution
China plans manned lunar mission by 2030 and announces it has reached the lunar landing phase of the project, three taikonauts will on Tuesday in another project be sent to its fully operational space base along with its first ever civilian in space
Pakistan's former president Imran Khan is calling for national protests after he was arrested last week, detained and then released after the country's Supreme Court declared his detention illegal, at least nine people have been killed in recent unrest and rioting
The Philippines places navigational buoys in its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea to assert sovereignty over the disputed Spratly Islands, China has in recent years advanced its positions in the area and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has sought closer relations with the United States, China's embassy has yet to comment
Japanese traditional festival where babies dress up in sumo suits and compete to see who screams first takes place again after pandemic break, children are held up by parents in a sumo ring and people wearing demon masks try to scare them, organizer Shigemi Fuji says in Japan it is believed that babies who cries vigorously also grows up healthy
Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio escaped unhurt after explosive device detonated shortly before he was to give a speech outside as part of the election rally, 24-year-old suspect arrested on the spot, in May the G-7 summit will be held in Hiroshima
Alibaba founder Jack Ma was spotted in China visiting a school in Hangzhou after being believed to have been out of the country since 2021 as authorities tightened controls on his company over his criticism of the country's regulators and banking sector
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif calls on all ministries and government offices to cut spending by 15 percent and asks his ministers and advisers to forgo salary, allowances, luxury cars, foreign and business-class travel as the government looking to receive a $1 billion IMF loan,
The indigenous Khasi tradition of archery lives on in the north-eastern Indian state of Meghalaya through betting called tim, whose name derives from the English team, and events are held every day in the state capital Shillong except Sundays and public holidays, in one form of the archery
Thai professors pay themselves into research articles through companies such as Science Publisher Company who offers that service and to be accredited in an article related to agricultural research, for example, costs between USD 800 and 1 000, some professors have published 100 articles in a
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen renews threat to seize properties belonging to people who accuse him and the ruling party of stealing last year's local elections where his party secured 80% of the contested seats, Sen who has ruled the country since 1985 comments that the choice is between
Visitors to Thailand again must show proof of at least two Covid-19 vaccinations and those travelling onward from Thailand to a country requiring a negative PCR test result must provide proof of insurance, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul says the measures are necessary and must be
North Korea closes borders to entry from China after the recent outbreak of covid-19 after China eases restrictions, all travelers that just arrived must undergo 30-day quarantine
China stops reporting daily confirmed covid-19 cases according to a statement from the country's National Health Commission, which it has done since January 21, 2020, no reasons for the change are given but testing is no longer mandatory since the country eased restrictions earlier in
South Korea scraps the two traditional methods of calculating age and the standardized international way is introduced on official documents after a decision in parliament, this may mean that some people's age is written down by two years as one of the traditional ways means being born as a
Citizens of Indonesia face 10 years in prison for associating with Marxist-Leninist organizations and four years for spreading communism after parliament unanimously votes through a package of laws, also includes ban against sex outside of marriage for both citizens and foreigners and outlaws
Thai police raid 50 crypto miners due to theft of electricity, the cyber crime department under the operation codenamed Electric shock investigated 40 buildings in Bangkok and Nonthaburi, each building used electricity for 300 to 2,000 baht per month when the real cost was 500,000 bah
China's former leader Jiang Zemin dies aged 96, was president for a decade until 2003 and ruled the Communist Party for 13 years