Asia News Stories
From flooding in Brazil and Houston to brutal heat in Asia, extreme weather seems nearly everywhere
In sweltering Brazil, flooding killed dozens of people and paralyzed a city of about 4 million people. Voters and politicians in India, amid national elections, are fainting in heat that hit as high as 115 degrees (46.3 degrees Celsius). A brutal Asian heat wave has closed schools in the...
photo: AP / Andre Penner
Pakistan bets on a cannabis high as its economy struggles
Islamabad, Pakistan – When Aamir Dhedhi took his mother to India in 2014 to get treatment for Parkinson’s disease, the doctors there advised him to procure cannabidiol (CBD) oil to help her manage her pain. It was the first time that Dhedhi, a Karachi-based entrepreneur, learned about the medicinal...
photo: Creative Commons / Khalid Mahmood https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Khalid_Mahmood
Rape, terror and death at sea: How a boat carrying Rohingya children, women and men capsized
MEULABOH, Indonesia — The boat glided across waters that were dark and still, under a night sky that was cloudless and calm. But on board, the 12-year-old girl quaked with fear. Rape, terror and death at sea: How a boat carrying Rohingya children, women and men capsized The captain and crew who she...
photo: AP / Reza Saifullah
Indonesia volcano eruptions force thousands to evacuate as airlines cancel flights
Renewed eruptions from a remote Indonesian volcano have triggered fresh evacuation orders and sparked flight cancellations and airport closures this week with smoke, lava and volcanic gasses spewing out of the fiery mountain. Mount Ruang, a 725-meter (2,400-foot) volcano on Ruang Island, North...
photo: PVMBG via AP Photo
Yen’s plunge raises specter of new Asia currency crisis
TOKYO — The Japanese yen’s 12% plunge this year has traders wondering if the Group of Seven might have a currency crisis within their ranks. The good news: not yet. The bad news, though, is that there are still seven months left in this year of dangerous living for Japan’s currency. Especially when...
photo: Creative Commons
Workers and activists across Asia and Europe hold May Day rallies to call for greater labor rights
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Workers, activists and others in Asian capitals and European cities took to the streets on Wednesday to mark May Day with protests over rising prices and government labor polices and calls for greater labor rights. May Day, which falls on May 1, is observed in many...
photo: AP / Achmad Ibrahim
Gunman kills at least six in attack on mosque in Afghanistan’s Herat
A gunman stormed a mosque in western Afghanistan and killed six people, a government spokesman says. Ministry of Interior Affairs spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said “an unknown armed person shot at civilian worshippers in a mosque” at about 9pm (16:30 GMT) on Monday in Andisheh town of Guzara district...
photo: AP / Siddiqullah Khan
Philippines and China in new confrontation at Scarborough Shoal
The Philippines has accused China of “dangerous maneuvers and obstruction” and reinstalling a barrier at the disputed Scarborough Shoal, which Beijing blockaded and seized from Manila in 2012. Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said two Philippine vessels on maritime patrol...
photo: AP / Renato Etac via AP, File
‘Country is doing well’: Why jobless young Indians are still backing Modi
Patna, BiharSanjeev Kumar is 27 and jobless – a desperate situation compounded by his car salesman father’s imminent retirement in a few years. The business studies graduate from Patna, the capital of the eastern Indian state of Bihar, voted for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata...
photo: WN / Shilpa
Azerbaijan’s president says Baku to spare no efforts to advance peace agenda
During a phone conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that Baku will persist in “sparing no efforts” to advance the peace agenda between his country and neighboring Armenia. “Recalling that the Republic of Azerbaijan was the...
photo: Creative Commons / Kremlin.ru

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