Tag Archives: Asia

BUON MA THUOT, Vietnam (AP) — Le Van Tam is no stranger to how the vagaries of global trade can determine the fortunes of small coffee farmers like him. He first planted coffee in a patch of land outside Buon Ma Thuot city in Vietnam’s Central Highland region in 1995. For years, his focus was on quantity, not quality. Tam …

BEIJING (AP) — Two years after a Boeing 737-800 passenger jet crashed on a domestic flight in China, killing all 132 people on board, accident investigators indicated Wednesday that they have not yet determined the cause. An update issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China on the eve of the second anniversary of the crash shed little new light …

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s government has lifted curbs on property deals after home prices fell to a seven-year low, adding to the Chinese territory’s woes. Finance minister Paul Chan announced the move in a speech presenting the territory’s budget, which also raised spending on tourism promotion. He said all curbs, such as extra taxes, imposed earlier to cool …

HONG KONG (AP) — As Hong Kong moves toward enacting a new national security law, four years after Beijing imposed a similar law that all but wiped out dissent and vocal pro-democracy media in the semi-autonomous Chinese city, concerns are spreading among the city’s international business and media communities. Critics say the legislation will make Hong Kong’s legal system increasingly …

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s former foreign minister, Qin Gang, who has been missing from public view since last June, has resigned from the national legislature, state media reported Tuesday. Qin was dismissed as foreign minister in July, in one of China’s biggest political surprises in years. The 57-year-old served for only seven months before he disappeared from public view …

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Emperor Naruhito made his first speech to the nation since a deadly earthquake hit the north-central region of Koto, with a message marking his 64th birthday on Friday. The ceremonial monarch expressed grief for people affected by the Jan. 1 earthquake, praying for their recovery and saying he hoped to visit the region to console them. …

TOKYO (AP) — Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday that his country needs long-range missiles and other ammunition to end Russia’s invasion, and said he expects a U.S. aid package that’s stalled in Congress to come through, speaking at a news conference the day after he attended a conference in Tokyo on reconstructing Ukraine. Ukraine has modern equipment, …

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal’s gods and goddess are returning home. An unknown number of sacred statues of Hindu deities were stolen and smuggled abroad in the past. Now dozens are being repatriated to the Himalayan nation, part of a growing global effort to return such items to countries in Asia, Africa and elsewhere. School children look at a statue …

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court on Wednesday convicted three former police officers of destroying internal files and other evidence in an attempted cover-up after a Halloween crowd crush that killed nearly 160 people in the capital, Seoul, in 2022. They were the first convictions over the deaths. The high death toll was largely blamed on official …

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The three candidates in Indonesia’s presidential election held their final campaign events in front of tens of thousands of people on Saturday, four days before more than 200 million citizens cast their votes in the world’s third-largest democracy. The frontrunner, former special forces general Prabowo Subianto and his running mate, 36-year-old Surakarta mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka, …