East Asia

Workers have set up barriers at the entrances of five ports on Miyake Island south of Tokyo to prevent drifting pumice stones from entering....

Racks of pumice stones from an underwater volcanic eruption in the Pacific Ocean have washed ashore on Miyake Island, one of Tokyo's southern Izu islands....

Protests against a plan by the Netherlands government to introduce stringent anti-coronavirus regulations have spilled over into violence, resulting in several injuries....

A jury has acquitted a teenager of all charges in the fatal shooting of two men during racial justice protests in the midwestern US state of Wisconsin....

The US government has expressed concern for a Chinese tennis player who apparently went missing after writing a social media post containing accusations about a former senior Chinese official....

Researchers say one in three pregnant women in Japan may suffer from depression and other disorders due to the prolonged effects of the coronavirus pandemic....

The US State Department has issued a warning to China after its coast guard boats blocked the passage of Philippine resupply boats in the South China Sea. China and the Philippines are locked in a territorial dispute over that body of water....

A senior US official overseeing the Indo-Pacific has urged greater unity among the four nations known as the Quad, in the face of intensifying competition from China. The Quad comprises Japan, the US, Australia and India....

Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives have passed a spending bill that could drastically expand the social safety net. The Build Back Better Act authorizes 1.75 trillion dollars to increase access to health care, fight climate change, and help fami...

People across the US will be gathering with their families next week for Thanksgiving. President Joe Biden marked the occasion by hosting the White House's annual holiday ceremony for the first time....

France will ban pet shops from selling dogs and cats from 2024 as part of efforts to prevent abandonment....

The European Union's drug regulator has issued advice on an oral COVID-19 treatment developed by two US companies....

Japan's Foreign Ministry is considering extending the period of stay it granted to Afghan nationals who fled their country after the Taliban retook power in August....

Japanese Defense Ministry officials say Chinese and Russian bombers jointly flew near Japan on Friday....

Japanese Defense Ministry officials say a Chinese naval vessel has sailed through Japan's territorial waters off the southern prefecture of Kagoshima. They say they have conveyed their concerns to Beijing through diplomatic channels....

The latest election poll in South Korea puts a candidate from the largest opposition party ahead in the race to become president....

The head of the Women's Tennis Association says he is prepared to pull tournaments out of China unless tennis player Peng Shuai is accounted for....

Japan's Cabinet has approved an economic package to help those affected by the pandemic and revitalize the country's economy. The public expenditure worth about 480 billion dollars is the largest ever....

Japan's Defense Ministry says it believes that a Chinese naval vessel entered Japanese waters near remote islands in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima....

People across Japan observed an almost-total lunar eclipse on Friday evening....

China has reacted sharply after US President Joe Biden confirmed that his administration is considering a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics....

Japan's government has adopted a record economic stimulus package aimed at supporting people's lives and businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic....

The Japanese government has announced details of the changes to its subsidy program to promote domestic tourism, ahead of the campaign's restart. The revised program will reduce the upper limits of subsidies to partially cover holidaymakers' trave...

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he has decided to repeal controversial farm laws....

Japan's education ministry has found that the number of students, who left higher education either permanently or temporarily due to the coronavirus pandemic, increased sharply from last year....

Japan's space agency says it will recruit several astronauts to take part in an international program to explore the moon....

The Hong Kong government has stressed the legitimacy of the upcoming legislative council election by allowing people who are not pro-China to run....

In Afghanistan the Taliban are seeking international support amid a deteriorating economy and worsening humanitarian crisis....

The Guangzhou motor show opened in southern China on Friday. The vehicles on display reflect an accelerating shift toward electric power in the world's biggest auto market....

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says it confirmed 16 new cases of the coronavirus in the capital on Friday....

The government of Vietnam has been easing restrictions while trying to strike a balance between stopping the virus and reviving the economy. But cases are surging again....

A Brazilian research institute says the area deforested in the country's Amazon region in the one-year period through July increased an estimated 22 percent from the previous year....

A global human rights organization has called on athletes, fans and sponsors of the Beijing Winter Games to speak up regarding Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, who is reportedly missing....

Major League Baseball two-way star Ohtani Shohei has been named this year's Most Valuable Player in the American League. He is the second Japanese to win the award following Suzuki Ichiro in 2001....

Four lawmakers of the Constitutional Democratic Party have filed their candidacies in a race to pick the new leader of Japan's largest opposition party....

Japan's consumers paid more for goods and services for a second straight month in October, mainly on the back of higher energy prices....

Sources say the president and CEO of Mizuho Financial Group intends to resign to take responsibility for a series of system failures that hit the Japanese banking giant earlier this year....

Japan's public security authorities have withdrawn a request for stricter controls over the group Aleph, formerly known as the Aum Shinrikyo cult. The withdrawal came after the group submitted obligatory reports, although behind schedule....

Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation says ATM transactions and online banking resumed before noon on Friday after a system failure....

Two men who were found guilty of assassinating the civil rights activist Malcolm X more than 50 years ago were exonerated on Thursday....

Germany has decided to step up its anti-coronavirus measures. This comes after the number of new infections exceeded 60,000 on one day....

Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation says transactions at its ATMs and online banking are currently disrupted due to a system failure....

The administration of US President Joe Biden has imposed sanctions on an Iranian entity and six Iranian individuals for allegedly attempting to influence the 2020 US presidential election....

Sources say the President and CEO of Mizuho Financial Group intends to resign to take responsibility for a series of system failures that hit the Japanese banking giant earlier this year....

Major League Baseball two-way star Ohtani Shohei has been named this year's Most Valuable Player in the American League. He is the second Japanese to win the award following Suzuki Ichiro in 2001....

Sources say the president and CEO of Mizuho Financial Group intends to resign to take responsibility for a series of system failures that hit the Japanese banking giant earlier this year....

US President Joe Biden says his government is considering a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympic Games that will be held next year in the Chinese capital of Beijing....

Major League Baseball two-way star Ohtani Shohei has been named this year's Most Valuable Player in the American League....

US President Joe Biden revealed on Thursday that he has secured supplies of a drug he believes could accelerate the path out of the pandemic. His administration has purchased 10 million courses of a pill to fight the coronavirus....

Authorities in Belarus cleared migrants on Thursday away from their border with Poland. Thousands of people had gathered in makeshift camps, desperate to improve their fortunes in the West....