Asia

Philippine authorities were struggling Wednesday to keep thousands of evacuees from returning to homes in areas threatened by a feared massive eruption of Taal volcano. Some 40,000 people have taken refuge in shelters since the volcano let loose a towering burst of ash and jets of lava on Sunday. Police subsequently set up no-go zones […]

by Heather SCOTT The world’s two dominant economic powers, the United States and China, are poised to sign a trade truce Wednesday that will allow businesses around the globe to breathe a sigh of relief. Although tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of two-way trade will remain in place, likely at least until after […]

by Aishwarya KUMAR Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos promised Wednesday a new billion-dollar investment in India, just two days after authorities launched an anti-trust investigation into the e-commerce giant. A three-day visit by Bezos, whose worth has been estimated at more than $110 billion, sparked protests in New Delhi and other cities by traders who accuse […]

The United States on Monday removed the currency manipulator label it imposed on China last summer, in a sign of easing tensions between the economic powers after nearly two years of conflict. Just two days before President Donald Trump is set to sign a “phase one” trade agreement with China, the US Treasury said in […]

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that everyone responsible for the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner last week must be punished. “For our people it is very important in this incident that anyone who was at fault or negligent at any level” face justice, he said in a televised speech. “Anyone who […]

by Ron Lopez with Mikhail Flores in Manila Taal volcano in the Philippines could spew lava and ash for weeks, authorities warned Tuesday, leaving tens of thousands in limbo after they fled their homes fearing a massive eruption. The crater of the volcano exploded to life with towering clouds of ash and jets of red-hot […]

Taiwan separatists are doomed to “stink for eternity”, China’s top diplomat warned after the island’s President Tsai Ing-wen won a landslide re-election victory in a stinging rebuke to Beijing. Tsai, who has drawn the ire of Beijing for refusing to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of “one China”, secured a record-breaking win in Saturday’s vote. […]

An enormous sinkhole swallowed a bus and pedestrians in northwest China, sparking an explosion, killing six people and leaving four more missing, state media said Tuesday. Footage showed people at a bus stop running from the collapsing road as the vehicle — jutting into the air — sank into the ground. Several people disappeared into […]

by Poornima WEERASEKARA Water has been a source of death as well as a source of life for a generation in Shenqiu, a region fed by a tributary of China’s heavily polluted Yangtze river and pockmarked with notorious “cancer villages”. Residents often faced a bitter choice: drink dirty, discoloured water and risk sickness, or pay […]

by Ross ADKIN Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond has something special in his bag as he prepares for the US Masters — the Buddhist meditation techniques learned as a monk that have helped him become the talk of Asian golf. The 24-year-old is Augusta-bound after a huge year when he won the Asian Tour order of merit, […]

by Jing Xuan TENG / with Yan Zhao in Hong Kong China believes a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that struck 59 people is caused by a new strain of virus from the same family as SARS, which killed hundreds of people more than a decade ago. Lead scientist Xu Jianguo told the official Xinhua news agency […]

by Andrew BEATTY Firefighters raced to contain massive bushfires in southeastern Australia Tuesday, taking advantage of a brief drop in temperatures and some much-needed rainfall before another heatwave strikes later this week. Exhausted volunteers cleared ground vegetation and carried out controlled burns before temperatures and winds were expected to pick up again by Friday. “It […]

by Amir Havasi Mourners thronged Qasem Soleimani’s hometown on Tuesday, many of them baying for blood to avenge the assassination of the top Iranian military commander in a US drone strike. “No compromise, no submission, revenge!” they yelled as they tried to catch a glimpse of the casket containing Soleimani’s remains in the southeastern city […]

by Ludovic EHRET “Do you want a piece?” beekeeper Ma Gongzuo says, looking into the camera of a friend’s smartphone before biting into the dripping comb of amber-coloured honey. The clip goes out to his 737,000 followers on Douyin, the Chinese version of popular video sharing app TikTok that has 400 million users in the […]

Americans travelling in China should avoid animals and contact with sick people as the country grapples with a mystery pneumonia outbreak, the US embassy in China said Tuesday. The viral illness was first reported last week in Wuhan, a central Chinese city with a population of over 11 million, and has since grown to at […]