Resumption of flights comes after South boosted frontline broadcasts of K-pop songs and propaganda messages across the border
Balloons carrying rubbish sent by North Korea have fallen on the compound of South Korea’s presidential office, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Other South Korean media reported the balloons caused no damage. AFP reported that the balloons prompted Seoul to mobilise chemical response teams. Yonhap gave no further details.
Continue reading...President of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical standing down after damning report said company failed to act with sufficient urgency after alarm was raised in January
The chairman and president of a major Japanese dietary supplement maker is to resign, as the company probes up to 80 deaths potentially linked to dietary supplements meant to lower cholesterol.
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, a household name in Japan, is at the centre of heath fears linked to its over-the-counter tablets containing red yeast rice, which is fermented with a mould culture.
Continue reading...Diplomatic coup for China as Beijing declaration sets out deal to unite across territories and prepare for elections
Leaders from Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian factions have agreed after three days of talks in Beijing to form a national unity government at an unspecified point in the future, in a move that has bolstered China’s status as a global mediator, particularly in the Middle East.
The “Beijing declaration”, signed by 14 Palestinian factions, also represents a significant step forward in negotiations between the groups, although it is light on detail about how to actually achieve Palestinian unification.
Continue reading...The right-wing government had told Pharmac that it no longer needed to consider the Treaty of Waitangi in its funding decisions
A director of New Zealand’s medicine funding agency Pharmac has resigned in protest of a government directive telling the agency that it no longer needed to consider the Treaty of Waitangi, the country’s founding document which upholds Māori rights, in its funding decisions.
In a letter to Pharmac, the associate health minister and leader of the libertarian Act party David Seymour set out his expectations of the government agency, including his thoughts on how the principles of Treaty of Waitangi, or Te Tiriti o Waitangi, should be applied.
Continue reading...Strong winds and heavy rain trigger 230 weather-related events across the country, while Tropical Storm Gaemi nears Taiwan
Slovenia was hit by heavy rain and strong winds on Friday as a series of storms brought an abrupt end to a prolonged hot and dry spell.
More than 230 weather-related events including flooding and landslides have been reported across the country. The worst-hit regions were in the Gorenjska municipality of Preddvor, and in Koroška in the north, which experienced similarly devastating floods last August.
Continue reading...Pro-democracy campaign group finds exports of goods to Russia, vital to its war efforts, roughly doubled in a year
Hong Kong has become a global trade hub for “the world’s most brutal regimes”, according to a report examining the city’s role in facilitating the flow of goods to countries under sanctions by the west, including Russia, Iran and North Korea.
A report published on Monday by the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, a campaign group, found that between 2021 and 2022, exports of semiconductors from Hong Kong to Russia roughly doubled to $400m (£310m), second only to shipments from mainland China. Semiconductors are vital to Russia’s war effort as they are a component in weaponry such as drones and cruise missiles.
Continue reading...Temporary deal agreed to prevent escalation of standoffs around the Sierra Madre, a Philippine ship grounded on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal
The Philippines says it has “reached an understanding” with China on resupply missions to a beached Filipino naval ship that has been a key flashpoint between the two countries in the South China Sea
The Chinese foreign ministry confirmed the “temporary arrangement” with the two sides agreeing to jointly manage maritime differences and de-escalate the situation in the South China Sea.
Continue reading...Case raises questions about complicity of western financial institutions in persecution of Chinese government critics
Two exiled pro-democracy Hong Kong activists have been blocked from accessing their pensions, depriving them of tens of thousands of US dollars of their savings and raising questions about the complicity of western financial institutions in the persecution of Chinese government critics.
Assets, including pension savings, belonging to Ted Hui, a former pro-democracy legislator who is now based in Australia, were frozen shortly after he fled from Hong Kong in December 2020. The assets are held by HSBC, a British bank.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Several sent home for slow fruit picking face debts as watchdog investigates alleged illegal fees
Indonesian workers who paid thousands of pounds to travel to Britain and pick fruit at a farm supplying most big supermarkets have been sent home within weeks for not picking fast enough.
One of the workers said he had sold his family’s land, as well as his and his parents’ motorbikes, to cover the more than £2,000 cost of coming to Britain in May and was distressed to find himself unemployed with few possessions.
Continue reading...US presidential contender’s reference echoes the ‘love letters’ he received from North Korea’s Kim Jong-un as he calls authoritarian leaders ‘smart, tough’ people
Donald Trump has said China’s president wrote him a “beautiful note” after the assassination attempt a week ago, as he continued to court leaders whom Joe Biden has criticised as dictators.
In his first campaign rally since narrowly escaping the attempt on his life in Pennsylvania, Trump told a crowd in Michigan on Saturday: “[President Xi Jinping] wrote me a beautiful note the other day when he heard about what happened.”
Continue reading...Amid calls to return antiquities, historian finds documents that reveal many were not result of imperial plunder
The British Museum boasts one of the biggest collections of Chinese antiquities in the west, but it has faced repeated calls to return them to China. Now historical documents reveal that many of the antiquities were acquired with the full cooperation of Chinese officials in the last century.
US historian Justin M Jacobs has unearthed evidence that shows the Chinese government “willingly and enthusiastically helped them remove these treasures from their lands” because they wanted closer ties with the west and appreciated new scholarship.
Continue reading...President Xi Jinping calls for ‘all-out efforts’ to find more than 30 people after incident in Shaanxi province
Torrential rain has caused a bridge to collapse in northern China, killing 11 people and leaving more than 30 missing, state media has said.
The bridge over a river in Shangluo, Shaanxi province, buckled at about 8.40pm on Friday “due to a sudden downpour and flash floods”, the Xinhua agency said, citing the provincial public relations department.
Continue reading...Bell 505 Jet Ranger X helicopter came down in Pecatu village on the southern side of Bali after it was entangled in a kite string
Two Australians and three Indonesians have survived a tourist helicopter crash in Bali after it became entangled in a kite string, officials say.
The Bell 505 Jet Ranger X helicopter, owned by PT Whitesky Aviation, came down in Pecatu village in the coastal area on the southern side of Bali, a statement from Indonesia’s transportation ministry said.
Continue reading...Nguyen Phu Trong was one of the country’s longest-serving politicians and known for anti-corruption drive
Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of Vietnam’s ruling Communist party and the country’s most powerful politician, has died aged 80, creating a power vacuum.
Trong died early on Friday afternoon “after a period of illness”, according to his medical team, state media reported.
Continue reading...Consultation launched as surveys show people have little chance to meet partners and worry about high cost of living
The Japanese government has begun to consult young people about their interest in marriage – or lack thereof – as Japan continues to struggle with a demographic crisis that is expected to result in a sharp population decline over the next decades.
The Children and Families Agency, launched in April 2023, held its first working group meeting on Friday to support young people in their efforts to find partners through dating, matchmaking and other means. Attenders included those considering marriage in the future and experts versed in the challenges facing younger people.
Continue reading...Six people dead, thousands evacuated and transport disrupted after at least 20 floods in major rivers
China has been experiencing heavy and widespread rainfall since the start of the rainy season, which runs from May to September. It has resulted in at least 20 floods in major rivers across the country, with 31 rivers surpassing their flood warning levels.
Dianjiang county, in Chongqing, received 269.2mm in one day last week, a single-day record there. It led to six deaths, more than 10,000 evacuations, and 40,000 people being affected, as well as severe disruptions to rail services and transport caused by flooding.
Continue reading...Semiconductor and related tech shares hit hard by former US president’s calls for Taipei to pay for US protection
The stocks of some of the world’s largest chipmakers have fallen further after comments by Donald Trump that Taiwan, which is central to the global industry, should pay for its own defences against China.
Shares in semiconductor and related tech companies had already plunged on Wednesday after the former president’s comments, as well as a report that suggested Joe Biden’s administration was considering the strictest controls on the trade of chips to China.
Continue reading...Selina Cheng says she believes her termination is linked to her taking up the position at the embattled union
The chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association has been fired by her employer, the Wall Street Journal, weeks after being appointed as the head of the embattled union.
Selina Cheng said she was “appalled” that her first press conference as HKJA chair was to announce that she had been “fired for taking up this position in a press union”.
Continue reading...Victims at Grand Hyatt Erawan drank poison-laced beverage in murder-suicide plot, Thai police believe
Police investigating the deaths by poisoning of six people found in the room of a luxury hotel in central Bangkok believe one member of the group took their own life and murdered the rest by lacing cups of tea with cyanide.
Tests detected the deadly chemical that interferes with the body’s ability to use oxygen in a tea flask and six cups, with the signs of its poisoning revealed in autopsies of the six bodies . Based on interviews with a relative, police believe the deaths could be related to a business dispute.
Continue reading...Travellers say the popular seasoning mix by the US brand has been the subject of increased confiscation by authorities, because it contains poppy seeds
A popular US food seasoning mix created for “yummifying the tops of bagels” is the subject of an intensifying crackdown in South Korea, where poppy seeds – one of its key ingredients – are banned.
Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel seasoning blend – a crunchy mix of sesame seeds, salt, dried garlic, dried onion and poppy seeds – has been on South Korea’s list of restricted foods since 2022, but travellers say it has been the subject of increased confiscation in airports in recent weeks.
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