China

SINGAPORE — Singapore’s former Transport Minister S. Iswaran has pleaded guilty to receiving gifts while in office, local media reported, as proceedings began on Tuesday in a rare graft trial involving a state official in this Asian financial hub. The case, which charges Iswaran with receiving favors that includes tickets to English Premier League soccer matches and to the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix, has gripped …

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BEIJING — China’s central bank on Tuesday announced broad monetary stimulus and property market support measures to revive an economy grappling with strong deflationary pressures and in danger of missing this year’s growth target. The broader-than-expected package marks the latest attempt by Chinese officials to restore confidence in the world’s second-largest economy after a slew of disappointing data in recent months. But analysts noted the absence …

Israel launched massive new airstrikes against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 490 people and injuring more than 1,600 others, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. As VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports from Washington, the latest strikes are escalating fears that conflict will spread across the region. …

state department — The United States has pledged to continue providing Taiwan with equipment and services essential for maintaining a self-defense capability in line with the threats it faces. This statement came as an annual U.S.-Taiwan defense industry conference kicked off Sunday in Philadelphia. In the lead-up to the event, the conference organizer — the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council (USTBC) — was targeted by a phishing cyberattack …

Brussels — The European Commission launched a challenge at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Monday against China’s investigation into EU dairy products, initiated after the European Union placed import tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.  This is the first time the European Union has taken such action at the start of an investigation, rather than wait for it to result in trade measures against the bloc.  …

BEIJING/TAIPEI — China’s national security ministry said on Monday a Taiwan military-backed hacking group called Anonymous 64 has been carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, urging people to report “anti-propaganda sabotage.” Taiwan’s defense ministry denied the allegations, saying China was the real disturber of the peace with its cyber attacks and military harassment. Since the beginning of this year, Anonymous 64 – which China’s national …

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HANOI, VIETNAM — Vietnam aims to have at least one semiconductor fabrication plant and 10 packaging plants by 2030, and will launch a fund to help foreign investors mitigate the impacts of the global minimum business tax, the government said on the weekend. The country’s semiconductor industry is targeting revenue of $25 billion by 2030, the government said in a statement after the release of its …

ZHENGZHOU, China — On a film set that resembles the medieval castle of a Chinese lord, Zhu Jian is busy disrupting the world’s second-largest movie industry. The 69-year-old actor is playing the patriarch of a wealthy family celebrating his birthday with a lavish banquet. But unbeknownst to either of them, the servant in the scene is his biological granddaughter. A second twist: Zhu is not filming …

Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah increased sharply in recent days, after an Israeli airstrike on Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah official, Ibraim Aqil, as well as dozens of others. On Sunday, Hezbollah fired more than 150 rockets at Israel, damaging homes in northern Israel, and sparking fires. Israel continued to fire barrages of rockets at Lebanon. Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem. …

Washington — The U.S. Commerce Department is expected on Monday to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on American roads due to national security concerns, two sources told Reuters. The Biden administration has raised serious concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on U.S. drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the …

Cognac, France — Frustrated cognac producers in southwestern France are growing increasingly anxious over the looming threat of Chinese tariffs on European brandy, a move industry representatives worry could force French liquor from the Chinese market. Some 800 protesters riding on tractors and carrying signs gathered in France’s southwestern town of Cognac this week demanding a delay to an upcoming European Union vote to impose duties …

Dubai, UAE — Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that 12 people had been arrested for being operatives collaborating with Israel and planning acts against Iran’s security. “As the Zionist regime (Israel) and their Western backers, most notably the United States, have not succeeded in their sinister goals against the people of Gaza and Lebanon, they are now seeking to spread the crisis to Iran with …

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SANBAGAWA, Japan — Benmou Suzuki’s dilapidated 420-year-old temple, located deep in the forest near a tiny Japanese mountain village, hardly looks like prized real estate. Yet the monk was recently approached by two men, who said they were real estate brokers and wanted to know if he was interested in selling. He suspects they weren’t really interested in the ornate building at the trailhead of a …

KAWARAMACHI, Japan — Time seems to stop here.  Women sit in a small circle, quietly, painstakingly stitching patterns on balls the size of an orange, a stitch at a time.  At the center of the circle is Eiko Araki, a master of the Sanuki Kagari Temari, a Japanese traditional craft passed down for more than 1,000 years on the southwestern island of Shikoku.  Each ball — …

TEHRAN, Iran — A methane leak sparked an explosion at a coal mine in eastern Iran, killing at least 30 people and injuring 17 others, Iranian state media reported Sunday. Another 24 miners are believed to be trapped inside. The report said the deaths happened at a coal mine in Tabas, some 540 kilometers southeast of the capital, Tehran. Authorities were sending emergency personnel to the …

NAHARIYA, Israel — Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched over 100 rockets early Sunday across a wider and deeper area of northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa, as the sides appeared to be spiraling toward all-out war following months of escalating tensions. The rocket barrage overnight set off air raid sirens across northern Israel, sending thousands of people scrambling into shelters. The Israeli military said …

CLAYMONT, Delaware — President Joe Biden told Indo-Pacific allies on Saturday that he believes China’s increasing military assertiveness is an effort to test the region at a turbulent moment for Beijing. Biden’s comments were caught by a hot mic after he and fellow leaders of the so-called Quad delivered opening remarks before the press at a summit he’s hosting near his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. He …

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BEIRUT/JERUSALEM — An Israeli airstrike that targeted Hezbollah commanders in a Beirut suburb on Friday killed at least 37 people, including three children and seven women, the Lebanese health ministry said, as rescuers continue to search on Saturday for people missing in the rubble.  Hezbollah said overnight that 16 of its members including senior leader Ibrahim Aqil and another top commander, Ahmed Wahbi, were among those …

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said he was pulling his country out of a development agreement with neighboring Vietnam and Laos following protests that it was benefiting foreign interests.  Critics on social media have focused on land concessions in border areas particularly with Vietnam, a highly sensitive issue because of Cambodia’s historical antagonism toward its larger eastern neighbor.  Authorities had arrested at …

GENEVA — U.N. investigators are warning the humanitarian crisis in Syria threatens to spiral out of control as violence increases and the collapsing economy keeps the population mired in poverty and hopelessness 13 years after civil war erupted in the country. “As world attention and resources shift to other grave political or humanitarian crises, Syria descends further into a quagmire of misery and despair,” Paulo Pinheiro, …