China

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, …

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA/BANGKOK — A prominent Southeast Asian rights group said Friday that Myanmar’s ruling State Administration Council reportedly intends to execute five democracy activists Tuesday following their May 2023 conviction and sentencing for alleged involvement in a deadly 2021 shooting on a train in Yangon. The ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights said it was deeply troubled after receiving a report from what it called a reliable …

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BANGKOK — Amid a reported surge in cross-border repression across Southeast Asia, rights advocates say Thailand is making promising but very slow progress rolling out an asylum program meant to protect the most vulnerable refugees. They say many who might be eligible for the program are reluctant to apply for fear of exposing themselves to the police and that coming forward could backfire. Thailand does not …

CAIRO — This week saw a dizzying escalation in the 11-month conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. First came two days of exploding pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah — deadly attacks pinned on Israel that also maimed civilians around Lebanon. Hezbollah’s leader vowed to retaliate and, on Friday, the militant group launched dozens of rockets into northern Israel. Later in the day, Israel said it …

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JAKARTA, Indonesia — New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens has been freed more than 19 months after being kidnapped by armed separatists in Indonesia’s Papua, authorities said on Saturday. Mehrtens was freed and picked up by a joint team in the Nduga area and was undergoing health check-ups and a psychological examination in Timika regency, the Indonesian police said in a statement. A faction of the West …

Washington — The son of Iran’s last monarch, exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi, is urging Israelis to help fund civil disobedience movements in the Islamic Republic as part of his campaign for regime change. The U.S.-based Pahlavi made the appeal in a VOA interview after speaking on Friday at the Israeli-American Council national summit at the Washington Hilton. The event is an annual gathering of Israeli …

United Nations — The United Nations said Friday that the detonation of handheld communication devices in Lebanon could constitute a war crime as Beirut’s top diplomat accused Israel of orchestrating what he called a terror attack.  The blasts that killed at least 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 on Tuesday and Wednesday targeted communication devices used by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.  Pagers and walkie-talkies exploded as …

Wilmington, Delaware — President Joe Biden hosted Australia’s prime minister at his Delaware home Friday at the start of a weekend summit with the “Quad” group he has pushed as a counterweight to China.  Biden chose Wilmington for a summit of leaders from Australia, India and Japan — the last of his presidency after he dropped out of the 2024 election against Donald Trump and handed …

Washington — A U.S. soldier who crossed into North Korea last year pleaded guilty to desertion on Friday as part of a plea agreement and was sentenced to 12 months of confinement, his lawyer said. Because of good behavior and time served, the soldier was released, according to the lawyer. Travis King was facing 14 charges related to him fleeing across the border from South Korea …