Chinese Poachers Destroy South China Sea Corals

South Korea has agreed to pay 13.9 percent more towards the cost of the US troop presence on the peninsula, its foreign ministry said Wednesday, in a six-year deal resolving an issue that festered under the Trump administration.

Pop icon Rihanna has been accused of mocking a Hindu god after she was pictured topless with a pendant of Ganesha around her neck, sparking a furore in India.

Twenty-five years after Pokemon first began delighting children and adults alike, the phenomenon is still capturing hearts, with smartphone craze Pokemon Go enjoying record success in virus-hit 2020.

Xiao Yao doesn’t know when or where he caught the new coronavirus. The 27-year-old, who works in the southwest city of Chengdu, only realized something was amiss as the clock ticked midnight into the year of the rat on January 25.

Singapore has admitted data collected for contact-tracing can be accessed by police despite earlier assurances it would only be used to fight the coronavirus, sparking privacy concerns Tuesday about the scheme.

A pair of Japanese schoolgirls primp their hair before a long mirror, preparing for the perfect shot. But they are not taking a smartphone selfie, they are using a “purikura” photo booth.

Thai beauty queens who took part in a pageant last month could face criminal charges for not wearing masks, police warned Sunday, after a cluster of 22 infections emerged from the event.

It was meant to “signal a new era of virtual football”, but Konami’s “eFootball 2022” appears to have missed the goal, with players mocking its graphics and gameplay.

Two of the sharpest minds in women’s chess are doing battle this week in Shanghai with a world champion title on the line and a record prize fund as the game seeks to close the gender gap.

Huge crowds jammed trains and buses in Hubei province on Wednesday as people seized their first chance to travel after two months under lockdown at the epicentre of China’s coronavirus outbreak.

A South Korean pop star has become the latest celebrity to spark anger on the Chinese internet after he “liked” a tweet about the divisive issue of pro-democracy unrest in Hong Kong.

Google has urged YouTubers around the world to complain to Australian authorities as it ratchets up its campaign against a plan to force digital giants to pay for news content.

Music icon Cher shared her delight after a Pakistani court ordered freedom for a lonely elephant, who had become the subject of a high-profile rights campaign backed by the US singer.

A group of tourists sip water at a five-star hotel in Kathmandu, aware that the green glasses in their hands were once bottles discarded on Mount Everest — left by climbers eager to make their ascent.

Myanmar’s Bozhena Antoniyar had to side-step conservative parents to take up bare-knuckle fighting, but her stealth paid off on her MMA debut when she knocked out her opponent in a record 24 seconds.

Taiwan prosecutors on Friday charged a truck driver with negligent homicide over his role in the island’s worst rail disaster in decades that left 49 dead and more than 200 injured.

With the price of copper reaching a 10-year high thanks in no small part to China’s insatiable appetite, Chile, the world’s leading producer, faces a “unique” opportunity, experts told AFP.

Serena Williams continued her impressive Australian Open preparations with a straight-sets thrashing of Tsvetana Pironkova Wednesday, as world number three Naomi Osaka and top-ranked Ashleigh Barty struggled.

China hit back at the United States on Tuesday over the blacklisting of 28 Chinese entities accused of being implicated in rights violations against mostly Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region, saying the claims are “groundless”.

Deserted streets, cabin fever and worries over COVID-enabling commutes in Europe and America have sent demand for bikes into high gear — with factories in Taiwan racing to push out new units and scrambling to find parts.

A British man pleaded guilty Monday to violating Singapore’s strict coronavirus rules by having a tryst with his fiancee at a luxury hotel while under quarantine.

On the tarmac of a dark Hanoi street, motorbike taxi driver Pham Quoc Viet mops the bloodied knee of a fellow rider, one of the hundreds of traffic victims he’s tended to in the chaotically congested Vietnamese capital.

China on Thursday blasted Hungarian politicians as “beneath contempt” after Budapest renamed streets over human rights flashpoints from Hong Kong to Tibet in protest against a planned branch of a top Chinese university.

From vaginal warts to masturbation, taboo-breaking Singaporean podcaster Nicole Lim tackles topics that may make some squirm but has won a following in socially conservative Asian societies.

After the pandemic torpedoed his chance to work at a Michelin-starred New York restaurant, Lim Wei Keat returned to his roots by becoming a Singapore street-food chef cooking local fare.

A lone elephant who broke away from a herd marching through southern China has been captured and returned to a nature reserve, officials said, in the latest twist for a journey that has caused chaos but captivated Chinese social media.

Five men who took part in a mob attack on Hong Kong democracy supporters two years ago were found guilty of rioting and wounding on Friday in the first convictions over an assault which sparked widespread outrage.

When Tokyo last hosted the Olympics, in 1964, Itsuo Masuda was deeply depressed, struggling with his sexuality. This year he watched openly gay and transgender athletes compete with pride.

Dubbed the Muslim “Game of Thrones”, a drama about the makings of the Ottoman Empire has sent Pakistan wild this Ramadan, smashing television records but exposing the country’s lack of original content.

India have already gone way beyond that idea. In fact, these Indian cities have a unique relationship with these ferocious felines, the kind that we usually share with pet cats.

A teenage pro-democracy protester shot by a Hong Kong police officer was on Thursday charged with rioting, as authorities were reportedly set to ban the wearing of face masks at public rallies.

A new raft of Indian apps which offer rooms to unmarried couples are helping overturn traditional norms in a country where premarital sex remains taboo.

Protests that have paralysed Hong Kong for nearly six months are pushing residents to seek new lives abroad, with many turning to nearby democratic Taiwan to escape the uncertainty at home.

Nearly 80 years after the US authorized the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, California plans to formally apologize this week for its role in one of the darkest chapters in US history.

On November 16, 1981, millions of people across China crowded around radios and televisions with flickering signals for a women’s volleyball match whose significance went far beyond sport.

The king of Eswatini on Friday said he had recovered from Covid-19 in January after taking an anti-viral drug sent by Taiwan, with which the kingdom maintains diplomatic relations.

The Philippines was the deadliest country in Asia for land and environmental defenders again last year while slipping to second most dangerous in the world behind Colombia, a watchdog said Wednesday.

Survivors of Japan’s so-called “triple disaster”, the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown, told Pope Francis on Monday they were “thankful for being given life” and urged solidarity with victims.

A dead manatee in Florida was found to have swallowed so many plastic bags they formed a cantaloupe-sized ball in its stomach, while a baby turtle had its intestines perforated by tiny plastic fragments.

Nearly half a century after he sowed fear along the 1970s “hippie trail”, French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, the “Serpent” of the hit TV drama series, still haunts the lives of those who crossed his path.

Crickets and the birds that snack on them are not natural allies, but they do have a common enemy, according to a pair of studies published Wednesday: roadside noise pollution.

The BlackBerry keyboard dethroned by touchscreens will live on in a new 5G smartphone planned for release next year, according to a deal announced on Tuesday.

A government agency tasked with addressing the trauma of Taiwan’s authoritarian past said Wednesday it backed the removal of a giant statue of former president Chiang Kai-shek, who oversaw decades of brutal martial law.

The majority of the billionaires in the world are self-made. These people are proof that it is not impossible to achieve a dream. Take a look at some of the Indian self-made billionaires that have cemented their empire.

Faced with the coronavirus collapse in travellers, Taiwanese airlines have begun offering sight-seeing “flights to nowhere” on their passenger jets — including flight attendant lessons for children.

A Japanese doctor whose long career was dedicated to helping some of Afghanistan’s poorest people was among six people killed Wednesday in an attack in the east of the country, officials said.

In an empty park overshadowed by Hong Kong’s cramped apartment blocks, personal trainer Kristen Handford presses record on her phone and begins a workout for clients trying to stay fit at home during the coronavirus pandemic.

South Korean double Olympic champion skater Shim Suk-hee is seeking a heavier sentence for her former coach, her lawyer said Friday, after he was jailed for more than a decade for sexually assaulting her over several years.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has not been seen in public for more than two weeks, missing commemorations for a key political anniversary, and reports he underwent a cardiovascular procedure have spiralled into speculation he could be incapacitated or even dead.

A baby orangutan that was drugged by a Russian trafficker in a failed bid to smuggle it out of Bali will be released back into the wild.