On a chilly April night in the desert outside Phoenix, Rasel Ahmed, his wrists and ankles bound in cuffs, shuffled onto a bus at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement airfield with a pit in his stomach. From his home village in the rice fields of eastern Bangladesh, the 30-year-old restaurant...
It speaks volumes about the plight of rabble-rousers in China today that Ai Weiwei, the country’s most famous dissident artist, has decided that working there is too dangerous — so he wants to go to Syria. Ai, who received his passport back from Chinese authorities last year, is turning his attention...
Nineteen moviegoers have been arrested in southern India this week for violating a new law: They did not stand when the national anthem was played in the theater. At an international film festival in Kerala state on Monday, 12 people refused to rise for the anthem, prompting a scuffle in which...
A group called the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, also known by its Turkish acronym TAK, claimed responsibility for the bombing of a football stadium in Istanbul on Saturday that killed 44 people. A car carrying about 900 pounds of explosives detonated near police officers guarding the stadium shortly...
A politician here said Tuesday that he was tortured and sexually abused while being held hostage by Afghanistan’s vice president, the latest development in a sordid episode that has raised serious questions about the rule of law in the country. Speaking with local media, Ahmad Ishchi leveled the...
They’re suddenly outside public toilets, tucked in side alleys, on bridges, near underpasses. The neon colored two-wheelers sit untethered — a reminder of the days when bicycles owned China’s streets, before their rusted remains become stand-in cones for drivers trying to keep a parking space. ...
China issued its strongest condemnation yet of President-elect Donald Trump on Monday, after he hinted his administration might toss aside four decades of U.S. policy recognizing Taiwan as part of China. The country’s Foreign Ministry warned that any damage to that principle could rupture diplomatic...
When activists rappelled down the front of Australia’s parliament last week to protest the country’s rigid refugee policy, then stood ankle-deep in a moat they had dyed blood-red, Sen. James McGrath from Queensland, one of the top ministers in the government, called them a selfish “bunch of grubs.”...
The impeachment Friday of South Korean President Park Geun-hye was welcomed by millions of people who had been protesting for weeks but opened a new chapter of uncertainty. For one, a constitutional court is now deciding if the impeachment was warranted, leaving open the possibility that Park,...
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Friday, saying the U.S. remains committed to supporting the Afghan government against a resilient insurgency. "The United States’ presence … demonstrates to the world that America is and will remain committed to a sovereign...
South Korea’s national legislature on Friday voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye, the latest and most dramatic development in a mushrooming political scandal that has sent millions into the streets in protest. The decision, supported by members of Park’s own conservative ruling party, suspends...
Two months ago, South Korean President Park Geun-hye offered a rare public apology about what was then just a brewing scandal — one that has since mushroomed into a political crisis, prompting millions to participate in historic street protests in recent weeks. Now Park, the daughter of an assassinated...
A passenger plane crashed into a steep hillside Wednesday in northern Pakistan, killing all 48 people on board, including one of the country’s most famous recording artists. The aircraft belonging to Pakistan International Airlines, a state-owned carrier with a spotty safety record, was en route...
Aid workers, soldiers and others tore through the rubble of collapsed buildings in the northwestern Indonesian province of Aceh on Wednesday in a frantic search for people trapped by an earthquake that killed more than 100 people. Maj. Gen. Tatang Sulaiman, chief of the army in Aceh province,...
President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday picked Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as the next ambassador to China, tapping a Republican with long ties to Beijing less than a week after Trump’s controversial phone conversation with the president of Taiwan. The Republican governor was chosen because he...
India declared a national day of mourning, and thousands poured into the streets to grieve Tuesday following the death of Jayaram Jayalalithaa, a former teenage actress who climbed the male-dominated ranks of both film and politics to win five terms as leader of the southern state of Tamil Nadu....
American Apparel is no stranger to controversy. The Los Angeles-based clothing company has endured scandals regarding its risque advertisements and allegations of sexual harassment by its founder, Dov Charney. Now, it has found itself in hot water over a different issue: Chinese sovereignty. Tan...
South Korean president Park Geun-hye, mired in an influence-peddling scandal and facing abysmal public-approval ratings, has apologized publicly three times and even hinted about leaving office early in an effort to stave off impeachment. Yet the pressure continues building — and events this week...
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced plans Monday to visit Pearl Harbor, becoming the first sitting Japanese leader to visit the Hawaiian naval base since the 1941 attack that killed more than 2,400 people and led to America’s entry into World War II. Abe’s decision to accompany President...
He praises enemies, he ignores allies, he upends decades of policy. And Donald Trump hasn’t even been sworn in as president. In a series of telephone calls with foreign leaders apparently eager to congratulate the president-elect, Trump has broken many of the rules that govern delicate matters...
President-elect Donald Trump's surprise phone call with Taiwan’s president left many in China reeling over a perceived assault on the country’s sovereignty and questioning their assumptions about America’s future leader. Although Trump repeatedly denounced China’s trade policies as unfair during...
President-elect Donald Trump had a potentially provocative phone conversation Friday with Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, which could upset delicate relations between the U.S. and the Chinese government. It is believed to be the first call between a president or president-elect with a Taiwanese...
The annals of international relations are filled with mundane readouts of conversations between world leaders, the language shorn of sharp edges and massaged into shapeless lumps of diplomatic-speak. The report of a telephone call between Donald Trump and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was...
China is building a $2-billion film studio and theme park complex in the southwest metropolis of Chongqing based on a political initiative by President Xi Jinping. The elaborate park — which will include a film studio, theme park and office compound — will be named after Xi's “One Belt, One Road”...
South Korean President Park Geun-hye announced on Tuesday that she would be willing to resign if the country's legislature set a path for an orderly transfer of power. Park, bowing to weeks of extraordinary public pressure over a corruption scandal, apologized to the country. Recent weeks have...
Donald Trump is branded with all manner of unflattering labels, but one that hasn’t seemed to much bother him is “climate pariah.” The president-elect is unabashed in his disdain for America’s global warming policy. He has placed a staunch climate-change doubter and antagonist of mainstream science...
Just months ago, world leaders were fretting over the threat posed by an increasingly assertive China. The country’s government oversaw the worst crackdown on dissent in nearly three decades. The Chinese built, then militarized, islands in disputed waters of the South China Sea. They tightened...
Indian forces killed nine Pakistani civilians and three soldiers Wednesday in separate incidents, the latest flare-ups between the nuclear-armed neighbors over a region they both claim as their own. Indian security forces violated a cease-fire in seven sectors along the heavily militarized Line...
South Korea has just 14 months until its scandal-plagued president is scheduled to leave office. For many people here, that now seems like an eternity. President Park Geun-hye has recently been named a suspect in a corruption case involving her longtime confidant — a woman who prosecutors allege...
His stern, mustachioed face stares out from posters pasted to the backs of transport trucks. He’s the most discussed personality on political talk shows. A Twitter hashtag credits him with improving everything from national security to Pakistan’s performance in cricket. Gen. Raheel Sharif, Pakistan’s...
Zhu Lifei took the call on one of his two cellphones — both of which ring constantly. A woman in Hangzhou needed help. She couldn’t leave her unfaithful husband and begged Zhu’s company to do what it does best: Get rid of the mistress. He sent his team to confront the lover. It didn’t work. So...
In late 1973, one year after Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, Amado Picardal distributed pamphlets at his university decrying the “death of democracy.” Marcos’ security agents responded by brutally interrogating the 18-year-old student — kicking him in the solar plexus...
Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing Monday in a Shiite Muslim mosque in Afghanistan’s capital that officials said killed at least 28 people and wounded dozens. The bomber was reportedly on foot when he detonated an explosives-laden vest in the Baqir-ul Uloom mosque in western...
Rescue workers raced to free survivors trapped in the wreckage of a passenger train that derailed early Sunday outside an industrial town in northern India, killing at least 115 and injuring about 150 people. The death toll was expected to rise because rescue workers had yet to gain access to one...
An atypical alliance between President Obama and pro-business Republicans built momentum for the largest global trade agreement in history. Now, the equally unlikely pairing of President-elect Donald Trump and key constituencies of the left are celebrating its near-certain demise. The debate over...
Thousands of Malaysian opposition demonstrators marched in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday against suspected corruption in Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government, a day after the protest organizer was arrested on charges of subverting democracy. Throngs of yellow-clad protesters — the signature color...
Efren Forones jumped from his chair when he saw the news report on TV. Boats were coming back from Scarborough Shoal. Fishermen were wading through shallow waters carrying buckets spilling over with fish. “It is true! It is open!” the 55-year-old fisherman yelled to his bewildered family. It had...
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday became the first foreign head of state to meet face to face with Donald Trump since the election. Afterward, Abe described the meeting as "really cordial" and said he believed he would be able to establish a relationship of trust. Abe said he conveyed...
Legislators in Taiwan began deliberations Thursday on Asia’s first same-sex marriage law, which if approved would cap two decades of growing visibility for LGBT causes on the island, as thousands of demonstrators on both sides gathered outside. Legislators have drafted three bills this year to...
Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing Wednesday that killed seven people in Kabul, including members of an Afghan special security unit. Afghan officials said a suicide bomber riding a motorbike targeted a minibus carrying a unit that provides security for senior government...
With more than 120,000 public workers suspended and nearly 40,000 people in prison, the aftermath of Turkey’s failed July 15 coup is being felt across every part of society, including its highest-ranked schools. The day after the coup attempt, 1,577 deans — working at nearly every university in...
Until recently, Noh Kyo-sung had many reasons to be happy with his life in South Korea. A self-described member of the nation’s intellectual elite, Noh had a good job, children in college and faith in his country’s leadership. Yet on Saturday, he joined hundreds of thousands of fellow Koreans in...
The rickshaw meter read about $2.30, but passenger Gaurav Munjal didn’t have cash. The first ATM he and the driver found had a long line; the second was out of bills. Frustrated, the 26-year-old tech entrepreneur asked the driver, “Do you want some rice?” The two men drove to a department store...
Most U.S. forecasters missed the tsunami of alienation and anger that propelled Donald Trump to the presidency. A teacher in southern China nailed it. Chen Dingding, an international relations professor at Jinan University in Guangzhou, predicted a Trump victory months ago. He correctly guessed...
At least 52 people were killed and more than 100 injured when a powerful explosion ripped through a Sufi shrine in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province on Saturday evening, officials said. The attack happened as worshipers were in the throes of a ritual dance inside the packed shrine of...
A suicide bomber apparently posing as a laborer killed four Americans and wounded 16 others Saturday morning at Bagram air base in northern Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan officials said. A Polish soldier participating in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization mission was also among the wounded. The...
The international police organization, Interpol, elected a Chinese security official as its president Thursday, raising concerns among human rights advocates that the appointment could fortify Beijing’s efforts to hunt down political opponents abroad. The organization’s general assembly elected...
Huang Yinyin, a reporter based in Hong Kong, bought a $120 space heater for $40. He Wei, a stock trader, bought a $440 air purifier, and got a $300 vacuum cleaner for free. Xie Pu, a technology columnist, plans to buy up to $3,000 worth of winter clothes, socks, laundry detergent, furniture and...