Search - 2014

 
 
A trainer feeds an elephant at the Elephant Conservation Center in Laos' Sainyabuli province on Oct. 13.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Nov 30, 2024

Researchers analyze DNA from dung to save Laos elephants

Once abundant in the forests of Laos, Asian elephants have been decimated by habitat destruction, poaching and scarce breeding opportunities.
The 225-issue Nikkei stock average jumped on Nov. 6 after it appeared as though Donald Trump had won the U.S. presidential election.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 30, 2024

Rush to ‘value up’ may be Asia stocks best defense against Trump

Governments are rushing to implement their own versions of Japan’s structural reforms that helped drive its benchmark index to a record high this year.
Lower House member Hiroaki Tabata holds a news conference on Friday in Toyama.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 30, 2024

LDP member reportedly tried to hide membership scandal

Hiroaki Tabata admitted during a news conference Friday night that his office had signed people up for LDP membership without their consent.
Sharp's plant in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, that has ceased production of large liquid crystal display panels for television, a symbolic end to the company's signature business.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 1, 2024

Sharp marks end of era with halt to large LCD panel production

Now owned by a Taiwanese investor, Sharp has also scaled back production of small and medium-sized LCD panels used in smartphones and personal computers.
Ryggs Johnston celebrates after winning the Australian Open golf tournament in Melbourne on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 1, 2024

Rookie Johnston wins men's Australian Open as Shin claims women's trophy

While Shin made sure of her win by storming to a seven-stroke lead midway through, Johnston wielded magic on the back nine greens to take the title.
An H2A rocket carrying the Hayabusa2 asteroid probe is launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on Dec. 3, 2014.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 3, 2024

Hayabusa2 continues its journey, 10 years after launch

The unmanned asteroid probe was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on Dec. 3, 2014.
U.S. President Joe Biden hugs his wife Jill Biden as his children Hunter and Ashely Biden look on during his presidential inauguration in Washington on Jan. 20, 2021.  
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2024

Hunter Biden’s pardon is understandable — but wrong

Who wouldn't try sparing a child from prison? It's still a tragedy for the republic.
Then-U.S. Presidential nominee Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet at Trump Tower in New York City in September.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 5, 2024

Trump's plan for Ukraine comes into focus, with ceding land possible

Other options allegedly being explored for ending the war include taking NATO membership for Ukraine off the table.
Prosecutors said Tamotsu Shiiki, 58, had sex with a 12-year-old girl at a karaoke parlor on Aug. 20 after he approached her on the streets, well aware that she was underage.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 5, 2024

Former Nippon Ishin lawmaker pleads guilty to statutory rape

The lawmaker had approached her on the streets of the Kabukicho entertainment district in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on Aug. 20 and was aware she was underage.
Hiroshi Kagawa covered a total of 10 FIFA World Cup tournaments during his career, starting with the 1974 event in West Germany.
SOCCER
Dec 5, 2024

Pioneer soccer journalist Hiroshi Kagawa dies at 99

Kagawa covered a total of 10 FIFA World Cup tournaments, starting with the 1974 event in West Germany.
About $105 trillion is projected to be passed down from older generations over the next quarter century, according to research firm Cerulli Associates, an amount roughly equal to global gross domestic product in 2023.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 6, 2024

A $105 trillion inheritance windfall is on the way for U.S. heirs

The latest inheritance projection by Cerulli is 45% higher than the 25-year forecast the firm made only three years ago.
A year-old film on Netflix titled "12.12: The Day" saw a spike in viewers after the political turmoil that hit South Korea this week.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 6, 2024

Korean coup movie hits No. 1 on Netflix after martial law chaos

The film depicts the events surrounding a Dec. 12, 1979, coup in South Korea, a theme also tackled in Han Kang's novel "Human Acts."
Vissel Kobe players celebrate after clinching the J1 league title for the second straight season, on Sunday at Noevir Stadium Kobe.
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 8, 2024

Vissel Kobe defends J1 championship after roller-coaster title race

The defending champions cruised past Shonan Bellmare 3-0 at home thanks to goals from Taisei Miyashiro, Yoshinori Muto and Takahiro Ogihara.
A defaced mural of Sheikh Hasina, the ousted prime minister of Bangladesh, in Dhaka on Nov. 5. The new governor of Bangladesh’s central bank, Ahsan Mansur, calculates that about $17 billion was siphoned from the country’s financial system in the 15 years before Hasina's government collapsed in August.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 9, 2024

How the Bangladesh economy was siphoned dry

Some economists guess that the true value looted during Sheikh Hasina’s rule before she fled the country could exceed $30 billion, but no one can say for sure.
Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Syrian President Bashar Assad in eastern Hangzhou city in September 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 10, 2024

Assad's fall in Syria exposes limits of China's Middle East diplomacy

Chinese experts and diplomats say Beijing will now bide its time before recognizing a new government in Damascus.
In 2024, Scottie Scheffler won seven PGA Tour events, including the Masters, and took home the gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Dec 11, 2024

Scheffler voted PGA Tour Player of the Year for third straight time

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are the only players beside Scheffler to win the award three or more times.
Georgian anti-government protesters face off against police during consecutive days of mass demonstrations against the government's postponement of European Union accession talks in central Tbilisi on Dec. 3.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2024

Georgia has crossed a Russian Rubicon

A tipping point came last week when authorities in the capital Tbilisi sent masked police to raid the headquarters of opposition parties.
Boxer Kevin Johnson displays a shirt with an image of Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Nov. 24.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Dec 13, 2024

Aging U.S. heavyweight Kevin Johnson fights on to honor Vladimir Putin in Russia

Putin granted Johnson nationality with a decree under an express procedure used for others including U.S. actor Steven Seagal.
Attendees view a concept model of the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) fighter plane at the BAE Systems pavilion at the Farnborough International Airshow, in Farnborough, England, in July.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2024

Trilateral fighter project takes big step with joint venture deal

The U.K.-headquartered entity, to be set up by mid-2025, will be responsible for the industrial side of Japan, Britain and Italy's Global Combat Air Program.
France's newly appointed Prime Minister Francois Bayrou at the Hotel Matignon in Paris on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 14, 2024

Macron hands new French PM the tough job of managing Le Pen

Bayrou, 73, replaces conservative heavyweight Michel Barnier, who was ousted last week after far-right leader Marine Le Pen joined the left in a censure motion.
U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, in 2021
JAPAN
Dec 14, 2024

U.S. Marines begin to relocate from Okinawa to Guam

The movement of troops comes 19 years after an initial agreement for the relocation by the governments of Japan and the U.S.
"Butter," Asako Yuzuki’s thrilling novel inspired by a real-life femme fatale, was named the Waterstones Book of the Year in 2024.
CULTURE / Books / 2024 in Review
Dec 15, 2024

Women are writing a new chapter in Japanese literature in the 2020s

From the deadly serious and deeply weird to the fluffiest of diversions, a bounty of Japanese fiction in translation has delighted readers and critics this decade so far.
Then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in August 2021. From Syria to Ukraine, Merkel and former U.S. President Barack Obama’s missteps still haunt the West.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2024

Putin’s loss in Syria exposes Western failures

The West's indecision and failed liberal internationalist policies allowed Putin to bolster Assad’s regime and secure strategic advantages in Syria.
Mannequins are displayed inside a lingerie showroom at WeMet Industrial Park in the Guanyun county of Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China, on Nov. 26.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 16, 2024

China's 'erotic clothing' capital braces for e-commerce crackdown

The development of the lingerie industry in eastern Guanyun county in China has exploded partly due to a U.S. tariff exemption likely to soon be curtailed or scrapped.
A Taiwan High Speed Rail bullet train arrives at Nangang Station in the city of Taipei.
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2024

Taiwan’s bullet train a testament to shinkansen’s export potential

The line runs the length of Taiwan, over mountainous, unstable territory that makes the island a perfect test bed for the fast trains.
Japan wants renewable energy to account for around 40% to 50% of its electricity mix by fiscal year 2040 with nuclear power taking up another 20%, according to a new energy plan released Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 17, 2024

Japan aims to expand nuclear power in break from Fukushima era

The nation set out a proposed new energy strategy which urges both nuclear and renewables to be utilized to maintain growth and help curb emissions.
Tsuneo Watanabe (center) attends a gathering with former prime ministers Yasuhiro Nakasone (right) and Toshiki Kaifu in Tokyo in 2009.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 19, 2024

Tsuneo Watanabe, editor-in-chief of Yomiuri Shimbun Group, dies at 98

Watanabe was an influential figure in Japan's political and professional sports arenas.
Tsuyako Shimabukuro (front, second from left), head of the Eguchi community association in the town of Chatan, Okinawa Prefecture, and other community leaders discuss their efforts along with members of the prefectural association of families of missing persons with dementia.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Dec 30, 2024

Okinawa communities battle a rise in missing elderly with dementia

In the prefecture, 118 such cases were reported to the police last year.
Max Fried pitches for the Braves in San Diego on Oct. 2. The free-agent hurler signed with the Yankees this offseason.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 19, 2024

Max Fried excited to become part of Yankees' winning tradition

The 30-year-old lefty received a $20 million signing bonus as part of a deal that will pay him an average of $27.5 million per season until 2032.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington on Nov. 13.
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Dec 31, 2024

Will the second Trump boom go bust?

Trump is inheriting a strong economy, but he faces a more challenging economic landscape than he did in his first term.

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A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami