NEWSWORTHY
Finance Minister Taro Aso ponders tariffs in spat with South Korea over wartime labor
Finance Minister Taro Aso said tariffs were among the measures Japan could take against South Korea if a dispute over wartime labor worsens between the major trading partners. In response to a lawmaker's questions in the Diet, Aso said that matters had not reached that ...
A team of lawyers representing South Korean plaintiffs who won a case against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. over wartime forced labor is considering seeking a seizure of the Japanese manufacturer's assets in Europe, one of them has said. The lawyers last week filed a request ...
'Forbidden city' tells of secretive German history from kaiser to Hitler and Soviets
Werner Borchert grinds out a cigarette with his leather boot, zips up his down jacket and unlocks a rusty door with a sign reading "Do not enter." He is entering anyway. Borchert is stepping into the heart of the forbidden city, a huge abandoned military complex ...
Umer Farooq's grandfather and father made bagpipes. Now he is the third generation to take up the tradition in Pakistan, which is thousands of kilometers from Scotland yet sells thousands of bagpipes each year. The fresh smell of wood floats through the Mid East factory ...
'Japan in the World': A comprehensive analysis of Japan's international image
Published near the height of Japan's global economic power in 1993, "Japan in the World" brings together essays that reflect on the country's place in international affairs.
Hong Kong protesters plead not guilty to trespassing at Tokyo's war-linked Yasukuni Shrine
A man and woman from Hong Kong charged with trespassing on the grounds of the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo in December pleaded not guilty Thursday in the first hearing of their case at the Tokyo District Court. Kwok Siu-kit, 55, and Yim Man-wa, 26, ...
Secret science of 'Lenin lab' keeps dead communist leaders looking fresh in North Korea and Vietnam
Perhaps none of the communist legacies shared by Vietnam and North Korea highlighted during Kim Jong Un's "goodwill visit" to Hanoi is stranger than the embalmed leaders on display in their capitals — and the secretive team of Russian technicians who keep the bodies ...
Hidden tunnels and buildings found below Alcatraz prison are remnants of U.S. Civil War fort
Archaeologists confirmed a long-time suspicion of historians and say that famed Alcatraz prison was built over a Civil War-era military fortification. Researchers found a series of buildings and tunnels under the prison yard of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, which once held Al Capone, SFGate reported Tuesday. A ...
Portrait of George Washington's enslaved chef Hercules is someone else, experts find
A portrait long thought to be of George Washington's enslaved chef, who cooked for the former president at Mount Vernon and Philadelphia before escaping, is actually not of Hercules, and isn't even of a chef, art experts concluded after a two-year study. Experts who gathered ...
North Korea's Kim pays tribute to Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi, leaves for home after summit breakdown
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un spent his last day in Hanoi on Saturday, laying large red-and-yellow wreaths at a war memorial and at the mausoleum of national hero Ho Chi Minh as he continued an official state visit meant to cement his image ...
Neolithic humans loved their dogs to death, burial sites near Barcelona reveal
Neolithic communities clustered near present-day Barcelona some 6,000 years ago were really keen on dogs, in this life and the next. Archaeological evidence from at least four sites shows prehistoric humans and their four-legged friends living in close quarters, working together and sharing a common ...
The India-Pakistan crisis in Kashmir: What we know, what we don't and what might happen next
A string of violent escalations have pushed India and Pakistan to the brink of conflict, sparking global alarm and calls for restraint between the nuclear-armed neighbors. Here is an explanation of the events so far, and the possible next steps: What triggered the crisis? On Feb. 14, ...
