The flight recorder of the Jeju Air passenger jet that crashed last month, killing ​179 people, stopped recording for​ its last four minutes, South Korean officials said on Saturday, a significant setback for investigators. Data extracted from the so-called black box, consisting of the ​cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, is generally crucial in investigations of aviation accidents. Officials in South Korea, who have been working with the United States’ National Transportation Safety Board​, have said that the ​flight data for the plane’s last four minutes​ would be...

The bungalow was built for a Dutch trader in colonial times, but it has become part of modern Singaporean lore. It was where Lee Kuan Yew lived for decades, where he started his political party and where he began building Singapore into one of the richest countries in the world. Mr. Lee had said that he wanted the house to be demolished after he died rather than preserved as a museum, with the public “trampling” through his private quarters. But the wording of his will left the property’s fate in...

W on January 6th, two events took place that encapsulate the mixed legacy Joe Biden will leave in America’s relationship with Japan. That afternoon North Korea tested an intermediate-range ballistic missile, and America shared data about the launch in real time with Japan and South Korea; such co-operation is the fruit of the Biden administration’s efforts to foster closer ties between allies in the Indo-Pacific. Later that day, Nippon Steel, a Japanese steel firm, sued the American government over Mr Biden’s recent decision to scupper its acquisition of Steel, an...

S . Others halt in their tracks. But every person in the queue reaches out, palm open, to touch the glass-panelled casket, supplicating before the body and spirit of St Francis Xavier. Reverence for departed religious figures is not uncommon. What is unusual, is that the body of St Francis Xavier is 472 years old. Roughly once a decade, the Archdiocese of Goa organises an exposition of his relics. This is the 18th exposition since 1752, which ended on January 5th. Nearly 8m pilgrims visited it. That is double the...

T of director-general of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence ( ) is the second-most powerful job in the country. In terms of its clout it is behind only the army chief and ahead of the nominally elected prime minister. It is also now a stop on the way to jail. On December 10th General Faiz Hameed, head of the spy agency until late 2021, was court-martialled by the Pakistan army.

Christian Ulloriaq Jeppesen remembers how this all started. In 2019, during Donald J. Trump’s first term as president, Mr. Trump floated the idea of the United States buying the island of Greenland. At the time, most people in Greenland (and Denmark, the European country that controls it) thought his suggestion was a joke. “Everyone said, ‘Ha-ha, you can’t just buy a country, he doesn’t mean it,’” Mr. Jeppesen, a native Greenlander and a radio producer, said by telephone. “Obviously that was the wrong way to take it. Look at where...

A attempt in early December to impose martial law on South Korea failed, two stories emerged. One was a tale of vulnerability: an assault on democracy by the president himself is worrying, even if it falters. The other was about resilience: South Korea’s democratic institutions rose to the challenge, with citizens rallying and lawmakers taking action to stop the self-coup and, eventually, to impeach the president. In the immediate, bleary-eyed aftermath, the resilient parts of the country seemed dominant.

Taiwan is investigating whether a ship linked to China is responsible for damaging one of the undersea cables that connects Taiwan to the internet, the latest reminder of how vulnerable Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is to damage from China. The incident comes as anxiety in Europe has risen over apparent acts of sabotage, including ones aimed at such undersea communication cables. Two fiber-optic cables under the Baltic Sea were severed in November, prompting officials from Sweden, Finland and Lithuania to halt a Chinese-flagged commercial ship in the area for weeks over...

Hundreds of South Koreans, bundled up against freezing temperatures and snow, rallied overnight into Sunday near the residence of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, calling for his ouster and arrest, as authorities prepared to renew their efforts to de... SEOUL, South Korea -- Hundreds of South Koreans, bundled up against freezing temperatures and snow, rallied overnight into Sunday near the residence of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, calling for his ouster and arrest, as authorities prepared to renew their efforts to detain him over his short-lived martial law decree. Dozens...