Asia

Obama Touts Benefits Of Pacific Trade Deal With Singapore's Prime Minister

6:46pm August 02, 2016

by Scott Horsley

During a meeting Tuesday with the prime minister of Singapore, President Obama touted the benefits of the Trans-Pacific trade deal. But with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both on record against the deal, Obama faces a narrow path to ratification.

Queue Listen Now

Girls from India's Dawoodi Bohra Muslim gather outside their mosque in Mumbai. The sect has more than a million followers worldwide.

Petition Against Female Genital Mutilation Provokes An Angry Backlash

4:12pm August 02, 2016

by Chhavi Sachdev

It's a ritual of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community in India. An effort to get the government to outlaw the practice has sparked debate — and verbal attacks.

Chinese React To 'Unconventional' Rhetoric In U.S. Election

4:27pm August 01, 2016

NPR's Audie Cornish talks with Zhang Yuanan, a reporter for a Caixan Media, a Chinese news organization. She is covering the U.S. presidential elections for a Chinese audience and she explains how citizens abroad view Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

University students who belong to indigenous tribes prepare for a ceremony to affirm their ethnic identity. Taiwan's aboriginal tribes arrived thousands of years before Chinese immigrants, but now account for only 2 percent of the population.

World News

Taiwanese President Issues Country's First Apology To Indigenous People

2:26pm August 01, 2016

by Camila Domonoske

"We have to face the truth," Tsai Ing-wen said to representatives of the native tribes of Taiwan. She said her government offered its "fullest apology" for the treatment of aboriginal Taiwanese.

World News

Amid Calls To End 'Honor Killings' In Pakistan, More Women Murdered

6:58am August 01, 2016

by Philip Reeves

The government says new laws could be passed within weeks. Will they work? The celebrity murdered by her brother last month was from a traditional farming community where there's deep skepticism.

Former defense minister Yuriko Koike waves at passersby during her campaign rally for the Tokyo gubernatorial election in Tokyo on Friday.

World News

Tokyo Elects Its First Female Governor

11:22am July 31, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

Japanese voters have elected Yuriko Koike as the capital's first female governor. She's taking the helm amid high-pressure preparations for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Indian villagers walk past an overturned motorized rickshaw.

Health & Safety

Study: Why Pedestrians In India Need To Be Very, Very Cautious

11:19am July 31, 2016

by Deepak Singh

A new study finds that the government count of pedestrian deaths may be far too low. Our writer shares a very personal perspective.

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a speech Friday commemorating those killed and wounded during a failed July 15 military coup, in Ankara, Turkey.

World News

After Failed Coup, Turkey Brings Military Further Under Government Control

10:06am July 31, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched a shakeup of the country's armed forces and dismissed nearly 1,400 more military personnel, in the wake of a failed coup attempt earlier this month.

South Korean voice actress Kim Jayeon tweeted this image, spurring her country's version of Gamergate.

World News

South Korea Is Contending With A 'Gamergate' Of Its Own — Over A T-Shirt

3:24pm July 29, 2016

by Mark H. Kim

Controversial online feminist movement Megalia has been pushing against sexism and harassment of women in South Korea. A recent photo posted by a voice actress has sparked a new standoff with critics.

In 2004 Reid Brewer of the University of Alaska Southeast measured an unusual beaked whale that turned up dead in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. A tissue sample from the carcass later showed that the whale was one of the newly identified species.

Mysterious And Known As The 'Raven': Scientists Identify New Whale Species

8:11pm July 27, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

"There have been a lot of people out there surveying whales for a long time and never come across this," a researcher says. But Japanese fishermen have told stories about this dark whale for years.