The News Journal

A US aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea on Friday for the first time in about four years, where it will join other military vessels in a show of force intended to send a message to North Korea. USS Ronald Reagan and ships from its accompanying strike group docked at a naval base in the southern port city of Busan ahead of joint drills with South Korean forces. Its arrival marks the most significant deployment yet under a new push to have more US "strategic assets" operate in the area to deter North Korea. Strike group commander Rear Admiral Michael Donnelly told reporters aboard the ship that the visit was designed to build allied relations and boost interoperability between the navies. "We are leaving messaging to diplomats," he said, when asked about any signal to North Korea, but said that joint drills would ensure the allies were able to respond to all threats. Read More : https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/asia/2022/09/23/us-aircraft-carrier-arrives-i...

Japan should consider building new nuclear power plants, prime minister Fumio Kushida said on Wednesday. This could be a controversial policy shift after the nation suspended many of its nuclear plants in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster. But Mr Kishida said the Ukraine war and soaring energy costs highlighted the need for diversifying energy sources. He added that nuclear power may be needed to meet Japan's target of going carbon neutral by 2050. Aside from considering building next-generation nuclear reactors, the government will also look to restart existing plants that are currently offline and extend their lifespans, Mr Kishida said at an energy policy meeting. Japan had a nuclear emergency in 2011 when a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami, flooding the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant on the country's east coast. Read More : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62659007

The Nepal Army on Monday physically located the site where a Nepalese private airlines plane crashed on Sunday. “Search and rescue troops have physically located the plane crash site. Details will be followed,” the Nepal Army Spokesperson said in a tweet. Tara Air’s 9 NAET twin-engine aircraft with 22 people on board, including four Indians, was found crashed in Kowang village of the Mustang district hours after it went missing in the mountainous district on Sunday morning. Earlier today, Nepal Army said, “Rescue effort to search plane of Tara Air was resumed.” On Sunday, all the helicopters deployed for the search of the crashed aircraft were called off after the snowfall in Mustang district. “Due to the snowfall at the possible air crash site, the search and rescue operation has been called off for today. All the helicopters deployed for search and rescue operations have been called back to bases,” Premnath Thakur, General Manager of Tribhuvan International Airport said. Read More :...

A Malaysian man convicted of drug trafficking has been executed in Singapore despite his mother's claims he had an intellectual disability. Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, had been on death row for more than 10 years for trafficking 44 grams of heroin into Singapore, which has some of the world's toughest drugs laws. His lawyers had filed multiple appeals against his execution, saying he was intellectually disabled. His brother Navin Kumar, 22, told Reuters the execution had been carried out. He said the body would be sent back to Malaysia for a funeral in the town of Ipoh. A Singapore court on Tuesday turned down a legal challenge put forward by Nagaenthran's mother, clearing the way for the execution by hanging. At the end of the hearing, Nagaenthran and his family reached through a gap in a glass screen to grasp each others' hands tightly as they wept. His cries of "ma" could be heard around the courtroom, Reuters said. About 300 people held a candlelight vig...

 British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrived in India’s western city of Ahmedabad on Thursday for his two-day visit to the South Asian country as he seeks to bolster ties between the historical partners. The trip is Mr Johnson’s first to India and the first ever by any British prime minister to Ahmedabad — the capital of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat. The Prime Minister will visit a new factory being opened by a top British firm in Gujarat, as well as a biotechnology university working in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh. The city, a major commercial hub, is known as the "Manchester of India" for its cotton-textile industry and is the ancestral home to about half of the Anglo-Indian population in Britain. “As I arrive in India today, I see vast possibilities for what our two great nations can achieve together. From next-generation 5G telecoms and AI to new partnerships in health research and renewable energy — the UK and India are leading th...

 India’s Kerala High Court has dismissed a petition filed by a Christian father over his daughter’s marriage to a Muslim. Joisna Mary Joseph, 26, a nurse who works in Saudi Arabia, married Shejin M, a Communist Party of India worker from Alappuzha, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, without her parents' approval, on April 12. The marriage created a storm in the coastal state after the bride's relatives accused Mr Shejin of abducting Ms Joseph. But she denied this, saying: “I married the person I loved, so I wanted to go with him.” Her father had approached police with a complaint of abduction. After failing to get help from officers, he filed a habeas corpus petition in the court, alleging his daughter had been taken away against her will and illegally detained. Habeas corpus is a recourse in law that orders a person who has detained another person to produce them before the court. The high court summoned Ms Joseph on Tuesday and dismissed the petition after she said she h...

 India's civil aviation minister urged Indian airlines on Friday to add more long-haul aircraft to their fleets and to increase flights abroad, as air travel rebounds from a two-year slump due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Domestic passenger numbers are expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels within one year, Jyotiraditya Scindia said during an air show in the Indian city of Hyderabad. But foreign airlines dominate international routes to and from India, which industry experts say is partly because Indian airlines do not have enough wide-body, long-haul planes. “Along with our thrust on narrow-body aircraft, we must also increase our fleet of wide-body aircraft. It is not enough to connect all points in India — we need to connect the world to India,” the minister said. India's aviation market is dominated by narrow-body planes operated by low-cost airlines such as IndiGo. In 2019, Indian airlines operated more than 550 narrow-body planes and less than 60 widebodies. Only two Indian ...