ASIA

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Former South Korean first lady Kim Keon Hee, the wife of jailed former president Yoon Suk Yeol, has been arrested over allegations of stock manipulation and bribery. After a four-hour court hearing in Seoul on Tuesday, Kim Keon Hee denied all charges, but the court issued a detention warrant, citing concerns about evidence tampering. Her arrest marks a historic first, as both a former president and first lady are now imprisoned in South Korea.

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Despite government efforts to promote family-friendly policies, Japan's birth rate remains stubbornly low, with deaths exceeding births by almost a million last year – the steepest population decline since 1968. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has described this demographic crisis as a "quiet emergency," and proposed free childcare to help with this, however, previous efforts have had little impact.

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A Chinese man has pleaded guilty in a US district court to smuggling approximately 850 protected turtles to Hong Kong. According to the US Department of Justice, Wei Qiang Lin exported more than 200 parcels between August 2023 and November 2024, concealing the turtles in socks and mislabeling the boxes as containing "plastic animal toys".

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More than 7,000 cases of chikungunya virus have been reported in China’s southern Guangdong province since early July, marking an unusual outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease in the region. The hardest-hit city, Foshan, has adopted strict containment measures, including mandatory hospitalization and isolation of confirmed cases.

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U.S. President Donald Trump pushes ahead with a sweeping 50% tariff on Indian goods, New Delhi is signaling it won't back down easily, particularly when it comes to its agricultural backbone.

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In an effort to reverse declining birth rates, China is introducing its first nationwide subsidy, offering parents 3,600 yuan (£375; $500) annually for each child under the age of three. The handouts are expected to help around 20 million families with the cost of raising young children, state media reports. This comes after the ruling Communist Party abolished its one-child policy almost a decade ago.