The recent depreciation of the South Korean won against the US dollar may add short-term pressure on inflation, but its overall impact is likely to be less significant than that of domestic factors, a state-run think tank said on Tuesday.

The won-greenback exchange rate has remained above the 1,400-won level -- a threshold not seen since 2009 -- following the shocking, albeit brief, martial law imposition by ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol in December. The rate has faced further pressure following new tariff measures implemented by the Donald Trump administration.

"The impact of a strong U.S. dollar on import prices tends to diminish over time, while domestic factors behind the won's depreciation generally have a more lasting and pronounced effect on consumer prices," the Korea Development Institute (KDI) said in its latest report, reports news agency.

The Philippines on Monday condemned the latest Chinese activities around Sandy Cay, emphasising that the area is part of its territory and no Chinese provocation will change that.

Chinese personnel reportedly raised a Chinese flag and conducted inspection activities on Sandy Cay, a sandbar located near Pag-asa Island, which is within the Philippines' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Philippines, Romualdez termed the Chinese actions as "desperate and cheap stunts" designed to mislead and bolster illegitimate claims, state-run news agency PNA reported.

One person died, and several others were injured on Sunday when a boat collided with a ferry off the Memorial Causeway Bridge in Florida's Clearwater, US, before fleeing the scene, authorities said.

The Clearwater Police Department announced on X that there were multiple injuries and that the crash had been declared "a mass casualty incident" by the Clearwater Fire & Rescue Department due to the number of people hurt.

All those injured were aboard the ferry, which was carrying more than 40 passengers at the time of the crash. Police have not yet released any details about the person who died in the incident.

Bangladesh is grappling with an economic crisis under the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, as the banks are unable to circulate new currency notes to meet the demands in the country, local media reported on Monday.

The crisis emerged with the political transition after the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina following a violent uprising last year.

The new notes in the hands of Bangladesh banks are not coming to the market because all types of money and coins feature the image of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, according to a report by the leading Bangladeshi daily, Prothom Alo.

Due to this situation, citizens are facing financial losses as they do not have access to new notes. Shops and banks are also being flooded with torn and old dirty notes.

Last month, the central bank instructed all the scheduled banks to suspend the exchange of fresh notes for the public.

Trade Minister Cheong In-kyo said on Monday the government will make all-out efforts to attract more foreign investment and support the return of local firms from overseas.

Cheong made the remarks during a policy coordination meeting with local government leaders and officials from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, reports news agency.

"Expanding foreign direct investment (FDI) and supporting reshoring companies are keys to enhancing national industrial competitiveness and revitalising regional economies, even in the face of abrupt changes in global trade conditions," Cheong said.

He further pledged continued policy support in close cooperation with local governments and free economic zones. In 2024, South Korea attracted a record high US$32.57 billion in FDI, the highest since records began in 1962, according to the ministry.

At least 11 people have died and several others were injured after an SUV drove into a crowd celebrating the Lapu Lapu Filipino festival in Vancouver, Canada, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) said on Monday (Indian time).

The police stated that the suspect, identified as 30-year-old Kai-Ji Adam Lo, has been charged with murder. The black SUV was driven into the street festival of the Filipino community at E. 41st Avenue and Fraser Street shortly after 8 p.m. on Sunday (Indian time).

"Eleven people have now died as a result of the mass-casualty event at the Lapu Lapu Day Festival. Our hearts are with all of the victims, their loved ones, and everyone who has been impacted by this act of violence. This is the darkest day in our city's history," the police department said in a statement.

South Korea and the United States will start working-level discussions next week to advance their agreement on trade tariffs and other areas of cooperation, Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun said on Saturday.

Ahn made the remark as he returned from Washington, where he and Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok had the "two-plus-two" consultations on tariffs with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

The two sides agreed to craft a package deal for tariffs, and bilateral economic and industrial cooperation before the 90-day pause on the tariff measures expires on July 8, reports news agency.

The death toll from a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar has risen to 3,763, the official daily Myanma Alinn reported on Saturday.

In addition, 5,107 people were injured and 110 people reported missing, news agency reported.

A total of 154 aftershocks had hit Myanmar since a devastating earthquake struck the country on March 28, according to the country's Department of Meteorology and Hydrology.

These tremors ranged in magnitude from 2.8 to 7.5, according to the department.

On April 17, India, under 'Operation Brahma', had sent an additional consignment of relief material that was handed over by Indian Ambassador to Myanmar Abhay Thakur to Mandalay Chief Minister Myo Aung in the presence of diaspora leaders of Mandalay and Sagaing.

The Indian Embassy in Berlin organised a solemn event to honour the memory of the victims of the brutal terror attack that took place on April 22 in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.

The attack, which claimed 26 innocent lives, was carried out by The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The commemorative gathering, held on Friday, saw participation from over 100 attendees, including senior officials from various ministries of the Federal Government of Germany, members of the diplomatic corps, and the Indian diaspora in Germany.

India's Ambassador to Germany, Ajit Gupte, paid heartfelt tributes to the victims and shared Prime Minister Narendra Modi's strong remarks condemning the terror attack.

Ambassador Gupte also drew attention to the perpetrators' intent to derail the peace and normalcy that Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed in recent years, particularly with the surge in tourism in the region.

The Security Council has “condemned in the strongest terms” the Pahalgam terrorist attack and urged all countries to cooperate in bringing all those involved in the massacre, to justice.

The members of the Security Council “stressed that those responsible for these killings should be held accountable, and urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with all relevant authorities in this regard”, Council President Jerome Bonnafont said in a Press statement on Friday.

A front organisation of the Pakistan-based terrorist group Laskhar-e-Tayiba has owned responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan's Standing Committee on Interior has been informed that over 12,000 Afghan nationals were caught with fake Pakistani passports while travelling to Saudi Arabia in the past five years, raising serious concerns over tens of thousands more such cases of Afghan nationals being able to get fake Pakistani passports and using them to travel to different countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The revelation was done during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, which was briefed about the ongoing repatriation process and ongoing campaign to nab illegal Afghan nationals, along with the law and order situation in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan.

"At least 12,000 people reached Saudi Arabia on fake Pakistani passports. Of them, 3,000 had photo-swapped passports, while 6,000 passports were issued by tampering with the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) data," informed Director General Passports, Mustafa Jamal Qazi.

South Korean stocks finished nearly 1 per cent higher on Friday, as investors assessed the outcome of the first round of tariff talks between Seoul and Washington. The local currency fell against the US dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 23.97 points, or 0.95 percent, to close at 2,546.3.

Trade volume was thin at 386.27 million shares worth 8.2 trillion won ($5.78 billion), with winners beating losers 645 to 238, reports news agency.

Institutions and foreign investors combined purchased a net 721.5 billion won worth of stocks, while individuals sold a net 773 billion won worth of shares.

A small police plane crashed near the shore of Thailand's resort town of Hua Hin on Friday morning, killing six people, the Thai police said.

The Thai national police said on its social media page that the aircraft of the police aviation division crashed into the sea off Cha-am District, Phetchaburi Province shortly after taking off from the nearby Hua Hin airport, with all six on board killed.

The police said the accident took place when the plane was conducting a test flight for parachute training. All six people on board were police officers. Five died at the scene and one died later at a hospital, news agency reported.

Video footage showed the plane nosedive into the sea. Initial investigations suggest that the engine malfunctioned shortly after takeoff. The police said the cause of the accident will be investigated.

South Korea and the United States concurred on joint efforts to craft a "package" agreement on new U.S. tariffs, and economic and industrial cooperation issues by early July, Seoul's finance minister said, as the allies held high-level trade talks in Washington, DC.

Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok told reporters that the two sides agreed to pursue the deal by July 8 -- when U.S. President Donald Trump's 90-day pause on "reciprocal" tariffs ends -- through talks focusing on four categories -- tariff- and non-tariff measures; economic security; investment cooperation; and currency policies, reports news agency.

Toward that end, Seoul's industry ministry and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) plan to start working-level talks next week, while USTR Jamieson Greer is set to visit South Korea for high-level talks on the margins of the ministerial Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation talks slated to kick off on May 15.

A high school student entered a school in western France's Nantes with a knife and stabbed at least four students, local media reported, citing the police.

One of the victims died from injuries, according to BFMTV on Thursday, citing multiple sources.

Teachers stopped the attacker before police arrived, BFMTV said, adding that the attacker, a second-year high school student, has been detained, news agency reported.

The youth -- whose identity has not been revealed but who had expressed an admiration for Adolf Hitler -- was overcome by teachers after staging attacks in several classrooms, witnesses said.

He was detained by police but hospitalised after a psychiatric examination.

The suspect sent a rambling email to other students just before the attacks.

Lee Jae-myung, former leader of South Korea's Democratic Party, kept a wide lead in approval ratings among presidential hopefuls for the June 3 election, a survey showed on Thursday.

According to the National Barometer Survey (NBS), Lee led the poll with 41 per cent, marking the first time the figure surpassed the 40 per cent mark in an NBS poll.

Former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo and former Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) came next with 10 per cent, followed by former PPP leader Han Dong-hoon with 8 per cent.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expects India to strike the first trade deal with Washington because the issues are simpler, making an agreement "much easier."

He said on Wednesday that trade talks were "very close" to reaching a deal.

India has "fewer non-tariff trade barriers, obviously, no currency manipulation, very, very little government subsidies, so that reaching a deal with the Indians is much easier," he told a group of journalists at a restricted meeting in Washington on the sidelines of the Spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The trade issues with India were mostly about high tariffs, he said, according to reports by participants in the meeting.

The South Korean economy posted negative growth from three months earlier in the first quarter, the first on-quarter contraction in nine months, central bank data showed on Thursday, amid a domestic political crisis and uncertainties stemming from the Donald Trump administration's sweeping tariff scheme.

The country's real gross domestic product (GDP) -- a key measure of economic growth -- contracted 0.2 percent in the January-March period from a quarter earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

On a year-on-year basis, the economy contracted 0.1 percent in the first quarter of 2025, compared with 1.2 percent on-year expansion in the previous quarter, the data showed, reports news agency.

South Korea will discuss ways to bolster the country's cooperation with the United States in the shipbuilding and energy sectors at the upcoming bilateral "2+2 trade consultations," Seoul's top trade official said on Wednesday.

Seoul has highlighted such cooperation as a way of addressing the trade imbalance between the allies, which has prompted Washington to impose hefty import tariffs on South Korea under its broader tariff scheme affecting all its major trading partners, reports News Agency.

"We plan to discuss the trade imbalance issue, as well as industrial cooperation in the shipbuilding and energy sectors," Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun told reporters as he headed to Washington for the high-level talks with the U.S. that will also be attended by Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok.

Prime Minister of Nepal K P Sharma Oli called PM Narendra Modi on Wednesday to strongly condemn the deadly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district and extend his condolences on the loss of precious lives.

Oli termed the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir as "heinous" and spoke in detail with Prime Minister Modi on the issue.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), PM Modi also conveyed his condolences on the death of a young Nepali national in the terror attack, and underlined that India remains committed to bringing the perpetrators of the brutal terror attack to justice.

"India and Nepal stand together in the fight against terrorism," the MEA stated.

Pakistan on Wednesday reacted to the deadly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district that left more than a dozen tourists dead and several others wounded.

The brutal assault unfolded on Tuesday in the Baisaran Valley near Pahalgam, where heavily armed terrorists reportedly emerged from the surrounding dense forests and opened indiscriminate fire on a group of tourists. The attack has been described as one of the most horrific in the region in recent memory.

Responding to media queries, Pakistan's Foreign Office issued a brief statement, saying, "We are concerned at the loss of tourists' lives in an attack in Anantnag district. We extend our condolences to the near ones of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery."

Three contenders of the Democratic Party (DP) for South Korean presidential elections are set to hold their second public debate on Wednesday, four days before the party plans to pick its candidate for the June 3 presidential election.

The debate will bring together former DP leader Lee Jae-myung, Gyeonggi Province Gov. Kim Dong-yeon and Kim Kyung-soo, a former South Gyeongsang Province governor.

During the 90-minute debate, the candidates will present their visions in key areas, including politics, the economy, diplomacy, security and social policy.

Lee, who declared his presidential bid earlier this month and is leading opinion polls for the presidential election, recently won two regional primaries by a large margin, news agency reported.

Three people were killed as heavy storms hit the central US state of Oklahoma over the weekend, authorities said.

A 12-year-old boy and his mother died in Moore, about 10 miles (about 16 km) south of Oklahoma City, on Sunday after floodwaters washed away their vehicle, said local police.

"This was a historical weather event that impacted roads and resulted in dozens of high-water incidents across the city," Moore police said in a statement.

Another person was killed on Saturday night after a tornado hit Spaulding, a town in Hughes County, the county wrote on Facebook, news agency reported.

Several homes and structures were destroyed, and there were "numerous washouts" of county roads, it said.

Four terrorists were killed during a joint operation of security forces and law enforcement agencies in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said.

The intelligence-based operation was conducted in Swat district of the province, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said on Friday in a statement.

Security forces engaged the terrorists at their location, killing all four terrorists, said the ISPR, adding that a huge cache of weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the terrorists' hideout, news agency reported.

The killed terrorists were involved in numerous terror activities in the area, said the statement.

Hours after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a telephonic conversation with the United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US President Donald Trump said that he expects to get Russia's response on a possible ceasefire in Ukraine over the weekend.

"We're going to be hearing from them this week, very shortly, actually. I think we're getting close, but we'll let you know very soon," Trump told reporters at the White House.

The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Lavrov reaffirmed Moscow's readiness to continue collaborative efforts with American counterparts to comprehensively address the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis.

Most of the estimated 400,000 people fleeing the Zamzam displacement camp bombardment sought shelter in another Sudanese refuge camp, only for it to be shelled too, the UN humanitarian agency said.

"Access to Zamzam remains completely blocked," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

"Local authorities and partners' reports indicate that armed groups continue to shell El Fasher and surrounding areas, including Abu Shouk camp, which is obviously placing all of the civilians there at immense risk."

The majority of the 400,000 people fleeing the Zamzam camp bombardment fled to the towns of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, and Tawila, where host communities are already under immense strain.

The death toll from US overnight airstrikes on the Yemeni fuel port of Ras Isa has increased to 38, with 102 others wounded, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported on Friday, citing Houthi-controlled local health authorities.

According to al-Masirah, the casualties include five paramedics who were killed upon arriving at the scene, when the US military launched another wave of airstrikes on the port just minutes after the first on Thursday night.

More than 14 airstrikes on the fuel port were reported during the two waves, igniting massive fires in tanks storing imported fuel. The fires were extinguished within hours, said the report.

The US Central Command said earlier in a statement that it struck and destroyed the Ras Isa port on Thursday to "eliminate this source of fuel for" and "degrade the economic source of power of" the Houthis, news agency reported.

Former South Korean Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung has a strong lead among potential candidates for the June 3 presidential election, a survey showed on Friday.

In the poll conducted by Gallup Korea on 1,000 adults from Tuesday to Thursday, Lee garnered 38 per cent support, marking his highest rating in Gallup polls this year.

Trailing behind at 7 per cent were former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo and former Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party (PPP), as well as Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who currently serves as the acting president.

Han has not declared his candidacy despite ongoing speculation about his possible bid.

Israel's military has said in a statement that it killed a Hezbollah commander in a drone strike in southern Lebanon.

The strike targeted the area of Blida, killing Ali Ibar al-Nabi Khadi, who was identified by the military as the deputy head of Hezbollah's military outpost in the Mhaibib area, news agency reported.

Meanwhile, an unnamed Lebanese security source confirmed to news agency that an Israeli drone strike killed an individual in southern Lebanon on Thursday, identifying the deceased as a Hezbollah member named Ali Abdel Nabi Hijazi, who came from the village of Blida.

The person was hit while riding a motorcycle in the village of Aitaroun, Lebanon's Public Health Emergency Operations Centre and security sources said as reported by news agency.

A senior US energy official on Friday underscored South Korea's growing significance in the Donald Trump administration's push to expand American energy exports and diversify global supply chains.

Speaking via video remarks at an energy forum hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM) held in Seoul, Tommy Joyce, acting assistant secretary for international affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), said Seoul remains a critical ally in Washington's energy agenda, reports news agency.

"South Korea and each of you in Seoul are absolutely essential allies in this pursuit," Joyce said in his remarks addressed to business representatives at a Seoul hotel. "South Korea plays an important role in unleashing American energy and supporting President Trump's vision of building supply chains independent of China."

A destructive hailstorm ripped through parts of Pakistan's capital Islamabad and provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), claiming lives of at least five people and damaging properties and standing crops worth millions.

Several vehicles were damaged in Islamabad as hailstones as big as the size of a golf ball battered the region. The capital's famous Faisal Mosque also suffered damage with windows broken due to the hailstorm. Strong winds uprooted trees and power pylons in the Tornal area, which remained the worst affected in the capital.

Locals said they had never witnessed such a hailstorm in the capital before.

"The hailstones were the size of golf balls and started falling like rain. It felt scary. We saw it smashing the windscreens of several vehicles and also damaging other structures," said one of the locals in Islamabad.

Continuing with its humanitarian assistance to earthquake-hit Myanmar under Operation Brahma, India has sent an additional consignment of relief material that was handed over by Indian Ambassador to Myanmar Abhay Thakur to Mandalay Chief Minister Myo Aung in the presence of diaspora leaders of Mandalay and Sagaing.

The relief aid included RO water plant, genset, rice, noodles, cooking oil, atta, sugar, dal, salt, MREs, blankets and medicines for the needy, the Embassy of India in Yangon stated.

India had launched Operation Brahma to provide necessary support, including Search and Rescue (SAR), humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and medical assistance, following the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28.

South Korean stocks rose nearly 1 percent on Thursday as investors became optimistic about the ongoing trade talks between the United States and Japan. The local currency rose to a more than four-month high against the US dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 22.98 points, or 0.94 percent, to close at 2,470.41, rebounding from a 1.21 percent drop the previous day, reports news agency.

Trade volume was moderate at 589.6 million shares worth 6.5 trillion won ($4.58 billion), with winners beating losers 638 to 225.

Institutions purchased a net 346.2 billion won worth of stocks, while foreign and retail investors sold a net 351.9 billion won and 87.4 billion won, respectively.

The number of days each year that the world's oceans experience extreme surface heat has tripled over the past 80 years due to global warming, a new study has found.

Researchers found that, on average, the global sea surface saw about 15 days of extreme heat annually in the 1940s, news agency reported.

Today that figure has soared to nearly 50 days per year, revealed the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Global warming is responsible for almost half of the occurrence of marine heatwaves -- periods when sea surface temperatures rise well above normal for an extended time.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday that the United States' 245 per cent tariff on certain products from China no longer makes economic sense.

It the US continues to play the "tariff numbers game", it will pay no attention to it, according to the spokesperson, news agency reported.

The statement came in the wake of White House's statement that China faces tariffs of up to 245 per cent due to its retaliatory action.

China now faces up to 245 per cent tariffs on imports to the US as a result of its retaliatory tariffs, according to the White House Fact sheet.