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With a plum position atop many "Best Places to Travel" lists, Japan is on track to welcome a record-breaking number of travelers in 2024. Summer trips are up too, with inbound bookings doubling since last summer, a representative from the travel website Trip.com told CNBC Travel. In 2019, China welcomed some 49.1 million travelers — as of July this year, around 17.25 million foreigners had arrived, according to Chinese state media. "The USD/JPY exchange rate [moved] from approximately 140 in January 2024 to over 160 by July 2024, making Japan more affordable," said Chakraborty. But a Pew Research Center report shows that, among 35 surveyed countries, more than half have unfavorable views of China.

Persons: Trip.com, Joydeep Chakraborty, Chakraborty, Jasmine Leung Organizations: National Immigration Administration, CNBC Travel, Japan, Japan Federation of Service & Tourism Industries Workers ' Unions, East Asia, Pew Research Center, France — Locations: Japan, China, Kiyomizu, dera, Kyoto, United States, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Saharan Africa, Asia, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, South Korea

☆ India’s ‘godmen’: How a rigid caste system has created a new kind of deity
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-12 | by ( Rhea Mogul | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

The man they had come to see was known to his disciples as Bhole Baba, a self-styled Hindu spiritual leader worshipped by many as a living god. “My mother believed in (Bhole Baba). What could I do?”People like Lal’s mother – poor and on the lower rungs of India’s hierarchical caste system – make up the bulk of Bhole Baba’s following. Claiming to possess mystical knowledge and the ability to cure illness and solve problems, godmen inspire remarkable fervor in their millions of followers. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, head of the spiritual organization Dera Sacha Sauda, is another self-styled spiritual guru revered by millions.

Persons: –, Bhole Baba, ”, “, Meera Nanda, Sakib Ali, Subhash Lal, Lal, Narayan Sakar, Kalyani, Sheetal, Bhole, Jatav, Sathya Sai Baba, Ravi Shankar, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Sacha Sauda, Parveen Kumar, Singh, ” Nanda, Asaram Bapu, Sunil Verma, Sai, Goldie Hawn, Isaac Tigrett, Sachin Tendulkar, Manmohan Singh, Surendra Singh, Narayan Sakar Hari resound, Aishwarya S, Iyer Organizations: CNN, Hindustan Times, Uttar, Uttar Pradesh Police, Azim Premji University, ” Miracle, Pacific Press, Rock Locations: India’s Uttar Pradesh, India, Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, Garhi, India’s, Bangalore, ”, Bole, Gurugram

☆ A Japanese Festival of Fire and Spirits
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Chang W. Lee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

As the sun peeked out from the cloudy sky in Kyoto, Japan, monks wearing vests trimmed with pompoms and the black box-like headdresses known as tokin were being quizzed in front of Mibu Dera, one of the oldest temples in the city. These were the Yamabushi (mountain hermits), part of a Buddhist sect known as the Shugendō. To enter the temple’s sacred area, each monk had to prove he was a real Yamabushi by answering a series of questions about the sect’s beliefs, dress and tools. Only those with satisfactory responses would gain access.

Locations: Kyoto, Japan

☆ Many Pakistanis Make a Perilous Journey to Vote
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Feb. | At P.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +5 min

With tens of thousands displaced from the tribal regions, most candidates vying to represent constituencies there have campaigned in other cities such as Dera Ismail Khan. "Due to the war, people's houses were destroyed," Moulana Jamal Uddin, a candidate from South Waziristan, told Reuters by phone. "I appeal to the people of South Waziristan to vote," he said. Khan Ullah, a 42-year-old shop owner, said he has avoided political gatherings in Dera Ismail Khan because he feared an attack on them was a real possibility. (Reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan; writing by Ariba Shahid in Karachi; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Persons: Saud Mehsud DERA ISMAIL, Ullah Mehsud, Mehsud, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan's, Amjad Khan, Khan, hometowns, Maulana Raheem Ullah, Moulana Jamal Uddin, Khan Ullah, Saud Mehsud, Ariba Shahid, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: Reuters, Pakhtunkhwa, Pak Institute, Peace Studies, Force Locations: Saud Mehsud DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan, South Waziristan, Qaeda, U.S, Afghanistan, Waziristan, Khyber, Taliban Pakistan, Balochistan, KP, Karachi

☆ At Least 10 Police Personnel Killed in Attack on Police Station in Pakistan - Police
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-04 | by ( Feb. | At P.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: 1 min

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - At least 10 police personnel were killed and six more injured in a militant attack on a police station in northwest Pakistan on Monday, police said. The South Asian nation has seen an escalation in incidents of violence in the last few days as it approaches its national elections later this week. (Reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan; writing by Sakshi Dayal; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)

Persons: Saud Mehsud, Dera Ismail, Sakshi Dayal, Sudipto Ganguly Locations: DELHI, Pakistan, Dera Ismail Khan

☆ Militants attack air force base in central Pakistan, says military
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-04 | by ( Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ISLAMABAD, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Nine Islamist militants attacked an air force training base in the central Pakistani area of Mianwali on Saturday damaging three "non-operational" aircraft, the military said, adding that all assailants had been killed by security forces. Three militants were killed before they entered the base while the others had been cornered before the clearance operation began, the military said in a statement. The military said nine militants had been killed in the attack on the Pakistan Air Force Training Airbase Mianwali. "No damage has been done to any of the Pakistan Air Force's functional operational assets, while only some damage was done to three already phased out non-operational aircraft during the attack," the military statement said. Islamist militant group Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP) claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to journalists by its spokesperson.

Persons: Zeeshan Niazi, TJP, Gibran Peshimam, Saud Mehsud, Dera Ismail Khan, Mubasher Bukhari, William Mallard, Jamie Freed Organizations: Nine, Reuters, Pakistan Air Force Training, Pakistan Air, Jihad, Thomson Locations: ISLAMABAD, Mianwali, Jihad Pakistan, Balochistan, Lahore

Yes to life" take part in a anti-lithium protest in Covas do Barroso, Portugal, August 15, 2023. With 60,000 tonnes of known reserves, Portugal is already Europe's biggest producer of lithium, traditionally mined for ceramics. Referring to the Barroso project and another in France, he said it would be "a disaster if either ... doesn't succeed". But with only 15 of 916 submissions in a public consultation supporting the project, Savannah faces a struggle to win over locals who have said they will fight it and the APA in court. "Politicians listen to those who shout loudest and have most money - and that's the mining industry," she said.

Persons: Catarina Demony, Maria Loureiro, Loureiro, Barroso, Martin Jackson, , Savannah's, Michael Schmidt, doesn't, Schmidt, Nelson Gomes, Greta Thunberg, Karin Kvarfordt Niia, LKAB's, Anders Lindberg, UDCB's Catarina Alves Scarrott, Aida Fernandes, Barroso's, Dale Ferguson, Ferguson, Emanuel Proenca, Teresa Camille, Gunilla Hogberg Bjorck, Miguel Pereira, Covas do Barroso, Pietro Lombardi, Simon Johnson, Aislinn Laing, Catherine Evans Organizations: REUTERS, Savannah Resources, DO BARROSO, EU, Agriculture Organization, CRU, APA, State, Barroso, Reuters, UDCB, Thomson Locations: Covas do Barroso, Portugal, Barroso, China, London, Savannah, Europe, France, Kiruna, Sweden's, Montalegre, Scarrott, Portuguese, EUROPE, Chile, Covas, Karr, Covas do, Madrid, Stockholm

The wages in Bali, which has a population of more than four million people, can be higher than in other parts of Indonesia. Others, like four of the five young housekeepers who died in the elevator accident last week, are day laborers or contractors who work without a social safety net, sometimes for years. In the Ayuterra Resort case, the government insurance agency decided to give all five workers insurance payouts of over $10,000. Representatives for Ayuterra Resort, in the Ubud area of Bali, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On Thursday, the online rate for a two-bedroom Ayuterra penthouse villa with a private pool in October was nearly $700.

Persons: housekeepers, Niluh Djelantik, ” Organizations: Ayuterra Locations: Bali, Indonesia, Mount, Ubud

CNN —One year after catastrophic floods devastated swathes of Pakistan, some 4 million children in the South Asian nation remain without access to safe water, the United Nations children’s agency has warned. “Vulnerable children living in flood-affected areas have endured a horrific year,” Abdullah Fadil, UNICEF Representative in Pakistan, said in the statement. “The climate-related disaster deepened pre-existing inequities for children and families in affected districts,” UNICEF said in the statement. Children pick vegetables from water at a flooded market after heavy rainfall in Lahore on June 26, 2023. Fadil from UNICEF said the agency has called on the government of Pakistan and its partners to “increase and sustain investment in basic social services for children and families.”He added: “We cannot forget the children of Pakistan.

Persons: ” Abdullah Fadil, “, Asim Hafeez, Dera Allah Yar, Fida Hussain, Imran Khan, Khan, ”, Stephen Innes, Arif Ali, Fadil Organizations: CNN, United Nations, UNICEF, UNICEF Representative, Bloomberg, Getty, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Capital Economics, Analysts Locations: Pakistan, Karachi Division, Sindh province, Pakistan’s, Dera, Jaffarabad district, Balochistan, AFP, Asia, Lahore, South Asia, Afghanistan, India

☆ Pakistan suicide bombing death toll rises to 45
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Saud Mehsud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan, July 31 (Reuters) - The death toll in a suicide bombing at a political rally held by a religious party rose to 45 on Monday, officials said, an attack compounding fears of unrest ahead of a general election due later in the year. An official at a state-run rescue agency, Bilal Faizi, said the death toll had risen to 45. A general view of damaged property, following an explosion by a suicide bomber in Bajaur, Pakistan July 31, 2023 in this screen grab taken from a social media video. Bilal Yasir/via REUTERSPakistan has seen a resurgence of attacks by Islamist militants since last year when a ceasefire between the Pakistani Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the government broke down. A mosque bombing in Peshawar city in the northwest killed more than 100 people in January but attacks on political parties are rare.

Persons: DERA ISMAIL, Fazl, Bilal Faizi, Riaz Anwar, Bilal Yasir, Shehbaz Sharif, Asif Shahzad, Robert Birsel Organizations: Ulema, Islamic, REUTERS, Taliban, Thomson Locations: DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan, Bajaur, Afghanistan, REUTERS Pakistan, Taliban Pakistan, Peshawar city

[1/2] Rescue workers and other people transport an injured person to the hospital, after a blast in Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan July 30, 2023. Rescue 1122/Handout via REUTERSDERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan, July 30 (Reuters) - At least 40 people were killed and over 130 injured when a suicide bomber set off explosives at a political rally in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday, police said. The provincial police chief Akhtar Hayat told Reuters the explosion was caused by a suicide bomb. "The JUI-F organised a workers convention in Khar town of Bajaur in which 40 people lost their lives and more than 130 were injured," Khan said. Pakistan has seen a resurgence of attacks by Islamist militants since last year when a ceasefire between the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamabad broke down.

Persons: DERA ISMAIL, Fazl, Akhtar Hayat, Nazir Khan, Khan, Zabihullah Mujahid, Shehbaz Sharif, Saud Mehsud, Dera Ismail Khan, Jibran Ahmad, Nilutpal, Gibran Peshimam, Andrew Cawthorne, Christina Fincher Organizations: Sunday, Ulema, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Bajaur district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Bajaur, Afghanistan, Peshawar, Khar, Taliban Pakistan, Islamabad, Islamic State

The area, part of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, is a hotbed for fighters of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella organisation of Sunni Islamist groups. A TTP spokesman, Muhammad Khurasani, told Reuters its main target was Pakistan's military, but the police were standing in the way. "Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa pays a greater price for that" because of its exposure to the Islamist militants, he said. The TTP ended the ceasefire in November 2022, and regrouped militants restarted attacks in Pakistan soon after. Reporting by Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam and Jibran Ahmad in Bara, Pakistan; additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan; editing by David Crawshaw.

☆ Blackouts, currency dives and corruption: Pakistan's economy is on the brink of collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Sajjad Qayyum | Afp | Getty ImagesPakistan's economy is on a cliff-edge. These are just the latest shocks amid months of crisis as endemic government corruption, depleted foreign reserves and crippling debt have sent Pakistan's economy spiraling. More than 30% of Pakistan's total foreign debt is owed to China, according to the IMF. An aerial view of the commercial district of Pakistan's port city of Karachi on January 27, 2023. Asif Hassan | Afp | Getty Images

☆ Pakistan suicide car bombing kills one police official, injures others
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Asif Shahzad | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Police officers and rescue workers gather at the site of a suicide car bombing in Islamabad, Pakistan December 23, 2022. "Our initial information says that there was a man and a woman in the car," Islamabad operations police chief, Sohail Zafar, told reporters. "Had the car reached its target, it would have caused heavy losses," Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told Geo News TV. Pakistani Taliban claimed the car bombing, saying it was revenge for the killing of one of their leaders. The bombing came two days after a Pakistani military operation killed 25 TTP militants after a standoff at a counter-terrorism facility.

One hostage, a security official, died during the raid , he said. The army spokesman's comments provided the first detailed official account of the standoff, in which two security personnel were killed when the militants first took over the compound, and two commandoes killed in the ensuing raid. Later other militants at the centre broke into a storeroom where confiscated weapons had been stored. STANDOFFAfter talks failed to resolve a two-day standoff, army commandos stormed the centre on Tuesday. Earlier, residents said they heard explosions coming from the vicinity of the centre on Tuesday as helicopters hovered overhead.

Pakistani Taliban militants detained at the centre had snatched interrogators' weapons and taken them captive on Sunday. Asif did not say how many militants were killed or how many hostages they had held. Residents said they heard explosions coming from the vicinity of the centre on Tuesday as helicopters hovered overhead. The army operations forced the militants and their leaders to flee to neighbouring Afghan districts. There, Islamabad says, they set up training centres to plan and launch attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Afghan authorities deny.

According to a provincial government spokesman, the militants were demanding safe passage to Afghanistan. "We are in negotiations with the central leaders of the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan," Mohammad Ali Saif, a spokesman for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, said. He said the authorities were yet to receive a response from the Pakistani Taliban, adding that relatives of the militants and area tribal elders had also been involved in initiating talks with the Islamists inside the facility. The militants in control of the interrogation facility had demanded a safe passage to Afghanistan, a TTP statement sent to a Reuters reporter said. It added the TTP had also conveyed the demand to Pakistani authorities, but hadn't heard back any "positive" response.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Islamist militants seized a counter-terrorism centre in the northwestern Pakistani area of Bannu on Sunday and took hostages to negotiate with government authorities, officials said. One said about 15 militants took control of the centre after overpowering interrogators inside, grabbing their weapons and taking five or six of them hostage. Pakistan has been fighting an insurgency by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. A spokesman for the TTP did not immediately confirm or deny a link with the militants in the compound. Reporting Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar; Writing by Gibran PeshimamOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Pakistan suicide blast targeting police kills 3, wounds 28
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Gul Yousafzai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

QUETTA, Pakistan, Nov 30 (Reuters) - A suicide bomb blast in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta targeted a police patrol on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding 28, police said. "A bomb blast that targeted a police patrol wounded more than 30 people, including 15 police," a police official, Abdul Haq, told Reuters. The patrol had been guarding a polio vaccination team at the time of the suicide blast, he added. Islamist militants in Pakistan often target polio vaccination teams, in the belief that the immunisation effort is a Western tool to spy on them. Quetta is the capital of Pakistan's province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran, where both Islamist and separatist insurgents operate.

☆ Hoping to beat the tourist crowd on your trip to Japan? That ship has sailed
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Abigail Ng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

I thought I managed to beat the tourist crowds on my recent trip to Japan. Visitors gather on a terrace near the Kiyomizu-dera to watch the sunset and autumn leaves in Kyoto, Japan. In the months before those rules were lifted on Oct. 11, there were fewer traffic jams and queues, said Aw. Tokudaw's Aw said bookings with her company remain strong for the year-end period, at around 85% of pre-Covid levels. Travel, however, told CNBC Travel that its customers from Singapore have made bookings all the way through to April.

☆ Taliban militants in Pakistan end ceasefire with government - spokesman
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Taliban militants in Pakistan will no longer abide by a months-long ceasefire with the Pakistani government, a spokesman for the militant group said on Monday. The Afghan Taliban have been facilitating peace talks between local militants and the government since late last year. The end of the ceasefire comes ahead of a visit by a Pakistani delegation, led by state minister for foreign affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, to Kabul on Tuesday. Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) told Reuters in a text message that its leadership had decided to end the ceasefire with Pakistan. The Pakistani military has carried out several offensives against the militants in their strongholds in remote lawless districts bordering Afghanistan.

[1/5] A police officer stands guard near a passenger van, cordoned after a blast at the entrance of the Confucius Institute University of Karachi, Pakistan, April 26, 2022. Even though months have passed since the attack, Pakistani authorities remain deeply worried. Shortly afterwards, schoolteacher Shari Hayat Baloch, 30, is filmed walking in a park with her young son and daughter and later addressing the camera in combat fatigues. The Chinese officials supported Pakistan's counter-terrorism forces in areas such as CCTV footage enhancement and data retrieval from cell phones, the ministry said. On the day of the Karachi attack, Habitan, a dentist, tweeted that he was "beaming with pride" at what his wife had done.

☆ Pakistan Sees Climate-Fueled Floods, Barely Contributes to Emissions
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-31 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Rising temperatures due to climate change lead to heavy rainfall and floods in many parts of the world. Wealthy industrialized countries have pumped far more greenhouse gas emissions — a key driver of climate change — into the air than Pakistan, a low-emitting nation. Children swim in flood waters along with buffalo on the outskirts of Sukkur, Sindh province, on August 30, 2022. Brick kiln workers carry their belongings and move following flash flood in Hyderabad southern Sindh province Pakistan, on August 30, 2022. "Let's stop sleepwalking towards the destruction of our planet by climate change," he said, adding, "Today, it's Pakistan.

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