India’s first consignment of over 11 tonnes of emergency relief materials worth INR 10 crore (~$1.2 million) arrived at Nepalgunj, Nepal, on 5 November. The relief materials, including tents and tarpaulin sheets, blankets and sleeping bags, and essential medicines and medical equipment like portable ventilators for the affected people, were transported by a special Indian Air Force C-130 flight to aid Kathmandu in the aftermath of Friday’s 6.4-magnitude earthquake, which killed over 150 people. Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Naveen Srivastava, handed over the first consignment of emergency relief material to Nepali Deputy PM and Defence Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka.
The US, South Korea and Japan have agreed to launch a high-level consultative group on countering North Korean cyber activities that allegedly finance Pyongyang’s unlawful weapons programs. “It is aimed at strengthening the three countries’ effective response capabilities against global cyber threats, including jointly countering North Korea’s cyber activities that are abused as a key source funding its nuclear and WMD programs,” South Korea’s presidential office said on Monday.
According to a report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), poppy cultivation and opium production have decreased by more than 90 per cent in Afghanistan since Taliban authorities banned the crop in April 2022. While poppy cultivation dropped from 233,000 hectares at the end of 2022 to 10,800 in 2023, opium fell from 6,200 tonnes to 333 tonnes over the same period.
Japanese PM Fumio Kishida said on Saturday his government, along with the Philippines and the US, were cooperating to protect the freedom of the South China Sea, as he vowed to help improve Manila’s security capabilities. “In the South China Sea, trilateral cooperation to protect the freedom of the sea is under way,” Kishida announced in an address before the Philippine Congress.