Japanese author and keen runner Haruki Murakami sent a "personal message" to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing and said he also felt wounded by the attack on his favourite race.
Nestled in Australia's Adelaide hills, Penfolds Magill Estate has opened its double cellar doors to launch global sales of one of the most hyped "new world" wines in recent history.
South Africa's government announced the suspension of a slew of officials and military personnel Friday, as it tried to limit the political and diplomatic fallout from a lavish Indian wedding.
The death toll from last week's collapse of a garment factory complex in Bangladesh passed 500 Friday as the country's prime minister said Western retailers had to share some of the blame for the tragedy.
Two teens in eastern China committed suicide after "failing to complete homework assignments" state-run media said on Friday, in an extreme case highlighting the immense pressure schoolchildren can face.
India's movie industry toasted its 100th birthday on Friday with the release of two films celebrating its humble origins in the silent era and the influence of glamorous modern-day Bollywood.
After weeks of soaring tensions over US-South Korean war games that ended this week, North Korea has toned down its warlike rhetoric in what observers say is a sign that it may now be ready to talk.
China will likely use its growing power to try to force its way with Japan but it is doubtful that Beijing will enter a Cold War-style confrontation with the United States.
China has detained 900 people for meat-related crimes including selling rat and fox meat as beef and mutton, the public security ministry said, in another blow to the nation's food safety.
Oil prices took a breather in Asian trade Friday as investors locked in profits after a strong rally following the European Central Bank's decision to cut interest rates.
A statue of a Cambodian union boss gunned down on a Phnom Penh street in 2004 was unveiled Friday in a rare public recognition of a champion of workers' rights in the impoverished kingdom.
An international team of surgeons has successfully given a South Korean-Canadian toddler a life-saving windpipe transplant made from plastic fibers and some of her own stem cells.
North Korea could be ready within weeks to start operating a light-water reactor that has triggered growing concern amid the regime's vows to build more nuclear weapons.
A new law has taken effect prohibiting Chinese from being committed to mental hospitals without their consent in an attempt to prevent "forced detentions".
South Korea on Thursday pledged about $270 million in financial aid for firms hit by the withdrawal from a joint industrial zone in North Korea that has fallen victim to military tensions.