North Korea on Sunday conducted its sixth nuclear test, claiming it was now capable of producing intercontinental ballistic missiles fitted with thermonuclear warheads. 　Several nuclear weapons states around the world carried out these experiments throughout the 20th century, but North Korea is believed to be the only country to do so after 2000.

　Nanyang Technological University in Singapore retained its No. 1 spot in the latest rankings of the world’s top 50 universities established in the last 50 years, according to the Quacquarelli Symonds World Universities Rankings.　The young universities are ranked according to performance across six criteria: Academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations per faculty member, ratio of faculty members to students, proportion of international students and proportion of international fa

　Rapper-turned-actor Mark Wahlberg was named the world’s highest paid actor, earning an estimated $68 million before taxes over the past 12 months.　The 46-year-old star won his place at the top of the list compiled by Forbes magazine, thanks to earnings from “Transformers: The Last Knight” and comedy sequel “Daddy's Home 2,” due out in November.　Dwayne Johnson, who placed first in 2016, is in second place with $65 million, after starring in the big screen reboot of lifeguard action-comedy “Baywa

　J.K. Rowling, creator of the enduringly popular “Harry Potter” series, has topped the list of the world’s highest-paid authors after earning $95 million, according to Forbes.　Crime novelist Patterson was knocked down from the top perch to the No. 2 spot this year, with earnings of $87 million　Far below in earnings in the third spot were children’s book writer Jeff Kinney, of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” success, with $21 million in earnings and Dan Brown of “The Da Vinci Code” fame in fourth with $20

　Asia is home to more Fortune Global 500 companies today than any other continent. 　Beijing alone has 57 companies which are among the world’s 500 largest companies, according to a list compiled by Fortune. 　Japan is home to 51 global companies although it has lost one company this year in the list. Japan’s capital, Tokyo is home to 37 global companies and Japan’s third largest city Osaka is home to 7 companies.   　South Korea has 15 companies on the list and eleven of them are in Soul. India ha

　Iceland has been named the safest country on Earth, according to the 2017 Global Peace Index. 　The report ranked 163 nations according to their “levels of peacefulness.” The rankings were determined by 23 factors, including homicids, violent crimes, the impact of terrorism and deaths from internal conflicts.　New Zealand ranked second, followed by Portugal, while Ireland rose two places to tie with Japan for the No. 10 spot this year.　Among the most dangerous countries were Syria, Afghanistan, a

　The government’s anti-smoking campaign, funded partly by increased revenue from a cigarette price hike, has not been effective.　In January 2015, when the price of cigarettes was raised 80 percent from 2,500 won ($2.21) to 4,500 won, monthly cigarette sales were 295 million packs. Currently, monthly sales are close to 300 million packs, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Assembly Budget Office.　Part of the revenue from the hike in cigarette price was allocated to di

　Kakao Taxi is the most popular cab-hailing app in South Korea, dominating 98 percent of the market this year. UberTaxi came in a second with 11 percent. 　Market analysis company Open Survey polled 1,500 smartphone users between 20 through 40 to find out which online-to-offline apps they use the most for specific needs. Multiple selections were allowed in the survey.　For food delivery, the most used app is Baedal Minjok with 80 percent. It was closely followed by Yogiyo with 72 percent. Baedalto

　Only about 10 percent of eggs, or 4.5 million, subject to recall for possible contamination with harmful pesticides have been seized by the authorities as of Tuesday, officials said, suggesting that the majority of them may have already been bought or consumed. 　A total of 52 poultry farms in South Korea were found to have used insecticides not permitted for poultry farming, including fipronil, in a nationwide examination conducted between Aug. 15 -18. All eggs produced from July 1, estimated t

　The graph shows Asia’s demographics. By 2024, it will look very different as India’s population is all set to surpass that of China. 　Currently China, with a population of 1.41 billion, and India, with 1.34 billion, remain the two most populous countries, comprising of 19 percent and 18 percent of the total global population respectively, according to the UN report. And in about seven years, or around 2024, the population of India is expected to surpass that of China.　Other populous Asian count

　Cambodia’s legendary ancient Angkor Wat complex was named the planet’s most stunning landmark in 2017 by TripAdvisor.　Angkor Wat is the world’s largest religious monument. It includes temples, reservoirs and canals. 　The travel website releases awards lists throughout the year, bestowing kudos on hotels, destinations, museums and more, based on users’ reviews.

　Women held roughly half of governmental positions in South Korea as of last year, mostly concentrated in educational services. 　According to data released by the Ministry of Personnel Management this week, of the nation’s 650,000 civil servants at the end of 2016, 323,000, or 49.8 percent, were women. The proportion of female civil servants has been on a steady increase in recent years, moving from 48.1 percent in 2013 to 49 percent in 2014 and 49.4 percent in 2015.  　Education services showed