KOREAS-TENSION — Seoul's spy agency accuses North Korea of having hacked into the smartphones of dozens of key South Korean officials, stealing text and voice messages and their phone call logs. The announcement came a day after North Korea warned of pre-emptive nuclear strikes in response to the start of Seoul-Washington military drills it views as an invasion rehearsal.

KOREAS-TENSION-ANALYSIS — When North Korea makes threats to nuke its enemies, as it has twice over the last several days, outsiders often have one of two reactions: to dismiss it as yet another example of empty propaganda or to panic. There are good reasons to do neither. There are many ways the North can retaliate that fall short of war, nuclear or conventional. 

CHINA-CONCLAVE-DIPLOMACY — China's foreign minister took a hard line on the country's claims to virtually all the South China Sea, saying Beijing won't permit other nations to infringe on what it considers its sovereign rights in the strategically vital area. 

BANGLADESH-WAR CRIMES — Bangladesh's highest court upholds a death sentence for a senior member of the country's largest Islamist party who was convicted of committing crimes against humanity during the country's independence war against Pakistan in 1971.

JAPAN-FUKUSHIMA-CATTLE PROTEST — Masafumi Yoshizawa has been raising 330 cows at his ranch in the no-go zone just outside the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, defying a government order to kill them. The prized black "wagyu" beef can never be eaten, but Yoshizawa keeps the cows as living proof of the disaster and the unwanted truths the government may be hiding.