PALO ALTO, U.S. -- Mark Zuckerberg said there is a "coordinated effort" to misrepresent Facebook's efforts to protect its users as the U.S. social media giant's earnings figures on Monday again showed the Asia-Pacific region leading in user growth.

Figures for the quarter ended Sept. 30 came shortly after leaked internal documents detailing the company's decision-making process on issues such as misinformation, extremism and hate speech were widely reported on Monday.

The files were part

MOSCOW -- On the morning of Aug. 16, a contingent of Taliban fighters and two armored vehicles equipped with machine guns surrounded the Russian Embassy in Kabul. Their mission: to protect the Russian diplomatic personnel inside.

As Russia's Ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov told the Echo Moskva radio station later that day, a Taliban commander promised him that "no one will harm a hair on the heads of Russian diplomats." In a sharp contrast from the tone of his Western counterparts, Zhirnov described the Taliban soldiers

Ben Scott is director, Australia's security and the rules-based order project at the Lowy Institute.

Unlike previous great power contests, competition between the U.S. and China is being waged through, and over the content of, international rules.

The winners of the First World War sought to reorder the world in the form of the League of Nations. They did so again after the Second World War, although more inclusively, by establishing the United Nations. Something similar happened after the Cold War, as

SINGAPORE -- U.S. biotechnology unicorn 10x Genomics opened its Asia-Pacific headquarters and first overseas manufacturing facility in Singapore on Monday as the company aims to expand its presence in China and other regional markets.

The Nasdaq-listed company, which has a market capitalization of over $15 billion, designs and makes gene sequencing technology for scientific research, including products that have been used to support work in treating COVID-19. 10x sells both the machines and the software needed for analyzing

TOKYO -- The U.S. Navy secretary on Monday warned China and Russia against bullying other nations after they sent warships through two maritime choke points in northern and southern Japan.

"The relationship between China and Russia perhaps recently has evolved in ways where they're trying to intimidate other nations with their actions that don't abide by a rules based international order," Carlos Del Toro told reporters in a phone briefing in Tokyo, where he is meeting Japanese government and military officials.

Last Monday, 10

HONG KONG -- A Hong Kong man was found guilty of inciting secession on Monday for chanting slogans and displaying signs seen as advocating the city's independence from China in the second trial under the national security law imposed last year by Beijing.

Ma Chun-man, 30, faces up to seven years' imprisonment for his activities on 20 occasions between August and November 2020 in a case seen as a litmus test for freedom of speech in the city. He will be sentenced on Nov.

TOKYO -- Japanese electronics manufacturer Omron is investing in Techman Robot, a manufacturer of collaborative robots in Taiwan and a subsidiary of Quanta Computer.

Omron will acquire a 10% stake in Techman, a leader in the field of collaborative robots, so called because they are often employed alongside human labor. The Japanese company did not disclose the investment amount but said that it will acquire the shares by December. Quanta is a major Taiwanese contract manufacturer.

Techman is the second biggest collaborative robot manufacturer in the world. Omron believes

SEOUL -- Ahead of Monday's anniversary of the death of Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee, the family behind South Korea's biggest conglomerate began the process of paying a world-record inheritance tax of 12 trillion won ($10.3 billion).

Lee's family held a small memorial service on Monday morning. In attendance was son Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics and de facto leader of the group, who was released on parole in August after serving more

TOKYO -- Japanese marine shipper Kawasaki Kisen will likely report a record pretax profit of roughly 230 billion yen ($2.02 billion) for the first half ended September, Nikkei has learned, a company record for any six-month period, thanks to the boom in container ship demand.

That would mark a 23-fold jump from a year earlier, surpassing the latest projection by 30 billion yen. In May, Kawasaki Kisen initially forecast a 44 billion yen pretax profit for the