NEW YORK -- Twenty years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S., memorial services and moments of silence were held where the World Trade Center once stood in New York City and other locations on Saturday.

At the ceremony in New York, moments of silence were observed at 8:46 a.m. and 9:03 a.m. when al-Qaida-hijacked American Airlines flights 11 and 175 hit the twin towers, respectively. The names

Some 10 Afghans, local staff at Japan's agencies in Afghanistan and or their families, have left the country and entered neighboring Pakistan by land on their own, multiple diplomatic sources said Friday.

The locals, who were among about 500 evacuation seekers left in the war-torn country as Japan's Self-Defense Forces dispatched to Kabul airport for an evacuation mission were ordered to withdraw on Aug. 31, will head for Japan on Sunday at the earliest, the sources said.

Japan had

TOKYO -- Japan on Aug. 31 ordered the return of evacuation aircraft dispatched to Afghanistan. While other countries have brought several hundred to more than 100,000 people to safety, Japan has flown out only 15 people. The bungled evacuation effort, which met with legal and other obstacles, offers lessons to Japan when it comes to preparing for possible emergency situations in the Taiwan Strait or on the Korean Peninsula.

"Local people working in this country's organizations are our family members,

TOKYO -- Coronavirus-induced business failures in Japan rose 49% in August to 121 from a year earlier amid a fourth wave of COVID infections.

Analysis from research specialist Tokyo Shoko Research published Wednesday found that the total number of coronavirus-induced bankruptcies from January to August reached 1,026, accounting for around 26% of all business failures in Japan over the period.

The restaurant and bar businesses have been hit hardest. Of all the bankrupt businesses, 204, or 2

HANOI/TOKYO -- Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's southern commercial hub, has a death rate from COVID-19 of 4.95%, well above the national average and that of its peers in Southeast Asia.

As the government struggles to keep a lid on the region's deadliest coronavirus outbreak, citizens and foreign companies in Vietnam's largest city are bracing for an extension of the restrictions they have been living under since May 31. Authorities are set to decide soon whether to

WASHINGTON -- After two decades of the war on terror, the world is back to where it was pre-9/11: a superpower competition between the U.S. and China, according to former Economist editor Bill Emmott.

Now we enter an increasingly bipolar world where Washington and Beijing operate separately in international affairs, talking to each other only when they need to, he told Nikkei in an interview.

Emmott called both countries "Middle Kingdoms." The likes of Japan and the U.K.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday called for national unity as the United States prepared to mark the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed 2,977 people, calling it America's greatest strength in the face of adversity.

Biden, speaking in a videotaped recording at the White House, honored the memories of those killed in the attacks and the thousands more injured, as well as the firefighters, nurses

TOKYO -- A public and private group in Tokyo will trial a smartphone app that allows foreign blue-collar workers to file complaints and report problems.

The app will recognize any issues, including those related to visas, working conditions, housing and taxation. The group wants to raise the profile of the app among foreign workers so that they can report any issues that can then be recorded and eventually harnessed to develop a chatbot service using artificial intelligence.

The project is initiated by JP-Mirai, a multibody platform that oversees

KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia's state energy company Petroliam Nasional (Petronas) and Japanese oil giant Eneos are exploring opportunities to develop a clean hydrogen supply chain between the two countries.

The collaboration stems from the companies' common aspiration of achieving net-zero carbon emissions. Petronas is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050, while Eneos has set its target for 2040.

Petronas, which currently produces low-carbon hydrogen, plans to explore the commercial production of green hydrogen. It aims to become