Another Korean American won a seat in the US House of Representatives, a news report said, an election that will add to a steadily growing list of Korean American lawmakers in Congress.

State Sen. Dave Min, a Democrat, has defeated his Republican rival, Scott Baugh, by a slim margin in the race in California's 47th Congressional District, reports.

"I know many of us are anxious about the future of our country, but we cannot give up on America," Min wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "In Congress, I will fight to protect our democracy, safeguard our freedoms, and expand economic opportunity."

With his election, he joined a small yet growing group of lawmakers of Korean descent, including Rep. Andy Kim, who has become the first Korean American elected to the Senate.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday said it has approved more than $285 million in financing for two projects to make Nepal greener and help it address climate change risks and geophysical events.

"Nepal's path to sustainable development faces challenges from a combination of climate-induced and geophysical hazards, along with high exposure and vulnerability of communities, infrastructure, and systems," said ADB Country Director for Nepal Arnaud Cauchois.

The ADB said in its press release that it is providing 100 million dollars toward subprogram 1 of the Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development (GRID) Program through a policy-based loan. The loan supports the government's GRID approach, a novel homegrown process to development planning and implementation that holistically addresses a set of overlapping and reinforcing crises, reports news agency.

The Japanese government is considering offering one-time support payments of 30,000 yen (about $192) to each low-income household exempt from resident tax as part of a planned economic package, local media reported.

The government also plans to add 20,000 yen (about $128) per child to the benefits to such households with children, Kyodo News reported Wednesday, citing sources close to the matter.

The cash handouts are designed to support low-income households hit hard by rising costs of food and other daily necessities, reports.

The stimulus package, to be compiled later this month, is also expected to reintroduce subsidies for electricity and gas bills in January next year, aiming to provide the support beyond the year-end deadline until March.

A rare huge dust storm swept through California's Central Valley, causing a highway pileup and leaving thousands without power.

The weather phenomenon, known as a haboob, caused near-zero visibility near Chowchilla, 400 km north of Los Angeles. About 20 vehicles, including a semi-truck, collided on Highway 152 around 1 p.m. local time, with several people hospitalised with minor injuries, reports news agency, quoting California Highway Patrol.

In Fresno County, the dust storm knocked down power lines, leaving more than 12,000 residents without electricity. One incident saw a tree split in half and crash onto a carport at an apartment complex, narrowly missing children playing nearby.

Over half of Australia's animal and plant species experienced declines following the country's 2019-20 megafires, new research has found.

The new research, published by Melbourne's Deakin University in Nature, analysed the impact of the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires on 1,380 animal and plant species found in Australia, reports news agency.

It found that 55 per cent of the species declined following the fires - either because they were less abundant overall or occupied fewer sites.

The 2019-20 fires were among the worst in Australian history, burning an estimated 24.3 million hectares of land across the country - primarily on the east coast - and causing 34 deaths directly as well as hundreds more from smoke inhalation.

As the UN climate conference (COP29) is underway in Baku in Azerbaijan, oil and gas companies are exacerbating the climate crisis by failing to set strict targets to stop methane leaking into the atmosphere, while overall action to cut emissions globally remains weak at best and sometimes non-existent, a report from the financial think tank Carbon Tracker said on Thursday.

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and while most large producers have announced plans to cut emissions from their operated upstream assets to “near zero” by 2030, the report reveals none have set targets that cover all methane emissions related to their business activities.

‘Absolute Impact 2024’ assesses and ranks pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions made by 30 of the largest oil and gas producers.

South Korea's fiscal deficit grew markedly during the first nine months of 2024, the finance ministry here said on Thursday, partly due to increased expenditure.

The managed fiscal balance, a key gauge of fiscal health calculated on stricter terms, posted a deficit of 91.5 trillion won ($65.1 billion) in the January-September period, up 20.9 trillion won from the same period last year, according to the finance ministry.

This year's tally was the third-largest figure for the cited period, the ministry said. The shortfall came to 108.4 trillion won in the first nine months of 2020, reports news agency.

The deficit is nearly in line with the 91.6 trillion won forecast for the year, as outlined in this year's budget.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday won Republican nomination to remain in the position, after US President-elect Donald Trump appeared to have backed him during a meeting with House Republicans.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, was elected House Speaker in a full chamber vote of 220-209, with unanimous Republican support, in October 2023, which brought weeks of chaos to a momentary halt as Republicans struggled to find a replacement after the historical ouster of Kevin McCarthy, news agency reported.

Multiple US media outlets projected on Wednesday that Republicans will win enough seats to retain control of the US House of Representatives, with the party securing at least 218 seats -- the threshold to maintain a majority in the 435-member chamber.

Voting in Sri Lanka's parliamentary poll started on Thursday to elect 225 members to the Parliament with President Anura Kumara Dissanyake seeking a majority.

President Dissanyake is seeking a majority to govern the sovereign debt-defaulted nation amid calls for a new political culture without corruption and misappropriation of public funds.

This would be the first major test of the popularity of the ruling party, National People's Power, led by President Dissanyake

Samagi Jana Sandanaya led by Sajith Premadasa, the Sri Lanka Podujana Party of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the New Democratic Front made up breakaway legislators backing former President Ranil Wickremesinghe and minority parties in the North are seeking seats.

The eruption of Mount Lewotobi in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, has led to the cancellation of both international and domestic flights to and from Bali and Lombok.

"22 international flights were cancelled on Tuesday due to volcanic ash," said Ahmad Syaugi Shahab, general manager of Bali's I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, on Wednesday.

Most of the cancelled flights were international routes, including those to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Brisbane, Australia, as well as Incheon, South Korea, along with 12 domestic flights. Airlines are offering passengers options for refunds or rescheduling, reports news agency.

Meanwhile, Arif Haryanto, spokesperson for PT Angkasa Pura I at Lombok Airport in West Nusa Tenggara, confirmed that all domestic and international flights were suspended on Tuesday, including routes to Singapore and Malaysia.