Simon Denyer

TOKYO — DJ Daisuke Kikyo jumped in the air, pumped his fists and blasted hits such as “La Bamba,” “YMCA” and “Call Me Maybe” to hype up the mood at the beach volleyball match held at Tokyo’s Shiokaze Park on Thursday. The video screen instructed fans…

BEIJING — American presidents are fond of describing their nation as a “city on a hill” — a shining example for other nations to follow. But China is now officially in the business of styling itself as another polestar for the world, with a very…

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the rate of world population growth would stabilize around 2050, while India’s would continue to climb, and also incorrectly said India’s population was getting younger. Pedestrians weave…

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The economic crisis is pushing the world’s hungriest people to the wall, but a fraction of the cost of financial rescue packages could make a huge difference, the head of the U.N.’s World Food Program said Tuesday. “I don’t…

BEIJING (Reuters) - Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele completed the long distance double and Kenya won two more golds as Africa dominated the last evening of Olympics sport in the Bird’s Nest on Saturday. There were rare sour notes, though, when a Ukrainian…

BEIJING (Reuters) - Michael Phelps held his arms aloft on Sunday after surpassing Mark Spitz as the most successful swimmer and Olympian of all time, relief written on his face after he won an unprecedented eighth gold at one Games. Afterwards, he…