#CNNWorld

Xi Jinping has had a busy couple of weeks.

A giant snow corridor near the otherworldly Mount Tateyama, one of Japan's three sacred mountains, is reopening to travelers on April 15.

This is it.

The US State Department said Thursday it is "disappointed" by a Chinese court's decision to uphold the death sentence for American citizen Mark Swidan and called for his immediate release.

North Korea said it launched a new solid-fueled Hwasong-18 Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Thursday (local time), according to state media KCNA on Friday.

Iran executed at least 582 people last year, a 75% increase on the previous year, according to human rights groups who say the rise reflects an effort by Tehran to "instill fear" among anti-regime protesters.

The head of the Tibetan government-in-exile has defended the Dalai Lama over a video in which the spiritual leader kisses a child on the lips and then asks him to "suck my tongue."

Almost 9,700 children and adolescents have tried to cross the infamous Darien Gap in the first two months of 2023, a seven-fold increase compared to the same period in 2022, according to a UNICEF report.

Two nuns who worked at a nursing home in Nicaragua were expelled from the country this week, amid a far-reaching crackdown on opposition leaders, journalists and the Catholic church by the government of President Daniel Ortega.

When customers at Silicon Valley Bank rushed to withdraw billions of dollars last month, venture capitalist Arlan Hamilton stepped in to help some of the founders of color who panicked about losing access to payroll funds.

Even as rents are cooling in some parts of the country, it has never cost more to rent a Manhattan apartment as it did in March.

President Joe Biden is spending much of his trip to Ireland this week exploring his family's roots, from the shoemaker who sailed from Newry in 1849 in search of a better life in America to the brick-seller in Ballina who sold 28,000 bricks to pay for his own family's passage to the US.

After more than a year of soaring prices monopolizing the attention of Wall Street, Main Street, economists, and journalists, the tide may be turning. 

A massive cyclone swirling off Australia's western coast will likely make landfall as a category 5 storm -- the strongest on the national scale -- according to the country's official forecaster.

French President Emmanuel Macron might have hoped to focus this week on what may prove the biggest domestic test of his leadership, as France's Constitutional Council prepares to rule Friday on whether or not he can push ahead with controversial pension reforms. 

Sea levels on China's coastline have hit their highest on record for the second year in a row, rising more quickly than the global average and posing a serious threat to coastal cities such as the financial hub of Shanghai.

Everything old is new again.

Snaking through the dense forests of Alishan, one of the tallest mountain ranges in Taiwan, the 111-year-old Alishan Forest Railway has long been a popular attraction for train fans.

Japan's workers still aren't getting paid enough to keep up with rising prices. That's hurting living standards and creating a major headache for the country's new central bank chief as he marks his first week on the job.

Mexican authorities are investigating the head of the country's immigration agency, in the wake of last month's deadly fire in a migrant detention center that killed at least 38 people and left dozens injured.