Here are a few stories from around Asia you may have missed this week.

South Korea opened its largest defense expo ever, the International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition (ADEX), on Tuesday, showcasing its next-generation fighter jet, drones, and other technologies in an effort to boost exports. South Korea's newly developed fighter jet, the KF-21 stealth fighter, made by state-owned Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd., was a prominent feature at the defense exhibition. This year's show is designed to help South Korea reach its goal of becoming the world's fourth-largest arms exporter. At least 440 companies from 28 countries are showcasing aircraft and ground equipment. Approximately 300 government and military officials from 45 countries are expected to attend the event, which will run until Saturday. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol announced on Tuesday that he plans to enhance the global competitiveness of South Korea's defense industry, considering it a strategic sector that supports both the country's security and economy.

Pakistan's Islamabad High Court on Thursday barred the government from arresting former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif when he returns to the country after more than four years of self-imposed exile. In July 2018, Sharif was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a corruption case for owning assets beyond known income sources. Reuters reported that his lawyer, Azam Nazeer Tarar, said that Sharif had been granted protective bail, under which authorities could not arrest him until he appears before a court on October 24. Tarar added that Sharif would address a rally in the city of Lahore upon his return.

A Chinese constellation of remote-sensing satellites has successfully obtained high-precision terrain mapping data products using multi-baseline interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technology, marking the country's first in-orbit application of such a mapping system. The breakthrough was made public on Tuesday in a press release from the Aerospace Information Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The InSAR radars installed on the satellites can capture two images of the same location by bouncing radar signals off the Earth's surface at different times. By causing the images to interfere with each other, they produce maps called interferograms, which reveal the ground-surface displacement between the two time periods.

Vietnam has reported nearly 100,000 dengue fever cases with 27 deaths since the beginning of 2023, said the country's Health Ministry on Tuesday. The number of infections in the capital city Hanoi has shown no sign of declining. Since the end of September, the infection rate in Hanoi has increased sharply, standing at around 2,500 to 2,600 cases a week.

Five people were killed in floods in Thailand's north this week. Since the beginning of the monsoon season in September, a total of 23 people have died in floods and 33 have been injured, the Ministry of Public Health said in a statement. More than 62,000 households have been impacted by floods this wet season, the statement said. Three fatalities were reportedly caused by flash floods coming down mountains into valleys in Chiang Muan district of the northern province.

(Cover: South Korean helicopters fly over a U.S. F-22 fighter jet on display at the 2023 Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition (ADEX) in Seongnam, South Korea, October 16, 2023. /Reuters)