Category: Asia-Pacific

More than 50 years after the French, the tranquil capital Vientiane boasts refurbished colonial buildings, formerly the playgrounds of the elite… After decades of neglect and deterioration under a communist regime, efforts to restore and preserve these witnesses of a bygone era have only started in recent times. Together with Phnom Penh and Ho Chi […]

Fiji union leader arrested as mass civil service strike looms.. Half of Fiji’s civil service will begin a near-general strike on Thursday morning (Fiji Time), despite the arrest of a union leader by the military early on Wednesday. The strike by more than 10,000 civil servants, including teachers, will add to an already week-long strike […]

The celebrations on New Year's Eve in the West may now be a memory, but in China they're just beginning… Most of us have to see a real war zone, but if you have ever wondered what it is like, the safest way to find out is to visit China during the lunar New Year’s […]

Vanuatu has been producing some of the world's best beef for years, but now it is trying to take a cut of the organic market… Lunch break is over. The first head of cattle enters the steel chamber. The stun-gun operator attempts to position the silver pistol-like instrument between the eyes of the jostling animal. […]

Japan's king of satellite TV smut brings news read by presenters in bikinis to mobile phones… There's an old saying: You can take the man out of sleaze but you can't take the sleaze out of the man. Or something like that… As the founder of pioneering satellite raunch network Paradise TV seven years ago, […]

Japan's king of satellite TV smut now brings news clips read by anchors in bikinis to mobile phones… There's an old saying: You can take the man out of sleaze but you can't take the sleaze out of the man. Or something like that… As the founder of pioneering satellite raunch network Paradise TV seven years ago, […]

The arrival of Las Vegas gambling in squeaky-clean Singapore is causing consternation among its conservative citizens… Nice and quiet is exactly how Singaporean Emmanuel Robin Tan likes his city. So the 28-year old has not got a good word to say about the coming construction of Singapore's first casino in downtown Marina Bay.  "It will […]

The US embassy warns American citizens to stay away from certain parts of the capital Seoul as a homegrown campaign urges foreigners to leave… Demonstrations against foreigners are planned and an online petition to keep foreigners out of the Republic of Korea has already received thousands of signatures. Many foreigners are worried, some have already […]