Asia

Chinese censors rip out magazine article by dissident Ai Weiwei

Saturday, 3 September 2011

Chinese censors have removed pages of Newsweek magazine containing an essay by Ai Weiwei in which the country's most famous dissenting artist slams the repressive environment in Beijing and criticises the police and the legal system.

Militants 'kidnap 40 boys from Pakistan'

Saturday, 3 September 2011

Suspected Taliban militants in Afghanistan have kidnapped up to 40 Pakistani boys who inadvertently strayed across the border, officials said yesterday.

Video: 20 hurt in Chinese tidal surge

Friday, 2 September 2011

20 people have been injured after thousands flocked to see the annual tidal surge in east China's Zhejiang province.

Japan: 500,000 take part in quake drills

Friday, 2 September 2011

More than half a million people took part in annual drills across Japan yesterday to prepare for disasters.

Family query corruption chief Xie Yexin's 'suicide'

Thursday, 1 September 2011

The family of a Chinese anti-corruption investigator has demanded an inquiry after authorities claimed he stabbed himself to death several weeks after he was taken off an investigation into a Communist Party official.

100,000 flee as storm reaches Chinese coast

Thursday, 1 September 2011

Archie Bland: More than 100,000 people have been evacuated and hundreds have had their homes destroyed after Tropical Storm Nanmadol reached land in China early yesterday.

Tibetan monks jailed over self-immolation

Thursday, 1 September 2011

Two Tibetan Buddhist monks have been jailed for assisting in the death of a 16-year-old colleague who set himself alight.

Philippines: Squatters' town is bulldozed

Thursday, 1 September 2011

Police clashed with squatters yesterday as bulldozers moved in to demolish 350 shacks built on private land in Quezon City, east of the capital Manila.

The east looks north as China moves in on Iceland

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

Clifford Coonan: A wealthy Chinese businessman's plans to buy part of an Icelandic island may hide hidden ambitions to open up new trade routes.

US forces suffer their deadliest month yet in Afghan campaign

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

David Usborne: 66 military personnel lost this month, including the 30 who were killed when a Chinook was shot down.

Car bomb kills 10 in Pakistan

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

A suicide car bomber attacked Shiite Muslims in south-west Pakistan today at the start of an Islamic holiday, killing at least 10 people, officials said.

Indian economy under pressure as growth slips to 18-month low

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

India, one of the developing world's great economic motors, posted its weakest growth for six quarters yesterday. The GDP of Asia's third-largest economy (after China and Japan) expanded at an annualised rate of 7.7 per cent in the second three months of 2011. A year ago, the Indian economy was expanding at a rate of 8.8 per cent.

China cracks down on lenders to curb inflation

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

China's central bank is cracking down on banks' efforts to get around credit controls by requiring them to hold more types of deposits in reserve rather than lend the money, which effectively tightens credit conditions further.

The fast and the furious: Muslims are told Ramadan is not over yet

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

Enjoli Liston: Some Indonesians refused to abandon their plans and celebrated Eid with fellow Muslims in Saudi Arabia.

Boycott scuppers Kashmiri literary festival

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

Indian-administered Kashmir's first major literature festival has been cancelled after local writers and artists said it would give the false impression that basic freedoms are allowed in the troubled region.

19 China miners rescued after a week

Tuesday, 30 August 2011

Their faces black with coal dust, 19 miners trapped for a week underground were pulled to safety today in northeastern China as rescuers searched for three missing colleagues.

Video: Miners rescued from flooded pit

Tuesday, 30 August 2011

A group of 22 miners have been rescued after a week in an illegal Chinese pit.

Ai Weiwei breaks gagging order in scathing attack on China's human rights

Tuesday, 30 August 2011

Dissident artist speaks out after weeks of muted criticism

Beijing sets 'bulldog of Tibet' on its Catholics

Tuesday, 30 August 2011

The hardline official who led Beijing's tough response to the Dalai Lama and his Tibetan Buddhist supporters has shifted jobs to tackle a new target: the country's embattled Catholics.

Japan's new leader Yoshihiko Noda to tackle post-tsunami crisis

Tuesday, 30 August 2011

A hawkish fiscal and foreign policy conservative who supports nuclear power will be sworn in today as Japan's sixth prime minister in five years.

US believes al-Qa'ida is on the verge of defeat after deputy leader's death

Monday, 29 August 2011

American and Pakistani officials said al-Qa'ida's second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, delivering another blow to a terrorist group that the US believes to be on the verge of defeat.

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Why the Fukushima disaster is worse than Chernobyl

Monday, 29 August 2011

Japan has been slow to admit the scale of the meltdown. But now the truth is coming out. David McNeill reports from Soma City

Japan's finance minister to be new PM

Monday, 29 August 2011

Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda was chosen to become Japan's sixth prime minister in five years, but needs to overcome a divided parliament and deep rifts in the ruling party if he is to make more of a mark than his recent predecessors.

UN warns of bird flu resurgence

Monday, 29 August 2011

The United Nations today warned of a possible resurgence of the deadly bird flu virus, saying wild bird migrations had brought it back to previously virus-free countries and that a mutant strain was spreading in Asia.

Ex-Maoist rebel sworn in as Nepal's new PM

Monday, 29 August 2011

The deputy leader of Nepal's former Maoist rebels took the oath of office Monday as the new prime minister and began forming a government that will attempt to complete the country's contentious and long-delayed peace process.