The economist
October 26 - Nov 2

The 38th parallel, separating north and south, is Korea’s most important dividing line. But it ...

By Mallika Kaur
September 14, 2013


PRAKASH SINGH/AFP/Getty Images

Death penalty for sexual assault is reportedly a celebrated position in India right now. On Friday, in a case that has captured both national and international attention, a judge sentenced four men to execution for the December 2012 rape and murder of a student in Delhi. The announcement was met with cheers by hundreds of people gathered outside the court. ...

By Dan Kedmey
August 27, 2013


Kumarasamy Thangaraj takes a blood sample from an Andaman islander, as part of his research into the genetics of India's castes. DR. KUMARASAMY THANGARAJ

Kumarasamy Thangaraj traveled 840 miles (1,350 km) off of the eastern coast of India by plane, then ship, then six hours by car, then ship again to collect blood samples from an isolated tribe of hunter-gatherers on the Andaman Islands. Their blood, he explained through an interpreter, would help him understand a pivotal moment in India’s genetic history. ...

By Ai Weiwei
August 27, 2013


Source: Alison Klayman/Sundance Selects via Bloomberg

The just-concluded trial of Bo Xilai will be remembered as one of the most critical political milestones in contemporary Chinese Communist history. For many years after Chairman Mao’s death in 1976, show trials were straightforward affairs. For their role in the devastating Cultural Revolution, the Gang of Four were simply charged with “anti-party activities” and convicted. Today, a political trial needs to take into consideration many more factors. ...

By Chosun Ilbo
August 23, 2013


Thirty-six South Korean fishermen abducted to North Korea pose together on Mt. Myohyang in North Korea in 1974. /Courtesy of the Family Assembly Abducted to North Korea

The government divides citizens abducted by North Korea into two groups -- those kidnapped during the 1950-53 Korean War and those abducted after. ...

By Gerry Mullany
August 16, 2013


“They can’t do this in Malaysia. They’d be arrested immediately, and their livelihoods would be destroyed,” Clare Rewcastle Brown said. Andrew Testa for The New York Times

HONG KONG — CLARE REWCASTLE BROWN is persona non grata in her native Malaysia, barred from entering the former British colony. ...

By Peter Keo
August 14, 2013


Photo Credit: REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Some important themes have emerged from the recent Cambodian general elections – both good and bad. The bad news is that the post-election period was, on some level, more of the same. There were accusations of irregularities and voter fraud, not to mention reports of intimidation and threats to opposition activists in major provinces across the country. ...

By Steven Borowiec
July 29, 2013


Photo Credit: Tormod Sandtorv via Flickr

One of the few foreign aid groups operating in North Korea and the only privately funded NGO treating tuberculosis (TB) has identified a growing challenge in reducing TB in the North: the increasing prevalence of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) that is more difficult and more expensive to treat than regular TB. ...

By Jonathan DeHart
July 23, 2013


Image credit: Flickr (Roger Sayles)

Thanks in part to pop culture touchstones like Treasure Island and Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, we tend to view pirates as a suave, fun-loving bunch that, despite their general lawlessness, is basically harmless at its core. But plundering on the high seas isn’t fiction and it didn’t end in the era of Sir Francis Drake. ...