Asia

In every situation, the disaster-hit people of Nepal were remarkably dignified. In some instances, they were unbelievable. The stories which did not make headlines were, to me, the most moving.

Beijing is only too happy to offer an alternative to Western-dominated international finance. What's more surprising is that leading Western economies are signing up.

There is a showdown coming in Okinawa that will test the limits of US and Japanese state power.

It is the failure of the WTO to deliver meaningful outcomes for poorer countries which is the real obstacle to a functioning multilateral trade system.

If some extraterrestrial species were compiling a history of Homo sapiens, they might well break their calendar into two eras: BNW (before nuclear weapons) and NWE (the nuclear weapons era).  The latter era, of course, opened on August 6, 1945.

Outnumbered by the country's rural voters, Thailand's once vibrantly democratic urban middle class has embraced an elitist, antidemocratic agenda.