It's not your average cross-town city bus: the new Papa Tour of Buenos Aires is packing them in for a nostalgic swing past local landmarks in the life of the man who became Pope Francis.

The day before the start of the official campaign period, we proposed the following reading of the 2013 elections: “The fate of reform hangs in the balance.” The mandate from 2010 was clear: Clean up the mess left behind by the previous administration.

Any Thai who marks the anniversaries of the May 1992 “mobile phone mob” uprising and May 2010 red-shirt uprising with the same solemn sincerity should be commended. From a general observation, it's unlikely that there are many such people. The country's political divide has run deep and the two bloody events do not share many crucial things in common.

On Thursday, May 9, Hung Shih-cheng died from gunfire while hiding in the cabin of the Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28, a Taiwanese fishing vessel plying its trade in the South China Sea.

I remember seeing a television remote control when I was 4 years old, back in my home in Glasgow, Scotland. “Made in Taiwan” was written across the bottom.

As a matter of fact, most of the people in Taiwan take it for granted that they are Chinese. Sure, seven out of every ten people will claim they are Hoklo.

To survive a 10-year ordeal of beatings and rapes at the hands of the Ohio kidnapper, his three victims may have set their mentalities to a form of “auto-pilot” to dull the trauma, psychologists say.

As China slows and Australia begins its painful transition away from a decadelong mining boom, Treasurer Wayne Swan will have little to offer voters wanting an election-year spending spree Tuesday.

Late last month, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe claimed that “invasion” had no definition that was firmly established, either internationally or academically. He said it differed, depending on from whose perspective it was seen. He made the remarks in reply to a question regarding Japan's past apology for invading Korea, China and other Asian countries for colonial occupation.

Two odd incidents in which people lost their cool and physically attacked someone surfaced in our local news this past week. Although the stories may have appeared trivial, they offer fodder for reflection on the topics of anger and basic, old-fashioned respect.