For years Anita Zhang's neighbors joked that if a tornado ever bore down on her Chinese restaurant, folks could take refuge in its roomy walk-in freezer.

Official assurances about the improving health of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, hospitalized in France in April, have failed to convince many Algerians, as analysts warn that hiding such details is harder than it was.

Mamun was hailed a hero for pulling survivors from the ruins of Bangladesh's Rana Plaza factory complex but now he struggles to sleep, haunted by the memory of sawing off a young woman's hand.

Good, bad or ugly, the 2013 elections are over; and now testing times are ahead for the new incumbents. It is the third coming for Nawaz Sharif, a remarkable turn of fortune for a leader who was ousted from power by the military at gunpoint in 1999 and convicted on treason charges.

While Taipei and Manila continue their very public dispute over the shooting death of a Taiwanese fisherman by members of the Philippine coast guard, lurking in the background is China, whose presence is very much felt by both parties.

For the past five years, the Philippines has dodged the recession plaguing the developed world mainly because of the billions of dollars sent home by some 10 million Filipinos living or working abroad. But the picture is no longer that rosy. Last week, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP or central bank) reported that in March, remittances from overseas Filipinos grew at the slowest pace in nearly four years.

An official visit to the United States by Myanmar President Thein Sein this week should not be regarded as a celebration of the success of reforms in Myanmar. The job is far from finished, with many tough challenges still to be tackled, with no guarantee of success or achievement.

With the White House already reeling from three major controversies, some Republican lawmakers are zeroing in on what they perceive is another possible scandal tied to U.S. President Barack Obama's landmark health reform law just as it nears implementation.

In an ideal world, how would the recent shooting by the Philippine Coast Guard of a Taiwanese fishing boat, which resulted in the killing of one of the fishermen, have been handled?

On May 3, South Korea delivered US$13 million in cash to North Korea and withdrew the last batch of seven South Koreans from the industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. The money was for back pay and severance pay to 53,000 North Koreans that had been withdrawn from the South Korean factories in the industrial complex at the height of inter-Korean tensions the previous month.