For the second time in five years, Nepal goes to the polls to vote for a new government that many hope will end the political stalemate that has kept the former Himalayan kingdom in gridlock since 2008. The signs, though, point …
Asia
China’s Great Firewall Won’t Be Touched by Beijing’s New Reforms
Chinese leaders are planning economic and legal reforms, but they won’t relax the country’s online free-speech rules
Taiwan Makes Massive Heroin Bust
Drugs found at airport stashed inside music equipment
U.N. Report: More Than 10,000 Afghan Taliban Killed, Wounded Or Captured in 2013
Insurgent group also failed to broaden popular support, report adds
Risky Removal of Fuel Rods Begins At Fukushima
Operator must move more than 1,500 spent fuel rods to a safer storage pool
Hong Kong Is Sitting On 30 Tons Of Ivory and Has No Plans to Destroy It
While other countries have destroyed confiscated tusks, Hong Kong stockpiles an ivory mountain. Conservations say it must be incinerated to send the right message
Pakistan Ex-President Musharraf Will Be Put on Trial for Treason
Former military chief could face the death penalty if convicted
Typhoon Baby Dies in Makeshift Hospital
Three-day-old girl suffered from newborn asphyxia
Filipino Chapel Serves as Hospital for Newborns
The chapel inside Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban is the temporary home to newborn infants and their mothers, after Typhoon Haiyan destroyed the hospital’s original neonatal facility
Emergency Aid Reaches Typhoon Survivors in Remote Areas
Logistical issues have slowed transportation of supplies in the Philippines
Kabul Suicide Bombing Kills Six, Wounds 22
Blast comes ahead of a meeting next week to discuss U.S. troop presence in 2014
China to Close Notorious Re-education-Through-Labor Camps
First, the good news: China has announced its intentions to abolish its re-education-through-labor program that has been used to lock up everyone from human-rights campaigners and religious activists to citizens who dare to …
Afghanistan’s Record Opium Year
The world’s largest opium supplier harvests a record amount of poppy