Asia Pacific

The Australian government is spending over $1 billion a year to house 2,200 would-be asylum seekers in offshore detention centres in nearby Papua New Guinea and Nauru

The negative impact of Beijing’s refusal to allow democracy in Hong Kong and the protest demonstrations by pro-reformers is prompting Taiwan to reassess its growing economic ties with China

Thailand’s military junta is using a program of economic stimuli and tax reforms to try to undermine the support for ousted and exiled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra

About three-quarters of Pakistanis like the idea of Islamic banking that follows the dictates of Shariah religious law

The Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations may be heading for the same bargaining purgatory as the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization, in which discussions are eternal and the resolution of disagreements will always come tomorrow.

If China can embrace real reforms, it can move toward real business development instead of the crony capitalism it has now

Simon Fraser University has signed an agreement with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations

Burma’s 53 million people will soon get their first opportunity to buy health insurance.

A United Nations report says the organization’s sanctions against North Korea, imposed because of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, have done nothing to curb the regime’s love of luxury.

The Philippines Ministry of Agriculture says its program to prepare small farmers for the planned 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations Economic Community is firmly on track.