Asia Pacific

China may lust to occupy Taiwan, but Beijing shows little generosity towards what it regards as its rebellious children.

The Philippines' Estrada family has a hard time keeping out of jail.

An education conference in Jakarta has heard that failings in the country's education system are encouraging violence and intolerance. Teachers and education administrators warned that unless the next government, due to be elected next month, oversees comprehensive reform, Indonesia faces a social crisis.

Beijing recently did an end run around Singapore to win the right to develop and operate Pakistan's western Gwadar deep-sea port on the Indian Ocean.

Burma was once the world's largest rice exporter, but it lost this dominance during half a century of military rule.

Domestic business leaders and foreign investors are applauding the economic road map set out by the governing military regime, which calls itself the National Council for Peace and Order.

Japan is easing its regulations on permanent resident status for foreigners to attract people with special work skills.

Australia's defence minister, David Johnston, is in hot water after barring local shipbuilders from bidding for the contracts to construct two new replenishment vessels for the navy.

Japan's fertility rate made a minor jump last year, but the size of the population is still shrinking. The number of children a Japanese woman might give birth to in her lifetime, known as the “total fertility rate,” rose to an average of 1.43, an increase of 0.02 over 2012.

Much to her own surprise, South Korean President Park Geun-hye's conservative Saenuri Party did well in local elections 10 days ago. The ruling party won eight of the 17 races for mayors of big cities and provincial governors.