In a joint statement, United States President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao this week pledged to "strengthen communication, dialogue and cooperation on issues related to South Asia". It took Washington a matter of hours to start backtracking; any

Try as India and Iran may to halt the downward slide in their relations, cooperation in the all-important energy sector remains stuck in a rut. Negotiations between the two countries during the recent visit of Iran's foreign minister made "good

Vice President Tarek al-Hashemi, by using his veto to block an important election law, has thrown Iraq once again into political crisis. Parliament will have to try to sort out the mess the Sunni politician has made if elections are

After troublesome stopovers in Japan and China, United States President Barack Obama ended his swing through Asia on a high in South Korea, with US troops jubilant after a rousing speech. The feel-good factor was boosted by a glowing consensus

The more elderly inhabitants of Tawang, the town plumb in the heart of disputed territory between India and China, have lived under four national flags - British, Tibetan, Chinese and Indian. These indigenous people, the Monpas, have strong views on

Politicians in the days of Saddam Hussein tried to harness the music of Nasiriya. Nowadays, militiamen harass the musicians who live in the southern Iraqi city famed for its singers. Where once they strutted their stuff on the stage, singers

The Sum of All Heresies by Frederick Quinn This book provides a broad exploration of the evolution of the Middle East image through European eyes from near antiquity to the present. Viewed as the embodiment of barbarity during Roman times,

Concern that Japan's megabanks, such as Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, may have to sell shares to meet new international capital-adequacy standards are helping to prevent Japanese stocks from demonstrating the stellar recovery seen in other markets. - Kosuke

Shanghai stocks resumed their starring role this week before settling back at the close, along with others around the region, amid a cloud of commentary that pointed to earnings results and commodity prices. Another view is that it was just

Writers of the latest "Call of Duty" game were too successful in creating something "upsetting, disturbing", earning a ban from the Russian government over scenes of a Moscow airport terrorist attack. That couldn't prevent worldwide sales worth US$550 million within