Japan’s Unesco bid omits history of slave labour, former POWs claim

Former US prisoners of war have expressed “serious reservations” about Tokyo’s application to have several industrial facilities recognised as World Heritage sites, saying many were used as “industrial prisons” for slave labourers in the Second World War.

Dark condos point to supply overhang

A year after lensmen from The Business Times put together a photo essay on “dark condos” to highlight the rising vacancies in the private housing market, they have gone in search of an update of the situation.

Beijing to move local government out of city centre

For more than 65 years, government officials in Beijing have tried to emulate China’s imperial rulers, working and living in the city centre near the emperor’s old palace, the Forbidden City.

About 60 people demonstrate outside Singapore Trade Office in Taipei; call for Amos Yee’s release

About 60 people demonstrated outside the Singapore Trade Office in Taipei on Friday morning, calling for teenage blogger Amos Yee to be freed.

One driver explains how he is helping to rip off Uber in China

James Li was unhappy with his pay as a security guard in Shanghai, so he started driving on weekends for Uber Technologies Inc. He’s almost tripled his pay - in part by scamming the company.

5 things you might not know about Buddhism

There are around 488 million Buddhists in the world - or about 7 per cent of the global population - making it the fourth largest religion in the world, according to the Pew Research Center (2012). Buddhism began in Asia, and the vast majority of all Buddhists (nearly 99 per cent) still live in the Asia Pacific region. Only two other regions – North America (3.9 million) and Europe (1.3 million) – have more than 1 million Buddhists.

Yahoo

Pakistan privacy activists slam alleged Internet hacking by British intelligence as unethical

Pakistani rights campaigners have urged Islamabad to take action to protect the privacy of its citizens after leaked top-secret documents appeared to show British intelligence had gained access to almost all the country’s Internet users.

Law firm in Dallas Buyers Club action accused of bullying tactics

Lawyers representing film studio had used threats of criminal proceedings to advance civil claims, says NGO

Dutchman Dino Petrus Johannes van Deijzen jailed three weeks for attacking cabby

Another white trash giving the same lame excuse that he acted out of character for the assault.

Housing glut to worsen before tapering from 2017: UOB report

Singapore’s housing glut will worsen in the near future as more public and private units come on stream and only start to ease from 2017, with the government potentially reviewing property cooling measures, a report by UOB Global Economics and Markets Research said.

Meili Snow Mountain

Meili Snow Mountain (梅里雪山) on Yunnan's border with Tibet has many names, and depending on who is viewing its awe-inspiring grandeur, represents many different things. Soaring to heights of over six kilometers above sea level, the massif is as mysterious as it is immense.

GoKunming

The women seeking rich older men to pay their university fees

"It's been euphemistically referred to as "mutually beneficial, transactional dating" but is the growing world of "sugar daddy" relationships just a sanitised term for sex work?

BBC

Asian Migrants Say Australia Paid Smugglers to Turn Back

Australia is committing bribery.

Almost 200 academics sign petition urging Abe to apologise for Japan’s wartime past

Japanese academics have urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to renew apologies for the country’s imperialist past and offer to compensate victims of its wartime brothel system, in the latest intervention from educationalists.

When Americans Ruled Beijing

The Americans, like all other allied nations, were also heavily engaged in looting and pillaging. A U.S. diplomat, Herbert G. Squiers, filled several railroad cars with loot. Assaults on civilians were also not uncommon.  For example, Stephen Dwyer, a U.S. Marine, forced his way into a Chinese home wielding a bludgeon to “brutally assault and strike a Chinese child of tender years… driving it from its home and thereby hastening its death.” He then went on to rape the two women living in the house.

The Diplomat

Japan emperor's WWII 'remorse' a prod to Abe

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Qigong gaining popularity as a healing tool in the West

Qigong is a thousand-year-old discipline that integrates physical postures, breathing techniques and focused intention to heal the body and mind. Some of its therapeutic benefits, scientifically proven in China, are now being studied and promoted in the West.

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Asia wants positive US-China ties: Singapore's PM Lee

Every country in Asia hopes that the relationship between the United States and China will be positive, and no one wants to have to pick sides between the two giants, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Friday.

Heirs of the ‘Secret War’ in Laos

It marks the treachery of the United States government, which went into an unknown country, waged years of war, and then dropped everything in a moment’s notice.

Today, most Americans know nothing about the Secret War. A classified operation, C.I.A. officials easily terminated the effort when everything went awry. It was a disposable war, intended to look like it never happened.

Japanese academics urge 'comfort women' reckoning

Japanese academics have called on the conservative government to face up to its responsibility over "comfort women", echoing an open letter from leading foreign scholars urging an honest accounting for wartime wrongdoing.

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