Seasonal rains are bringing relief from a toxic haze that had blanketed Malaysia and Singapore. The air pollution disrupted the lives of millions of people and concerns remain about whether the problem will keep happening. Dave Grunebaum has the story from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
East Asian characters have been a part of Hollywood since the silent film era. But the portrayal of Asian and especially Chinese characters in the history of U.S. movies has been described as problematic by many film scholars. This is changing — not only have Asian characters evolved over time, so have movie-going audiences
Arrested on August 30 and kept in detention since then, the journalist has repeatedly denounced “fabricated accusations” and a “political affair”, particularly related to his articles on the detainees of the social movement of “Hirak”
Hong Kong is bracing for the 20th straight weekend of anti-government protests after events this week revealed that both sides are digging in. Protesters say they won’t back down from their “five demands” of Hong Kong’s government, and the city’s chief executive said she would make no concessions to protesters
When it comes right down to it, you really do want to find out if something is wrong before it’s too late. Identity theft is a great example
Wang is currently serving a four-and-a-half year jail term handed down on Jan. 28 by the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court, which found him guilty of “subversion of state power.”
Every October, for the past 48 years, hot air balloons have been filling the skies over Albuquerque, New Mexico, giving spectators both on and off the ground a visual feast of rare beauty. VOA’s Julie Taboh visited the southwestern state’s largest city to see how a modest launch of 13 balloons almost five decades ago has evolved into the largest ballooning event in the world
Arslanbob is an ancient walnut forest on the slopes of the Tian Shan mountains in southern Kyrgyzstan. Every fall, the locals, mostly ethnic Uzbeks, harvest walnuts for sale at Central Asia’s biggest walnut market
The Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, has launched the first trials of an app that allows commuters to pay for bus tickets through facial recognition technology. The system relies on cameras supplied by Hikvision, one of the Chinese companies recently sanctioned by Washington over its alleged role in human rights abuses
The United States recently announced more than $127 million in additional aid for the Rakhine State Crisis in Burma and Bangladesh of which more than $89 million is for programs inside Bangladesh