Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
Asia Pacific Topics
Offbeat | Focus
Can ambitious Chinese effort rival Hollywood's movie clout?
An ambitious studio complex built by China’s richest man will be a major boost for the country’s film industry, but experts say it needs more than sprawling grounds to rival Hollywood. Global A-listers Nicole Kidman, Leonardo DiCaprio and Catherine Zeta-Jones showed up for the lavish event Sunday to showcase plans ...
Offbeat
No nose-picking: Image-conscious China admonishes its 'unruly' tourists
Chinese tourists should not pick their noses in public, pee in pools or steal airplane life jackets, China’s image-conscious authorities ...
Offbeat
Huge duck makes debut in Beijing
China’s first authentic version of a giant rubber duck that has made a splash around the world and inspired fakes ...
Offbeat Sep 19, 2013
Chinese woman survives 15 days trapped down well by eating corn
A woman stranded for 15 days in an abandoned well in central China said Wednesday that she shouted for help every day and began to lose hope, but that she managed to survive on raw corn and rainwater. Su Qixiu, 48, was gathering herbs ...
Offbeat Sep 4, 2013
Suicide victim's organ donation wish denied in China
A man who texted police in China to donate his body and organs to science before hanging himself was denied his final wish because he had not applied in advance, official media reported Wednesday. “I have decided to donate my body and all my ...
Offbeat Aug 21, 2013
Dog donates blood to save cat in N.Z.
Traditional animal rivalries were set aside in New Zealand when a dog’s blood was used to save the life of a poisoned cat in a rare interspecies transfusion, reports said Wednesday. Kim Edwards was frantic last Friday when her ginger tom Rory went limp ...
Offbeat Aug 20, 2013
Fork extracted from Aussie's penis
Shocked doctors had to perform emergency surgery on a man in the Australian capital of Canberra after he lodged a 10-cm steel fork inside his penis for sexual pleasure. According to a paper titled “An Unusual Urethral Foreign Body” that was published in the ...
Offbeat Aug 15, 2013
Chinese zoo's lion in fact hairy dog
A Chinese zoo’s supposed “African lion” was exposed as a fraud when the dog used as a substitute started barking. The zoo in the People’s Park of Luohe, in the central province of Henan, replaced exotic exhibits with common species, according to the state-run ...
Offbeat Aug 13, 2013
N. Korea unveils 'secure, homemade' smartphone
North Korea, one of the most isolated and censored societies on the planet, has unveiled what it claims is a domestically produced smartphone. Industry analysts, however, say the Arirang, built around Google’s Android OS, is likely manufactured in neighboring China. The existence of the ...
Offbeat | Focus Aug 7, 2013
Thai pupils see glimpse of freedom in new hair rules
Pudding-bowl bobs and army-type cuts were for decades the only hairstyles allowed for Thai schoolchildren — but now looser rules spell new freedom for classroom coiffures. “I am embarrassed having this kind of hairstyle,” 14-year-old Visarut Rungrod said, running a hand over his close-cropped ...
Offbeat Aug 2, 2013
Mass vomiting hits Qantas passengers
Dozens of people were rushed off a Qantas flight for medical treatment in Sydney after a stomach bug struck mid-journey, triggering a mass vomiting episode. A “number of passengers traveling in the same group on QF28 (between) Santiago and Sydney became unwell with a ...
Offbeat Aug 2, 2013
Indian baby with big head released
Doctors Friday discharged a 1-year-old Indian baby who underwent multiple surgery to correct a rare disorder that caused her head to nearly double in size, a neurosurgeon said. Roona Begum endured several surgical procedures which saw doctors at a hospital near New Delhi drain ...
Offbeat Jul 31, 2013
Lincoln statue vandal suspect is Chinese national
Moments before District of Columbia police found Jiamei Tian hiding in a bathroom stall at Washington National Cathedral, a family of tourists had spotted her in a back pew of the Children’s Chapel guarding two bags and muttering softly in a foreign language. Tian’s ...
Offbeat Jul 24, 2013
China's nouveau riche fork out for high-class etiquette
How to properly peel an orange, hold an oyster fork and pronounce luxury brand names — wealthy Chinese are paying handsome sums to learn such skills as they seek to match their high-end lifestyles with high-class etiquette. A two-week course at the newly opened ...
Offbeat Jul 8, 2013
Whale knocks surfer unconscious
A Sydney surfer had a lucky escape Sunday when he was hit and knocked unconscious by a whale frolicking off Bondi Beach. Bishan Rajapakse, a 38-year-old doctor, said the last thing he remembers before waking up on the beach was saying “Hey, how’s it ...