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.
Politics & Diplomacy | Focus Sep 6, 2013
Activist finds refugees shrouded in myth before Aussie poll
by Amy Coopes
The wounds from his torture were still bleeding when Sri Lankan asylum seeker Sutha was picked up by the Australian Navy from a sinking boat in the Indian Ocean. He had spent 16 days at sea on a leaky vessel with 48 other men, ...
Social Issues | Focus Sep 5, 2013
Over 200 languages lost in rapidly modernizing India: study
More than 200 languages have vanished in India over the last 50 years, a new study says, blaming urban migration and fear among nomadic tribes of speaking their traditional tongues. The extensive study, conducted throughout the country over four years and released this week, ...
Asia Pacific | Focus Sep 3, 2013
Nukes, terrorists, intel gaps: U.S. 'black budget' shows extent of distrust toward Pakistan
by Barton Gellman
The $52.6 billion U.S. intelligence arsenal is aimed mainly at unambiguous adversaries, including al-Qaida, North Korea and Iran. But top-secret budget documents reveal an equally intense focus on one purported ally: Pakistan, which appears at the top of charts listing critical U.S. intelligence gaps.
Science & Health | Focus Aug 28, 2013
Air gun noise sparks alarm in war over offshore drilling
by Lenny Bernstein
The use of “seismic air guns” to determine how much oil and gas lies beneath a vast swath of the ocean floor off the southeast coast of the United States is provoking an early skirmish in a battle over oil drilling that is still ...
Business | Focus Aug 28, 2013
Belarus arrest of potash tycoon angers top ally Russia
by Aliaksandr Kudrytski and Stepan Kravchenko
As Belarus television showed the Russian head of OAO Uralkali, the world’s biggest potash producer, being led around the courtyard of an undisclosed prison, Anatoly Lebedko knew exactly where it was: Amerikanka. Amerikanka, or American Lady, is the nickname of the Minsk prison operated ...
World | Focus Aug 28, 2013
Syria carnage reopens debate over 'responsibility to protect'
French President Francois Hollande becomes the first leader to raise the U.N.-backed "responsibility to protect" to justify possible military action against Syria.
National | Focus Aug 22, 2013
Japan on path to achieve foreign visitor target
The government’s goal of drawing 10 million foreign travelers a year is in sight following a report Wednesday that the monthly visitor count in July hit a record high of just over 1 million. While a variety of efforts are being made both in ...
Tech | Focus Aug 22, 2013
Dr. Phil learns the dangers of erasing tweets
On Tuesday, Dr. Phil, drawling psychologist to the masses, posted a tweet that some interpreted as, at best, tone-deaf and, at worst, a tacit encouragement for date rape. “If a girl is drunk, is it okay to have sex with her?” someone from his ...
Crime | Focus Aug 22, 2013
North Korean gulag survivors tell U.N. investigators of rights abuses
One by one they came, taking seats next to a United Nations flag and stating their names for the record. Some kept calm. Some wept. One, as he spoke, used his left hand to clamp his trembling right hand to the table. They told ...
Politics & Diplomacy | Focus Aug 20, 2013
Frugal German election contrasts sharply with U.S.
by Michael Birnbaum
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s calendar this past week looked like this: unpack from an Italian vacation, catch up with advisers and kick off a campaign with a small-town rally for an election that will be held in just five weeks. In the United States, ...
Business | Focus Aug 16, 2013
Myanmar strategy to get rethink after failed infrastructure bids
Japan is going to have to rethink its strategy for opening business opportunities in Myanmar, one of the last untapped markets in Asia, as Japanese consortia have failed to win international tenders to develop the country’s infrastructure. Airport construction and expansion projects as well ...
Politics & Diplomacy | Focus Aug 16, 2013
War anniversary may irk China; why doesn't it honor fallen?
by Adam Minter
At 9:35 a.m. Thursday, Shanghai’s state-owned Xinmin Evening News newspaper tweeted a reminder to its 1.8 million followers on the Sina Weibo microblogging service: “The Japanese surrendered 68 years ago today!” The tweet honored the roughly 35 million Chinese who died during the war ...