Asia Pacific

Farmers in West Java, Indonesia, have developed some extraordinarily successful techniques for rice production.

The inability of police in Papua New Guinea to keep the peace has been highlighted by yet another brutal sorcery killing.

A fresh set of US diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks show that in 1975 just before it invaded, Indonesia suggested an international intervention into East Timor, but the suggestion wasn't taken up by Australia.

After over a year's wait, Malaysia's picked May 5th for a national election.

It's being described as an "unprecedented breach of Australia's border security".

The Asian Development Bank is warning Asia faces an environmental disaster and economic problems if the region doesn't make radical changes to its energy use.

An alliance of armed ethnic minority groups in Myanmar has met with Japan's prime minister to discuss humanitarian assistance to their regions.

The first report on the trafficking of people in Papua New Guinea has found adults and children are being drafted into sexual exploitation, forced labour and domestic servitude.

Australia and China have announced they will hold annual leaders' meetings as Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard wraps up her visit to China.

Malaysia's Election Commission says the nationwide polls, including the campaigning period, will be free and fair.

In Indonesia members of different religious groups are marching on the national parliament to demand freedom for their faiths.

Baroness Margaret Thatcher, whose death was announced on Tuesday, was widely regarded by British Tories as one of the Conservative Party's greatest leaders.

In Hong Kong, it's estimated tens of billions of dollars are illegally laundered every year.

North Korea has followed days of threatening rhetoric with some action - saying it will withdraw all 53,000 workers from the Kaesong industrial zone, and suspend all commercial operations.

China has stepped up efforts to control the spread of a deadly bird flu outbreak, maintaining it's confident it can contain the disease.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's visit to China is now in its final stages.

Doing business with China will be easier for Australians now it can be conducted directly in the Chinese currency.

The Australian Federal Court has been told that Filipino workers were paid less than three dollars an hour to work in oil rigs off the coast of Western Australia.

There's still no date for polling day in Malaysia, but election fever is hotting up.