Since its inception in 1984, Cirque du Soleil has taken its intoxicating mix of acrobatics and theatrics around the world. The Montreal-based troupe has staged tent shows in every major North American city, traveled Europe and Asia, and built permanent shows — all-time marvels like O and K — in Las Vegas, Orlando, Tokyo and Macao. This week, with the official premiere of its new show Zarkana, Cirque finally found its ideal home: New York's Radio City ...

"Viruses of love " infect millions with disease and despair Susan, 29, a Ph.D. in English literature from Harvard, knew her boyfriend had a herpes infection and consulted her gynecologist about the safety of having intercourse. The doctor reassured her that herpes was only contagious if her partner had festering sores. Susan slept with her friend, who had no obvious signs, and within a week got herpes. Don, 47, an engineer, succumbed to the temptation of a local lady while ...

In a much discussed speech at West Point two weeks ago, Defense Secretary Robert Gates argued that the U.S. should get out of the business of fighting the kinds of open-ended ground wars that it has waged for the past decade in Iraq and Afghanistan. Any future Defense Secretary who advocated sending "a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should 'have his head examined,'" Gates said, quoting Douglas MacArthur. That ...

NOTHING was beyond his desire. He wanted to be unifier and savior, uplifter of the poor at home and father of democracy in Asia. He yearned to be a latter-day Lincoln to the blacks, to outshine F.D.R.'s memory among reformers, to surpass Truman's humane but hardheaded foreign-policy record, to evoke the affection accorded Eisenhower. Above all, Lyndon Johnson ached for the trust of today's voters and the respect of tomorrow's scholars. Now, with so many of his glittering hopes broken, ...

Sitting in his lively studio in western Seoul, veteran animator Nelson Shin is clearly proud of the fact that he's helped animate The Simpsons since the show first aired in 1989. The iconic cartoon propelled his production company Akom into becoming an overseas contracting hub for a lineup of Saturday-morning classics, including X-Men, Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs. But when a California-based production studio asked Shin to animate a dark commentary about labor practices in Asia's cartoon ...

Ever since its victorious, twelve-year guerrilla war against Communist rebels, rubber-rich Malaya has been an eye of calm amidst the storm of Southeast Asia. From its plantations comes 40% of the world's rubber, and scores of new schools and factories give evidence of its quietly booming economy. But for some time Malaya has cast a wary eye at the spread of Communist influence directly to the south. On the island state of Singapore, Red-lining extremists threaten to topple the local government, and the British-run territories of Sarawak, ...

Of all the colonial revolts that have convulsed Asia and Africa since World War II, none have matched Kenya's Mau Mau movement for sheer grisliness. In seven years of terror beginning in the autumn of 1952, 95 Europeans, 29 Asians and 12,423 Africans were slain by methods ranging from merciful garroting to having their heads bashed in and their brains removed, dried and ritually eaten. Last week the British finally got around to releasing the first complete and authoritative account of ...

Rising Chinese demand helped drive South Korea's economy to its fastest growth in seven years in the third quarter, underscoring how Asia is leading the global economy and trade out of the worldwide downturn.

Thousands of workers were part of a strike in an important north Indian industrial hub Tuesday, underscoring touchy labor relations in Asia's third-largest economy.

North Korea's announcement last week that it has begun reprocessing nuclear fuel rods at the Yongbyon nuclear facility about 60 miles (nearly 100 kilometers) north of the capitol, Pyongyang, raises questions about the secretive nation's agenda. CNN talked to two top North Korea experts to gain insights into what North Korea may be signaling, what it is realistically capable of accomplishing, and what the developments mean for its relations with the U.S. Selig Harrison, the director of the Asia Program ...