Katsumi Yamauchi's strawberries didn't look radioactive. Nor did his tomatoes, or the waxy-skinned turnips nearby, or any of the fresh fruit and vegetables that customers perused on a busy sidewalk in central Tokyo last week. But this was the first shred of business Yamauchi, a farmer from Ibaraki prefecture just south of Fukushima, had seen in weeks, since people started worrying that produce grown anywhere near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant was irradiated. "Because of the ...

Updated: Aug. 10, 2010. On a still road in Penestanan Village in Bali's central foothills, a dull, blue-stained signboard points toward the house of the medicine man. Ketut Liyer is a ninth generation healer of undecided age — "maybe 90?" he shrugs — who has never been off the Indonesian island. But the dozen or so women who crowd his compound this afternoon, their chatter in competition with the peeping of caged birds suspended from clay-roofed pavilions, have ...

With an assist from Duarte, Reagan reassures Congress and critics The Reagan Administration wants to give billions of dollars to Central America, it says, to support liberty and political pluralism. Yet democracy in Central America is a patchy business at best. From among the few authentic democrats in the region, the U.S. has staked most of its money and hopes on Jos Napolen Duarte, who will assume El Salvador's presidency on Friday. Last week he came to Washington for four ...

There are fresh concerns about the safety of China's food supply after the country's largest meat processor was last week reported by CCTV, China's state TV broadcaster, to have produced and sold pork tainted with a banned drug. The drug, clenbuterol, also known as "lean meat powder" is a fat-burning animal feed additive that causes nausea and dizziness if consumed by humans. A total of 158 pigs from nine farms in central China's Henan Province have been ...

Sunday's presidential run-off in Haiti had been billed as the most important in the country's history. It came 14 months after the earthquake that devastated the capital Port-au-Prince, with international donors hesitating to fund crucial construction projects under the lame duck presidency of Ren Prval. The long run-up has had its share of drama: the return of two former rulers of the country, archenemies Franois "Baby Doc" Duvalier and Jean-Bertrand Aristide; a cholera outbreak; the disqualification of ...

Pain is the human bodyguard, the cop on the beat racing to the scene, sirens wailing, shutting down traffic. You've been cut, burned, broken: pay attention, stop the bleeding, apply heat, apply cold, do something. It's one of life's most primitive mechanisms, by which even the simplest creature, if it has anything like a central nervous system, learns to avoid danger, stay out of bad neighborhoods, hunker down to give itself time to heal. Pain is protective. ...

A chill wind is blowing through Mitte, the once drab district in central Berlin that is fast becoming hangout central for the world's creative types. Davide Grazioli, used to warmer climes, pulls his black woolly hat over his head and strides up Kastanien Allee — now dubbed Casting Alley because of all the wannabe film directors and actors who frequent its cafs. Grazioli is an Italian artist whose work includes unraveled embroideries from India and skulls made of organic ...

At least 65 people were killed and 420 wounded in a double bombing in central Baghdad on Sunday morning, officials said.

China's long simmering battle against corruption has come to a boil, this time in Chongqing, the largest megalopolis in the world. A massive crackdown has implicated millionaires, gangsters, and even police officers. Known as "dahei" (combat triads), the campaign has put the spotlight on organized crime and how it has infested local bureaucracy and businesses through bribery, extortion, blackmail and violence. Criminal trials are underway following months of police investigation. Details of murky cases are trickling out. Among those ...

China's GDP increased 8.9 percent for the third quarter, moving closer toward the goal of 8 percent growth for the year. Criminal trials are underway following months of police investigation. Details of murky cases are trickling out. Among those on the dock is Xie Caiping, a portly woman believed be the "mama san" of one of Chongqing's notorious triads. Xie is accused of operating gambling dens, drug trafficking, giving and collecting bribes and terrorizing people, including policemen who had tried ...