At first glance, it hardly looked like a vision of democratic perfection. One presidential candidate was the nationalist daughter of a former strongman, while the incumbent was a retired general whose in-law was just jailed for corruption. Two of the vice-presidential nominees have been accused of directing human-rights abuses during their military careers. Yet the election that took place in Indonesia on July 8 is, in fact, testament to the remarkable political experiment unfolding in the world's fourth most-populous ...

A lumbering grey shadow can often catch your eye as you drive along one of Bangkok's most polluted and congested streets, Sukhumvit. If this were not Bangkok, you would think you'd had one too many beer Singhas, but in this city of contradictions, anything seems, and often is, possible. And so it is that spotting a huge elephant, dodging the tuk-tuk motorcycle rickshaws, the ubiquitous taxis and blizzard of traffic is nothing out of the ordinary. I remember seeing my ...

It was over in a matter of minutes, but the significance of the occasion vastly exceeded its brevity. On Aug. 28, 20 demonstrators gathered at a market in Burma's commercial capital, Rangoon, to protest against the junta's decision to dramatically raise prices of essential goods. Led by labor activist Su Su Nway, the crowd had just begun to chant slogans when thugs employed by the ruling generals swooped in and started dragging the protesters into waiting vehicles. The frail ...

Michael Jackson's bizarre private life and change in appearance ended up eclipsing his musical achievements, according to the world's media. Jackson's, whose death from cardiac address Thursday has sparked an outpouring of grief from fans, life has been given a more measured summing up by news media. Britain's Guardian newspaper said "his bizarre life-style and personal notoriety eclipsed his talent and his numerous achievements." The Guardian said his fame, from the age of 11, "had such a damaging ...

On a typical weekend afternoon, Beijing's Silk Street Market buzzes with the sound of tens of thousands of tourists haggling over antiques, jewelry and knockoff Gucci handbags. Rickshaw drivers normally scoop up these marketgoers, pedal them to their hotels and return with pockets full of foreign currency--a lucrative cycle that drivers can repeat dozens of times a day. In recent months, though, the Silk Street Market's once reliable bustle has thinned dramatically. "I haven't seen a single tour bus ...

In early June, the founders of Thailand's New Politics Party unveiled their logo — usually a routine procedure in a country where new parties seem to come and go with the monsoons. But the yellow-and-green symbol of the NPP has generated controversy not just for its questionable 1970s color scheme but because it resembles a swastika. Asians are rightly miffed that Adolf Hitler hijacked an ancient religious symbol of luck and peace and turned it into the unofficial ...

David Carradine's wife and his manager disputed suggestions that the actor's death was a suicide, while a source in Bangkok, Thailand, said the actor's neck and genitals were found bound with rope. Carradine, 72, became famous in the 1970s, when he portrayed the traveling Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine in the television series "Kung Fu." Bangkok police said Carradine was found hanging by a nylon rope in a Bangkok hotel room closet Thursday morning. A member of the emergency crew ...

A pathologist hired by the family of one of two women whose mysterious deaths in Thailand drew worldwide attention says her "lungs were 100 percent congested," Jill St. Onge's fiancee and brother said. "He said her lung tissue was gone," said her brother, Robert St. Onge. The pathologist has not determined what caused her lungs to fail, he said, and a final report on her May 2 death may still be weeks away. But members of St. Onge's family said ...

In Patpong, one of Bangkok's most notorious red-light districts, go-go girls count their livelihood by the number of sex tourists they entertain. "Three inches, three minutes, 3,000 baht ," laughs Goy, a 25-year-old bargirl. Last summer, she and her fellow pole dancers at the Camelot Castle entertained scores of men every night — first in the bar, where they earn a monthly salary, then at the customer's hotel, where they negotiate their own rates. But as cash-strapped tourists have ...

Maria Sharapova stepped up her comeback after injury to claim the scalp of 11th seed Nadia Pedrova to reach the third round of the French Open in Paris on Wednesday. The former world number one had come into the second grand slam of the season with only two matches in a minor tournament in Poland under her belt, but surprised fellow Russian with a 6-2 1-6 8-6 victory. Still playing with tape on her troublesome right shoulder, Sharapova showed ...