Geography of Asia

A view of Almaty from Kok Tobe Park, a popular hilltop tourist attraction accessible by cable car.

Stuck without passports in Kazakhstan, Russians who avoided the draft face a ticking clock

Ukraine

As hundreds of thousands of young men streamed into Central Asia to avoid the draft in Russia at the end of September, activists realized that many of the new arrivals were now jobless, homeless — and without legal papers.

Students sit through class in a rural Chinese school. American writer Lenora Chu's new book is called "Little Soldiers: An American Boy, A Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve."

At this elite Chinese kindergarten, ‘We don’t pick children. We pick parents.’

Books
Typhoon Haiyan

‘I’ve never walked through an area with so many bodies’

Development & Education
The World

‘My Daughter is a Blessing Not a Curse’

Conflict & Justice
Pari Noorbakhsh in Davis, California, within a month of arriving in the United States from Iran in 1978.

First Days: Pari Noorbakhsh on Leaving Tehran, Looking for Cowboys

Arts, Culture & Media

First Indian woman on Everest aids Himalayan flood relief efforts

Global Politics

Almost 30 years after being the first Indian woman to scale Mt. Everest, Bachendri Pal is using her mountaineering skills to help villagers stranded by devastating floods high in the Indian Himalaya Mountains.

Beit Safafa residents protest Jerusalem’s plan to build a highway through their town

Global Politics

Highway construction is rarely popular with the people whose neighborhood the highway must go through. In a small, largely Palestinian town outside of Jerusalem, residents are organizing to try and stop a highway that will have little benefit to them from ripping up their neighborhood.

Egyptian-American man sends a message while running last week’s Jerusalem marathon

Last week’s Jerusalem Marathon was replete with controversy, with Palestinian officials telling those signed up they should withdraw. But one man, an Egyptian-American, wanted to spread his own message, God is love, as he ran.

India trying to get Hindus to move back to contested Kashmir

Lifestyle & Belief

India and Pakistan have long jostled for control of the Kashmir region along the border of their two countries. That jostling has also led to religious violence, which drove many Hindus out of Kashmir. But now India is encouraging them to come back.

Jerusalem moves to give names to street in Arab-dominated eastern neighborhoods

East Jerusalem has long been tough for emergency responders to get to. The area’s many streets don’t have names, or numbers, meaning directions have to be given by landmarks. Jerusalem’s municipal government is working to change that now, but many Palestinians who live in those neighborhoods are skeptical.