Imports and climate rub salt in Vietnamese farmers’ wounds
Vietnam’s salt farmers toil in the sweltering sun to eke out a meagre living, increasingly battered by imports of the mineral and also climate woes.
Category: Features
Philippines coastal towns steadily sinking
Coastal towns and islets in the Philippines are steadily sinking because groundwater is increasingly being pumped out to cater to a booming population and growing economy,
Australian ‘Trump’ steps up to bat at polls stumps
A brash, self-promoting billionaire with political ambition and a string of controversies in his wake, Clive Palmer not only sounds like Australia’s answer to Donald Trump, that is exactly who he is modelling himself on.
Children puppet masters seek a living in Indonesia
As the Muslim fasting month progresses, some poor children in Indonesia are donning giant puppet costumes known as Ondel-Ondel and busking in the streets to try to make a living.
Major UN push to fight climate change
Climate change is moving to the center stage at the United Nations.
Young butchers dread rise of ‘fake’ meat
Slicing through juicy cuts of pork belly alongside rarer delicacies of ox brain and sheep intestine, young butchers at a Frankfurt trade hall cast a suspicious eye towards the so-called fake meat products on display.
Doing their best to retrieve remains of WWII fallen
Since 1980 groups of Russian volunteers have been fanning out across the country looking for the remains of Red Army soldiers who died fighting the Nazis in World War II.
Red-faced over state-of-art Aussie $50 banknote
Red-faced bank bosses in Australia have admitted to an embarrassing error, revealing their state-of-the-art $50 note had a typo.
Spying in on cloak and dagger stuff
A lipstick pistol, a button-hole camera, a lethal umbrella and an authentic waterboarding table: the espionage world’s heroic, ingenious and sordid sides are all on show in Washington’s all-new, much-expanded International Spy Museum.
Popcorn seller and his flying machine
As a boy Muhammad Fayyaz dreamed of joining the Pakistani air force but his father’s death forced him quit eighth grade and do odd jobs to support his mother and five siblings.
Sri Lanka experts still trying to identify blasts’ dead
The nauseating smell of death that infested the streets around Colombo’s morgue after Sri Lanka’s devastating Easter attacks has finally dispersed.
‘Click and match’ polls campaigning in Australia
Political parties are taking advantage of Australia’s open policy on online information gathering in their polls campaigns, Reuters notes.
Excited Thais await coronation
Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn will be crowned this weekend in a pageantry-laden ceremony flecked by Hindu and Buddhist ritual, as Rama X furthers his primacy over one of the world’s richest monarchies and a kingdom beset by ulcerous political divides.
Growing threat to Brazil’s ecological paradises
Brazil is home to more than half of the world’s plant and animal species, but its ecological paradises are facing growing threats from big business and criminal outfits who have found a champion in far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, experts say.
Sri Lankan Muslim women shun veils
Religious tensions and a government ban on covering the face since the Easter Sunday suicide attacks have forced conservative Muslim women in Sri Lanka to shun veils, head scarves and long robes in public.
All systems go for Thai king’s coronation ceremonies
Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn coronation ceremonies are due to begin on Saturday and Thai’s are scrambling to install portraits of him.
Naruhito to inherit a much-changed country
Japan marks the end of an era with Tuesday’s abdication of Emperor Akihito, and the outgoing monarch leaves behind a much-changed country.
Akihito’s rare abdication to be a brief and simple affair
Japan’s Emperor Akihito’s abdication today, in one of several ceremonies marking the transition to his heir Crown Prince Naruhito, will be a brief, relatively simple and rare event, Reuters notes.
Asia’s Christians face increased political violence
The persecution of Christians across the world is on the rise, just like the politicisation of religion. But in the wake of the terror attacks in Sri Lanka, experts are warning against proclaiming a war between faiths.
The science of dying
Can one explain death objectively and scientifically? When does it begin? What happens afterwards? What do near-death experiences show? Do we have a soul? DW’s Alexander Freund tries to answer these questions.
China plastic waste ban throws global recycling into chaos
From grubby packaging engulfing small Southeast Asian communities to waste piling up in plants from the US to Australia, China’s ban on accepting the world’s used plastic has plunged global recycling into turmoil.
Tourists flee Sri Lanka, as travel industry faces uncertainty
Tourists are scrambling to flee Sri Lanka and cancelling holidays after a string of deadly suicide blasts that have sparked concerns the lucrative tourism industry could be sent into a tailspin.
It all starts with the jams
It’s a familiar enough story: girl meets country, girl falls in love with country, girl has musical experiences, girl has to leave because her internship has ended, girl vows to return to country.
Japan struggles with English-language signs ahead of 2020 Olympics
Less than 18 months ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, visitors are still struggling to comprehend the “Japlish” that the locals say is completely understandable.
Fossils of enigmatic extinct human species found on Philippine island
Thirteen fossil bones and teeth excavated in a cave in the Philippines represent an enigmatic previously unknown human species, probably small in stature and possessing an unexpected mix of archaic and modern traits, scientists said on Wednesday.
Growing old with Down syndrome – how things have changed
50 years ago people with Down syndrome only had a life expectancy of 10 years. Things have radically changed. Nowadays, many can live fulfilling lives past the age of 60, writes DW’s Gudrun Heise.
Fishermen turn to maps as India’s coasts cleared for tourism, industry
After generations of trawling the same waters, the fishermen on the coast of Tamil Nadu in southeastern India know where to cast a net or park a boat without resorting to signs or GPS maps.
Despite danger, young Pakistani woman pursues singing
Twenty-year-old Sana Tajik managed to convince her parents to allow her to follow her childhood dreams and become a singer, but she realises the dangers of being a woman, let alone a woman entertainer, in tribal northwest Pakistan.
Swapping Kalashnikovs for bat: Afghan cricket, the Taliban and peace
During a lull in Afghanistan’s never-ending war, before the fighting season resumes once again in the spring, Taliban fighters recall laying down their Kalashnikovs and, for a brief moment, enjoying a game of cricket.
Japanese prefecture leads dramatic decrease in suicides
Taeko Watanabe awoke one cold March night and found a trail of blood in the hallway, a bloody cleaver on her son Yuki’s bed and no trace of him in the house. Then police discovered a suicide note in his bedroom.
