BEIJING (AFP) ― Selling a kiss online, accompanying a stranger overnight for a fee ― none of the “rent a boyfriend” services popping up on some Chinese websites sound at all family-friendly.Yet the budding market aims to help young singles address the most traditional of values: respecting their elders, meeting their demand to find a mate and bringing him home for the country’s biggest holiday, the Lunar New Year.The extreme measure reflects the extraordinary pressure that some young Chinese ― e

Feb. 3, 2013

NEW DELHI (AFP) ― Sixteen-year-old Seenu was walking to her grandmother’s house along a quiet street in northern India when a group of men dragged her into a car, took her to a secluded field and raped her in turns.They filmed the act on their mobile phones and forced a pill into her mouth. She woke up an hour later, naked, bloodied, disoriented. The sun was just beginning to set as she put on her jeans and made her way back home.When her father ― a gardener belonging to the “untouchable” or Dal

Jan. 29, 2013

BANGKOK (AFP) ― From breast-slapping and gold thread face-lifts to vaginal whitening soaps and olive oil penis enlargements, image obsessed Thais are going to ever increasing extremes in the quest for beauty.The colorful self-proclaimed pioneer of breast-slapping says her unusual technique allows clients to boost their bust by at least one bra size without surgery.“This is the beauty by nature ― one million percent guaranteed,” the eccentric 46-year-old, who has changed her name to Khunyingtobno

Jan. 27, 2013

Kim In-su laughs nervously as a crowd begins to form in front of him. It’s 9 p.m., halfway through the dinner rush, and already the street food guru is in emergency mode; the rice is almost gone.On a narrow side street in Noryangjin, a district of western Seoul, a procession of shivering students huddle impatiently beneath the yellow glow of a dusty halogen bulb hanging from his plastic tent. They’re here for his “cup bap,” or cup rice, a quick and cheap meal served in a cup that has become popu

Jan. 27, 2013

New Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem may well be the ultimate compromise candidate.Elected to head the group of eurozone finance ministers Monday, the Dutch finance minister has sided with Germany and other northern eurozone states who insist on austerity for countries needing bailouts. He is also a social democrat like the government in France, the EU’s other major power player.But perhaps the key factor driving his acceptability is his novelty ― Dijsselbloem has headed the Dutch finance min

Jan. 22, 2013

DALIAN, China (AFP) ― Clouds of smoke billow from the chimneys at a Chinese chemical plant rumbling with activity, more than a year after authorities closed it following protests by thousands of people.The factory in Dalian was ordered to halt work and relocate 17 months ago after local residents took to the streets, fearing a toxic chemical spill that might poison them and their children.But now it appears to be functioning, although at what capacity is unclear.The apparent U-turn raises questi

Jan. 20, 2013

TOKYO (AFP) ― Mayumi Kurasawa’s seaweed company saw seven of its factories swept away by Japan’s 2011 tsunami. Nearly two years later, sales continue to be eroded by consumer fears over nuclear contamination. “Our seaweed is checked every day, and I guarantee you that it’s safe,” she told AFP during a recent visit to Tokyo to promote the company she works for, Kawashu. “But we are selling two-thirds less than before Fukushima.” Like many farmers in the Tohoku region in northeast Japan, Kurasawa

Jan. 15, 2013

 HONG KONG (AFP) ― Hong Kong’s name may mean “fragrant harbor,” but cargo ships burning dirty fuel in what is one of the world’s busiest ports add to a foul layer of pollution that kills more than 3,000 people a year.Now the government is vowing to get tough, with activists hoping mandatory restrictions on shipping emissions will be among a raft of measures announced next week aimed at making the city more environmentally friendly.A total of 410,560 vessels arrived and left the port in 2011, wit

Jan. 13, 2013

BANGKOK (AFP) ― Thai grandmother Nom Prom-on rummages through rubbish bins looking for bottles, cans and paper to trade for food and other goods at a recycling cooperative providing a lifeline for Bangkok’s poor.Riding an old motorcycle with a rubbish cart attached, the 61-year-old and her husband Rai rise early to beat rival scavengers to claim the best of the city’s recyclable trash, which they take to a cash-free “zero baht shop.”The couple have combed bins for decades, but their earnings of

Jan. 6, 2013

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands (AFP) ― Childhood toys lost in a war-torn field have inspired an odd-looking invention which its young Dutch inventor hopes can help save thousands of lives and limbs in his native Afghanistan.Decades of war, notably the 1979-89 Soviet invasion, have left the rugged Afghan countryside littered with landmines that continue to exact a merciless toll, mainly on children.Now, in a small workshop in the industrial heart of the southern city of Eindhoven, 29-year-old Massoud Has

Jan. 6, 2013

NAHA, Japan (AP) ― Okinawa is about as far away as one can get from Fukushima without leaving Japan, and that is why Minaho Kubota is here. Petrified of the radiation spewing from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant that went into multiple meltdowns last year, Kubota grabbed her children, left her skeptical husband and moved to the small southwestern island. More than 1,000 people from the disaster zone have done the same thing. “I thought I would lose my mind,” Kubota told The Associated Press

Jan. 6, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was admitted to a New York hospital Sunday after the discovery of a blood clot stemming from the concussion she sustained earlier this month.Clinton's doctors discovered the clot Sunday while performing a follow-up exam, her spokesman, Philippe Reines, said. He would not elaborate on the location of the clot but said Clinton is being treated with anti-coagulants and would remain at New York-Presbyterian Hospital for at least the next 4

Dec. 31, 2012