JAPAN: Gold bars for tsunami-hit Japan port

People in a small Japanese fishing port devastated by the 2011 tsunami have been receiving gold bars in the post from an anonymous benefactor.

CRUISE SHIP drama: How to survive on an 893-foot life raft

Tourists turned survivors got back to basics and formed a temporary colony onboard the paralyzed Carnival Triumph.

TRAVEL: Why airlines might finally lift the ban on electronics

 

Why is there a ban in the first place?

The airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration worry that electromagnetic waves emitted by passengers' personal electronic devices — including MP3 players, laptops, tablets, and cellphones — could interfere with an aircraft's electronic controls, or avionics. Commercial pilots file dozens of reports every year detailing how their radios, GPS navigation systems, and collision-avoidance boxes suddenly went haywire, but began functioning again when passengers were asked to check that all their devices were turned off. That kind of...
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Video: MALAYSIA denies entry to visiting AUSTRALIA senator

Malaysia denies Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon, who had previously criticized the government, entry to the country.

Will CHINA Ever Be No. 1? - By Graham Allison and Robert D. Blackwill

If you want to know the answer, ask SINGAPORE'S Lee Kuan Yew.

RUSSIAN Region Begins Recovery From Meteor Fall

(CHELYABINSK, Russia) — A small army of workers set to work Saturday to replace the estimated 200,000 square meters (50 acres) of windows shattered by the shock wave from a meteor that exploded over Russia’s Chelyabinsk region. The astonishing Friday morning event blew out windows in more than 4,000 buildings in the region, mostly in the capital city of the same name and injured some 1,200 people, largely with cuts from the flying glass. Forty of the injured remained hospitalized on Saturday, two of them in serious condition, the state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing the regional health ministry.

(WATCH: TIME Explains: An Asteroid Buzzes the Earth)

Regional governor Mikhail Yurevich on Saturday said damage from the high-altitude explosion —estimated to have been as powerful as 20 Hiroshima bombs — is estimated at 1 billion rubles ($33 million). He promised to have all the broken windows replaced within a week. But that is a long wait in a frigid region. The midday temperature in Chelyabinsk was minus-12 C (10 F), and for many the immediate task was to put up plastic sheeting and boards on shattered residential windows. More than 24,000 people, including volunteers, have mobilized in the region to cover windows, gather warm clothes and food and make other relief efforts, the regional governor’s office said. Crews from glass companies in adjacent regions were being flown in. In the town of Chebarkul, 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Chelyabinsk city, divers explored the bottom of an ice-crusted lake looking for meteor fragments believed to have fallen there, leaving a six-meter-wide (20-foot-wide) hole. Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Irina Rossius told Russian news agencies the search hadn’t found anything. Police kept a small crowd of curious onlookers from venturing out onto the icy lake, where a tent was set up for the divers. Many of them were still trying to process the memories of the strange day they’d lived through. (MORE: The Storm of Space Rocks: Nothing to Worry About—For Now) Valery Fomichov said he had been out for a run when the

Rare SINGAPORE rally on immigration

Singaporeans stage a rare demonstration in protest at government plans to allow more immigration.