31 May 2014 Last updated at 03:53
South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned this week that if North Korea conducts another nuclear test, it could prompt the volatile country's neighbors to seek their own nuclear defense. "North Korea would effectively be crossing the Rubicon," she told the Wall Street Journal.
North Korea's last nuclear test, which took place in 2013, prompted increased Western sanctions against the country and escalating tensions between Pyongyang and its rivals. At the height of the tensions, North Korea temporarily shuttered an industrial complex that it operates jointly with South Korea, harming its own economy in the process, and offered repeated invectives against Seoul and Washington. Now, however, Western officials fear that the next round of tests could prove more threatening to the North's neighbors.
Chuck Hagel: Beijing 'destabilising' South China Sea
The US defence secretary has accused China of "destabilising" the South China Sea, saying its action threatened the region's long-term progress.
Chuck Hagel said the US would "not look the other way" when nations ignored international rules.
Mr Hagel was speaking at a three-day summit - the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore - that involves the US and South-East Asian countries.
He also urged Thailand's coup leaders to restore democratic rule soon.
The forum comes amid growing tensions between China, Vietnam and the Philippines, with Japan-China ties also strained over disputed islands in the East China Sea.
The summit gives senior delegates from the region a chance to meet face-to-face to try to resolve tensions.
California dreaming becomes reality for 7,000 Chinese tourists
During their visit, the group took 86 flights and stayed in 26 hotels
Clifford Coonan
A 7,000-strong Chinese tour group stopped off at venues in southern California, including Los Angeles and San Diego, before ending their visit with a celebration at Anaheim Convention Center, where they raised the red flag and sang the Chinese national anthem.
During their visit, the biggest Chinese tour group to ever visit the US took 86 flights, stayed in 26 hotels and, according to Union Pay, spent €7,350 each during the visit.
“We are making history. It is a California dream come true,” said Xu Guowei, vice-chairman of Perfect China, the direct-marketing company that organised the tour as a reward for its employees.
Chinese tourists, increasingly common visitors to destination cities around the world, are sought-after clients after years of economic growth have spawned a middle class with impressive spending power.
No hijab: an Iranian journalist offers women a stealthy freedom on Facebook
The Facebook page "My Stealthy Freedom" is another sign of social media's power. Journalist Masih Alinejad posted a photo of herself at the beginning of May - and virtually started a mass movement.
Masih Alinejad is behind the wheel of her car, driving through an Iranian city. And she's not wearing a hijab, the veil women have to wear in Iran. More than 375,000 people have liked Alinejad's Facebook page "Azadiye jawaschaki" (Stealthy Freedom) and more than 100 Iranian women have sent in photos that show them in public without the hijab.
It's their protest against the mandatory veiling, and they want the entire world to see it.
"The page is a place for Iranian women to show the world how they really are," Masih Alinejad told DW.
The women, whose names are not revealed, share their moment of stealthy freedom in short texts.
25 years on, artist remembers 'first gunshots of Tiananmen'
Philip Wen
China correspondent for Fairfax Media
Beijing: They became known as the first gunshots of the Tiananmen Square protests, a defiant and rebellious work of art that would turn the life of a young Chinese art graduate upside down and see her take refuge in Sydney’s Kings Cross.
It was February 1989, and Xiao Lu was 26 when she created a work called Dialogue, consisting of three phone booths; two occupied by men with their backs turned and one empty, with the handset dangling off the hook.
Just hours after China’s first national avant-garde exhibition opened its doors, Xiao completed her work by firing two live bullets into the installation. Military vehicles and riot police arrived swiftly to seal off the museum, effectively ending China’s official avant-garde movement.
Orwell's '1984' suddenly fashionable on Bangkok streets
Instead of raucous street protests, demonstrators in Thailand silently read '1984' and other dystopian novels, taking a dig at the junta that seized power last week.
There are no whistles, no loud speakers, and no placards held up high in this quiet act of subversion. Pimsiri Petchnamrob stands silently in a mass of sharply dressed Bangkok commuters, her hands clutched around a copy of George Orwell's 1984.
Next to her a small group of young men and women, their faces sombre and their heads bowed low, also read books about fictional and real totalitarian worlds in silence.
This was the second such protest in two days inThailand against the country’s military coup. In a city accustomed to roller-coaster politics and sometimes violent demonstrations, the defiant book club was barely noticed.
North Korea's Next Nuclear Test Could Serve as a Regional Tipping Point
By Danielle Wiener-Bronner19 hours ago
South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned this week that if North Korea conducts another nuclear test, it could prompt the volatile country's neighbors to seek their own nuclear defense. "North Korea would effectively be crossing the Rubicon," she told the Wall Street Journal.
North Korea's last nuclear test, which took place in 2013, prompted increased Western sanctions against the country and escalating tensions between Pyongyang and its rivals. At the height of the tensions, North Korea temporarily shuttered an industrial complex that it operates jointly with South Korea, harming its own economy in the process, and offered repeated invectives against Seoul and Washington. Now, however, Western officials fear that the next round of tests could prove more threatening to the North's neighbors.
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