Asia Pacific News

By GAUTAM Jha NEW ZEALAND NEWS - The origin of the dessert Pavlova has been the matter of research and discussions in southern hemisphere for years is over. The oxford English Dictionary (OED) has put a full stop to a long-running tug of war between New Zealand and Australia over the origin of Pavlova dessert. Interestingly, the dessert- meringue with fruit and cream- has Russian name after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who visited New Zealand and Australia in the 1920s. Both the countries agree about the Russian name but has drawn the diggers over the origin-land of the dessert. The origin-issue has made the taste of Pavlova bitter and salty. To remove it from the bitterness, OED has done extensive research over the years and found New Zealand to be the father of Pavlova dessert. In its relaunched online edition, OED proclaims the first recorded pavlova recipe has found in New Zealand in 1927 in a book called Davis Dainty Dishes which was published by Davis Gelatine company. Str...

By ETHAN Markoff Some of the natural disasters shock the whole humanity, intensifying the belief system that there is something beyond the reach of mankind. A man is blissfully helpless when it comes to head-to-head with nature, yet all the development of mankind depends on struggle against the nature. The queer permutation combination of man and nature sometimes leave dreadful impression that haunts people for long. The Pakistan flood is yet another example of natural disaster that has thrown hundreds of thousand people into adverse condition and finally caused a million people's death. The worst-ever flood in the South East Asia occurred about two months back, and still capturing attention of the whole world. In the last five years, there had been other similar disasters like the earthquake in Kashmir in 2005, the 2006 Asian tsunami or Haiti's crisis in 2010. However, most of the stories went into the oblivion within a few days or week. The media attention moved from t...

By STAFF Writer October 24, 2011 MALAYSIA NEWS - Amendment in Income Tax Act in Malaysia may affect foreign investment along with some negative impact on the local business community as well as on taxpayers, said MCA Young Professionals Bureau on Saturday. According to the MCA chairman, in the Section 81 amendment of Income Tax Act the Internal Revenue Board's director-general (DG) gets the power to disregard, partly or completely, the income tax claims proof after the end of notice period. In a press conference in Kuala Lumpur chairman Datuk Chua Tee Yong said, "Previously, a person is entitled to appeal any additional assessment issued by the DG. "However, this new amendment does not allow for any room to appeal, as the DG may disregard proof of claims, such as receipts or documents." He illustrated the amendment with an example: if any public listed company claims for travelling expenses of RM500,000 that were actually incurred four years ago, then D...

America celebrates 27th National Night Out tonight, a community events nationwide sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch. In the events, communities in thousands party with events and activities along with Police Department to make the connection between law enforcement department and neighborhoods strong. The event aims at crime and drug-prevention awarness and encourages the people to support and participate in anti-crime programs. It enocourages to raise neighborhood spirit and a good coordination between police and community to fight against crime. The law enforcement department expects about 34 million people tonight and Seattle alone registers a record of 1,219 blocks for the event. Lt. Jari Faulkner of Pasadena Police Department said, "It's the one night nationwide that everyone is supposed to go outside... to let everyone know that everyone is in the fight against crime." In 2009, more than 15,000 communitites registered and the events were attended b...

By STAFF REPORTER October 17, 2011 In the first eight months of this year the trade between Thailand and Cambodia went up by 8%. Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh said yesterday the trade between went up to $1.93 billion. The export of Cambodia to Thailand was 125.6 million dollars, which is 17% lower compared to the same period last year, whereas the export of Thailand to Cambodia went up by 10% to 1.8 billion dollars. Director of Thai embassy's Foreign Trade Promotion Office, Jiranan Wongmongkol said trade between the two countries is seeing better recovery since August when the Pheu Thai Party came to power led by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. She added, "We project that through restoring good relations between the two nations, the bilateral trade will grow around 20 percent this year." Director of statistics department at Cambodia's Ministry of Commerce, Kong Putheara also said that Cambodian and Thai trade would re-grow well henceforth after it slow...

Incest Story In Haryana Just a few days back India gloriously celebrated its 64th Independence Day but the oxymoron of Indian freedom runs in Indian villages. Nowadays one of the most noted sarcasms is quite in style in national news channels. The noise is quite audible, and annoyance level is also comfortably high. The subject is the most tempting one to mankind – sex. Haryana, a state in India known for flourishing industrialism and affluent farmers, seems living in the medieval period. The self-proclaimed Haryana’s Khaps are the sham ‘kings’ of the villages. Their “moral judgments” can even make shy to the epitomes of immorality. They do all sort of things – to solve personal problems of family, to give judgment of any conflict, and above all their profound knowledge in ancient gotras, caste system etc. is mind-boggling. A recent example is about a law graduate and resident of Karora village Seema whose brother had been killed for marrying a woman from the same got...

From EDITOR's Desk August 13, 2011 17 years later, the story continues with a simple photograph of a sea green eyed girl when a casual photography by McCurry turned out to be one of those captivating portrait that sear the heart and ran on the cover of National Geographic magazine in June 1985. The shy girl was among hordes of refugees at the refugee camp in Pakistan. The anger of those haunted eyes was apparent, which swept away the photography fraternity and not least the whole world, but after 17 years nobody actually remember her, even her name. The year is 2011 when a team from National Geography Television & Films brought McCurry to Pakistan to search the immortal face. They searched around Nasir Bagh where the refugee camp still stands lonely among multitude. After showing her photographs to number of people, they came to know the girl in the picture returned to Afghanistan and now lived in the mountains near Tora Bora. So, they decided to hunt the girl. ...