Two teenage cousins found hanging from a mango tree may in fact have been murdered in an honour killing by members of their own family.

After a fruitless three-month hunt for flight MH370, Australian authorities have taken the first step towards handing over search operations to a private contractor.

A travel insurer has warned tourists about the risk of drinking arak, a locally made alcohol in Bali.

A British woman sailing near Indonesia at the time MH370 vanished says she saw a plane 'burning' and billowing smoke before it crashed.

Vietnam's Phu Quoc is what Phuket was 40 years ago. But it won't last, says Jacqueline Le.

Len Brown is taking his first overseas trip since the furore of his affair, which raised questions about a trip he made to Hong Kong.

Can a Kiwi cyclist out-sprint a hungry brown bear? In Japan Victoria Clark fixates on this point while pedalling through Hokkaido's forests. She need not have worried.

Pam Neville finds an unexpected joie de vivre among Beijing's bustling population.

Good intentions are being abused in voluntourism, says Neesha Bremner.

Kiwis are being urged not to travel to some areas of Thailand and to be extremely careful in others after martial law was declared across the country.

A principal problem for sports extravangas is host nations trying to outdo their predecessors in grandeur, writes Bob Jones.

In an uncharacteristic step by the North Korean government, officials made a public apology after a building collapse in Pyongyang reportedly killed hundreds of people.

Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, based in Hong Kong, has spent year immersed in the horrors to be found within China’s open archives.

Circles in the sky have become a hip way to view a city, so prepare your cabin for 'flight', says Peter Hamling.

Justine Tyerman takes a 'virtual' hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia.

Sheriden Rhodes checks out some of the best spa-cations across Asia and Australia.

Communist Laos is still close to its agricultural roots, writes Yvonne van Dongen.

Helen van Berkel senses the suffering of the prisoners of war who died to build the Death Railway.

Hugh Biggar goes in search of exotic and elusive wildlife in Indonesia.

Rare pictures of Kim Jong-un as a boy have been shown during a televised concert for the air force in North Korea.

The Chinese government has shut down thousands of websites and social media sites in a bid to purge the internet of online pornography, it was revealed today.

Catering for many tastes requires a juggling act, finds Diana Dobson.

So few tourists go to colourful Bangladesh that you'll be spoiled, says J.J. Somerset - but you'll also be amazed and enchanted.

Solar power has won the global argument. Photovoltaic energy is already so cheap that it competes with oil, diesel and liquefied natural gas in much of Asia without subsidies.

Singapore serves up the food of the gods - and the devil, writes Sharon Stephenson.