In the mid-1990s, Gus, a polar bear in the Central Park Zoo, alarmed visitors by compulsively swimming figure eights in his pool, sometimes for 12 hours a day.

India will offload about a quarter of its rice stockpiles and ease restrictions on selling fruit and veggies as a weak monsoon threatens crop output.

Graham Reid visits a photogenic spot that isn't quite as famous as it looks.

Hayden Donnell discovers the dangers - and exhilaration - of Sapporo Beer Garden.

Countries searching for the missing Malaysian plane have yet to agree on how to share costs, an Australian search leader said.

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.

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.

Roll up! Roll up! For the chance to ride some of the best double-decker trams in Hong Kong, writes Russell Maclennan-Jones.

See Bangkok life from different perspectives, says Megan Singleton.

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.

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.

This resort in Hokkaido prefecture, 1000km north of Tokyo, gets enough snow to allow skiing for seven months of the year.

For further information see 360niseko.com.

New Zealand has a rival for the world's most breathtaking landscapes, writes Hayden Donnell, after taking in the view from Mt Annupuri during a skiing trip to the resort of Niseko on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

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.