TOKYO (AFP) ― The United States on Thursday sacked a senior diplomat who infuriated Japan with reported slurs against the people of Okinawa island, which has reluctantly hosted American forces since World War II.The State Department’s Japan desk head Kevin Maher was replaced after he reportedly called Okinawans “lazy” and “masters of manipulation and extortion,” triggering outrage in Tokyo and on

Carnival has returned to Haiti, a year after the devastating earthquake, but this time it is darker and more menacing rippling with violent under tones as Haitians seek to exorcise their demons.Papier-mache artist Jean-Marc Turin created a sculpture dubbed “Haiti Kolera” for this year’s carnival in the coastal town of Jacmel.The striking cardboard figure of a red and blue woman, vomiting down her front representing the cholera epidemic stalking the nation, is a far cry from the happy, fantasy-fi

MANILA (AFP) ― Like some bad science-fiction movie, Philippine fishermen are encountering strange alien creatures: tough, speckled fish with sharp spines that tear and rip their nets.These suckermouth catfish from South America are just one of a growing number of foreign species that are spreading in local waterways and forests, threatening to edge out the country’s indigenous plants and animals.The catfish, locally known as “janitor fish,” were originally introduced locally for aquariums but ca

The sun is shining on the tourism trade in Asia-Pacific with double-digit growth notched up in 2010, spurred largely by Chinese and Indian middle classes packing their bags for a break abroad. Strong economies, the proliferation of low-cost airlines and a burgeoning constituency of online shoppers are adding to the region’s rosy outlook.There was an 11 percent rise in arrivals in the region overall last year, according to preliminary data from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). And 2011