A snapshot of Asia would show a region with stable societies and growing economies. But we may look back on this as the time the region fell apart, says Richard N. Haass.

Steve McQueen charts the harrowing true story of a free man sold into slavery in Oscar-tipped drama ‘12 Years A Slave’; a 40-something slacker (Vince Vaughn) discovers he has fathered 533 children in ‘Delivery Man’ and Colin Firth plays an emotionally damaged husband in ‘The Railway Man’.

JAPAN’S prime minister said yesterday that a US resolution demanding Japan formally apologise for forcing thousands of Asian women into sex slavery during World War II was regrettable because Japan has already made amends.

A Japanese official responded to a US demand for a formal apology over wartime sex slavery practices by saying that Japan had already made amends.

Japan’s prime minister caused outrage in the Far East today after suggesting women who worked in brothels for the Japanese military during World War II had not been forced to do so.