The riddle of the Scarborough Shoals

What's the standoff between China and the Philippines over an atoll in the South China Sea all about? Is it a matter of seafood and sovereignty ... or gas fields and gambling?

Kiso cormorant fishermen add woman to fold

For the first time in its history dating back some 1,300 years, a woman has become an apprentice of traditional "ukai" fishers along the Kiso River in central Japan. Ukai fishermen use tamed cormorants. The city of Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, on Tuesday appointed Kotomi Inayama, 23, as an apprentice. She is the nation's sixth female "ukai" fisher.

The Abaca, the Japanese & the making of Davao

THE Davao Museum and Ethnography (DMHE) recently unveiled its latest show in its temporary exhibition hall entitled Davao Kuo: The Abaca, the Japanese and the Making of Davao.

Arriving on the tide: Tsunami debris sightings on the rise with spring

Now that Alaskans have lodged themselves firmly on the other side of a long and harsh winter, springtime coastal activities are turning up a rising amount of marine debris linked to the March 2011 tsunami in Japan.

The 1 Percent Solution

Seattle—Nick Hanauer toddled through his early years in a cramped Greenwich Village apartment. His mother waited tables at the Bitter End. His father worked low-level jobs on Wall Street and as an editor at a publishing house. When Nick was 5, his folks left New York to join a family pillow-making business in the Pacific Northwest. They raised their three sons in a three-bedroom house in the ...