A young couple with matching expressions stares nervously into the camera with deep brown eyes. He, a Vietnamese student, has just met the love of his life. She, a North Korean, is forbidden to love him back. It was 31 years after Pham Ngoc Canh, 69, took that first photo of Ri Yong Hui, before the two were finally allowed to get married in 2002 when North Korea took the rare step of allowing one of its citizens to marry a foreigner.

For weary travelers, amid the ashy, arid trans-Himalayan desert of Upper Mustang, the villages act as green beacons. I hadn’t expected the climb from Kagbeni to be beautiful. The three white peaks of Nilgiri Mountain towered over us and the ochre canyons in the distance throughout, as we started our march to the once-forbidden city of Lo Manthang.

KATHMANDU, May 10: The Election Commission (EC) has said that political parties will not be allowed to conduct election related publicity campaigns during 'silent period' which will begin from Thursday midnight and remain effective until the voting concludes.

Indulging in a weekly habit of drugs, booze and cigarettes can cost you as little as $41.40 in Laos and a whopping $1,441.50 in Japan, according to the Bloomberg Vice Index.