Download   North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visited Beijing earlier this month for the first time in four years.

China is one of Pyongyang’s few allies but relations have chilled following the Norths Nuclear tests.

Beijing wants to bring North Korea back to the negotiation table.

In return, the “Dear Leader”, as North-Koreans are supposed to call their president, received promises of much needed economic aid from China.

Daniel Bastard reports from the border city of Dandong, where he saw Kim Jong-il’s private, armored train crossing the border back into North Korea.

Download   For those with access, being online has changed their lives.

The internet gives farmers current crop prices, students research without setting foot in a library and job seekers the latest in employment options.

But for most of the world getting that information isn't possible.

Over five billion people are in a knowledge vacuum, living without the internet.

It is a disadvantage which can make their daily life more difficult.

The Question Box is being touted as a unique solution.

It is bringing the internet to India's rural poor.

Michael Atkin went to Poonah to find out how it works.

Download   Green gold is the nickname people in Kerala have for bamboo.

It's a crop which is environmentally friendly and the source of income for thousands.

Bamboo is being used to make floor tiles, furniture and even toothpicks.

It is a traditional industry in the South Indian state, however the Keralan government is using technology and innovation to modernise production and it’s starting to pay off.

But bamboo is not only a money spinner. It is also being touted as a resource to combat climate change.   

Michael Atkin has more for Asia Calling.

Download  This music is called Qawwali.

It is the devotional music of the Sufi Muslims.

Qawwali is a vibrant musical tradition that stretches back more than 700 years.

It is mainly performed at Sufi shrines throughout the subcontinent including in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.

But in recent years music programs have been cancelled, CD stores and venues bombed by Pakistan Taliban militants who claim such events violate Islamic law.

As Mudassar Shah reports the situation has forced the Qawwali events underground.

On the day he attended one such event in Peshawar a CD shop was blown up just three hundred meters away.

Download  South Asian migrants have rushed to the Middle East in search of riches.

Migrants are chasing a desert dream paved with gold, earning many times what they could at home.

The South Indian state of Kerala has more than two million workers in the Persian Gulf.

They work as doctors, plumbers and labourers and usually send home more than 10 million US dollars in total each year.

However, that all changed when the global financial crisis hit the Middle East.

Migrant workers lost their jobs and took out loans after they had their wages slashed.

Michael Atkin has more for Asia Calling.

Download – Listen 

Cooking a lentil curry in rural India is deadly work.

Indoor air pollution from the use of traditional stoves leads to the deaths of almost 500,000 Indians each year.

When the stove is lit a toxic blend of smoke and gases are released into the home.

The exposure leads to lung cancer, pneumonia and low birth weight.  

It's not just a problem in India, half of the world burn biomass fuels like wood, dung and crop waste when they cook.

The fumes are not only lethal but they also contribute to climate change.   

Envirofit is an organisation, which claims it has a solution.

They are selling an alternative stove to India's rural poor, which they say can save lives and minimise the environmental impact of cooking.

Michael Atkin went to the village of Keerhukara in the south Indian state of Kerala for Asia Calling.

Download – Listen 

Dabgaree Garden area in Peshawar, in North-west Pakistan was once a famous area where musicians and singers performed.

But after a wave of suicide bombings and attacks from the Taliban in Peshawar, music shops and performance spaces have been transformed into chemists.

Most of the shops that sold the traditional string instrument Rabab have closed.

Mudassar Shah visits the remaining shops to meet the characters too in love with their Rababs to give them up.

Download – Listen 

Cruising Kerala's backwaters in a houseboat is an experience which brings tourists closer to nature.

But is this closeness contributing to the pollution of the area's ecosystem?

Houseboats are a major tourism draw card in the South Indian state and the main employer in several towns

In Alappuzha, nicknamed the Venice of the East, 25-30,000 people work in the tourism industry and it has changed the face of the town.

Resorts and houseboats line the shoreline and large houses with luxury vehicles are showy evidence of the prosperity tourism has delivered.

But environmentalists claim the new found wealth has come at a hefty price.

Michael Atkin has more for Asia Calling.