PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

India, Cambodia and Thailand are not doing enough to protect children against the risks associated with sex tourism for fear of damaging their economies, a U.N. human rights expert says. The U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of children, Juan Miguel Petit, said authorities in these countries are often not willing to tackle the issue of children’s sexual exploitation for tourists’ benefit. In general, Asia “continues to be a very difficult, alarming place’’ as far as human trafficking is concerned, Petit said, adding police accept this kind of crime “in a passive way.”

PATNA, India

A domestic servant was allegedly killed by a professor in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur town last week. Angry over his death, hundreds of local people protested by ransacking the house of the accused and demanded action against him. Vikash Kumar, a teenager, who was working as a domestic servant at the residence of Prof. Birendra Nath Mishra, died Friday morning. It is believed he was killed after demanding his pay packet. The police intervened and pacified the mob and assured action against Mishra if found true.

BANGKOK, Thailand

Three top French chefs have decided against preparing a gourmet meal of lobster and truffles for rich clients in Bangkok who first will visit one of the poorest regions of Thailand. Alain Soliveres, from the acclaimed Taillevent restaurant in Paris, Jean-Michel Lorain and Michel Trama bowed out of the April 5 culinary event, saying they found it morally objectionable. Participants were to sit down to a $29,000 feast after being flown to Surin province to witness the plight of elephants and struggling local residents.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand

An escapee prisoner hijacked a tourist bus at New Zealand’s biggest airport in a short-lived attempt to find freedom. The man, who has not been identified, seized the Airport Express bus at Auckland Airport last week after escaping from guards while being transferred with six others at the domestic terminal. The fugitive, who had failed to get in a taxi, boarded the bus “screaming and yelling very violently” before leading police on a 20-minute chase.

KATHMANDU, Nepal

Nepal will block access to Mount Everest in early May to ensure China can take the Olympic torch to the roof of the world. The move is to prevent pro-Tibetan protests as the flame makes its way to Beijing. It comes amid an eruption of protests this week believed to the biggest in Tibet in two decades, and also coincides with demonstrations in India by Tibetan exiles seeking to pressure China ahead of the Olympics in August. Expedition teams will not be allowed to move from Nepal’s Everest base camp from May 1 to May 10, Tourism Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung said.

WELLAVELI, Sri Lanka

Security forces armed with loud hailers have been dispatched to eastern Sri Lanka to drive away wild elephants blocking access to polling booths. Villagers in Wellaveli told the authorities that they were unable to vote at the first local elections in 14 years because a herd of elephants had blocked their polling booth, a police official in the area said. Commandos in armoured trucks eventually cleared the roads of elephants.

CHENNAI, India

MUMBAI, India

India’s Supreme Court has shelved an arrest warrant issued against Hollywood heart-throb Richard Gere for showering kisses on Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. The move clears the way for Hollywood’s best-known Buddhist to meet next week with the Dalai Lama in northern India. Gere tightly clasped Shetty — winner of Britain’s Celebrity Big Brother reality show — and planted kisses on her cheek, triggering a firestorm in India, where chaste public behaviour is a stern tradition.

HUBEI, China

A Chinese bride burned her new husband to death after he got into bed after a drunken argument without washing his feet. Wang and his wife, Luo, were married last month and constantly fought. After drinking a bottle of liquor together “to ease their anger,” Luo became enraged when her husband got into bed with dirty feet. She set his bedsheet alight, and fire quickly engulfed the room and Wang, who had passed out.