An earthquake that struck the southern city of Tainan in Taiwan early Saturday morning toppled an enormous 100-family high-rise building, leaving 11 people dead and 475 injured, according to CNN.

In an historic moment for the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, the first free election is expected to be won by opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

On December 26, 2004, a tsunami struck dozens of countries around the Indian Ocean rim, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 228,000 people. Ten years on, countries around Asia commemorated the anniversary by holding prayer and memorial services for the near quarter million lives taken by the natural disaster.

Fox News reportedly used random b-roll video of sad Asians from other places as stand-ins for actual Koreans during a segment on the Korean ferry disaster. In fairness, lots of stations use b-roll that's unrelated to the story at hand. Few do it in such a racially and ethnically tone-deaf way.

The monstrous storm seen in this new satellite image is the biggest of the year and one of the most powerful tropical cyclones of all time. "Super typhoon" Haiyan is currently thrashing the entirety of the Philippines with sustained winds of 190 mph and gusts up to 230 mph, and then it's headed for Vietnam. It's such a wildly dangerous storm that it's even terrifying the weather forecasters.

According to a statement from White House press secretary Jay Carney, President Obama has now canceled his upcoming trip to Asia: "The president made this decision based on the difficulty in moving forward with foreign travel in the face of a shutdown, and his determination to continue pressing his case that Republicans should immediately allow a vote to reopen the government."

Researchers have concluded that up to 90 percent of students leaving school in major South East Asian cities are suffering from myopia — the fancy term for when things look fuzzy at a distance. According to Professor Ian Morgan, who conducted the study, the average used to be between 20 and 30 percent.

President Obama and fellow Pacific leaders didn't don any "silly shirts" — a.k.a. "festive local garb" — at last week's APEC conference in Hawaii, breaking from the conference's proud tradition of dressing powerful global leaders in clown costumes. "I got rid of the Hawaiian shirts because I looked at pictures of some of the previous APEC meetings," he explained, "and... I thought this may be a tradition that we might want to break." The War on Fun never ends with this guy. Fortunately, his hosts at his latest stop in Bali have forced him to wear a silly shirt anyway.

JeJu Love Land is a "whimsical erotic sculpture park" on an island in South Korea. It's been around for years, but we hadn't heard of it until Laughing Squid brought it to our attention.

This week the Chinese are celebrating their Communist Party's 90th by buying it a sentimental birthday card, taking it out to Shoney's for the breakfast buffet, then swinging by J.C. Penney to get it a nice new cardigan sweater and some comfortable slippers.

Indonesia's Istiqlal Mosque must not have a vaguely Muslim-looking headwear requirement, because Barack Obama will actually visit it during his upcoming Asia trip. Politico suggests that this "could stoke the heated confrontation over the Park51 Project," for some reason.

South Korea and the U.S. held military exercises in the Yellow Sea, and North Korea got pissed. Now they've retaliated by... capturing a fishing vessel? To be fair, the seven detained crew members are really good fishermen. [CNN]

Hillary Clinton, kicking off a big tour of Asia, has arrived in Japan.

Poor 'Oriental Yeti'. Not only did the media give you an antiquated name after you were trapped by some hunters in Sichuan, China: You have no hair! Scientists are baffled. We are, too: Aren't Yetis supposed to be scary? [Telegraph]