Two weeks after the Air Asia jet carrying 162 people on board crashed in the Java Sea, search teams lifted the tail portion of the jet out of the water. On Monday, divers retrieved the flight data recorder, one of the two "black boxes," which will hopefully provide clues about what caused the disaster.

At the first auction of the year at Japan's famed Tsukiji fish market last week, buyers bid on fresh tuna — amid rising concerns that stocks of Bluefin tuna are becoming depleted from overfishing.

In neighboring South Korea, anglers engaged in a trout catching contest as a part of an annual ice festival in Hwacheon that draws over 1,000,000 visitors every year.

After electing a new president last week, Sri Lankans are preparing to welcome Pope Francis for a visit this week. The Vatican hopes that Christians can help heal the wounds of the island nation's bloody 25-year civil war. Fighting ended in 2009, but many Tamils say they feel forgotten by the central government, dominated by the Sinhala majority, which is overwhelmingly Buddhist. Sri Lanka's Christians come from both the Tamil and the Sinhala communities, making them a natural bridge between the two sides.