Around Asia: Bollywood weddings, ministerial salaries and mock elections

• Pyongyang, North Korea: The DPRK has celebrated the birthday of its "Eternal President", the late Kim Il Sung, with a mass games involving thousands of performers clad in colourful costumes, while the rest of the world sweats over its missed disarmament deadline.
• Tokyo, Japan: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said Tokyo feels responsible for forcing women to work in brothels during World War II, in contrast to earlier remarks last month that there was no proof the government or the military had forced the women to serve Japanese soldiers.
• Mumbai, India: Several unlucky photographers get beaten up by security guards at the wedding of two of Bollywood's biggest stars, Abhishek Bachchan and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai.
• Singapore: Despite enjoying the highest pay scale for government officials anywhere in the world, the Singapore government this week rewarded itself with a 60% pay increase, boosting ministers' annual base salaries to about S$1.25 million (US$823,000). The new pay scale means Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong will now earn five times more than U.S. President George W. Bush. Check out how they stack up here.
• Bhutan: The tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan has taken a big step towards ending a century of absolute royal rule by staging a mock election, a dress rehearsal with dummy parties, for the real thing in 2008.

Image of mass games in Pyongyang from wkenney.