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www.newsonjapan.com
If you're a wire rat and a Japanophile then move Newsonjapan.com to the top of your bookmarks. This portal-like site lists links to articles on Japan from the domestic media foreign news services and Internet media. A nice resource for anyone tired of the monotony of press club journalism.

www.projecteyeball.com
The Singapore government, despite its embrace of the Internet economy, still thinks it needs to tell its citizens what information it can access and what it cannot. Except the Internet itself makes that kind of impossible. So Project Eyeball began last week (as a print newspaper and Internet site) by one of the government's media corporations, giving the country's savvier generations what the government thinks they should read but trying to disguise it as a new kind of tuned-in journalism. It fails about as miserably as you'd expect but is worth keeping an eye on to see if Singapore's gray-haired office holders eventually catch on.

www.singapore-window.org
Hmmmm. Maybe Singapore Window is one of the sites the country's power elite is trying to pry eyeballs from. It has several features, mainly links to foreign media reports on Singapore and a feisty forum where readers give some pretty strong opinions on what's happening and what's not happening … in the city-state.

www.malaysiakini.com
Malaysiakini.com is Malaysians' only outlet for unbiased news on their country. It gets around strict press laws by not distributing any hard copies. It's a fighting man's site, a truly great site, and it's anyone's guess as to how long it will last, given Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's temper. Journalism with a purpose.

www.starwars.com
A year and a half ago George Lucas was blindsided by the speed at which a trailer for ``Star Wars: Episode I'' multiplied across the Internet. Now with filming for ``Episode II'' underway he's decided to harness that power, get everything out there on his terms and make a dime off it. The pages are filled with the kind of really schmaltzy stuff that, if it wasn't ``Star Wars,'' would be recognized as really schmaltzy stuff. But since it is ``Star Wars,'' you're gonna register so you can watch all those exclusive ``documentaries'' on the making of the movie.