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By Robert Scheer
By James Andrew Miller, Tom Shales
$14.91
$18
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bengrey (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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By Alex Kirby, Climate News Network —
East Asian countries are showing the most progress in reducing the carbon intensity of their economies, leaving their competitors in Europe and the U.S. in their dust.
Posted on Mar 27, 2013
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AP/Andy Wong
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By Bhuchung D. Sonam —
Beijing is wiping out indigenous culture on the Tibetan Plateau. In protest, 98 people have set themselves on fire since 2009.
Posted on Jan 15, 2013
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Bill Day, Cagle Cartoons —
Posted on Oct 11, 2012
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carst (CC-BY)
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Health experts say the coming decades will see an epidemic of asbestos-related diseases in Asian countries where the material is still used in construction. China and India, with their rapidly developing economies and huge populations, are expected to be the hardest hit.
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Photo by ctj71081 (CC-BY)
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By William Pfaff — Is the United States in decline? It’s clear to anyone who has been to Europe or the major Asian states recently, where everything works beautifully, even if Europe’s debts are not paid off.
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AP / Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service
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As his father Kim Jong Il lies in state, North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong Un is taking over the family business, assuming a position of power vis-à-vis his country’s military, his people and even a couple of visiting dignitaries in from the not-so-friendly neighboring nation of South Korea to pay their respects.
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As Amy Goodman points out in this report from Tuesday’s edition of “Democracy Now!,” North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s death came as a surprise to the U.S., which also underscores a more general lack of knowledge in America about either of the Koreas. Fortunately, she brings in some experts on the region to bring us up to speed.
Posted on Dec 20, 2011
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A still from "Team America: World Police"
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North Korea’s current dictator has died. State television gives the cause of death as—and this is not a joke—exhaustion from working too hard. Kim succeeded his father in 1994 and has indicated that his third son is to take over the responsibility of oppressing the North Korean people.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By William Pfaff — One might think that a bitter Central Asian war in Afghanistan and an ambiguous commitment to Iraq would be enough for President Barack Obama to cope with.
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Rick McKee, Cagle Cartoons, The Augusta Chronicle —
Posted on Nov 2, 2011
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Associated Press / Sakchai Lalit
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Yingluck Shinawatra is expected to become Thailand’s first female prime minister after her opposition party won an outright majority in parliamentary elections Sunday. Shinawatra is the sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, himself prime minister until 2006 when a military coup forced him into exile. (more)
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By William Pfaff — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Kabul at the start of June talking about withdrawal—or non-withdrawal—from Afghanistan, but before he went home he stopped in Singapore to talk about an enlarged American military engagement in Asia.
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Flickr / jankie
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Due to rising food prices, the Asian Development Bank is forecasting a surge in the number of people counted within the region’s severely impoverished class.
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Illustration by PZS
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While Japan is busy trying to keep babies from drinking irradiated water, officials in nearby China are getting ready to roll out a reactor they say is more advanced and safer than the one currently poisoning Tokyo’s water supply.
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By William Pfaff — The U.S. can pursue one of two courses in East Asia: Either negotiate an understanding with regional powers and redeploy American troops, or continue the dangerous drift that provokes China’s insecurities.
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Flickr / Gelay Jamtsho (CC-BY-NC-SA)
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Bhutan, that tiny, idyllic country nestled between China and India, has a thing for male genitals. However, an influx of tourists and their prudish ways threatens the ancient art of penis worship, the Global Post reports. ... (more)
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AP / Khalid Tanveer
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An already fraught relationship between India and Pakistan got a bit more taut after a lapse of journalistic responsibility led several leading Pakistani papers to publish fabricated WikiLeaks cables that more resembled anti-Indian propaganda than diplomatic correspondence.
Posted on Dec 10, 2010
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Steven Borowiec
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By Steven Borowiec — The South Korean government has been criticized sharply for its response to the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. The future for those residents who have returned to this transformed little place is uncertain.
Posted on Dec 6, 2010
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White House / Pete Souza
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By William Pfaff — Like his royal British forerunners, the president, through his advisers and their policies, brings imperial ambitions to the largest and most populous continent.
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bbc.co.uk
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India’s future role in the United Nations might just bump up a big notch soon, thanks to Barack Obama’s endorsement. The president officially announced his support for India’s permanent inclusion on the U.N.‘s Security Council on Monday ... (continued)
Posted on Nov 8, 2010
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By William Pfaff — An epoch of Western world political domination is coming to an end. This is not simply an end to imperialism (new or old), but quite possibly the beginning of a probably long decline in the West’s primacy in industry, technology and scientific innovation.
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AP / Alexander Zemilanichenko
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Following a coup, bitter ethnic violence and skyrocketing food prices, Kyrgyzstan managed to hold a peaceful landmark election on Sunday that may very well establish the beleaguered country as the first parliamentary democracy in Central Asia.
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AP / Oded Balilty
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By Steven Hill — How is a country with a lower per capita income than Kazakhstan, one of the worst environmental records of any major nation and a dictatorship, besides, hailed by so many as the next global superpower?
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Al-Jazeera English
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It’s been a rough year for Kyrgyzstan. There was the uprising in April that saw a new government take charge, followed by violent ethnic clashes in June, then by a mass flight of refugees. And now it culminates with food scarcity and soaring prices that affect a quarter of the population amid a broken trade and supply network.
Posted on Sep 17, 2010
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© 2010 Reese Erlich
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By Reese Erlich — Proponents say cap and trade will save the world, but an innovative green project in Nepal exposes the carbon market’s flaws.
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AP / Altaf Qadri
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By Reese Erlich — Nepal’s parliament will attempt to elect a prime minister, the sixth try in almost three months. The impasse reflects the deep antagonism between the Maoists, Leninists, Marxists and socialists who are all fighting for control.
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Flickr / SFTHQ (CC-BY)
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Chinese authorities say the country’s recent landslides killed at least 1,117 people. Most of the hundreds more still missing are feared dead. Heavy rains are expected to cause more landslides, while Chinese scientists, officials and soldiers scramble to cope with the current disaster.
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AP / Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service
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Following the announcement of joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S., North Korea has threatened a “physical response,” describing the military drills as another sign of U.S. hostility and “a threat to the Korean peninsula and the region of Asia as a whole.”
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Flickr / jimg944 (CC-BY)
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By William Pfaff — Possibly the most fashionable theme in current discussions of the future is whether China will replace the United States as the leading world power.
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AP / Bullit Marquez
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In 1998, 4,000 people died in the Yangtze floods in China. Now the country is bracing for its worst flooding since then as Typhoon Conson, which has already killed 38 people in the Philippines, closes in on China’s southern coast.
Posted on Jul 16, 2010
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Wikimedia Commons
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Looks like the Japanese government is headed for a frustrating, and potentially ineffectual, phase after Sunday’s election left the nation’s parliament in a “twisted” condition. That’s an actual term, not a value judgment.
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AP / Alexander Zemlianichenko
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After an estimated 1,000 people died in violence in Kyrgyzstan two weeks ago, many are still asking “why?” Aside from blaming some organic propensity for violence between ethnic groups, The New York Times actually asked “why” and found complicity in both the Kyrgyz military and police forces.
Posted on Jun 27, 2010
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Al Jazeera English
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The interim government of Kyrgyzstan has extended a state of emergency announced last week after ethnic violence erupted between Uzbek and Kyrgyz groups, killing more than 100 and extending to neighboring provinces.
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DoD photo / SSG Lorie Jewell, U.S. Army
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The New York Times is calling it a “secret directive,” but it’s not so secret anymore, it would appear: Back in September, Gen. David Petraeus signed an order to expand “clandestine military activity” around the Middle East.
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AP / Manish Swarup
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The Thai government announced that it has retaken control of the country after several weeks of bloody anti-government demonstrations that paralyzed Bangkok and created a deep political rift within Thai society.
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Flickr / Nate Roberts (CC-BY)
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The two-month-long mass protest that has paralyzed the Thai capital is nearing resolution, as the besieged prime minister looks ready to accept new elections. But some observers wonder, with rival mobs ready to march in perpetuity, if Thai politics will ever really stabilize.
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AP / David Longstreath
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As the military in Burma prepares to replace itself with a civilian government, as per new regulations in the country’s 2008 constitution, the generals of the ruling junta are shedding their military ranks and—voilà!—transforming themselves into respectable civilian politicians.
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Wikimedia Commons
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Only days after a bloody uprising brought a new government to Kyrgyzstan, interim leader Roza Otunbayeva has pledged to the U.S. that her country will honor a deal allowing the U.S. to operate a key military base there.
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Is China on its way toward becoming the feared colossus of the 21st century, surpassing the United States in its imperial ambitions and economic hegemony?
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White House / Pete Souza
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Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader called China “childish” on Thursday after conferring with President Barack Obama in a meeting that was held over Beijing’s objections. The White House released a carefully worded statement (posted after the jump) that praised the Dalai Lama without lending too much weight to his cause.
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Flickr / Marcy Reiford
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Residents of Southern California are no strangers to smog, but new research suggests that South and East Asia could be to blame for increased levels of the brown stuff floating over the Western United States. Ozone and possibly other pollutants are apparently blowing over the ocean, causing all sorts of problems and reminding us that exporting our pollution to the developing world isn’t exactly working out.
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Flickr / Dunechaser
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After a Kafkaesque series of house arrests, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will have her day in court. The Supreme Court in Myanmar has finally agreed to hear an appeal against her most recent detention.
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China will soon become “the most powerful and influential country in the world,” says celebrated journalist Martin Jacques. But to what end?
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Flickr / Eustaquio Santimano
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Vietnam is spending billions on Russian submarines and fighter jets. Calm down, Dick Cheney. Vietnam cares more about the prawn market than World War III. The real superpower fretting over this is China. ... (continued)
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White House / Pete Souza
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President Obama’s remarks at a Shanghai town hall meeting Monday were unlikely to please either the power brokers in Beijing or the hawks on the home front. Obama said China and the U.S. were not adversaries, but he also spoke of “universal rights,” which ... (continued)
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White House / Pete Souza
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By William Pfaff — Who would have thought a year ago that most of the issues of conflict in America’s foreign relations would be made worse during the first year following Barack Obama’s election as U.S. president?
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Flickr / Addictive Picasso
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China and India, which together represent well over a third of the world’s population, will be negotiating in concert at the upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen. The two booming economies produce most of the developing world’s CO2, but they’ve also made big commitments—China especially—to ... (continued)
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wfp.org
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Global hunger is a “world emergency” now, if it wasn’t before, with the number of hungry people rising to a record 1 billion, according to the United Nations. Given this scary statistic, it’s not looking good for a goal, set in 2000, to reduce the number of people going hungry worldwide by half by 2015.
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Flickr / Michell Zappa
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The world’s second-largest economy is back in the black. Japan’s economic growth is positive for the first time in over a year, beating expectations. The good news comes as the economies of Germany and France are also growing and China is in full boom. Kanpai!
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rferl.org
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Russia has announced it will take “concrete steps” to hinder any attempt by Georgia to rebuild its military capability, claiming it is “deeply worried” that its small neighbor might be preparing for yet another conflict. The stern words come as Vice President Joe Biden pays a visit to Georgia just ahead of the first anniversary of its war with Russia over South Ossetia.
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