Asia
Snorkeling in Malaysia
By Asian Correspondent at March 23, 2013 | 11:59 am | 0 Comment
By Mila Gilmanova SNORKELING is a great activity on a beach holiday as it requires very simple equipment and is a skill anyone can master. All you need is a snorkel, diving mask and fins. Compared to diving it’s also a lot cheaper and doesn’t restrict people based on their health. It also gives you the chance to see marine life without the need for diving more...
Jakarta – The future of the Indonesian economy
By Anwar Nasution at November 9, 2012 | 6:00 am | 0 Comment
Jakarta - Anwar Nasution, UI and SEADI To maintain strong economic growth in a world of high government debt, and in the midst of a global recession, Indonesia needs to revise its development strategy. It must shift from external to domestic sources of growth, move higher up the value chain and join the global supply chain. Due to the weakness in its tax more...
BANGKOK – Pardoned Thai-American speaks to the press on Lese Majeste
By Bangkok Pundit at November 8, 2012 | 10:55 pm | 0 Comment
BANGKOK - BP has blogged on the Thai-born naturalized American citizen Joe Gordon when he was arrested in May 2011 on lese majeste charges, then later blogged when the US government expressed disappointment when he was actually charged in August 2011 for translating The King Never Smiles, blogged again when he was jailed for two and a half years in December more...
Vientiane – Laos dam opens floodgates for more concerns
By Graham Land at November 8, 2012 | 10:24 pm | 0 Comment
The Mekong River runs from the Tibetan plateau through China, Burma/Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. Agriculture and fishing industries as well as countless independent livelihoods depend on the Mekong for support, especially the poor population of the Lower Mekong Basin. It has a greater variety of very large fish than any other river, with an aquatic more...
Kuala Lumpur – Creative Industry Programs for Asian Students
By Asian Correspondent at November 8, 2012 | 7:51 pm | 0 Comment
Kuala Lumpur - The creative industries are particularly important to developed economies. When a nation is in the throes of development, manufacturing and infrastructure take precedence. But there comes a point at which a national economy begins taking broad steps towards becoming a producer of ideas rather than mere brick-and-mortar merchandise. The buzzword here is more...
Suu Kyi urges Burma govt to act against sectarian unrest
By AP News at November 8, 2012 | 9:55 am | 0 Comment
Suu Kyi YANGON, Burma (AP) — Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and lawmakers from ethnic minority parties are calling on the government to deploy more troops to restore peace and stability in a western state hit by recent deadly violence between Buddhists and Muslims. They issued a statement Wednesday urging the government to explain its policies on more...
China’s Red Cross fights online rumors as hospital investigation continues
By Michael Evans at November 8, 2012 | 7:44 am | 0 Comment
Red Cross - As China’s Red Cross continues to investigate abuses in its hospitals, the organization has pledged greater attention to deflecting online criticism and combating internet rumors. At an Oct. 29 news conference in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, officials announced the results of a recent investigation into Red Cross-affiliated hospitals in the more...
Burma and the potential for a nationwide religious war
By Francis Wade at November 7, 2012 | 12:13 pm | 0 Comment
The violence in western Burma between Rohingya and Arakanese has evolved in recent weeks, and now there is a distinct possibility that a religious war is unfolding that could spread far beyond Arakan state. The most concerning sign is the recent attacks by Arakanese and security forces on Kaman Muslims, who had previously lived comfortably alongside Buddhist communities, more...
24 hours in Georgetown
By Asian Correspondent at November 7, 2012 | 10:12 am | 0 Comment
Georgetown By Jim Cheney NESTLED in the northwestern corner of Malaysia, Georgetown is one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. Sitting on the eastern shores of the island of Penang, the city and the surrounding villages are some of the most historically important in all of Southeast Asia. Settled by the British in 1786, Georgetown was the first more...
Discovering Sabah’s World War II sites
By Asian Correspondent at November 7, 2012 | 10:12 am | 0 Comment
Sabah By Lara Dunston I AM standing solemnly in the sticky heat, my shirt clinging to my back, despite the fact I’m in a shaded area of forest. It’s mid morning yet it’s already sweltering and humidity is high here at Sandakan Memorial Park, in the Sabah region of Malaysian Borneo. I’ve joined a group of some 60 people, mostly Australian passengers from more...
The longhouses of Malaysian Borneo
By Asian Correspondent at November 7, 2012 | 10:12 am | 0 Comment
Borneo By Ben Cowles THE enormous island of Borneo adds yet more to the Asian melting pot that is Malaysia. Malaysian Borneo (sometimes called Eastern Malaysia) is comprised of the states of Sarawak and Sabah, which cling to the Northwest side of the world’s third largest island. The Dayak, a collective name for the hundreds of tribes that populate more...
Five fine dining experiences in Penang, Malaysia
By Asian Correspondent at November 7, 2012 | 10:12 am | 0 Comment
Penang By Mike Aquino FOR such a food-obsessed town, Penang has never been known for fine dining: Penangites have long favored simple, hearty meals over fancy expensive spreads. Increasing prosperity and shifting cultural mores have made fine dining more palatable to Penang and her visitors: the Hokkien have now warmed to more expensive eats and fine wine, all worth more...
Manny Pacquiao Watch: Speed, speed and speed
By Edwin Espejo at November 7, 2012 | 9:22 am | 0 Comment
Manny Pacquiao have said it before. Speed kills. In a game that is dictated by power, speed is one great equalizer. Eight-division world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao is one of the gifted prize fighters that possesses both. That was until he stopped shedding weight before a fight by depriving him of two or three meals before weighing time. Manny more...
China hauls away activists in congress crackdown
By AP News at November 7, 2012 | 9:19 am | 0 Comment
BEIJING (AP) — During her 30-hour train journey to Beijing, Wang Xiulan ducked into bathrooms whenever the conductors checked IDs. Later, as she lay low in the outskirts of the capital, unidentified men caught her in a nighttime raid and hauled her to a police station. She assumed a fake identity to get away, and is now in hiding again. Wang’s not a criminal. more...
As election nears, Japan’s politics turn sour
By Asia Sentinel at November 7, 2012 | 8:42 am | 0 Comment
election - Innuendoes on Osaka mayor’s origins set off alarms, writes Asia Sentinel’s Todd Crowell It has never been a secret that Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto’s gangster father was a yakuza who hailed from a social underclass that has often been discriminated against in past years. Newspaper and magazine articles have alluded to this without making much of an more...
China’s civil service exam draws record number of applicants
By Michael Evans at November 7, 2012 | 7:30 am | 0 Comment
Civil Service - A record number of applicants sat for the provincial civil service exam in Sichuan province this past Sunday, a sign of the growing popularity of government jobs in a risky and uncertain employment market. The East China Metropolis News reported Saturday that 227,000 people had registered to take the exam, each competing for a slot among 8821 job more...
India’s infrastructure challenges
By Mahendra Ved at November 7, 2012 | 6:00 am | 0 Comment
infrastructure - Author: Mahendra Ved, New Delhi The United Nation’s State of the World Cities Report 2012/2013 has ranked Delhi, the Indian capital, 58 and Mumbai, the commercial capital, at 52 out of 95 cities, way below Beijing, Shanghai or any other world-class city. More than anything else, the rankings reflect India’s poor infrastructure. Roads in more...
South Korea shuts down 2 nuke reactors
By Graham Land at November 7, 2012 | 1:01 am | 0 Comment
South Korea has 23 nuclear power reactors, which make up 29.5% of their total capacity for generating electricity. However, nuclear power in SKorea is punching above its weight, supplying 45% of power consumed in the nation. There are currently plans to increase the generation capacity to 60% (more than a doubling of current numbers) by the year 2035. Suffice it to say more...
Markets rise as America votes
By AP News at November 7, 2012 | 12:53 am | 0 Comment
LONDON (AP) — Global markets pushed higher Tuesday as the U.S. general election got under way, with the latest opinion polls pointing to a narrow victory for President Barack Obama. After months and billions of dollars spent campaigning, election day has arrived. Many investors are hoping the result will be clear enough to avoid a re-run of 2000, when the more...
Vietnam’s fight against corruption: a self-defeating effort?
By Le Hong Hiep at November 6, 2012 | 6:00 pm | 0 Comment
Vietnam Author: Le Hong Hiep, VNU Vietnam’s National Assembly will pass the revised Law on Anti-Corruption in the next few weeks to try to intensify the fight against corruption. This is an important move against the backdrop of widespread and enduring corruption, which has undermined the legitimacy of the country’s communist regime. For example, a 2010 report more...
Colombo – Sri Lanka levels 14 charges against chief justice
By AP News at November 6, 2012 | 5:22 pm | 0 Comment
Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s government has accused the country’s chief justice of not disclosing income and property among 14 charges cited in an impeachment bid against her. The Parliament is meeting Tuesday to discuss setting up a committee to investigate the charges against Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake handed to speaker Chamal Rajapaksa last more...
China sentences 4 Mekong smugglers to death
By AP News at November 6, 2012 | 4:09 pm | 0 Comment
Mekong - BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese court sentenced four members of a Burma drug gang to death Tuesday for kidnapping and killing 13 Chinese sailors last year on the Mekong River, state media said. China, Burma, Laos and Thailand began joint Mekong River patrols in December after the sailors were killed along a section of the river flowing through the Golden Triangle more...
SKorea: Indictments in international school admissions
By Nathan Schwartzman at November 6, 2012 | 12:21 pm | 0 Comment
international school - original article in Korean is at this link. No mention of anyone at the schools being charged, but it’s hard to believe they were unaware. 47 parents are being charged, including one being detained in jail, on charges related to international school admissions. In a briefing on the 6th the Incheon District Public Prosecutor’s Office announced more...
The Melbourne Cup – the race that stops the nation
By Asian Correspondent at November 6, 2012 | 11:46 am | 0 Comment
Melbourne Cup - If you’ve been to Australia during November you’ll have heard of the Melbourne Cup. If you haven’t, it’s time to get educated about this race that literally brings the entire nation to a standstill. This year it takes place at 3pm Melbourne time on Tuesday 6 November. Pic: melbournecup.com This year the Melbourne Cup is up to its 152nd more...
Prince Charles, wife begin Australia visit
By AP News at November 6, 2012 | 10:57 am | 0 Comment
Prince Charles - SYDNEY (AP) — Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, are in Australia on a two-week tour of the Pacific. The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall landed in the Outback Queensland town of Longreach on Monday following a visit to Papua New Guinea. Dignitaries including Governor-General Quentin Bryce greeted the royal couple before they more...
