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East Asia
[Asia Round-up] Taiwan’s challenges over its sovereignty
By the NUMBERS Taiwan’s challenges over its sovereignty The debate over Taiwan’s sovereignty, status as a nation-state or part of China is being rekindled with its recent loss of diplomatic ties with Gambia. Many speculate about Taiwan’s position and role in the international community. In light of this, Taiwan’s “soft…
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East Asia
[Asia Round-up] Samuragochi’s shameful deception
Editor’s note: Followings are summaries of editorials from major Asian media on current issues. Samuragochi’s shameful deception The deception by the supposedly deaf composer Mamoru Samuragochi is twofold. Takashi Niigaki, a lecturer at Toho Gakuen School of Music, disclosed he had ghostwritten 20 music scores credited to Samuragochi for the…
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South East Asia
[Asia Round-up] Keeping people and tigers safe
Editor’s note: Followings are summaries of editorials from major Asian media on current issues. Keeping people and tigers safe As conservation of wild species becomes more successful, higher levels of human-wildlife conflict are being reported. The “man-eating tiger” incident in the Nilgiris district, which ended in the gunning down of…
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Politics
[Asia Round-up] Polls not likely to solve Thai crisis
Cajoling wild jumbos The Island, Sri Lanka The last few months have seen several protests against the government’s failure to prevent wild elephant attacks on far-flung villages. Affected people demand electric fences. But they won’t help so long as villages sit on elephant migration paths and forests continue to shrink,…
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South Asia
Gold for garbage: Innovative way of waste management
Twenty years back people laughed at Ms. Nargis Latif, who hails from a well-off family of Karachi, when she started collecting municipal waste for recycling and propagated the slogan “waste for gold” as an idea aimed to create self-employment opportunities and get rid of environmental problems. Even though she did…
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East Asia
Confederation or instant unification
Over the last few months we have seen a number of signals which indicate that Marshall Kim Jong Un, the young North Korean dictator, is really serious about changing his country. Most likely, he wants to turn his country into a mini-China, where cutthroat capitalism will be practiced under the…
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Nepal’s PM Koirala expands cabinet
Sixteen days after he was elected to the top executive post, Nepal’s Prime Minister Sushil Koirala Tuesday expanded his cabinet by inducting two deputy prime ministers, 16 ministers and one state minister. Row between the two large parties–Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal Unified Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML)–…
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East Asia
[Photo Break] Learn from enemies!
Learn from enemies! In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher. – The Dalai Lama
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[Books] Mental map of local India and China
Inside Out, India and China: Local Politics Go Global By William Antholis | Brookings Institution Press | 2013 The world has its eyes on the two emerging Asian giants, India and China, which not only contain one-third of the world’s population, but also have been steadily growing at amazing rates…
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Culture
“See you in Pyeong Chang!” Russia closes costly Sochi Olympics
The Mayor of PyeongChang Lee Seok-rae (2nd R) waves the Olympic flag at the closing ceremony for the 22nd Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. (Xinhua Flushed with pride after its athletes’ spectacular showing at the costliest Olympics ever, Russia celebrated Sunday night with a visually stunning finale that…
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