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East Asia
Disgraced politician Bo Xilai stands on trial accused of power abuse, bribery
Trial resumed Friday for disgraced politician Bo Xilai a day after he fiercely denied taking $3.5 million in bribes from businessmen and cross-examined one of them with a lawyer’s precision. His unexpectedly spirited defense at the proceedings aimed at capping China’s biggest scandal in decades appeared to be a last-ditch…
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West Asia
Egypt’s deposed autocrat Mubarak released and placed under house arrest
Egypt’s Prime Minister ordered Wednesday that deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak be placed under house arrest after he’s released from prison following more than two years in detention. The announcement came hours after a court ordered Mubarak be released for the first time since he was first detained in April 2011,…
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East Asia
300 tons of highly radioactive water leaks from Japan’s Fukushima plant
Japan’s nuclear watchdog said a leak of highly radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant could be the beginning of a new disaster – a series of leaks of contaminated water from storage tanks. The plant operator has built hundreds of steel tanks to store massive amounts of…
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South East Asia
200,000 forced into emergency shelters in Philippines due to heavy rain
Heavy monsoon rains brought by typhoon “Trami,” which battered the Philippines for four successive days since Sunday, caused massive flooding in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces, killing at least 15 people and forcing thousands of families to flee their homes. In a press briefing Tuesday, Major Rey Balido, spokesman of…
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West Asia
At least 130 killed in Syria in worst chemical attack, opposition says
The images showed lifeless children – wrapped in simple white cloths, their pale faces unmarked by any wound – lined up shoulder to shoulder in a vivid demonstration of an attack Wednesday in which activists say the Syrian regime killed at least 130 people with toxic gas. The Syrian government…
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Chicken goes missing from Kathmandu’s kitchens
Chicken that used to be one of the compulsory items in almost all kitchens in Kathmandu until a month ago has now disappeared from Kathmandu valley, thanks to the outbreak of bird flu. One cannot find chicken in the butchers’ shops, neither do the retail shops dare to sell the…
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East Asia
How to internationalize the Kaesong Industrial Complex
[Editor’s note] The Kaesong Industrial Complex was shuttered in April this year when North Korea pulled out its workers as inter-Korean tensions escalated, but its role as a zone of engagement between North and South Korea catapulted into the headlines recently when Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to reopen the complex.…
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South Asia
India’s gov’t struggles to halt rupee slide as financial crisis deepens
Indians returning from abroad bring nearly 3,000 flat screen televisions into the country a day, turning airport luggage belts into revolving electronics displays. A stiff new customs duty aims to sink that popular trade as officials scramble to halt a dizzying plunge in the rupee. The 36-percent TV tax is…
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Central Asia
Turkish PM accuses Israel of being behind ouster of Egypt’s President
Turkey’s prime minister on Tuesday accused Israel of being behind the ouster of Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, offering as the only evidence for his claim a statement by a Jewish French intellectual during a meeting with an Israeli official. The Egyptian Cabinet rejected Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement as baseless…
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West Asia
Israel-Palestine to make “dramatic decisions” to reach final agreement
Israel will make “dramatic decisions” to reach a final peace agreement that will end the conflict with the Palestinians, Israel’s chief negotiator said Tuesday while warning that hawks inside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition are making her job more difficult. Tzipi Livni’s remarks came as a senior Palestinian official said…
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