• Digital Diplomacy: A New Frontier Of Diplomacy or Simply a Delusion?

    *Author, Victoria Esser is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Digital Strategy, US Department of State. In June, the US Department of State held a live global Twitter Q&A with the Under Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy, Tara Sonenshine. Under Secretary Sonenshine answered questions on issues as diverse…

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  • Column

    12 foreigners, seven Nepalis killed in a plane crash in Kathmandu

    Kathmandu, Sept. 29: Nineteen passengers including three crew members were killed in an aircraft crash in Kathmandu, Nepal, Friday morning. A Dornier Aircraft belonging to Sita Air crashed a kilometer away from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the only international airport of the tiny Himalayan country, after it collided with…

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  • Column

    High-Stakes Drama: The South China Sea Disputes

    *Author, Mark J. Valencia is a Research Associate with the Nautilus Institute and can be contacted at mjvalencia@gmail.com. The latest act in the long-running saga of the South China Sea has seen China moving aggressively to enforce its claim to most of the features of the potentially oil-rich sea while…

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  • Column

    Animal rights group claims Anipang is animal abuse

    Picture the scene: a frightened, lonely rabbit is unwittingly pushed into a large, black, rectangular opening, crammed ear-to-ear with other confused-looking animals; crushed together like terminally ill battery hens or calves, separated from their mothers. Scared and alone, the doe-eyed bunny finds momentary peace when reunited with its family yet,…

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  • Column

    No more coups in Turkey

    In my trade you get used to it after a while, but the first time you wake up to find a military coup has happened overnight where you live is quite alarming. That was in Turkey back in 1971, when the army seized control of the country after months of…

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  • Column

    Folk Dancers Celebrate World Tourism Day In Rajasthan, India

    Folk dancers perform during a procession on the occasion of the World Tourism Day in Rajasthan, India, Sept. 27, 2012. <Xinhua/Stringer> news@theasian.asia

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  • Column

    Bangladeshi journalist community threatens tougher movement

    The country’s journalist community has threatened to paralyze the capital if the killers of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi are not arrested within October 10, the deadline set by the new Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir. Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists President Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury announced the plan…

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  • Column

    Print media will never die

    Print media will not and cannot die. This is not my argument but that of a much more qualified individual. I don’t have the expertise to make this declaration but he does. I remember attending a lecture by Bill Gates, the billionaire philanthropist who dropped out of Harvard to establish…

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  • Ominous signs from the north

    Kim’s attention should turn inside, not southward There has always been the so-called North Korean factor or risk in major economic and political moments in South Korea. The upcoming presidential election seems to be no exception. President Lee Myung-bak held an emergency national security meeting at Cheong Wa Dae Wednesday…

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    [World Report] Scientists: Indo-Autralian plate boundary may be breaking up

    Nature Journal on Wednesday (Sept 26) published three papers on scientists finding of hint of new tectonic plate boundary. A pair of earthquake that occurred in the Indian Ocean on 11 April 2012 signaled the latest step of the formation according to the Nature. Seismologists have suspected since 1980s that…

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