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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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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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[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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Excavation likely to locate Kapilavastu, the ancient Shakya kingdom in Nepal
The ongoing excavation in Tilaurakot, the capital of ancient Shakya kingdom, is likely to prove with scientific evidences that the palace of king Suddhodhana was in Kapilvastu of Nepal. Lord Buddha was born to Shakya king Suddhodhana of Kapilvastu some 2600 years ago. At a time when a section of…
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East Asia
[Books] Israel, living on the edge
[BOOKS] My Promised Land The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel By Ari Shavit | Spiegel & Grau | 2013 Winner of the Natan Book Award, My Promised Land, by esteemed Israeli journalist Ari Shavit presents an honest, balanced and comprehensive view of Israel. Shavit uses the past to shed…
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West Asia
Egyptian workshop on Korean poems
The very first question addressed to me was: “Why did you choose to translate the book of the Korean monk and poet Cho Oh-hyun?” I was sitting surrounded by an elite audience of Egyptian writers, poets, novelists, critics and journalists. It seemed like a testing start, but I was keen…
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Politics
[Asia Round-up] Asia accounts for two thirds of modern slavery
The recently released Global Slavery Index conducted by Walk Free Foundation reveals that there are an estimated 29.8 million people enslaved worldwide. India, China, and Pakistan enslave the highest number of people while Mauritania has the highest prevalence. Out of 22 million people enslaved in the index’s top 10 countries,…
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East Asia
A Tibetan craftman paints a piece of traditional Buddhist Regong art
A Tibetan craftsman works on a piece of Thangka painting in Tongren County, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Huangnan, northwest China’s Qinghai Province, Dec. 17, 2013. Huangnan Prefecture is the hometown of Regong arts, which includes Thangka, murals, paintings and other Tibetan Buddhist art forms. The revenue of Regong arts industry…
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South Asia
Makli: Withering necropolis of Sindh
Maintenance of world heritage sites is an international issue. A great part of history is in danger if we do not make effort to preserve it, even if not in its original form. This is especially true for Pakistan, where there are more important issues economically as well as socio-politically.…
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