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East Asia
[Asia Round-up] Life without Google: search engine alternatives
Google processes 100bn search requests a month, or about 3.3bn per day. It’s become such a dominant force in web search that its name has become a verb: people don’t “look up something online,” they “google it.” But there are other commercial alternatives out there, even beyond Yahoo and Microsoft’s…
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East Asia
Disappointment and Fear due to Absence of Adults
Images from the Sewol Ferry disaster still linger. As of June 15, two months have passed since the disaster occurred. Yet, twelve people are still missing. When will they all come back to their families? Will everyone even come back? It is still distressing to think about these questions. Reflecting…
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West Asia
The Aftermath of Gangnam Fever
Bringing countries and cultures together The Korean “Hallyu” wave started several years ago. It overwhelmed the Middle East with Korean dramas like Winter Sonata and Jewel of the Palace, which made people discover Korean culture years before the Gangnam era. Then came 2012 and the mega hit song “Gangnam Style”…
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South East Asia
Leyte rising- from the shoulders of women
The impact of super-typhoon Haiyan that hit central Philippines last November 2013 was tremendous. More than 10,000 lives were lost, and half a million Filipinos lost their homes, livelihoods and farms. More than 1.1 million students were affected, as their schools were washed out or ravaged by the winds and…
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East Asia
Current state of North Korean defector women and children in China
Recently, it has become increasingly more difficult to find North Korean defector women and children living in the Yan Bian region of China. This is because the number of people escaping from North Korea has sharply decreased. One reason for this decrease is North Korea and China’s cooperation to thoroughly…
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East Asia
Why human rights slogans fail in Pyongyang?
Earlier this year, the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea(North Korea) published its report on the human rights situation in North Korea. The report catalogued a long list of human rights abuses that have been ommitted by the North Korean state in the…
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South Asia
A Statistically Tested Way to Stop Terrorism and Boost Pakistan’s Economy
Over the years prominent Pakistani leaders have held identical opinions alleging that Pakistan is invincible. The recent Pakistani Taliban attacks including those on Karachi’s international airport have put that claim to the test. Yes, it is true the terrorists were defeated due to the brave warriors who gave their lives.…
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West Asia
Syrian children and women refugees: Easy targets, hard future
With more than one million refugees in Lebanon alone, Syrian families who fled to escape the war in their country are facing another one. It is a war with different weapons that sometimes look worse and bitter. Some will find it an easier escape to scarify their own lives, as…
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East Asia
[Asia Round-up] Hong Kong holds world’s largest ivory burn
When Hong Kong announced the start of the world’s largest ivory destruction project, one would expect a massive pyre, with flames engulfing the tusks. Instead, the tusk fragments were crushed into small chunks, placed in fiber drums and incinerated at a temperature over 1,800 degree Fahrenheit at a waste treatment…
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Pakistan’s response to sinking of South Korean ferry
The tragic incident of the capsized of the South Korean ferry Sewol, carrying 476 passengers, mostly students, on April 16, received wide coverage in Pakistan’s print and electronic media. It was really shocking news for the entire Pakistani nation, who kept on watching TV channels for the updates. They could…
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