The grim facts of what happened to retirement funds in the first half will soon be hitting letter-boxes around the US and elsewhere. And that will be the year's good news as even more sinister events, really sinister, are yet
For some 20 years, outlandish stories of North Korean abductions pushed Japanese imaginations to the outer limits of Cold War paranoia. With the emergence of several true narratives, the abduction issue has taken on September 11 significance and given Japan
Rising oil prices may be helping to end Russia's near-monopoly on transporting energy resources from the Caspian Sea basin. Kazakhstan is building a 730-kilometer oil pipeline to the eastern Caspian coast for onward transmission to Azerbaijan, whose recent refusal to
Starbucks' decision to close 600 stores and fire 12,000 employees is just the start of a restructuring of the US economy. The consequences of years of over-investment in consumption-based infrastructure and the hollowing out of manufacturing capacity will now become
After decades without large-scale popular movements, Indian-administered Kashmir exploded into virtual anarchy last month over moves to allow Hindu pilgrims temporary sanctuary on forest land. Clearly, the alienation of ordinary Muslim Kashmiris from the Indian government did not subside with
Republican Senator John McCain and Democrat Senator Barack Obama have changed their minds on several issues as they spar in the US presidential race. Obama faces questions about migrating to the center, prompting countercharges that McCain is moving right. Both
The friendship between China and the European Union looks great on paper. But just as Brussels says ties with Beijing are heading to the "next level", Europe's trade deficit with China is growing at the rate of US$23.5 million per
To much of the world, America is the source of the plague of globalization, the bane of the environment and the perpetrator of imperial adventures. To hundreds of millions of others it is an object of special grace - as
Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad takes center stage in Malaysia this week at a summit of the Group of Eight Islamic developing countries. It is an opportunity for Tehran to promote its global agricultural and energy aid programs, which it hopes
With President George W Bush's "war on terror" mostly discredited, it is in Asia where the United States, instead of being rendered a sub-theme to China's historic rise, is totting up success stories, from North Korea to a potential breakthrough
Now that the dollar has regained some of its value (against the Philippine peso), exporters should be happier compared to what they were a few months ago. The two years of continuous decline experienced by some sectors should have been
