Omid Memarian, Worldpress
December 26, 2006

The final results of last week’s city council elections in Iran exhibited a serious backlash against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and cast a shadow over his popularity. His closest allies conceded defeat to the competition, namely the moderate conservatives and reformists in Tehran, as well as most major cities in Iran. This election, the first since Ahmadinejad came to power and the hardliners gained control of monitoring ballots, was riddled with ambiguity and suspicion. (more…)

Feiwen Rong (’03) and Jae Hur, Bloomberg
December 22, 2006

Corn prices in China, the world’s second-biggest producer, rose to a record as domestic demand looked set to swallow the country’s largest-ever harvest and reduce exports.

Rising local prices made overseas sales unprofitable, state- affiliated agricultural research groups said. China sold corn for export at $160 a ton in September and the grain now costs more than $190 on the domestic market, said Li Ke, analyst at the National Grain & Oils Information Center. Corn on the Dalian Commodity Exchange gained 20 percent this year.

Read the rest of the article here.

Li Rong, Visiting Scholar ‘06

On China’s online forums, international relationships are usually the hottest topic with the most discussion. Always China-US and China-Japan relations attract the most attention and generate the greatest response. Many postings include drastic words. Two parties with opposite opinions will not only express their own points of view but also accuse each other with curses.

Angry netizens in China are holding high the flag of nationalism and voicing dissatisfaction about the US and Japan with numerous irrational words. They believe they are right and just. This is a dangerous signal.
(more…)

By Aryn Baker (’01), Time.com
Dec 04, 2006

With his tattered gray turban, his threadbare waistcoat and the gnarled hands of a laborer, Karim Khan hardly looks like the ideal customer for a financial-services firm. But to the Azizi Bank in Kabul, he’s a prime client. Khan is one of some 60,000 Afghans who have opened an account at Azizi since a new savings product was launched four months ago. Although his initial deposit of $100 in crumpled Afghani notes may seem paltry, because of customers like him Azizi is increasing its deposit base faster than any other bank in the country. “You have business opportunities here in Afghanistan like nowhere else in the world,” says Hayatullah Dayani, the bank’s chief of business development.

Read the rest of the story here.

Sudhin Thanawala (’07)
Special to Covering Asia

MUMBAI – In his first visit as Indian prime minister to this crowded, chaotic city on the Arabian Sea two years ago, Manmohan Singh promised a grand future.Brimming with India’s newfound confidence as an emerging economic power, Singh predicted Mumbai – nicknamed “Slumbai” for the shanties that line seemingly all its streets – would become Asia’s most talked about city, surpassing its Chinese rival Shanghai as a model of development and modernization in only five years. Mumbai, according to the mantra taken up by the city’s elite, would become a “world-class city.” The estimated cost: $40 billion. (more…)

Thazin Pan, Covering Asia special correspondent

When Burma was ranked by the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) as 163rd out of 167 countries in the “world wide press freedom index” this year, some Burmese journalists complained in whispers that RSF was not doing a good job. They said their country deserved to rank at least 166th in the index because its only major rival was North Korea. (more…)

Tomio Geron (’06) reports for the KQED radio program Pacific Time on failed efforts to establish an official Cambodian district in Long Beach:

“Long Beach, California, is home to the largest Cambodian population in the U.S. Local leaders estimate there are 15,000 Cambodians living and working in the area. Last month, they asked the city council to honor their culture and rename a street “Cambodia Town.” But it didn’t happen.”

Listen to the piece here.

Li Liang, Visiting Scholar ‘06

The restart of the Six-Party Talks scheduled for December looks now like a lengthy soap opera. After over one year’s boycott, North Korea finally returns to negotiations, but the U.S. representative’s talk with a North Korean counterpart in Beijing in November offers little hope for future engagement. (more…)

By Feiwen Rong (’03), Bloomberg
December 15, 2006

Gold was little changed in Asia after a drop in U.S. jobless claims and a rebound in retail sales underpinned the dollar and reduced the appeal of the precious metal as an alternative investment.

The dollar strengthened after a government report showed fewer U.S. workers filed first-time jobless claims in the past week. The U.S. currency was also supported by a report on Dec. 13 that retail sales increased last month for the first time since July. Gold tends to track movements in the U.S. currency.

“Gold has difficulty to advance due to the dollar’s strength,” said Wang Xinyou, senior gold analyst at Agricultural Bank of China in Beijing. “Recent economic data from the U.S. all point to a sound economy there.”

Read the rest of the story here.

Edward Wong (’98), New York Times
August 6, 2006

I BEGAN having second thoughts about riding a horse through northern Mongolia right around the moment I slammed into the tree trunk.

Without warning, my horse had bolted toward it and I had no idea how to regain control. The impact flung me through the air. I landed hard on the forest floor as my horse scampered into the bush.

Then a crashing sound came from behind — Chuka, the Mongolian guide who had been bringing up the rear of our group of four travelers, had been thrown off his horse too. A short, round man, he picked himself up and shook his head to bring himself back to his senses, or maybe just to blow off the cobwebs of a bad hangover from a vodka binge the previous night…

It was an inauspicious start to what was to be a three-day horse trek last September in a wilderness area around Khovsgol Lake, a 1,065-square-mile patch of pristine blue water that lies just south of the border with Russia in the Siberian plain.

Read the rest of the story here