International New York Times
November 6, 2013
LUANG PRABANG, Laos — Race weekend near this small town at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers brought cloudy autumn skies and scores of neon-shirted rowers carrying wooden oars.
The racing boats whizzed by against a backdrop of jungle foliage and low-rise concrete homes. Spectators whooped. Strong rains occasionally blew through, turning stretches of riverbank to mud.
Christian Science Monitor November 2, 2013 YANGON, MYANMAR In 1989, four ancient sculptures were taken from a pagoda near Bagan, a city in central Myanmar known for its 11th-century religious structures and artifacts. One of the sculptures, a damaged sandstone Buddha measuring less than two feet tall, is widely regarded by scholars as an integral […]
The Economist October 19, 2013 BY SOME measures, Vietnam’s economy is moving at a brisk clip. The double-digit inflation that prevailed in 2011 has subsided, and exports of textiles and electronics are booming. Foreign direct investment is up by 36% year-on-year, according to Fitch, a ratings agency. Yet GDP growth is rumbling along slowly: just […]
Associated Press October 17, 2013 HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam is pressing ahead with Southeast Asia’s most ambitious civilian nuclear energy program despite safety fears over the technology following the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Foreign companies and governments are competing to get a toehold in an industry that could be worth $50 billion by 2030, according […]
International New York Times October 17, 2013 YANGON, Myanmar — When Wah Nu and Tun Win Aung graduated with arts degrees from a Myanmar university in 1998, they had few prospects for earning a living as artists. Their resources were meager, and the country’s fine-arts infrastructure was virtually nonexistent. When they looked to the future, […]
International Herald Tribune October 10, 2013 HANOI — At 8:35 a.m. on a recent Friday morning, Justin Yap stood in the lobby of his hotel wondering what he would eat for breakfast. He had traveled to Vietnam on business, but he had nothing scheduled until 3 p.m.; Mr. Yap, a Canadian who is based in […]
Banyan | The Economist October 3, 2013 SOME of the 40,000-plus employees at Vinaconex, a state-owned Vietnamese construction firm, find themselves in a difficult position. They are tired of not being paid wages they are owed, yet afraid to quit for fear they won’t find work elsewhere. A few are leaning on their families for […]
The Economist August 31, 2013 IN 1894 Prince Henri d’Orléans published a book of his journey through France’s then-sprawling empire. His florid account was largely upbeat. Yet it soured along the northern coastline of Vietnam, where he lamented the “dilatory attitude of a red-tape administration” when it came to exploiting the area’s coal reserves. Now […]
International Herald Tribune August 30, 2013 ON THE IRRAWADDY RIVER, Myanmar — When Daniel and Susy Florens booked a five-star honeymoon with stops in some of Asia’s premier luxury destinations, Myanmar seemed like just another stop on the itinerary. They had agreed to take a five-day cruise along the Irrawaddy River on the recommendation of […]
New York Times August 13, 2013 XIZHOU, China — Brian Linden welcomed the guests to his boutique hotel in one of its courtyards at the end of a cobblestone alley here, surrounded by old stone walls and polished wood balconies. He invited the group, from Greenwich, Conn., to peruse the hotel’s book collection, which he […]
Yale Environment 360 August 1, 2013 In the 1960s, when Zhou Fabei moved to Xishuangbanna prefecture, a tropical corner of southwest China’s Yunnan province, he quickly landed a job building roads for new rubber plantations. The timing of his move from the populous central province of Hunan couldn’t have been better for him: China’s post-revolutionary […]
Free Speech Radio News July 31, 2013 Myanmar, the southeast Asian country also known as Burma, is transitioning toward democracy after a half century of harsh military rule, and it’s an open question exactly how civil society groups will engage in the new political landscape. Activists say while they now have more freedom to fight […]
Free Speech Radio News July 30, 2013 Two years after generals in Myanmar, the country also known as Burma, transitioned to a quasi-civilian government, parliament is passing laws to protect land tenure and prevent rapacious economic development. But other laws are meant to encourage economic growth and foreign investment, and developers are confiscating land across […]
Banyan | The Economist July 30, 2013 IT TOOK until 1995, a full two decades after those iconic American helicopters beat a hasty retreat from the roof of an official residence during the fall (or liberation) of Saigon, for Vietnam and America to normalise their diplomatic relations. Since then building up their relationship has been […]
International Herald Tribune July 18, 2013 SONG SAA, Cambodia — Approaching this modest outcropping of sand, rocks and tropical foliage off Cambodia’s coast, a local resident might assume the thatched-roof huts on the shore belong to yet another remote fishing village. But the thatch is decorative, and the huts actually are luxury villas owned by […]
Christian Science Monitor July 11, 2013 KUNMING, CHINA Colin Flahive and three friends didn’t open Salvador’s Coffee House in 2004, on a busy street in the capital of China’s southwestern Yunnan Province, for ethical or humanitarian reasons. At the time, they were just trying to make back the $30,000 they’d invested in the business while […]
Yale Environment 360 July 11, 2013 In Mekong Delta, Rice Boom Has Steep Environmental Cost Vietnam has become one of the world’s leading rice producers, thanks to the construction of an elaborate network of dikes and irrigation canals. But these extensive infrastructure projects in the storied Mekong Delta have come at a high ecological price. […]
International Herald Tribune June 27, 2013 AREY KSAT, Cambodia — In 1991, two young men began looking for a riverside property near Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. It was more of a lark than a calculated business move: They wanted a scenic spot to drink beer, watch the sunset and escape their stressful jobs as medical […]
Associated Press July 1, 2013 HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — An American doctor has arrived in Vietnam carrying an unlikely piece of luggage: the bones of an arm he amputated in 1966. Dr. Sam Axelrad flew into the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, on Saturday from Houston. He was traveling through central Vietnam with his sons and two […]
