Deutsche Welle February 20, 2013 More than 1.3 million people worldwide are killed in traffic accidents every year – 90 percent of them in developing countries and emerging economies. In places with poor infrastucture, there are often too few ambulances and medics to respond to emergencies in the streets. But in some countries, motorbike-taxi drivers …
International Herald Tribune February 1, 2013 DA NANG, VIETNAM — The coastal road from Da Nang to Hoi An is littered with the concrete skeletons of unfinished beachfront developments — physical proof of how the slump in Vietnam’s banking and property sectors is dragging down its economy. But some projects have succeeded, and a trickle …
Yale Environment 360 January 28, 2013 In November, the first shipment of raw “rare earth” minerals arrived at an $800 million processing plant on Malaysia’s east coast near the home of Tan Bun Teet. The plant, run by Australia’s Lynas Corporation, has since begun refining the rare earth metals, essential components in wind turbines, hybrid cars, …
Associated Press January 5, 2013 HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Nghiem Ngoc Thuy has been slinging coffees to thirsty Vietnamese for 20 years in her colonial-style villa with peeling shutters, and she and her customers aren’t too worried that the imminent arrival of U.S. giant Starbucks will alter their time-tested coffee traditions. more
Free Speech Radio News December 4, 2012 China’s 1.3 billion people are facing multiple threats to their freshwater sources. Development and urbanization are causing thousands of natural lakes to shrink, and rivers are becoming more polluted threatening water security for farmers and city dwellers. Meanwhile, scientists trying to predict what impact melting glaciers and shifting …
Free Speech Radio News November 27, 2012 China has subsidized construction of tens of millions of biogas tanks in rural areas over the last decade. The tanks produce fuel for heating and cooking, and reducing agricultural pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. But experts say it’s unclear how many of them are actually in use across …
Christian Science Monitor November 23, 2012 WAITSFIELD, VT. In the fall of 1979, George Schenk stuffed all his worldly possessions into his pickup truck and moved from upstate New York to central Vermont. After settling in the sleepy ski town of Waitsfield, he began working as a dishwasher, freelance photographer, and live-in baby sitter. He also apprenticed …
International Herald Tribune November 30, 2012 HANOI — Bettina Martin and Do Tuan Anh suspected that building a home together in Vietnam’s capital might be a challenge. But they did not think that it would shake the foundation of their relationship. Ms. Martin is an environmental consultant from southern Germany who values efficiency above aesthetics, …
Associated Press November 14, 2012 TAM DAO, Vietnam (AP) — Bears, some of them blinded or maimed, play behind tall green fences like children at school recess. Rescued from Asia’s bear bile trade, they were brought to live in this lush national park, but now they may need saving once more. The future of the …
Outer Voices November 10, 2012 In the United States, Pho is the most well-known Vietnamese dish, but contrary to popular belief it’s not the only dish that comes from Vietnam. In this edition of the Outer Voices Podcast, Mike Ives takes us to the streets of Hanoi to learn about some of the other noodle …
SciDev.Net October 4, 2012 [YANGON] Myanmar’s recent and unexpected political reforms have prompted Western powers to ease their longstanding economic sanctions against the country’s military-dominated government. Change cannot come fast enough for the country’s science community. The country has a high literacy rate and a long tradition of high-quality medical education, but its academic institutions have …
Smithsonian Online October 2, 2012 Sienna Parulis-Cook had been living in China for nine months when, in the summer of 2007, she found herself in the belly of the country’s $1.42 billion mooncake industry. A Chinese bakery chain had hired the 22-year-old American to market their contemporary take on the traditional palm-sized pastry that’s widely …
Christian Science Monitor September 28, 2012 HANOI, VIETNAM Bruce Lasky distinctly remembers the advice he once received from a colleague in a Floridapublic defender’s office. “We’re lawyers,” the colleague said. “Not social workers.” But Mr. Lasky, then fresh out of law school, didn’t agree. He saw the legal system as a tool for empowering the disadvantaged. …
Associated Press September 24, 2012 HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — All that remain of Vietnam’s plan to build a major deep-water port are 114 exposed pilings trailing into the South China Sea and a barge full of rusty machinery. Foreign investors stayed away from the $3.6 billion project and the indebted state-owned company overseeing it bungled …
Associated Press September 12, 2012 HON CHONG, Vietnam (AP) — Hundreds of species live in the limestone caves of Hon Chong in southern Vietnam, and many of them are found nowhere else on Earth. Yet their habitat is being blown apart, chunk by chunk, in the name of making cement. One reason, biologists lament, is …
International Herald Tribune August 9, 2012 YANGON, MYANMAR — Stephen Zawmoe Shwe and his wife, Amelie Chai, were working as architects and interior designers in New York in 2002 when a friend from Mr. Shwe’s hometown of Yangon asked him a question. Did Mr. Shwe, who had emigrated from Myanmar in 1988 to study architecture …
International Herald Tribune August 9, 2012 YANGON, MYANMAR — Soe Thiha Hlaing, the director of sales and marketing for Serge Pun & Associates (Myanmar), says the company’s planned 160-acre rental apartment and condominium complex on the rural outskirts of Yangon will emulate high-end housing developments in Singapore and other international cities. No matter that the …
Smithsonian Online August 9, 2012 Five autumns ago, on a quiet Monday afternoon in Barskoon, a village on the shores of Issyk Kul Lake in eastern Kyrgyzstan, Ishen Obolbekov was lounging in his backyard yurt when he heard what sounded like the clackety clack of horse hooves smacking asphalt. The noise appeared to grow louder. Obolbekov, …
Associated Press August 9, 2012 DANANG, Vietnam (AP) — The United States began a landmark project Thursday to clean up a dangerous chemical left from the defoliant Agent Orange — 50 years after American planes first sprayed it on Vietnam’s jungles to destroy enemy cover. more
