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 are trained in first aid. Mike Ives caught up with a Moto-Medic in Vietnam.

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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 of foreigners has joined the Vietnamese who are buying luxury villas and condominium units along the country’s prime central coastline, which runs about 130 kilometers, or 80 miles, from Hue to Hoi An and includes the stretch that U.S. troops called China Beach during the Vietnam War.

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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, smart phones, cruise missiles, and other high-tech products. Once fully operational, the plant would become the world’s largest processing facility of rare earths, breaking China’s near-monopoly on producing the prized elements.

But Tan and others in the region are concerned that the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant, known as LAMP, will be plagued by the severe environmental problems that have been the hallmark of rare earths processing plants in China and, more than two decades ago, in Malaysia itself. The plant lies in an industrial zone atop reclaimed swampland, just 12 miles from Kuantan, a city of 600,000. The chief worry is that the rare earth elements are bound up in mineral deposits with the low-level radioactive element thorium, exposure to which has been linked to an increased risk of developing lung, pancreatic, and other cancers.

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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.

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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 monsoon patterns may have on China’s future generations. From Western China, Mike Ives reports.

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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 China, and as young Chinese migrate to cities, many biogas tanks are falling into disrepair. FSRN’s Mike Ives has more from Yunnan Province, China.

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November 23, 2012