Asia

The Asian Development Bank announced Wednesday $35 million in emergency food aid to ease the burden of soaring food prices among some of Cambodia's poorest people. … [Read more]

Stock markets in Asia have gone into free fall following a record fall on Wall Street overnight despite efforts by the US central bank to si … [Read more]

With the Olympics over, I hope the Western sport of bashing China over Tibet might stop.
    Working in Beijing during the Tibet riots and the preparations for the Olympics gave me a unique perspective. Growing up with Western media and Hollywood, I am used to our embrace of the Dalai Lama. Being in China, I saw the Chinese point of view.
    Seeing both sides suggests the need to abandon simplistic political stances in favor of some self-reflection and historical context.
    Although we should criticize China's censored media, the Tibet riots revealed some troubling blindness among our own media. While the causes of Tibetan unrest are complex, it is clear that the March riots were started by Tibetan protesters and that they were quite violent. Indeed, they were violent enough to lead the Dalai Lama to threaten resignation if his followers did not stop the violence.
    Since "violent Tibetan" does not fit our stereotype, our media fixed the news. While Chinese media showed extensive footage of violence and interviews with Chinese and Tibetan victims, Western media manipulated images and even showed footage from other countries (Nepal and India) in order to paint a picture of ruthless oppression by China's government. … [Read more]

BANGKOK, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Thousands of royalist protesters stormed the compound of Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, a TV station and several ministries on Tuesday in a coordinated bid to unseat his elected seven-month-old coalition government.

Samak urged the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) to pack up and go home, accusing them of breaking the law after three months of hitherto peaceful demonstrations in central Bangkok.

"They want bloodshed in the country. They want the military to come out and stage a coup again," he told foreign journalists at army headquarters, where he held a weekly cabinet meeting after protesters blockaded his Government House offices.

"We don't count by days. We count by hours. We think by tomorrow it will be finished," he said.

He made no mention of any need to impose emergency rule, but national police spokesman Surapol Thuanthong said police would seek court approval on Wednesday to arrest the PAD leaders after they ignored an order to leave by 6 p.m. (1100 GMT). … [Read more]