Economy

Much Puffery About Air-Powered Car

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An automobile that runs on compressed air got a boost this week with an investment from India’s Tata Motors. MDI Industries, of Carros, France, designed the cars based on technology invented by Guy Negre, a former Formula One engineer. The project has been in development for 14 years, but no carmaker has yet put the car into production. Now, according to some reports, Tata is planning to manufacture and sell air cars in India later this year for the equivalent of about $5,000. But, in the Financial Times of London, Tata’s managing director downplayed expectations, saying: “It’s a very exciting concept, this way of running a car.

Economy

Shoemakers Walking Away from South China

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More than 1,000 shoe factories in southern China have closed in the past year — half of them just in the past 12 weeks — and many more will be shutting down in the coming months, according to news reports. Hong Kong’s Asia Times reports that about 10,000 factories of different types are expected to close in the region this month, as wages increase and environmental and employment regulations tighten. About half the companies leaving Guangdong are moving to other provinces of China, according to Hong Kong’s Asia Times. At least 25 percent of them are moving to other Asian nations such as Vietnam, where labor is cheaper and regulations looser, according to the newspaper. China’s new Labor Contract Law, which was implemented last month, is seen as a major factor in the mass exodus of industry.

Democracy & Civics

Black and White and Read All Over … in Asia, Anyway

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Newspapers in the United States may be shrinking, losing circulation and laying off employees at an alarming rate, but times have never been better for the daily press in Asia. Seven of the 10 best-selling daily newspapers worldwide are in Asia, according to a Yahoo News story, and circulation there rose 3.6 percent in 2006, compared to a two percent drop in the United States. “The media has never been as powerful, or as pervasive, as it is in Asia right now,” said Shelia Coronel, director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University. Rising literacy and economic expansion have created strong demand for news in the region, experts say. And, while online readership is growing rapidly in advanced countries such as South Korea and Taiwan, demand for print is growing in the industry’s three biggest markets, China, India and even tech-savvy Japan.

Democracy & Civics

Russia Sends Opposition To Psych Wards

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A Russian opposition activist was forced into a mental hospital in one of many signs of the Russian government’s crackdown ahead of elections next month. Roman Nikolaichik, a 27-year-old lawyer and member of Garry Kasparov’s Other Russia Coalition, was detained by authorities on Friday, questioned about his political activities and sent to a psychiatric hospital, the Moscow Times reported. Human rights groups have documented several similar incidents in recent years:
– Andrei Novikov, a reporter for a news service connected to the Chechen separatist government, spent nine months in a psychiatric hospital before being released in December. – Larisa Arap, a journalist and Other Russia member, was confined to a mental clinic for six weeks last summer. – Another journalist and member of Other Russia was granted political asylum in Ukraine after allegedly being persecuted by police for his coverage of local corruption.

Environment

The Melting Mountains

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The Arctic ice caps and Antarctic glaciers are well-known barometers of global warming, but melting masses of ice in the Himalayas are in perhaps even more danger. Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper flew a plane over Nepal’s Himalayan glaciers, and found that the ice there is retreating more rapidly than scientists expected. In some places, mountain lakes have grown so large they threaten to burst their banks –- which could lead to massive flooding in the heavily populated areas downstream. The newspaper quoted an unnamed Sherpa man as saying, “Year by year, the snow-white part of the mountains becomes smaller while whole mountains darken.” Nearly half the world’s population depends on water that originates in the Himalayas.

Democracy & Civics

Specter of Fraud Haunts Pakistan Election

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The majority of Pakistan’s voters expect the upcoming February 18 election to be rigged, reports McClatchy Newspapers. Doubts are widespread, with only 15 percent of voters expecting the poll to be fair. Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister, told reporters that he expects the election to be a “farce,” but predicted extremely low results for Pervez Musharraf, his longtime rival and the military-backed incumbent. Musharraf, meanwhile, insisted that the elections would be fair, but said that there would be problems if political parties don’t accept the outcome. Although analysts predict a strong “sympathy vote” for the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, campaigning has been low-key due to fears of political violence and terrorism.

Democracy & Civics

Sea Cow Stymies Navy’s Okinawa Plan

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The endangered dugong, a type of “sea cow” similar to Florida’s manatee, threatens to put the brakes on a huge military construction project in Japan. A federal court in San Francisco ruled that Navy plans to build a new base in Okinawa would violate the National Historic Preservation Act by threatening dugong habitat. The Christian Science Monitor reports that protecting the dugong could cut into related construction and service jobs, exacting a steep economic toll on economically depressed northern Okinawa. U.S. military facilities in Okinawa have a long and controversial history, with resentment lingering over the rape of a schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen in 1995. Plans for the new base were approved in the late 1990s, following Tokyo’s commitment of more than $900 million in tax breaks and stimulus programs for Okinawa.

Democracy & Civics

Death After Pepper Spray Raises Questions

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A mentally ill man died not long after being pepper sprayed, the New Zealand Herald reported, prompting criticism of a “cavalier approach to using incapacitating weapons.” Henry Bailey was confronted by police responding to an emergency call by his roommate, who said that Bailey had assaulted him. The New Zealand Herald reports that Bailey fought briefly with the officers, who tried to handcuff him, then carried out a threat to use pepper spray to subdue him. A neighbor said Bailey, who was in his 40s, had been released from mental health services about a year ago, and was well- behaved. Bailey is the fourth mentally ill person to die following pepper- spray use in New Zealand in nine years, though the spray itself was not always blamed for those deaths.

Democracy & Civics

Uzbek Strongman Has Powerful Friends Again

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Western nations are once again making diplomatic overtures to Uzbekistan, despite the former Soviet republic’s dismal human rights record. Admiral William Fallon, of the U.S. Central Command, visited the Central Asian nation’s capital last week, and European officials have also made the trip in recent weeks. The Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe congratulated President Islam Kamirov on his victory in last month’s elections, despite the fact that it said the vote was unfair. Uzbekistan’s location bordering Afghanistan makes it an important player in the United States’ war on terrorism, but Western nations pulled away from Kamirov’s government in 2005 after troops fired on peaceful protestors in the Uzbek city of Andijon. Hundreds of people were reportedly killed in that incident.

Democracy & Civics

Canada Acknowledges Afghan Torture

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Canada’s defense minister acknowledged that the military knew prisoners they transferred to Afghan jails were being tortured. Although the military stopped such transfers last year, the decision was kept secret, and publicly Canada’s government denied any knowledge of torture of Taliban prisoners by Afghan jailers, according to the Globe and Mail. Radio Netherlands reports that the government initially “ridiculed” allegations by the political opposition that torture was happening. One law professor in Ottowa said the revelation makes him doubt Canadians are being told the truth about prisoners and torture in Afghanistan. Amnesty International is suing to have prisoner transfers banned altogether, claiming that Canada risks violating the Geneva Conventions by handing prisoners over to potential torturers.