Hong Kong, China — India and Hong Kong have broken a longstanding deadlock on bilateral air traffic rights by agreeing to increase services between the two countries, following talks in New Delhi last week. Their new agreement will more than double existing flights.

Toronto, ON, Canada — China has been the darling of the West, showered with praise for the massive economic strides it has made. Until recently, the West has turned a blind eye to the falsified statistics China has routinely produced to impress the world.

Tokyo, Japan — The Japanese Cabinet has approved a higher budget for 2008 that will slightly increase the deficit as well. The final budget of 83.1 trillion yen (US$728 billion) is the second largest in Japanese history.

Manila, Philippines — Last week, simultaneous protest actions against oil price hikes were held throughout the Philippines. Protesters had three demands: repeal the Oil Deregulation Law, remove the value-added tax on petroleum products and regulate oil prices in the country.

Manipal, India — Throughout the European Union, and increasingly in the United States and Australia, immigration is being directed on racial grounds, with preference given to immigrants of European origin. This is despite the reality that an immigrant from Chennai or Hyderabad in India is far more likely to add immediate economic value to a society than migrants from Tirana, Bucharest or Sofia, to take just three examples.

Seoul, South Korea — With militaries from North and South Korea being held up by wrangling over their contested borderline, cross-border economic cooperation has been flourishing, effectively easing tensions on the Cold War's last frontier.

Toronto, ON, Canada — The Y2K software problem will go down in history as a world event; it dramatically changed India. This software glitch led to the emergence of India as a future economic powerhouse, and to the country becoming a highly educated talent pool for the world.

Shanghai, China — For 10 years the United States has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, even though 175 countries have ratified it. Last week at the U.N. climate change conference in Bali, the United States had to be pressured into signing onto a roadmap toward a new agreement by 2009.

Hong Kong, China — A Web site launched last week in Hong Kong exposes several multinational companies operating in China as violators of the country's air emission standards. They are among the more than 4,000 air-polluting companies in China.

Washington, DC, United States — U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson headed home from China empty-handed on the dollar-yuan exchange rate. Paulson continued his strategic dialogue with Chinese officials on Thursday, but was broadly rebuked in his efforts to persuade China to meaningfully revalue its currency.

Varanasi, India — The weaving industry has traditionally been one of India's thriving sectors of mass employment. Abundant raw materials and an unlimited supply of cheap labor have contributed to its success. However, international trade liberalization and domestic economic reforms have negatively impacted the sector.

Toronto, ON, Canada — At $100 a barrel, oil is unaffordable for growing economies like China and India. China imported 44 percent of its oil, worth about $45 billion, in 2005. At that time oil prices hovered around $70 a barrel. At $100 a barrel in 2007 it is expected that China's import bill will surpass $60 billion.

Hong Kong, China — The idyllic island of Bali is hosting 10,000 delegates from 189 countries at a U.N. conference on climate change this week and next.

Manila, Philippines — Widespread offshore mining in declared protected seascapes is a major concern among interest and environmental groups in the Philippines. They say this will impact the country's ability to fight global warming, climate change, environmental destruction an

Auckland, New Zealand — Since the Three Gorges Dam went into operation in China, it has caused serious erosion, landslides and earth tremors that have caused cracks in the homes of local farmers. These pose a grave danger not only to transport through the waterway but also to th

Toronto, Canada — The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has opposed the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, viewing it as part of a U.S.

Seoul, South Korea — South Korea's mobile phone operators have joined forces with local or foreign rivals to seek new sources of income and growth, with the domestic market nearly saturated and corporate competition toughening.SK Telecom Co., South Korea's top mobile carrie

Hong Kong, China — New research by the World Wide Fund for Nature highlights three negative effects of the heavy dependence on coal as an energy source in Asia. These include social distress, environmental degradation and carbon dioxide emissions that accelerate global warm

Toronto, ON, Canada — Every mortgage, every loan advanced by a U.S. bank, every International Monetary Fund or World Bank advance to the rest of the world, is related to China.

Seoul, South Korea — A debate is underway in South Korea between neoliberal capitalists and pro-labor activists as to which way the economy should develop in the face of growing globalization.The labor struggle has been part of a democratic movement in support of workers' r

Hong Kong, China — The explosion of channels in India's broadcasting space is moving toward a digital democracy, said panelists discussing the scenario at the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia convention in Hong Kong last week.Digital democracy stems fr

Toronto, Canada — A combined 2.4 billion human beings in China and India are close to running out of food supplies and agricultural land to grow food. Water resources, which nurture the land, are becoming a victim of manmade disasters.

Washington, DC, United States — Since October 2006, the euro has risen about 13 percent against the dollar but don't expect dramatic improvements in the U.S. trade deficit until China and other Asian exporters permit their currencies to rise significantly too.

Manila, Philippines — The most important legislative measure passed by the Philippine Congress every year is the General Appropriations Act -- the national budget. Through the power of the purse, Congress can reward performing government agencies with higher funding and punish

Seoul, South Korea — South Korea's state-run think tank and aid groups have warned that North Korea may face another famine in the wake of the floods that devastated much of its farms earlier this year. The country suffered its worst famine in the mid-1990s, caused by devasta

Manila, Philippines — In March 2005 the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness was signed by 35 donor countries, 26 multilateral agencies and 57 partner country governments. Initiated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Paris Declaration is an "un

Seoul, South Korea — The long-awaited recovery of the South Korean economy has been thrown into uncertainty as skyrocketing oil prices and a strong local currency combine to threaten the country's energy-intensive, export-driven manufactures. The economy, which has been in a

Washington, United States — India is looking to Nigeria to meet its growing energy needs while increasing trade with the oil-rich nation, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said during his visit to the Nigerian capital. Singh reportedly told Nigerian lawmakers in Abuja India is se

Washington, DC, United States — The obstacles Beijing faces in meeting environmental expectations by the 2008 Olympic Games are clear; what remains hazy is how the International Olympic Committee will determine if Beijing's efforts are insufficient, and what the organization's response

TORONTO, Canada — It is China's greatest dilemma today - the country has $1 trillion dollars in cash reserves collected over the last 20 years, but only one place to store such a huge amount. That is in U.S.

Seoul, South Korea — Samsung Electronics, the world's top memory chip maker, posted a "surprise" gain in profit in the third quarter, rebounding from the worst earnings in four years in the previous quarter, yet with its outlook remaining cloudy over weak memory chip prices.

Tokyo, Japan — Japan should exert more active, if not aggressive, economic diplomacy to cope with the changing Asian business environment, Japan's largest business executives association urged Thursday. In its policy recommendation, the Tokyo-based Japan Business Federa

Washington, DC, United States — China's national foreign exchange investment company, China Investment Corp., suffered huge losses even before it officially went into operation. This is the third significant event in Beijing to draw attention from both within and outside China recently.

Toronto, Canada — July 1, 1991 was a fateful day for India after independence. It was on this day that India reached zero foreign exchange reserves, with mounting debt.

Beijing, China — The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis has affected not only the United States, but also Europe and Japan.

Seoul, South Korea — The inter-Korean summit agreement is largely being hailed as a landmark deal to bring peace to the Cold War's last frontier, even though it falls short of addressing concerns about North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. But the huge financial burden to b

Hong Kong, China — Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation's Peter Wong called China's state-owned banks "a dominant force" in the country's galloping economy, in a speech last week to the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. However, analysts caution that a check

Manila, Philippines — The Philippines used to have a robust agricultural sector. About two-thirds of the population and three-fourths of the poor depend on agriculture.

Manila, Philippines — Last week, a Filipino legal expert said officials of the Chinese firm ZTE Corp., which won a US$329 million contract for the National Broadband Network project, may be held accountable if the Philippine Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr.

Toronto, ON, Canada — The recent visit to India by Japan's prime minister was mainly to set the stage for bigger and better things to come in the next two to five years. Japan has grown weary of China's growth trajectory.

New York, NY, United States — The United States needs to take powerful action to stem China's irresponsible economic expansion. In the past half year Western countries have been resisting Chinese products -- which are cheap but often of poor quality and sometimes unsafe.

Manila, Philippines — For a fresh college graduate who wants to earn more but prefers to stay in the Philippines, the most popular option is to work as a call center agent. Touted as the sunshine industry of the Philippines, the business process outsourcing, or BPO, industry h

Seoul, South Korea — North Korea hailed 2006 as a "year of great victory" thanks to its first nuclear weapon test. But the cost of possessing atomic bombs has put the country's command economy again on the verge of bankruptcy.The North's economy swung to negative growth in

Wasington, DC, United States — The U.S. Congress is growing impatient with China's currency manipulation and export subsidies, and is near passing legislation that would require the Bush administration to strike back.

Tokyo, Japan — Japan's nuclear safety has been a hard-won achievement in the only nation in the world to have experienced nuclear bombs. Yet now that security is facing a new challenge -- earthquakes.

Toronto, Canada — There is a paradigm shift underway in the economic order of the world. The two most populous countries in Asia will soon become the second and third economic powers of the world.

Beijing, China — China has experienced high-speed economic growth for nearly thirty years, for which it has garnered a great deal of world attention. In 2007, China's economy may surpass Germany's and rank third in the world.It took Japan and Germany only twenty years t

Manila, Philippines — The three biggest shopping malls in the world are located in Metro Manila. Malling (not to be confused with shopping) has become the national pastime.

Manila, Philippines — Depletion of human resources was once referred to as "brain drain." In the Philippines, it is now described as "brain haemorrhage" or "brain waste" to underscore the huge exodus of highly skilled and experienced Filipino workers and professionals.There

Hong Kong, China — What would it take to battle piracy raging in Asia's billion-dollar pay-TV market -- sophisticated technology that protects transmission of content or plain simple marketing strategies that create affordable subscription packages? Perhaps both could be eq