A loris is rescued from a restaurant in Đồng Nai Province. – Photo courtesy of ENVViet Nam News HÀ NỘI – At least 72 wild animals were released in their natural habitat in the first month of the year, according to Education for Nature Việt Nam (ENV).They include pangolins, monkeys, turtles, lizards, lorises and birds. …
72 wild animals rescued in January – Environment – Vietnam News Read More »
“Cleaned the house? Made the Kitchen Gods happy? Busy making cakes? Then you’re on the right track to a great Lunar New Year or Tet! The cleaning is not just about starting the new year on the right foot. Apparently Vietnamese believe that luck clings to dirt and dust, so when Tet comes you are …
Getting ready for Tet in Vietnam – Feb 16 – Tuoi Tre News Read More »
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Officials from the Korea Meteorological Administration sat behind microphones in front of an overflow audience of journalists. Interpreters converted the officials’ words through the headsets of those unable to speak Korean. There was anxiousness. People put their thumbs to their phones, ready to share the news on Twitter immediately. It was …
A Surprise (?) at the Winter Olympics: It’s Really Cold – The New York Times Read More »
“In 1988, the last time South Korea hosted the Olympics, North and South Korea were more alike than different, separated by an arbitrary line yet joined by history, language and the bonds of family. Both Koreas had come a long way, emerging from colonial rule and rebuilding their economies after a devastating civil war. But …
The Olympic Moment When South Korea Left the North Behind – The New York Times Read More »
Beautiful photography, heartbreaking story: Each sentence below has a photo video clip: “This is S. Periyanayaki in the rice field in southern India where her husband died. The worst drought in more than a century killed his rice crop, and he blamed himself. A farmer found Periyanayaki’s husband, K. Suresh, lying in the barren field. …
The Uninhabitable Village – by Geeta Anand and Vikram Singh – NYT Oct 26 2017 Read More »
NAGAPATTINAM, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Vinod Kumar remembers a time, not so long ago, when the fields in his village in the southern state of Tamil Nadu were green all year round. His family lived comfortably from its farmland of just over 2 acres (0.8 hectares), growing vegetables, coconuts and millet irrigated by the …
I am looking for evidence to support the report in the NYT last month, that 100,000 Indian farmers had committed suicide because of the drought in Southeast India. This old article in the BBC sheds some background light on the disaster. “At least 330 million people are affected by drought in India, the government has …
India drought: ‘330 million people affected’ – BBC News 20 April 2016 Read More »
Image by Brian Stauffer, NYT “I have researched Xinjiang for three decades. Ethnic tensions have been common during all those years, and soon after 9/11, Chinese authorities started invoking the specter of “the three evil forces of separatism, extremism and terrorism” as a pretense to crack down on Uighurs. But state repression in Xinjiang has never …
What It’s Like to Live in a Surveillance State – by James Millward – NYT Read More »
“. . . Then there was the fallout for the person for whom viewers had the least sympathy: General Loan, the executioner, who would eventually move to the United States. In 1978, the government tried unsuccessfully to rescind his green card. He died 20 years later in Virginia, where he had run a restaurant. Adams himself, before his …
A Photo That Changed the Course of the Vietnam War – by Maggie Astor – NYT Read More »
Edward Landsdale is on the left. NYT “The Tet offensive, which began 50 years ago today and is remembered as the turning point of the Vietnam War, caught Americans by surprise. One of the few who saw what was coming was Edward Lansdale, the legendary covert operative and retired Air Force general who had …
The American Who Predicted Tet – by Max Boot – NYT Read More »