Less than 10 months ago, the great fear in Asia was that the region would suffer through the overwhelming wealth destruction that was already taking place in the U.S. as a result of the financial crisis. Stock markets tumbled as exports plunged and economic growth deteriorated. Lofty property prices in China and elsewhere looked set to bust as credit tightened and buyers evaporated. Asia's markets were on the verge of a panic. But now, with surprising speed, fear in ...

The State Department on Monday continued to publicly downplay the threat North Korea presents to the United States with spokesman P.J. Crowley telling reporters North Korea "represents an infinitesimal threat to the United States directly." The spokesman's statement followed comments from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an interview with ABC, broadcast Monday, in which she said the reason for the United States' low-key reaction to North Korea's recent missile test was that the United States wasn't "going to give ...

A group of hunters aboard a small boat out of the tiny Alaska village of Wainwright were the first to spot what would eventually be called "the blob." It was a dark, floating mass stretching for miles through the Chukchi Sea, a frigid and relatively shallow expanse of Arctic Ocean water between Alaska's northwest coast and the Russian Far East. The goo was fibrous, hairy. When it touched floating ice, it looked almost black. But what was it An ...

A Nigerian militant group engaged in an "all out war" for control of the country's oil industry Wednesday declared a 60-day truce as part of a government amnesty deal. "Effective, 0000 Hrs, Wednesday, July 15, 2009, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) will be observing a temporary ceasefire for a 60 day period," Jomo Gbomo, the group's spokesman said in a statement. The response from Nigeria's military was positive, but muted. "It's a welcome development, ...

On the streets of the cities and towns of China's northwestern region of Xinjiang you can hear complaints from the Uighur minority group about restrictions on the Islamic religion they practice, their Turkic language or their culture, which is most closely linked to the lands of Central Asia. But in interviews in Urumqi, the regional capital that exploded with ethnic rioting last week that left 184 dead, the single most common complaint of Uighur residents is that they feel ...

It would be tempting for Washington to dismiss Sunday morning's military overthrow of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya as just a minor banana-republic convulsion. But the Obama Administration doesn't have that luxury. Zelaya is a member of the left-wing club of Latin American leaders — and its honcho, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, has already deemed this a hemispheric crisis that will challenge the new north-south bonhomie Obama established two months ago at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad. Less ...

Before the current recession, some economists speculated that Asia's economies had become so vibrant, and trade among them so important, that the region could shake off its traditional dependence on the U.S. and continue to grow quite nicely no matter what happened in the world's largest economy. That "decoupling" theory got tossed out the window as soon as the worst of the Wall Street meltdown bit into U.S. consumer spending in late 2008, sending most economies in Asia into ...

The Arab world is among the worldwide audience that has been closely watching as events in Iran have unfolded over the past week. "In all honesty, I am amazed by these Iranians," Egyptian human rights activist and blogger Walid Abbas posted on his Twitter page. "I have no green t-shirt" Abbas tweeted Saturday. He was referring to the color worn by many supporters of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi, whose supposed failure to win last week's election sparked the ...

On Tuesday, amid reports of escalating violence and protest across his country, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad slipped into a plane and jetted off to Yekaterinburg, a Russian city nestled in the Ural mountains. Iran seethed in the aftermath of Ahmadinejad's disputed election victory last weekend even as foreign journalists were officially barred from reporting street protests a day after the largest demonstrations seen in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Meanwhile, the powerful Guardian Council is investigating allegations of ...

The United States will consider expanding its options in dealing with North Korea amid rising tensions, said President Barack Obama's envoy to the secretive communist state. Three suicide attackers shot their way onto the grounds of the Pearl Continental Hotel, which is often frequented by foreigners and diplomats and set off a car bomb Tuesday night. At least 64 were wounded, according to Qhazi Jamil, senior superintendent of Peshawar police. The dead U.N. employees were a Serbian national working for ...