Focus on the big picture

New York Times - Asia Pacific

• Blind Chinese Dissident Leaves on Flight for U.S.
  Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese dissident, arriving in New York on Saturday shortly after he landed at Newark Airport.Chen Guangcheng, the blind lawyer whose escape from house arrest jolted relations between the United States and China, followed a hastily arranged flight with an open-air news conference in New York.
• Chinese Security Chief Seems to Keep Grip on Power
  Zhou YongkangZhou Yongkang completed a tour of the volatile region of Xinjiang last week, a sign that he still had a firm hold on his post despite having opposed the purging of Bo Xilai.
• Obama’s Journey to Reshape Afghan War
  Lt. Jason Davis of Greenville, S.C., leading a combat patrol last month in Kandahar Province.When President Obama joins other NATO leaders Sunday and Monday, the full extent of how his Afghan strategy has changed — from “war of necessity” to withdrawal on his terms — will be apparent.
• India Ink: Newswallah: Bharat Edition
  A round-up of news from across India.
• India Ink: Going on Faith
  "State of grace," a backwater church in Alappuzha, Kerala, one of many houses of worship for Syrian Christians in the southern state.A novelist discovers his ancestral homeland, Kerala, where religions are lost and found and enlightenment comes when you least expect it.
• India Ink: Image of the Day: May 18
  A man pierced his tongue with a thin rod in protest in New Delhi.
• India Ink: The Cartoon That Taught Indians The Meaning of "Many"
  Documentary filmmaker Vijaya Mulay talks about the 1974 animation film -"Ek Anek Aur Ekta"- that was created to spread the message of unity in diversity
• Pakistan Supply Lines an Issue During NATO Summit
  The United States and Pakistan are not expected to secure a deal to reopen supply lines to Afghanistan before a NATO summit begins on Sunday, American officials said.
• In Afghanistan, New Insurgent Group Emerges
  The emergence of Mullah Dadullah Front, a new, more extreme insurgent faction of the Taliban, could trouble any efforts to restart the peace process.
• Crawford Greenewalt Jr., Archaeologist Who Dug at Sardis, Dies at 74
  Crawford Greenewalt Jr. He dug at Sardis every summer from the 1950s through last year.Professor Greenewalt, an archaeologist, transformed scholars’ understanding of Sardis, now western Turkey.
• Pakistani Leader May Face Friction Over Supply Routes at NATO Summit
  Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari arrived in Chicago on Saturday for a NATO summit to what could be a chilly reception if a hoped-for deal allowing trucks to again supply alliance troops in Afghanistan fails to materialize.
• Crackdown on Aleppo Students Stokes Fury in Syria
  Antigovernment anger in Syria has escalated over the harsh repression of students in Aleppo, where activists on Friday reported extensive protests against President Bashar al-Assad.
• Chinese Tycoon Gets Life Sentence for Smuggling
  Lai Changxing’s case came to exemplify excesses in China.Lai Changxing, a peasant-turned-billionaire, was given a life sentence on Friday for his role in a corruption scandal, according to the state news media.
• Burlington Journal: Vermont’s Refugees Rebuild After Irene Floods
  Clothilde Ntahomvukiye, 64, tends to fields in Vermont after decades fleeing unrest.Refugees from Africa and South Asia are rebuilding their livelihoods after last summer’s devastating flood that ruined 10,000 acres of land.
• Monument in Palisades Park, N.J., Irritates Japanese Officials
  A memorial in Palisades Park, N.J., is dedicated to women, many Korean, who were sexually enslaved by Japanese soldiers during World War II.Officials in Palisades Park, N.J., have refused to remove a plaque in memory of sexual slavery during World War II, and the episode has irritated South Korea-Japan relations.
• Pentagon Study Says China Military Getting Stronger
  The annual appraisal of China’s military modernization also suggests Beijing leaders want to project power while avoiding confrontation with neighbors and the United States.
• Special Report: Education: Business Schools: Looking Local for a Global Reach
  Students at the Hong Kong University of Science and  Technology, where the number of applicants from  North America and Europe doubled between 2006 and  2010. The students are playing with giant Jenga blocks meant to represent a marine balance.Prospective business school students from Brazil, Russia, India and China are increasingly exploring possibilities at home.
• North Korea Resumes Work on Nuclear Reactor, Group Says
  A satellite image from April 30, 2012, shows the area around the Yongbyon nuclear facility in North Korea.North Korea has resumed construction of a nuclear reactor that can be used to expand the country’s nuclear weapons program, an American-based institute said Thursday.
• U.S. Redefines Afghan Success Ahead of NATO Conference
  An Afghan soldier on patrol on Thursday. Afghan forces are scheduled to assume the lead in security from NATO in 2013.American officials acknowledge that the bar has been significantly lowered in Afghanistan after 11 years of combat and describe a hoped-for outcome far less ambitious than what was once envisioned.
• World Briefing | Asia: Afghanistan: Governor’s Office Attacked
  Taliban insurgents killed at least seven people on Thursday in an attack on a provincial governor’s office, Afghan officials said.
• White House to Ease Ban on Investment in Myanmar
  The Obama administration will give American businesses far greater license to make investments in Myanmar, responding to the country’s political and economic opening over the last year.
• World Briefing | Asia: Malaysia: Mexicans Sentenced to Death
  A court convicted three Mexican brothers and two other people on Thursday and sentenced them to be hanged for drug trafficking.
• ‘Princelings’ in China Use Family Ties to Gain Riches
  The authorities are eager to paint the fallen official Bo Xilai, whose family has a substantial fortune, as a rogue operator. But other officials’ relatives have also amassed vast wealth.
• Taliban Strike Afghan Governor’s Office
  At least 11 people died after Taliban insurgents on Thursday attacked a provincial governor’s office, but were beaten back by security forces, Afghan officials said.
• Catalog of Wounded in Afghan War Could Be Model
  While in flight in Helmand Province in 2010, Sgt. Ian J. Bugh, a medic, worked on Cpl. Brett Sayre, a Marine who was injured by an improvised explosive device.Col. Michael D. Wirt’s database of injuries and treatment in his corner of the Afghan war could be a model for improving care, but the military has yet to follow his example.
• Chinese Fishing Boats Reported Seized by North Korean Gunmen
  Chinese state news media said gunmen seized three boats with 29 sailors aboard and were demanding ransom.
• Special Report: Education: Designing Business Education for a Custom Fit
  Participants in the Entrepreneurship Development Program at the Sloan School of Management at the   Massachusetts Institute of Technology.More business schools are going into business themselves by designing -- and profiting from -- customized training programs for big corporate clients.
• Echoes of Tiananmen, on Film, Face Hurdles in China
  Cui Jian, a musician whose songs embodied the spirit of hope and protest among young people in China in 1989, rehearsed at Beijing Workers Gymnasium before performing a 3D rock concert. The concert has has been made into a film, called "Transcendence."A film on Cui Jian, the rock musician whose songs embodied the spirit of hope and protest among young people in China in 1989, faces obstacles in getting distributed.
• U.S. Slaps Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels
  Workers at a solar panel factory in Huaibei, in Anhui province. A Chinese official called the American move “really dangerous.”The United States Commerce Department concluded that Chinese producers had “dumped” their products on the American market.
• World Briefing | Asia: Cambodia: Police Officers Kill Girl, 15, in Clash With Villagers Over Land
  Security forces shot and killed a 15-year-old girl on Wednesday during a clash with about 200 villagers armed with axes and crossbows in eastern Cambodia.
• Figure in China’s Political Drama Found in Cambodia
  Until now, Patrick Henri Devillers, a French architect who has been part of the Bo Xilai drama in China, had not been heard from.
• Diplomatic Memo: Some Europeans Have Grim View of Afghan Future
  President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan in Berlin on Wednesday with Chancellor Angela Merkel. The two signed an aid pact.Continental Europeans are being asked to contribute millions to keep Afghanistan secure after NATO withdraws, but they sound less optimistic than the United States and Britain do.
• World Briefing | Asia: China: Activist Applies for Passport
  Chen GuangchengChen Guangcheng, the Chinese activist who incited a diplomatic crisis by fleeing into the American Embassy in Beijing last month, filled out a Chinese passport application Wednesday.
• Retired Party Members Call for 2 Top Chinese Officials to Resign
  A petition circulated by 16 retired Communist Party members seeks the resignation of China’s security boss, Zhou Yongkang, and a top propaganda official, Liu Yunshan.
• Shift by U.S. Muddles Solar Imports Case
  Chinese companies are being accused of "dumping" after aggressively cutting prices and grabbing nearly half the U.S. market for solar panels last year.A decision in an anti-dumping case is expected Thursday and will focus on whether China's solar panel companies have been building market share by selling their products below cost.
• A Facebook Co-Founder Reflects on the Path Forward
  Eduardo SaverinEduardo Saverin, who left the company after two years, is assessing how best to manage the extraordinary wealth that will come his way in Facebook’s initial public offering.
• World Briefing | Asia: South Korea: Myanmar Pledges To Stop Buying North’s Weapons
  South Korea has received assurances from Myanmar that it will no longer buy weapons from North Korea, an aide to President Lee Myung-bak said Tuesday.
• U.S. and Pakistan Say Deal to Open NATO Supply Lines is Near
  Tankers used to transport NATO fuel supplies to Afghanistan were parked near the port in Karachi, Pakistan, on Tuesday.An invitation for Pakistan to attend a NATO summit meeting in Chicago this weekend appears to have helped achieve a resolution.
• As Trained Afghans Turn Enemy, a U.S.-Led Imperative Is in Peril
  A flag flies above a guard tower from where Afghan forces opened fire in March on the American soldiers who share the outpost.This year, 22 American-led coalition service members have been killed by men in Afghan uniform, which the military calls “green on blue” attacks.
• Myanmar Vows to Cease Buying Weapons From North Korea
  President Thein Sein of Myanmar acknowledged that his country had bought conventional weapons from Pyongyang over the past 20 years but vowed to end the practice.
• Prosecutors Say Philippine Justice Had $28 Million in Accounts
  Documents in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato C. Corona showed that $28.7 million was added to his bank accounts during a period when he was earning about $935 a month.
• News Analysis: China’s Political Turmoil Won’t Delay New Leadership
  President Hu Jintao of China, left, and Vice President Xi Jinping, his expected successor, at an event this month in Beijing.Communist Party insiders and observers say China’s once-in-a-decade leadership change is still on track for this autumn, despite a spectacular political scandal.
• World Briefing | The Americas: Argentina: Vice President Faces the Prospect of an Investigation
  A prosecutor said Monday that he would ask a federal judge to investigate accusations that Vice President Amado Boudou had enriched himself illegally.
• Kabul Journal: Bowling Alley’s 12 Lanes Lead to Another Afghanistan
  Strikers, Afghanistan’s only bowling alley, opened last fall in Kabul. People took to it quickly, and it is mobbed on weekends.The story of Strikers, the country’s only bowling alley, seems to be that rarest of things, an Afghan good news story.
• World Briefing | Asia: Mongolia: Ex-Leader Granted Bail
  Former President Nambaryn Enkhbayar will remain hospitalized after refusing water for 10 days to protest his detention on corruption charges.
• India Ink: From Bleak Central India, a People's Movement
  In the Pati region of Madhya Pradesh, villagers are fighting for their basic rights and entitlements.
• Afghan Soldiers Increasingly Attack American Counterparts
  The rise in “green on blue” killings — Afghan forces turning on their American trainers — has threatened the goal of leaving Afghanistan in the hands of a stable security force.
• WORLD: Rough Treatment in Shandong
  Journalists working for The New York Times were accosted by men who followed them after they tried to talk to residents near Dongshigu, the village where Chen Guangcheng’s was held captive.
• WORLD: Myanmar Drug Surge
  Thai police are combating a surge in drug trafficking at the border with Myanmar.
• At War Blog: Spying Balloons as Artistic Muse
  In Kabul, Afghanistan, daily life unfolded under the watchful gaze of an aerial surveillance balloon tethered at a military base.One reader sees art in the specter of all-seeing eye in the skies over Afghanistan.
• At War Blog: What's Your Memorial Day Tradition?
  At War is asking you, our readers, to tell us about your Memorial Day traditions and rituals.
• At War Blog: Military News Roundup: Green on Blue, a Call for a Nuclear Reduction and NATO's Supply Line
  Gen. James E. Cartwright said that the nuclear arsenal carried cold war baggage.A selection of military-related articles from Wednesday's New York Times.
• The Lede Blog: Sentiment Against Foreigners Flares in China
  The search giant Baidu and the huge social media hub Sina Weibo are urging users in China to help crack down on "misbehaving foreigners."
• The Lede Blog: Territory Claimed by China and Philippines Is Mainly Underwater
  A skirmish over who owns a band of coral rocks in the South China Sea - China or the Philippines - would have to be small, since the land mass is almost comically tiny.
• The Lede Blog: China Vows Investigation Into Pills Said to Contain Human Remains
  Chinese authorities are investigating disturbing reports that thousands of pills intercepted by South Korean border officials were manufactured in China to contain the desiccated powder remains of human babies.
• Room for Debate: Are We Headed for a Cold War With China?
  Do recent human rights cases and the standoff in the South China Sea point to a larger conflict on the horizon?
• Letter from China: A Chinese Composer Sounds Off About Music and Politics
  A leading contemporary composer in China says the country is backward in a range of educational and cultural areas, including music, even though Chinese musicians and composers do extremely well abroad.