CHINA lauds Thatcher’s ‘biggest compromise’ over HONG KONG

Margaret Thatcher was an "outstanding" leader who wisely compromised over Hong Kong's future, Chinese state media said after her death, although reactions in the territory ...

CHINA: Circle of Poison

April 4, 2013

When Briton Neil Heywood was found dead in a Chinese hotel in 2011, police at first blamed alcohol. In fact, he had been murdered – and top Chinese politicians were involved, as Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang reveal.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/circle-of-poison-20130325-2goq0.html#ixzz2Qmj73OLrhttp://www.smh.com.au/world/circle-of-poison-20130325-2goq0.html

JAPAN & TAIWAN: Fishing in Troubled Waters

China may have felt it had bigger fish to fry last week when it gave a low-key response to a maritime deal between Japan and Taiwan on access to waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea, but isn't letting the issue sink from sight.

NORTH KOREA & VIETNAM: 2013 Pulitzer Prize winners

Yes, each one of these four books has now been officially anointed with a 2013 Pulitzer Prize. But that's not the only reason we are recommending them to you. Months before the Pulitzer Prize committee got there, the Monitor's book critics had already let readers know that these books were something special. Here's why.

Korean Rapper Psy's 'Gentleman' Climbs YouTube Heights

South Korean rapper Psy's new video, "Gentleman," rocketed up the YouTube heights with more than 82 million views on Tuesday, chasing the success of his megahit "Gangnam Style" after smashing the previous record for first-day views for songs.

"Gangnam Style," which holds the YouTube record for most views ever with more than 1.5 billion, made the corpulent Korean a global star and one of the best-known faces to come out of the growing K-pop music scene.

The ...

How foreign languages mutate English words

 
It's no secret that English borrows freely — steals, actually — from other languages. And you're probably familiar with at least a few words from English that have been borrowed into other languages — for instance, le weekend in French. But do you know just how much English words can be changed when they're taken on by other languages? Consider these odd examples:

Sound changes
Different languages have different sets of sounds and different things you can do with those sounds. An English word may have a sound that's not used in the language, or it may have combination of sounds...
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JAPAN & RUSSIA: Bridgestone to spend $375m to build first tire plant in Russia

The project will cost $375 million and is scheduled to be complete in three years time and be Bridgestone's 47th plant in the world the company said in a statement.
Japan's Mitsubishi will be Bridgestone’s partner in the project with a 10% stake in the joint venture.
The plant will be built on an 800,000 square meter site in one of the first three certified Russian industrial parks - the Zavolzhye Industrial Zone in Russia's Ulyanovsk region.
Once up and running the factory will have a capacity of 12,000 units a day (or roughly 4.4 million units per year) and will focus mainly on winter tire production to serve the growing demand on the Russian domestic market and the CIS states.
The tire giant aims to reach full capacity by the second half of 2018. The plant will provide a total of 800 jobs.
In connection with the decision to build a tire plant, Mitsubishi Corp. will buy a 20-percent stake in Bridgestone C.I.S. L.L.C., the tire company's Moscow-based sales company. This will leave Bridgestone C.I.S. with a capital of about $180 million.
Bridgestone will be the sixth international tire company to set up a manufacturing plant in Russia after Continental A.G. with a plant in Kaluga, Michelin with a joint venture in Davydovo; Nokian Tyres P.L.C. with a plant in Vsevolozhsk, and Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. With a production facility in Liptesk. Pirelli is also producing tires in Russia at a plant it co-owns with Russia's CJSC Sibur Holding in Kirov and a joint venture in Voronezh co-owned with partner Russian Technologies.
“The fact that we come to the market after our main competitors have already done so, does not weaken our positions: customer confidence in our brand is comparable with or even stronger than in some of our competitors,” Vedomosti daily quotes a Bridgestone spokesperson as saying.

Beijing concerned about 4-year-old bird flu 'carrier'

Beijing concerned about 4-year-old bird flu 'carrier': Doctors say the discovery of a 4-year-old carrier of the H7N9 virus who shows no symptoms of the potentially lethal virus is a worrying development that could make the spread of the infection more difficult to monitor.