http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703436504574641420239757010.html?mod=rss_asia_whats_news

The Philippines offered to sell more of its 10- and 25-year U.S. dollar global bonds, kicking off issuance from Asia this year, which promises to be a busy one for sovereign borrowers.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126276072898917549.html?mod=rss_asia_whats_news

A Malaysian court charged an air force sergeant and a local businessman for stealing two military jet engines in the latest corruption scandal to rock the government.

I've a post up at Demography Matters touching on the growing migration of Russians from the Russian Far East to northeastern China, and the ways in which this counterintuitive movement proves that common knowledge about population can actually be quite wrong and must be checked against the facts. Go, read.

If you think people won't jerk off to the images of naked human bodies produced by "full body" scanners...

I imagine the law would work the same in the United States.

And one moral panic meets another.

________

But here's something a tad more hopeful. Obama is reversing the invidious Cheney doctrine that all foia requests and pending declassifications are to be refused by default.

I ripped this off a friend on facebook, but I erased their identities. I thought it was amusing.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703436504574641134029708664.html?mod=rss_asia_whats_news

A 10% appreciation of the yuan against the U.S. dollar would have limited impact on the Chinese economy, a prominent Chinese think tank suggested.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703436504574641063373967996.html?mod=rss_asia_whats_news

Qantas's cut-price unit Jetstar and Malaysian discount carrier AirAsia formed an alliance aimed at cutting costs, pooling their expertise and reducing air fares.

http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/e70ff64c-fa22-11de-beed-00144feab49a.html?o=%2Frss%2Fworld%2Fasiapacific

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e70ff64c-fa22-11de-beed-00144feab49a.html

New Delhi wants the World Bank involved in keeping alive the near-extinct national emblem even as China and Russia champion their own conservation efforts

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703436504574640972794163390.html?mod=rss_asia_whats_news

Asian stock markets were mostly higher Wednesday, extending their strong start to 2010. Toyota Motor was higher on upbeat U.S. sales figures for December.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126273442113417113.html?mod=rss_asia_whats_news

New signs emerged that Chinese health authorities suspected a Shanghai dairy was producing milk tainted with deadly melamine well before the first public announcements last week that it had been shut.

http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/fbb109c4-fa22-11de-beed-00144feab49a.html?o=%2Frss%2Fworld%2Fasiapacific

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fbb109c4-fa22-11de-beed-00144feab49a.html

Vietnam appears ready to restart its privatisation drive after the government earmarked Petrolimex and Vietnam Steel Corp as the next candidates, but did not give a timetable

http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/c042ccfe-fa29-11de-beed-00144feab49a.html?o=%2Frss%2Fworld%2Fasiapacific

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c042ccfe-fa29-11de-beed-00144feab49a.html

Executive chairman departs following the furore caused by allegations that he, his wife and another executive flew with almost 400 kg of baggage

http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/7aa46a70-fa21-11de-beed-00144feab49a.html?o=%2Frss%2Fworld%2Fasiapacific

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7aa46a70-fa21-11de-beed-00144feab49a.html

The decision by Hirohisa Fujii, the Japanese finance minister to quit is the latest in a string of setbacks that have undermined the government of Yukio Hatoyama

http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/06f36fb2-fa1d-11de-beed-00144feab49a.html?o=%2Frss%2Fworld%2Fasiapacific

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/06f36fb2-fa1d-11de-beed-00144feab49a.html

There is concern that, with the threat of inflation and interest rate rises, the easy money was made last year, writes Robin Cookson

http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/a85c944e-fa10-11de-adb4-00144feab49a.html?o=%2Frss%2Fworld%2Fasiapacific

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a85c944e-fa10-11de-adb4-00144feab49a.html

China needs to find a way of promoting private consumption growth and become less dependent on exports, writes John Plender

http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/de88af66-f9cb-11de-adb4-00144feab49a.html?o=%2Frss%2Fworld%2Fasiapacific

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/de88af66-f9cb-11de-adb4-00144feab49a.html

Bulls continued their dominance of the new year as stocks in the region hit 16-month highs on growing economic confidence and rising risk appetite

I love this paragraph, which appeared in a NY Times magazine tribute written by Charles Siebert:

Science and mythology are often construed as antipodes: the realm of hard facts versus that of full-blown fantasy. For Robert Rines, however — scientist, inventor, composer, renowned patent lawyer and the world’s most dogged cryptozoological sleuth on the trail of the Loch Ness Monster — there was no disparity between the two. Myth for him was not only science’s first permutation but also its ongoing impetus, both modes of expression proceeding as they do from the same common denominator: wonder.

Albert Einstein said something similar, but even his famous statement about imagination and knowledge made the two appear to be in competition rather than two sides of the same coin. The scientists I got along with best were the ones who emphasized how much he or she didn't know. In graduate school I would always say that I got interested in environmental microbiology because I couldn't believe that we don't really know what microbes live in dirt. Dirt- the stuff that's everywhere! We have huge brains that worked out the movement of planets in our solar system, yet we're stymied by the single-celled microbeasts under our feet. And of course modern origin-of-life theories are equal parts creativity and biochemistry.

There is a lot of hand-wringing in the scientific community about how to get the general public to trust its experts. Nonscientists seem to view scientists with some grudging respect accompanied by a lot of skepticism. Maybe scientists should spend more time talking about curiosity and wonder and less time lecturing to the back of the room.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580904574638582669722774.html?mod=rss_asia_whats_news

Google will offer its Nexus One smart phone directly to consumers, unlocked, via the Web. Walt Mossberg says this is the first Android phone he would consider carrying as his everyday hand-held computer.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126272143898416853.html?mod=rss_asia_whats_news

China took over the mantle of the world's top merchandise exporter from Germany in 2009, aided by a global economic crisis that has taken a greater toll on other trading powers.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126269151255616277.html?mod=rss_asia_whats_news

Britain and France braced for severe weather as snow disrupted travel. China faced the coldest weather in decades.