[Is the Chinese real estate bubble bursting?] By Gus Lubin6 December 2011 Home prices in China most notorious “ghost city,” a city called Kangbashi constructed outside Ordos, have fallen from $1,100 per square foot in 2006 to $470 per square, according to the Hong Kong Standard. In the past few months alone prices have plunged […]
New Delhi, December 20 (UPI) – India’s rising population and economic growth are straining the country’s supply of water, a report from India’s Infrastructure Development Finance Co. warns. Of India’s 20 major river basins, 14 are considered water-stressed, the report from IDFC, an independent group, report said. Nearly 25 percent of the country’s population live […]
In this world of 7 billion people, the global rural-urban balance of populations has tipped irreversibly in favour of cities. But what, exactly, is a “city” in 2011? Hania Zlotnik, the director of the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs cautions against assuming too easy a definition because governments […]
[Desdemona can’t help thinking that the blue tarps in this first image contain radioactive soil.] By Beenish Ahmed21 December 2011 Years before the monster earthquake shook Japan and unleashed a massive tsunami in March, Google had mapped the roads of northeast Japan with its Street View project, as it had done in many parts of […]
21,000 villagers are in “full revolt” against Communist authorities, for illegally selling farmland and pocketing the profits. Chinese Authorities Lose Control as Village Revolts Technorati Tags: China,Asia,conflict,corruption,agriculture
By Nataliya Vasilyeva, AP Business Writer 17 December 2011 USINSK, Russia – On the bright yellow tundra outside this oil town near the Arctic Circle, a pitch-black pool of crude stretches toward the horizon. The source: a decommissioned well whose rusty screws ooze with oil, viscous like jam. This is the face of Russia’s oil […]
Tens of thousands of flood-affected children in Pakistan are being kept free of disease through the emergency provision of safe water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene lessons. But a lack of funding is putting in doubt future humanitarian assistance. Staving off disease in post-flood Pakistan Technorati Tags: Pakistan,Asia,monsoon,flood,epidemic,United Nations,global warming,climate refugees,climate change
AYUTTHAYA, December 18 (AFP) – Piles of rubbish, rusting furniture and discarded machinery litter one of Thailand’s top high-tech parks, a former symbol of economic prowess laid to waste by weeks of flooding. Many of the companies located in the country’s industrial heartland say it will be several months at least before their operations return […]
By Erik De Castro, with additional reporting by Rosemarie Francisco and Manny Mogato in MANILA; Editing by Robert Birsel18 December 2011 CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines (Reuters) – Rescuers searched for more than 800 people missing in the southern Philippines on Sunday after flash floods and landslides swept houses into rivers and out to sea, killing […]
By Rhett A. Butler, www.mongabay.com 16 December 2011 Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) continues to mislead the public about its role in destroying rainforests and critical tiger habitat across the Indonesian island of Sumatra, alleges a new report from Eyes on the Forest, a coalition of Indonesian environmental groups including WWF-Indonesia. But APP is sharply […]
