Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 1418

Myanmar’s Leader Backs Change to Constitution

Myanmar’s president said Thursday that he backed changing the country’s Constitution to allow “any citizen” to become president, apparently a reference to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning democracy advocate whose political ambitions have been thwarted for decades by the military. Read more

Inside the Tale of North Korea Execution by Ravenous Dog

There is no end to shocking stories from North Korea, many involving the myriad cruelties of the brutal police state as reported by defectors. But the latest tale — a news media report that the young North Korean leader might have had his uncle torn apart by ravenous dogs while he watched — may say less about the North than what outsiders have come to expect of it. Read more

Novelist Haruki Murakami: A point of view on the dispute over the Senkaku Islands

As a Japanese author, I was stunned in no small measure by media reports that publications by Japanese authors have disappeared from many bookstores in China as the sovereignty row over the Senkaku Islands heats up. Read more

Japan's population declines by record 244,000 in 2013

The number of Japanese births hit a record low in 2013 while the death rate was the highest since the end of World War II, according to health ministry estimates. Read more

China’s Runaway Train Is Running Out of Track

A financial drama is unfolding in China as the new year begins. Last week, for the second time in six months, interest rates in the critical interbank lending market spiked above 10 percent, prompting fears of a liquidity crisis that would trigger mass defaults and cripple the world’s second-largest economy.  Read more

China to Carry Out Spot Checks on Officials' Asset Declarations

China will begin conducting spot checks this year on assets and other personal information reported by officials to the ruling Communist Party and punish those with hidden wealth, state media reported. Read more

China and Japan: the pot and the kettle

China's outrage at the Japanese prime minister's war shrine visit has some justification. Read more

EU ut mot organhøsting i Kina

EU-parlamentet har vedtatt en resolusjon som i klare ordelag ber Kina sette en stanser fra praksisen med organhøsting på samvittighetsfanger. Les mer

Five Key Questions in 2014

Tensions between Asia's two biggest economies are rising so rapidly that some worry they will come to blows. Read more

Thousands Rally For Full and Free Elections in Hong Kong

Thousands of people took to the streets of Hong Kong to call for universal suffrage in planned elections for the territory's chief executive which are currently controlled by Beijing. Read more