The Globe and Mail - Asia-Pacific News

Beijing must be patient in dealing with Taiwan

Frank Ching — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00 EDT

The Taiwanese are suspicious after six decades of threats, blackmail, military pressure and diplomatic isolation, says Frank Ching

What India's voters didn't do

Barbara Crossette — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00 EDT

The Hindu nationalist rallying call, politics based on caste and the insular left fail to receive much support, says Barbara Crossette

Suu Kyi's trial worries Myanmar's neighbours

Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00 EDT

Myanmar's Southeast Asian neighbours expressed ''grave concern'' yesterday over the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but China said it would not interfere in the regime's affairs.

Startup XPO plans flights between Canada and Asia

Brent Jang — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00 EDT

Fledgling XPO Airlines Inc. plans to operate flights between Canada and Asia. XPO's departures would be offered initially from Vancouver, with plans to add Toronto later. It is seeking to tap into demand for charter flights to and from Asian destinations, likely starting with South Korea and then expanding into Japan. The goal is to launch by early 2010, subject to financing. The new company is being headed by Ontario financier James Hultquist-Morrissey and several staff who formerly worked at transatlantic discounter Zoom Airlines, which was shut down last August.

Sri Lanka's people now must 'live as equals'

RAVI NESSMAN — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00 EDT

Sri Lanka's President declared his country ''liberated from separatist terror'' yesterday as state television broadcast images of the Tamil Tiger rebel leader's body after it was recovered from the battlefield.

Tax break revs up sales of lower-emission Nissans

Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00 EDT

Nissan Motor Co. NSANY-Q said yesterday orders for its eco-friendly cars are up 30 per cent in Japan so far in May from the same period a year earlier, helped by the government's new tax incentives for low-emission cars. Japan lowered taxes on greener vehicles last month in a step the auto industry expects will add 310,000 vehicles in sales in the financial year to March, 2010. Chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga acknowledged that the lack of a hybrid car was a concern that Nissan often heard from dealers, but stressed that its extensive offering of fuel-efficient gas-engine cars would help lower emissions on the whole at the auto maker. 7201 (Tokyo) rose yen15 to yen523 ($6.30).

Prabhakaran's myth dies with him, dreams of Eelam live on

ANTHONY REINHART — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00 EDT

Even in death, Velupillai Prabhakaran's eyes remained his most compelling feature, wide open and clear, as though focused on a goal.For more than 30 years, Sri Lankan Tamils relied on those eyes, and the single-minded focus behind them, to achieve their goal: a separate homeland called Tamil Eelam, free from the ''racist Sinhala state'' that Mr. Prabhakaran had always insisted was bent on his people's destruction.

Canada to focus on area around Kandahar city

COLIN FREEZE — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00 EDT

Canadian officials are planning to direct aid to the most receptive neighbourhoods in and around Kandahar city, leaving out places deemed too far-flung or ''empathetic'' to the Taliban insurgency.

Ottawa seeking trainers for Afghan army

COLIN FREEZE — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00 EDT

Ottawa wants to give Afghan army officers a crash course in bureaucracy.According to a ''letter of interest'' published this month on a federal site, the Canadian government hopes to hire several ex-military officials to instruct the Afghan National Army on how to run their troops in Kandahar. Planned topics include subjects such as battleground intelligence and map reading - and even media relations.

Indians feel pride, relief after surprise rout by Congress

STEPHANIE NOLEN — Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00 EDT

Dignified in its crushing victory, the Indian National Congress party settled yesterday into the pleasurable task of entertaining supplicants from marginalized small parties who as recently as last week were making huge demands on the assumption they would be needed to prop up a coalition.

CIA 'confident' nuclear weapons safe from Taliban

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00 EDT

CIA director Leon Panetta said yesterday U.S. intelligence officials did not know the exact whereabouts of all Pakistan's nuclear weapons but believed they were safe from the Taliban.

Diamond anniversary without sex

MARK MacKINNON — Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00 EDT

Among the many exhibits being constructed to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Communist revolution in China, it was likely the oddest - a ''sex park'' in the Yangtze River city of Chongqing that featured a giant phallus among its main displays.

Trial of Suu Kyi begins with heavy police presence

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00 EDT

Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was put on trial behind closed doors yesterday, police surrounding the prison where the proceedings were held to deter supporters who claim she is being prosecuted to keep her out of politics.

As Sri Lanka declares death of ruthless leader, new struggles emerge in a wounded nation

DOUG SAUNDERS — Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00 EDT

Though he claimed to wear a cyanide capsule around his neck to prevent capture, the elusive leader of the Tamil Tigers reportedly died in a far more dramatic and public way yesterday, struck by a rocket while trying to crash through roadblocks in a seized ambulance as Sri Lankan commandos closed in on a holdout the size of three football fields.