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Inside Scoop
INSIDE SCOOPSCOOP: (NOUN) EXCLUSIVE, EXPOSE, COUP, RELEVATION, SENSATION, INSIDE STORY
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 Edwin Espejo, Chronicles from Mindanao by a Mindanao Journalist |
Economics |
US Coast Guard boards RP fishing vessel off PalauPhilippine authorities today confirmed receiving reports that two fishing vessels from the country were boarded by the United States Coast Guard in the international waters north of the Republic of Palau and were found to have no international fishing license. Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar) assistant director Benjamin Tabios on Friday said they received an e-mail from the US Coast Guard about the incident which could affect the tuna industry in the Philippines. A two-year ban on tuna fishing in international waters was put into effect starting January this year by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) due to rapidly declining tuna stock. A three-month ban on tuna fishing using fish aggregating devices is also in effect every year from July to September. Member countries of the WCPFC, however, are allowed to fish within its 200-mile exclusive economic zone provided fishing vessels using this method must have observers on board an... |
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| Posted at 01:39 PM, Sep 03, 2010 | READ MORE> | ||||||||
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 Jon Russell, Social Media and Technology in Asia |
Politics, Technology |
China introduces ID check for mobile phone ownersI've recently blogged about Singapore, Vietnam and China and their attempts to limit the usage of the internet in young people, and this week China has stepped its efforts up a notch by introducing regulations which require the submission of ID in order to purchase an internet account or mobile phone SIM. From the Wall Street Journal: The measure went into effect Wednesday, with customer-service representatives at mobile operators China Mobile Ltd., China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. and China Telecom Corp. telling customers that new users would need to provide proof of their identity when signing up for new phone numbers. State media said all existing users will eventually need to register as well. Being China, the move throws up considerable personal freedom and privacy issues as the article discusses: The government says that anonymity enables rampant spam and telecom fraud, which are indeed pervasive problems in China. But the anonymity has also enabled people to share po... |
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| Posted at 12:00 PM, Sep 03, 2010 | READ MORE> | ||||||||
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 Andy Jackson, Flying Yangban |
Economics, Politics |
Korean arms sale caught up in US domestic politicsIt seemed like a perfect match. The Korean army would make a few bucks to help cover some of the costs of modernizing its military by selling 850,000 Korean War era rifles in the USA while American hunters and collectors would have access to a trove of vintage weapons. It was a win-win situation that the Obama administration approved last year. ... at least until it disapproved of the sale this May. The Korean government can not resell the American-made weapons to a third country without Washington's approval. Yonhap reports that the American government may destroy the weapons, presumably after paying the Koreans for them. It does not indicate if the funds for such a purchase would come from the budget of the Pentagon or the State Department. Here is a bit of cuteness which seems to indicate that there is either nobody in the Obama administration who can officially speak with reporters who knows enough about the issue to talk compet... |
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| Posted at 11:26 AM, Sep 03, 2010 | READ MORE> | ||||||||
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 Tharum Bun, Musings from Cambodia |
Politics, New Media, Society, Technology |
Meet Cambodia's anonymous blog author 'Details are Sketchy'"The good thing about a blog is that it can be anonymous and you still can be contacted," says Gary Kawaguchi, a digital media trainer at Royal University of Phnom Penh, Department of Media and Communications. Here's an email interview with Details are Sketchy (DAS) the blogger, who started blogging anonymously in June 2006. The prominent blogger prolifically weighs in on issues ranging from arts to politics to the World Bank's controversial issues. Tharum Bun: How long have you been in Cambodia? DAS: More than 10 years. I arrived in early 1998. Q: Why did you start blogging? DAS: When I started writing, there wasn't much thought-provoking blogging about Cambodia. I wanted to try and provoke some informed debate. And also, I wanted to learn more about this 'blog' thingy that all the cool kids were talking about. Q: Why do you choose to blog about Cambodia? DAS: Cambodia is where I live. And, again, I wanted to try and raise the quality of the onlin... |
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| Posted at 09:45 AM, Sep 03, 2010 | READ MORE> | ||||||||
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 Elmer W. Cagape, Living in Hong Kong |
Economics, Travel & Lifestyle |
Bye pirates, hello Northeast PassageClimate change may have delivered a solution to the risk faced by ships and crew passing through the waters of Gulf of Aden. A cargo ship bearing Hong Kong flag carrying 41,000 tons of iron ore will become part of maritime history as it sails from Norway to China through Russia's arctic passage instead of the pirate-infested Somalian waters. Although Nordic Barents is not the first ship to pass through the Arctic wasteland, it becomes the first foreign-registered vessel allowed by Russia to make a voyage between two non-Russian ports. The ship's owner aims to prove that the route would become a viable alternative to the longer southern route from Europe to Asia. Nordic Barents is scheduled to leave the small Norwegian port of Kirkenes and head towards the Chinese port of Dalian. If the trip proves successful, the route enters one more step in competing against the Suez Canal sea route. The first ship to do so was Russian-owned Baltica, which transported 70,000 tons of gas condensate ... |
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| Posted at 08:46 AM, Sep 03, 2010 | READ MORE> | ||||||||
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 Peter Scudamore-Smith, Uncorked & Cultivated |
Travel & Lifestyle, Wine |
Boireann: Granite Belt star, exquisite qualityThere is always a lot of fun associated with a Boireann tasting: you know there is a gem of a wine to be discovered every year, and maybe not the same lineage as the previous year. To new readers Boireann is the meticulous handicraft of Peter and Therese Stark who make their wine totally on their special site, a vineyard 5km off the main highway Brisbane-Wallangarra at the Summit if travelling south to NSW. Their vineyard is almost four times the elevation of the Lower Hunter Valley. That means rows of grapes each side of the small road into the property, a small tasting area to visit and buy and adjoining is controlled storage where all the bottles are hand laid out in bays before packing up for visiting buyers. Behind the cellars is Peter's vintage area and a temperature-controlled barrel shed. It's all very simple because what you see is what you get: all grown under your eyes, spending time in barrel from April until February, then bottled under screw cap before the next vintage... |
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| Posted at 08:32 AM, Sep 03, 2010 | READ MORE> | ||||||||
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 Asia Sentinel, Breaking News |
Economics, Green |
India's thirst for energyCoal surge is unabated, raising environmental concerns, writes Asia Sentinel's Siddharth SrivastavaIndia's quest for overseas coal continues, driven by the country's burgeoning economy and energy needs. South Africa shipped an estimated 35 percent of its thermal coal exports – 2.1 million metric tons – to India in July, almost twice June's 1.2 million tons.India has averaged buying 34 percent of South African exports throughout 2010, making up for weak European buying in the wake of the continuing economic downturn. Earlier this year, Raymond Chirwa, CEO of Richards Bay Coal Terminal, said there has been a marked shift in coal buying by Indian power firms.As an indication of India's thirst for coal, "Of the total exports (of 60 million tons from South Africa) in 2009, 41 percent was shipped to the Asian markets, and out of this 29 percent was for the Indian market," Chiwa said. "18 percent was exported to the Asian market during 2008, of which India accounted for 11 percent... |
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| Posted at 07:29 AM, Sep 03, 2010 | READ MORE> | ||||||||
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 Ben Bland, The Asia File |
New Media |
BBC denies bowing to political pressure over dropped Malaysia interviewEarlier this week, I wrote about the BBC's decision to pull a planned Hardtalk interview with Raja Petra Kamarudin, a controversial Malaysian blogger, because of legal advice. The decision has been heavily criticised on independent Malaysian blogs and news websites with many accusing the British state broadcaster of caving in to pressure from the Malaysian government. But the BBC has insisted in a statement that "the suggestion that the item was dropped due to political pressure is untrue." Peter Connors, a press officer for BBC News, told me that the BBC had not received any contact from lawyers or other advisers acting for the Malaysian prime minister or government. This is the full statement: The BBC researches many different stories, it is the normal process of news and current affairs throughout the media that not all make it to air for a variety of editorial reasons. In this case, it became clear in our research that any comprehensive interview with for... |
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| Posted at 06:44 PM, Sep 02, 2010 | READ MORE> | ||||||||
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 Bala Murali Krishna, Indian Century |
Society |
India, ICC should learn from match-fixing scandalThe early 1990s, when I used to write about cricket for a living, seems in hindsight to have been the last age of innocence for the sport. Young Indian cricketers on tours spent their time, and energies, hunting down a cheap Indian meal, or an obliging NRI who could do their laundry. That was because Indian cricketers, even though paid handsomely by Indian standards, lived on dollar allowances that were barely enough, and both Indian meals and laundry (for all those whites) could be expensive. Of course, the 1987 World Cup in the subcontinent gave rise to sensational allegations, notably by Pakistani fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz that Pakistan deliberately threw its semi-final against Australia. Even on this side of the border, a rumor was that Sunil Gavaskar had thrown his wicket (he was bowled by a beauty of a delivery by Phil DeFreitas in the first over of the semi-final against England). Even though Pakistan and India went on to lose the matches, the allegations seemed wild at the time... |
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| Posted at 06:08 PM, Sep 02, 2010 | READ MORE> | ||||||||
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Edwin Espejo, Chronicles from Mindanao by a Mindanao Journalist |
Economics, Politics, Green |
Aquino to keynote Philippine Tuna CongressOrganizers of the 12th National Tuna Congress said President Benigno Aquino III will keynote this year’s annual gathering. The president is expected to address growing concerns over the effects of the two-year ban on fish aggregating device (FAD) fishing in international waters which has already dislocated some 1,496 workers, according to the Department of Labor and Employment. Industry players are also expected to lobby for the creation of the Department of Fisheries to help sustain the multi-million dollar tuna industry. “Right now, we’re really facing a difficult situation because of the fishing ban. About 30 percent of the industry’s operations were already affected so far and might even get worse if this concern will not be resolved the soonest time,” Marfenio Tan was quoted during a press conference. The 12th National Tuna Congress is slated for September 2-3 at the Family Country Homes and Convention Center. The city has been hosting the annual... |
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| Posted at 04:03 PM, Sep 02, 2010 | READ MORE> | ||||||||
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Edwin Espejo, Chronicles from Mindanao by a Mindanao Journalist |
Politics |
Fugitive cop in Ampatuan massacre arrestedPolice authorities in Sarangani arrested a police officer who is among the policemen and militiamen being hunted by Philippine police authorities in connection with the massacre of 57 people, including 32 journalists last year. Sarangani police director Senior Supt. Florendo Quidilla said PO1 Arnulfo Soriano was intercepted at a police checkpoint in Kiamba Thursday morning. Soriano was tracked down by a police team led by Chief Inspector Henrietto Villamor, according to Quidilla. The arrested police officer was seized on the basis of a warrant of arrest issued by Quezon City Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes who is now hearing the multiple murder charges against at least 192 people, among them several members of a powerful political clan in Maguindanao. On November 23, relatives and supporters of then Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu were held at a checkpoint in the Ampatuan town in Maguindanao. They were later brought to a secluded place where they were gunned down along with journal... |
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| Posted at 03:45 PM, Sep 02, 2010 | READ MORE> | ||||||||
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 Tonyo Cruz, Bullet Points |
Economics, Politics |
Aquino gets 25-year $400-million ADB loan for doleout programThe Aquino administration today obtained approval of a 25-year $400-million loan from the Asian Development Bank for the expansion of the much-criticized conditional cash transfer program of the previous Arroyo administration. In a joint statement, the ADB and the Department of Social Welfare and Development said the loan, payable in 25 years and with a grace period of five years, will have an interest rate "in accordance with ADB's London interbank offered rate-based lending facility". The loan will also be charged a "commitment charge" of 0.15 percent annually. This is the second major loan under President Aquino, the first being the $434-million from the United States Millennium Challenge Corp. The ADB and the DSWD claimed that "initial results" of what is arguably a dole-out program launched by the embattled Arroyo administration, "show significant increases in school enrolment, child immunization, and prenatal medical care". An estimated 582,000 poor families are expected to b... |
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| Posted at 01:25 PM, Sep 02, 2010 | READ MORE> | ||||||||
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