In The News

Chinese Territorial Strife Hits Archaeology

Jeremy Page December 4, 2013
Shoals and reefs dotting the South China Sea, now subject to competing claims from several nations, once presented treacherous traps for passing ships over the centuries. International law on deep-sea shipwrecks is murky, and recovery rights clash with preservation and research efforts. Owners, funders, cargo and crews often hailed from multiple countries, reports Jeremy Page for the Wall Street...

A Global Challenge: Training Engineers for the 21st Century

November 22, 2013
Experts in science, technology, engineering and mathematics – the so-called STEM fields – help grow economies. Yet interest in these fields is down in the US and Europe. “Within industrialized countries, scientific and technical courses are deemed to be difficult, uninteresting and not competitive in terms of salary expectations,” reports ParisTech Review. An introduction to the essay points out...

Abe Team Seeks to Kill Rice Subsidy Program by 2018

Reiji Yoshida November 7, 2013
Despite recent a decline in domestic consumption of rice, Japan ranks eight among rice-consuming countries, but does not figure among the top 10 producing nations, according to the International Rice Research Institute. To increase competition and reduce prices, the Abe administration plans to end government regulations and subsidies by 2018 for farmers who limit paddy usage. “To placate...

NHS “Can Save £500m” on Foreign Care

Nick Triggle November 1, 2013
A survey by BritishFuture.org suggests that more than 70 percent of respondents consider the National Health Service a symbol of “what is great” about Great Britain. But health care is costly, and British officials contemplate being more proactive in recouping treatment costs from foreigners. “Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he did not want to ‘turn GPs into border guards’ and no-one would be...

The Banal Reality of Censoring Books in China

David Austin Walsh October 28, 2013
Once a publisher accepts a book – editors and translators polish manuscripts, make corrections and offer suggestions on conciseness, logic or word choice. Some writers suggest that Chinese publishers go too far. “More authors and publishers are willing to accept censorship because the Chinese market is increasingly lucrative, even for university presses and trade publishers,” explains David...

Treaty Curbing Mercury Emissions Becomes International

October 18, 2013
A new global treaty will limit products and processes that can release mercury – which attacks the nervous system – and require safe storage before the year 2020. This includes batteries, some fluorescent lamps, skin-whitening soaps, thermometers and blood pressure devices, and the convention will also control the biggest sources of mercury pollution including “emissions and releases from...

Strike on Syria for Chemical Weapons – Not Illegal

Harold Hongju Koh October 3, 2013
The world wrestles over what to do when nations and the UN Security Council fail in their responsibility to protect civilians from atrocities. A strike, as threatened by US President Barack Obama for a chemical weapons attack on Syrians, would have been legal, argues Harold Hongju Koh, former dean of Yale Law School. “I would argue that under certain highly constrained circumstances, a nation...