Hollywood films represent more than half, and sometimes more than two-thirds of total box-office receipts in major markets. Films that succeed in the US market also tend to succeed in foreign markets. This suggests that a convergence of popular taste may be coming about, though in many countries...
A New James Bond Movie: Die Another Day starring Pierce Brosnan
From the early years of the twentieth century, right down to the present, the United States has been the world's major commercial producer of motion pictures. According to the US...
Traces of cadmium found in Chinese rice samples are expected to boost imports. In recent years, China has been a major importer of rice despite strong domestic production. Rice expert Samarendu Mohanty offers two possible reasons in the Asia Sentinel: Foreign rice is less expensive than Chinese...
China has been a savior for the global rice market in the past year, importing 2.3 million tonnes, and it has continued that role so far this year.
It is very likely China will hold the top spot in 2013 with 3 million tonnes of imports. However,...
North Korea is among the world’s most isolated nations. Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, the regime lashes out at South Korea, thriving just across the border. The most recent provocation: a landmine attack that wounded two South Korean border guards. Seoul responded by switching on...
Empty threat? North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatens war against South Korea, top; South Koreans carry on with life as usual
SEOUL: The blood-curdling threats against the South emanating from North Korea are all too familiar, but ironically the...
The latest poll by the Pew Research Center reveals that Americans place a higher degree of personal importance on religion than residents of other wealthy countries. The survey of 44 countries, part of The Pew Global Attitudes Project, also found that residents of Asia, Latin America, and Africa...
Religion is much more important to Americans than to people living in other wealthy nations. Fully six-in-ten Americans say religion plays a very important role in their lives compared with just 33% of those surveyed in Great Britain and even...
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, is inherently cautious in his choice of words. In the weeks leading to the Iraq war, Annan refrained from outright criticism of the grounds for invasion, and only recently did he warn of the dangerous precedents established by preemptive action. But in a recent...
The declaration of the United Nations secretary-general, Kofi Annan, on the Iraq war was shocking in its simplicity. He described it for the first time as "illegal". No caveats. No equivocation. None of the ambiguity...
China took over Tibet in 1951, and relations have been tense since. As Beijing prepares to host the Olympics in August, ethnic groups that disagree with Chinese policies also take advantage of the global spotlight. Buddhist monks and ethnic Tibetans in Lhasa attempted a protest march, to draw...
BEIJING: Violent protests erupted Friday in a busy market area of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, as Buddhist monks and other ethnic Tibetans clashed with Chinese security forces. Witnesses say the protesters burned shops,...
Global markets for liquefied natural gas, or LNG have set records for the fifth consecutive year. A series of detentions of oil cargo ships this summer in Hormuz by Iran and the United Kingdom have heightened energy security concerns, especially for vulnerable transport routes in the volatile...
Energy worries: Attacks on oil tankers and Iran’s detention of the British-flagged Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz, as seen in undated photo, raise concerns for the liquefied natural gas industry; about 25 percent of the world’s LNG exports...
