http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/Earth_Continents_Asia-Pacific_18_197_684.html Press Review of the Earth from the most relevant websites. Keep in touch with the Earth and your future ! fr-FR http://www.earth-stream.com/logo-stream-Earth.png http://www.earth-stream.com Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:33:46 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/Flextronics-Dedicates-One-Million-Square-Feet-to-Clean-Tech-at-Its-Facility-in-Malaysia_18_197_684_233300.html SINGAPORE, March 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Flextronics (Nasdaq: FLEX) has dedicated one million square feet to create a Clean Tech Super Site at its established facility in Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) Malaysia. Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:46:40 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/U-S-carmakers-show-gains-in-quality_18_197_684_233133.html Ford and Buick are edging out luxury brands such as Lexus and Mercedes-Benz in the latest rankings. Two new reports are pointing to a rapidly changing auto world where American and South Korean brands are equaling the quality of the top manufacturers and making large gains in market share. Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:17:35 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/Domestic-Dogs-May-Have-Originated-In-The-Middle-East_18_197_684_233085.html Modern domestic canines, long thought to have been first domesticated in Asia or Europe, may actually trace their roots back to the Middle East, a team of scientists have discovered.The research, led by UCLA ecology and evolutionary biology professor Robert Wayne and published on March 17 in the online edition of Nature, found that dogs have more in common genetically with Middle Eastern gray wolves than any other canine species in the world."Genome-wide analysis now directly suggests a Middle East origin for modern dogs," Wayne said in a Wednesday press release. Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:35:11 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/Domestic-Dogs-May-Have-Originated-in-Middle-East_18_197_684_232966.html Modern domestic canines, long thought to have been first domesticated in Asia or Europe, may actually trace their roots back to the Middle East, a team of scientists have discovered.The research, led by UCLA ecology and evolutionary biology professor Robert Wayne and published on March 17 in the online edition of Nature, found that dogs have more in common genetically with Middle Eastern gray wolves than any other canine species in the world."Genome-wide analysis now directly suggests a Middle East origin for modern dogs," Wayne said in a Wednesday press release. Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:05:27 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/Landslide-Lake-in-Northwest-Pakistan_18_197_684_232960.html On January 4, 2010, a landslide occurred in the Hunza Valley of northern Pakistan. The initial disas... Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:18:26 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/ChipMOS-REPORTS-FOURTH-QUARTER-AND-FULL-YEAR-2009-RESULTS_18_197_684_232871.html HSINCHU, Taiwan, March 17 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (Bermuda) LTD. Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:18:25 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/NASDAQ-APPROVES-ChipMOS-LISTING-ON-NASDAQ-CAPITAL-MARKET_18_197_684_232870.html HSINCHU, Taiwan, March 17 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (Bermuda) LTD. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:18:58 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/Ivory-Enforcement-Has-Failed-in-Parts-of-Africa-Asia_18_197_684_232853.html Doha, Qatar – Urgent law enforcement action by governments in Central and West Africa and South-east Asia is crucial to addressing the illicit ivory trade, according to a new analysis of elephant trade data released today.Detailed regional summaries of the data held in the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), the world's largest database on ivory seizures, highlight the failure of law enforcement in key elephant range States facing an increasing threat from organised crime and the presence of unregulated markets. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:26:59 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/-Black-Carbon-Crackdown-Offers-Fast-Action-Solution-to-Slow-Warming_18_197_684_232725.html Lawmakers, scientists and advocates in the U.S. intensified calls Tuesday to immediately cut emissions from climate-warming soot — also known as black carbon — as deadlock continues in Congress over far more complicated regulation of carbon dioxide. "Black carbon is an important, fast-action tool in mitigating long-term warming," said Veerabhadran Ramanathan, one of the world's leading climate scientists, in testimony before the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming. Although not a greenhouse gas, soot has emerged as a leading contributor to rising temperatures worldwide, scientists say. Limiting these emissions is seen as a relatively cheap and quick way to reign in warming in the short term. Black carbon causes up to 600 times the warming of CO2 and lasts just a few weeks in the atmosphere, whereas CO2 lingers for a century or more. Because of black carbon's short lifespan, the impact of efforts to knock out the potent, heat-absorbing particle would be near immediate. "Reducing black carbon emissions by 50 percent today will lead to a 50 percent reduction in the heat trapped by them within a few months," said Ramanathan, a professor at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. "Policymakers will witness the success of their actions during their tenure," he told the panel yesterday. Climate experts estimate that black carbon pollution is responsible for roughly 20 percent of global warming, while CO2 accounts for half. Much of that soot comes from Asia and Africa, where cooking with primitive stoves and burning down forests and grasslands spews tons of the pollutant into the atmosphere.  The U.S. contributes 5.5 percent to that global total, estimates say, mainly from diesel engines. Advocates argue the nation could easily shrink that number down to almost nothing, starting now. The filters to trap up to 90 percent of diesel pollution, for instance, are ready to go. Fixes in developing countries are j ... Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:12:43 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/Ivory-enforcement-failures-identified-in-parts-of-Africa-Asia_18_197_684_232666.html Urgent law enforcement action by governments in Central and West Africa and Southeast Asia is crucial to addressing the illicit ivory trade, according to a new analysis of elephant trade data. Detailed regional summaries of the data held in the Elephant Trade Information System, the world's largest database on ivory seizures, highlight the failure of law enforcement in key elephant range states. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:29:27 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/When-law-firms-exploit-human-rights-|-Afua-Hirsch_18_197_684_232642.html Rich law firms that embrace human rights while making fortunes representing vulture funds give lawyers who care a bad nameOne thing that keeps cropping up when I write about human rights is the fact that I'm a lawyer. "Human rights are just money-spinners for lawyers," one Cif commentator wrote. Actually more than one. There is clearly a belief out there that the main accomplishment of turning human rights into law has been to enrich the legal profession.It won't surprise you that I believe many lawyers argue human rights cases because they actually believe in them. If you've been following any of the Guardian's coverage of what's happening in legal aid, you'll know that there is a significant and often-ignored army of young lawyers working for next to nothing to help difficult clients with complex needs who face violations of their fundamental rights at the hands of an ever-powerful executive.Having said all this, there is another side to the law-meets-human-rights phenomenon: the large corporation. It has become increasingly popular for the so-called "magic circle" – the wealthiest international law firms whose turnover can reach up to £1bn a year – to embrace human rights too.When I say "embrace", I partly mean trumpeting their commitment to human rights in glossy annual reports and corporate social responsibility reviews. You'd be hard-pressed now to find a significant multinational law firm that doesn't boast of some programme to help impoverished local communities, often right on the doorstep of their gleaming city towers, or in the developing world.I should profess an interest at this stage because I have worked with Advocates for International Development – an organisation that draws on the resources of these large firms to provide voluntary legal assistance to poor countries in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. When I organised a project in Liberia to help war-fatigued local journalists, the richest law firm of them all, Clifford Chance, all ... Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:34:53 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/Aricent-Achieves-Cisco-Learning-Solutions-Partner-Status_18_197_684_232627.html PALO ALTO, Calif., March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Aricent®, a global innovation, technology and services company focused exclusively on communications, today announced that it has been authorized as a Cisco Learning Solutions Partner (CLSP) for the Asia Pacific region. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:21:11 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/ITG-Takes-Asian-Trading-to-Next-Level-With-Launch-of-New-Type-of-Dark-Pool-POSIT-Marketplace-TM-_18_197_684_232567.html NEW YORK, March 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Investment Technology Group (ITG), a leading independent broker and financial technology firm, today launched POSIT Marketplace, a new type of dark pool for Asia. Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:12:52 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/African-Ivory-Still-Making-Its-Way-To-Asia_18_197_684_232496.html The black market trade of African ivory has been linked to Asian crime organizations and may affect the efforts made by Zambia and Tanzania to sell off their legally acquired tusks, according to experts at a UN wildlife trade meeting. Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:16:40 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/Iron-Fertilization-Could-Harm-Aquatic-Life_18_197_684_232400.html Adding iron to ocean water, believed to be an effective way to absorb carbon dioxide and fight global climate change, could actually be poisoning marine life, claims a new study released Monday.Researchers from the University of Western Ontario, analyzed water samples obtained from open-ocean tracts in the northern Pacific Ocean. Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:20:07 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/Pakistan-Mud-Volcanoes_18_197_684_232304.html Along the coast of Pakistan, the tectonic plate underlying the Arabian Sea is diving beneath the Eur... Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:33:20 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/Chinese-dams-blamed-for-Mekong-s-dwindling-flows-and-fish-stocks_18_197_684_232231.html Vancouver Sun: Something is wrong with the mighty Mekong River, which frames the lives of 250 million people in six countries of Southeast Asia through which it flows and on which 60 million people depend directly for their livelihoods. But there are widely differing views on why the Mekong has shrunk to its lowest levels in 20 years, with only half its normal volume in some places, so that vital fish migrations have been disturbed and river shipping had to be halted. Some blame global ... Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:10:39 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/Rammed-Earth-+-Prefab-=-Quick-and-Cheap-DIY-House_18_197_684_232003.html All photos by Amarin Printing and Publishing Last year's container house by Chuta Sinthuphan of Site-Specific was such a hit at a Bangkok home show that the firm was invited back to do another model. This time, Chuta tells us: "Because when people think of eco-architecture in Thailand, cost came first into their mind. We wanted to show that living/building a eco-home is quite afford...Read the full story on TreeHugger Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:39:17 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/Drought-in-the-Mekong-Basin-Hampers-Southeast-Asia-Economy_18_197_684_231938.html A short monsoon and low rainfall have cut the region’s economic lifeblood to a trickle One of the worst droughts in Southeast Asia in decades has lowered water levels in the Mekong River, cutting people off from the source of their livelihood and hampering the regional economy, the Bangkok Post reports. “Severe drought will have an impact on agriculture, food security, access to clean water and river transport and will affect the economic development of people already facing serious poverty. The northern provinces are amongst the poorest areas for both Lao PDR and Thailand,” according to a press release ... Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:10:08 GMT http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Continents/Asia-Pacific/Hutchison-Whampoa-Group-and-Hutchison-Telecom-International-Announced-Despatch-of-Proposed-Privatisation-Scheme-Document_18_197_684_231908.html HONG KONG, March 14 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Hutchison Whampoa Limited ("HWL") and Hutchison Telecommunications International Limited ("HTIL") today jointly announced that in relation to the proposed privatisation of HTIL, the scheme document is expected to be despatched on or about 15 March 2010 to HTIL shareholders, HTIL ADS holders and HTIL optionholders. The scheme document contains complete details of the proposed privatisation including the recommendations from HTIL's independent board committee and independent financial adviser as well as the expected timetable, the key dates of which are: Court meeting and Extraordinary General Meeting 12 May 2010 Record date for scheme entitlements 24 May 2010 Delisting* - The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong 25 May 2010 - the New York Stock Exchange 4 June 2010 Payment*- for scheme shares 3 June 2010 - for ADSs 9 June 2010 *if the scheme becomes effective The scheme document and related announcements have been posted on the websites of HWL and HTIL at www.hutchison-whampoa.com and www.htil.com.