In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

As Haiti began to recover from the devastating January 12 earthquake that left over 200,000 dead and destroyed the livelihoods of millions of families, another even-stronger 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit Chile February 27, leaving nearly 500 dead, and over 1.5 million displaced. Last Thursday, March 4, another earthquake hit Taiwan, followed by another smaller, yet destructive, [...]

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We started the drive to Vang Vieng early in the morning. It takes about three or four hours to get there from Vientiane on Highway 13, a long one-lane road that is bumper-to-bumper until you reach the city outskirts. Once out of the Lao capital, it becomes windy as Highway 13 stretches north. As the [...]

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On May 12, 2008, an earthquake struck central China leaving more than 86,000 people dead and missing and some 15 million homeless. In the year since this disaster, the Chinese government has undertaken the enormous task of rebuilding homes and schools through an innovative twinning approach, allocating rural and urban areas hit by the earthquake [...]

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Rabia-e Balkhi Girl’s High School was established in Kabul, Afghanistan, over 40 years ago. Before Afghanistan’s civil war, many of its graduates were accepted into prestigious university faculties to study medicine and law. During the civil war, however, nearly 90 percent of the school’s facilities were destroyed. In late 2001, after the Taliban fell and [...]

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Six months ago, a major earthquake struck central China, leaving nearly 88,000 people dead or missing, injuring hundreds of thousands, and leaving over five million homeless. The quake, with a magnitude of 8.0, was centered in Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province, and was felt as far away as Beijing, Bangkok, and Hanoi. In the days [...]

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