Asia

Philadelphia will be the US Airways hub for nonstop flights to Asia if the airline launches service to China, Japan or Turkey, airline officials said. Currently, the only nonstop flight to Asia from Philadelphia International Airport is a US Airways flight to Tel Aviv, Israel. Philadelphia is the largest metro area in the country without nonstop service to other cities in Asia. Service to Beijing, Istanbul or Narita, Japan, will await the delivery of new long-distance planes in the next several years and would also depend on fuel costs and government approvals, officials said.

IN OUR world, hyperbole reigns supreme. Traffic jams become "nightmares. " The words "amazing" and "incredible" jump from our lips to describe routine athletic feats. But a true calamity, like the tsunamis that killed at least 22,000, sobers us. Our minor travails become trivial; our desire to pump up less significant events with concocted drama and heightened bluster fall pitifully short. At Philadelphia International Airport over the holidays, thousands of passengers were angry when bad weather and apparent union action forced flights to be canceled and baggage to go awry.

In the mystery novel Trent's Last Case, there is a scene in Simpson's restaurant in London, where Trent asks his companion to speak softly when ordering a glass of milk in that posh place because the head waiter has a weak heart. Let us hope that Americans with hearts as weak as that head waiter's did not notice their government's behavior last week. The Clinton administration faced a crucial decision concerning a Communist regime in Asia: What to do about North Korea making a mockery of treaty obligations, en route to becoming a nuclear power?

Kampung Baharu is a short drive from the city's tallest office tower, past the Moorish-style cupolas of the old British secretariat to a corner on Raja Abdullah Street, marked by billboards for Marlboro cigarettes and Kellogg's cereal. Kampung means village in Malay, and Kampung Baharu remains exactly that, a village of crowing roosters and clotheslines and wood-framed houses on stilts smack in the middle of Kuala Lumpur's headlong charge into Southeast Asian affluence. Mohamad Zulhai Mi, 38, grew up in Kampung Baharu and takes what seems to be a typically Malaysian view of government plans to develop the area.

By the light of a half moon, they dipped their net into Little Sheep's Head Creek and let the windy, cold night envelop them in a waiting game. In precisely one hour, the net is hoisted out of the inky inlet and over the railing of the wooden bridge and checked for baby eels. The success of the catch is not measured by its size, but by the simple fact that a collection is made every week. That is because it could be decades before information gathered since 1989 from the salt marsh creeks around the Rutgers University Marine Field Station tells researchers whether a flourishing market for baby eels in Asia has affected the fragile marine ecosystem of the Jersey Shore.

The thought is slowly beginning to sink into the West's subconscious mind - children born in the Western world today will not so much be competing with each other, but with the fast-growing economic powerhouses of Asia and Latin America. Yet the picture for most Westerners still looks like a murky double- exposure, blurred with our old traditional images of overworked peasants, rib cages prominent, parched fields and hyper-ventilating shanty towns, almost breathless for lack of space and opportunity, its overcrowded children riddled with sewer-borne disease.

Chris Kilbourn-Peterson really wants to watch tonight's Utah-Kentucky NCAA championship game. But the former Marple Newtown and current Princeton University basketball player has another pressing matter that may keep him away from a television set. "I'm in a design class," Kilbourn-Peterson said. "I'm building an engine. " Kilbourn-Peterson is building a life, of which basketball is a large part. But it certainly isn't the only part, which is what led the 6-foot-7 junior center to miss Princeton's two NCAA tournament games earlier this month.

Janice Vasta became a believer in 1953, when she said "I do" to a guy named Tony. Three years earlier, at the age of 18, a psychic had told her that she would marry a Tony and that she would have two sons - a strange prediction considering the fact that the only Tony she knew at the time, and the one she ended up marrying, she didn't particularly like. The two sons came later. In the 40 years since her mind was first read by a psychic, Vasta has become a mind reader's version of a paperback novel.

Stocks fell along a broad front, led by technology and banking shares, as Asia's economic crisis continued to endanger profits at U.S. multinational corporations.

The Dow average took a breather yesterday after Monday's tumble and Wednesday's rebound. Broader indexes also posted small losses despite a strong day in Asia.

Philadelphia will be the US Airways hub for nonstop flights to Asia if the airline launches service to China, Japan or Turkey, airline officials said. Currently, the only nonstop flight to Asia from Philadelphia International Airport is a US Airways flight to Tel Aviv, Israel. Philadelphia is the largest metro area in the country without nonstop service to other cities in Asia. Service to Beijing, Istanbul or Narita, Japan, will await the delivery of new long-distance planes in the next several years and would also depend on fuel costs and government approvals, officials said.

Isolated and impoverished by decades of international sanctions, Myanmar (Burma) has emerged in recent months as both a beacon of hope and a potential new Asian flashpoint. With Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi freed from two decades of house arrest to campaign vigorously for a seat in parliament in the special election to be held Sunday, Burma's commitment to rejoining the international community appears to be genuine. But this opening has other consequences, most importantly setting the stage for a new "great game" of strategic competition.

NEW YORK - Investors sent U.S. stocks barreling to their highest levels of the year Thursday, buoyed by slivers of encouraging news about jobs and housing. General Motors Co. was among the best-performing stocks of the day. Two years after it was almost wiped out, the 103-year-old company turned a record $7.6 billion profit last year - the largest profit in its history. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 123.13 points to close at 12,904.08, its third triple-digit gain this year.

KAPOLEI, Hawaii - Asia-Pacific leaders held their annual summit Sunday, having claimed progress on a U.S.-backed free-trade bloc that received praise from U.S. businesses and labor, but drew a less-enthusiastic response from China and Russia. The balmy weather for the gathering at a resort on the west side of the island of Oahu contrasted with pessimism over the economic outlook expressed by many attending the summit. With Europe again on the brink of recession, Asia's vital role as a driver of global growth is gaining even greater urgency.

WASHINGTON - Determined to strengthen relations with Asia, President Obama is devoting nine days to a diplomatic mission in the region while Congress struggles toward a crucial budget deadline and a doubtful outcome. Obama departed Friday for summits in Hawaii and Indonesia and a visit to Australia in between. His challenge: Explain to voters how the U.S. role in the Asia-Pacific region is essential to American jobs and security, and then emerge with results to show for his travels.

Destination Maternity Corp., the designer and retailer of maternity clothing, said Wednesday it will expand into South Korea through a franchise agreement with Agabang & Co. The deal enables the Philadelphia company to introduce its Motherhood Maternity, A Pea in the Pod and Destination Maternity brands into the Asian nation with the first franchise location expected to open later this year. Destination Maternity reached similar franchise agreements in 2008 and 2009 to expand into the Middle East and India.

Asia Coney - a longtime ally of ousted Philadelphia Housing Authority chief Carl R. Greene - misappropriated thousands of dollars from a nonprofit tenant group she leads, according to allegations contained in a federal whistle-blower lawsuit. Vincent Morris, who served as PHA's liaison to Tenant Support Services Inc. until April 2010, charged in a filing on Tuesday that he repeatedly told Greene and other senior PHA officials about the problems he was finding at the nonprofit, but that Coney stayed on the job. Since October, Coney has received a $6,000 raise - to $108,000 - while still living in PHA housing and driving a PHA-supplied SUV. In July 2009, Morris charged that Coney and an assistant each took extra payments of $9,998 from the tenant group's payroll fund.

DuPont Co. is weighing whether to increase production of a basic industrial product in the United States or in Asia. The Wilmington-based DuPont plans to boost production of titanium dioxide - a basic chemical that whitens paints, plastics, and paper - by 350,000 metric tons, adding nearly 10 percent to the world's capacity. The increase is to meet demand from Asia and Latin America over the next three years. The company will invest a half-billion dollars at its existing industrial complex in Altamira, on Mexico's Gulf Coast, plus millions more to boost production at other U.S. or Asian plants.

A public housing tenant leader who runs a government-funded nonprofit under federal investigation also operates a political action committee that has failed to account for more than $100,000 since 2006. Asia Coney, a longtime Philadelphia Housing Authority resident and activist, oversees the Equity PAC from a PHA building at 1401 W. York St. in North Philadelphia. Since 2005, Equity PAC has received contributions from prominent politicians, including $37,000 from State Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.