Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have largely been an American innovation thus far. Europe has one or two small programs, but in Asia there are none at all—until now, that is.University World News reports that the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is now offering a class through Coursera, making it the first Asian school to […]

Toxic smog isn’t just choking China’s urbanites and costing the country billions; it’s changing city culture. The health care costs, premature deaths and material damages caused by China’s air pollution can all be quantified, but the impact of dirty air on the psyches of China’s growing urban population is hard to distill into raw numbers. […]

After top aides to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and more than 150 Japanese lawmakers visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, China sent its largest maritime patrol fleet to date into Japan’s territorial waters near the disputed Senkaku Islands, sparking a shouting match between the two countries. Eight Chinese vessels approached the islands, where they bumped […]

For high school students (and their parents), attendance at the nation’s most elite universities has long been seen as a golden ticket to prosperity and lifetime job security. But is that golden ticket really worth the price? The New York Times has questions: While some students will be able to go to college only if they receive financial aid […]

Add Israel to the growing list of US allies condemning the Assad regime in no uncertain terms over its alleged use of chemical weapons.Israeli General Itai Brun, the IDF’s commander of the research division in the intelligence directorate, says “it is quite clear that they used harmful chemical weapons.” He cited as evidence pictures of victims with “shrunken […]

Twenty-one percent of young people ages 18 to 29 already own a home, and 68 percent plan to own a home within the next ten years, according to a new Gallup poll. Only 7 percent say they have no plans to buy a home in the foreseeable future.This is the first time Gallup has asked questions about […]

Iraqis turned out across the country to vote in provincial elections over the weekend. Unfortunately, barely half of the country’s eligible voters went to the polls, much lower than the 72 percent who voted in 2009.“It’s show business. The Iraqi people are sick of it,” a 27-year old doctor from Baghdad told a Wall Street […]

A Reuters reporter’s recent visit to Jhang, in Pakistan’s Punjab region, should be a reality check for any Westerner tempted to celebrate Pakistan’s upcoming elections—the first ever transfer of power from one civilian administration to another—as a victory for democracy.In most countries the leader of a sectarian group blamed for horrendous suicide bombings and assassinations of […]

A harrowing scene occurred recently on the New York City subway when a group of teens approached and harassed a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke. The ringleader, a self-identified Muslim teen, threatened to kill the man and added, “They should have killed all of you.” When police confronted the belligerent 17-year-old at a stop in Brooklyn, a […]

If you’re at all a technophile, you’ve heard about the self-driving cars that Google is developing. But you may still be wondering how long you’ll have to wait to drive ride in one. The answer: probably not as long as you think.Industry experts quoted by the Wall Street Journal predict that fully autonomous cars will be able to […]