Asia

MINNEAPOLIS - United Airlines, Continental, and All Nippon Airways applied for antitrust approval on Wednesday so they can work together more closely on flights across the Pacific. The three carriers already sell tickets on each other's planes as partners in the Star Alliance, which Continental joined in October. But they want to form a joint venture that would strengthen their financial ties. If their immunity application is approved, they would jointly manage trans-Pacific activities, including schedules, prices and sales.

Asian food aficionados probably think they're living next door to nirvana these days. No longer does the crowd have to agree on one type of fare. With the current trend in Far East-style eateries, most everyone can be satisfied. Among the newer such restaurants on the block is East Moon Asian Bistro, which opened in October 2011 in the Shipley's Grant community in Ellicott City. Behind the rather unprepossessing plate glass windows is a large, sleek dining room with separate sushi bar and wet bar. Decor in the 130-seat dining room is about as neo as you can get -- sleek, slick, bespeaking an expensive decorator and plenty of startup money from the on-site owner, Danny Tian, and co-owners who run the three other East Moon eateries elsewhere in the region.

President Barack Obama is to board Air Force One today for a trip to Asia, his first visit to the region since he took office. Obama will stop first in Tokyo, where he will deliver a major speech on his Pacific Rim policy and also meet with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. Other countries on the itinerary are China, Singapore and South Korea. Obama will use the weeklong trip to strengthen ties to Asian leaders and send a strong message that the U.S. is "an Asia-Pacific nation and we are there for the long haul," as one administration official put it. Obama will need willing Asian partners as he works to combat nuclear proliferation, reduce the threat of global warming and invigorate the world economy.

Over the past two years, the Obama administration has focused greater diplomatic attention and military resources on East Asia as part of a policy described as a "pivot" or "rebalancing. " While American leaders are loath to admit it publicly, this is a response to China's growing influence, particularly Beijing's territorial claims around its borders. China now has the world's second-largest economy and a rapidly modernizing military. It is led by a Communist Party that maintains its power by promoting a strong sense of national pride and expectations of China's continued rise to greatness.

Waverly Inc. announced yesterday that it had bought a string of medical publishing and distribution properties in Europe and Asia for a total of $3 million.The Baltimore-based medical journal and textbook publisher acquired two German professional journals that focus on "natural" or alternative treatments, such as acupuncture. The journals, with a combined circulation of about 30,000, had sales of about $500,000 a year, said E. Philip Hanlon, Waverly's chief financial officer.Waverly also bought Germany's leading medical test preparation publisher, Mediscript, which has sales of about $500,000 a year.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Call it what you will -- the Asian flu, meltdown, deflation. The financial turmoil that began in Thailand six months ago has spread and debilitated the tiger economies in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, and rocked the financial markets in Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan.While the U.S. media remainfixated on what we Asians call America's "geisha" scandal in the White House, there is a human story imploding in Asia that could have a profound impact on our global village.

As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Asia this week, she will fundamentally and profoundly change the trajectory of U.S. foreign policy. The "Iraqification" of foreign policy under President George W. Bush permeated strategic thinking during the last eight years and undermined the United States' standing around the world. As the tides of power shift from the West to the East, the United States has been stuck in the sand. Mrs. Clinton's decision to go to Asia for her first overseas trip underscores the growing geopolitical significance of the region and a strong desire to rebalance American engagement.

Beijing. -- America's frustrated in Asia these days.The U.S. triumph in the Cold War in Europe has been quickly tempered by a wide range of trans-Pacific conflicts with newly self-confident Asian states increasingly willing to defy America's will.Many in Asia believe that America's problems in the region are bound to multiply unless the country adopts a far less haughty approach as it moves into what has been dubbed the "Pacific Century.""The crux of the problem is, you have a missionary, messianic zeal, which is not equal to the task of changing the world," Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founding father and senior minister, told The Sun in a recent interview.

It is a holiday Tuesday night in fashionable Shinjuku in Tokyo, but there are only two Americans at the Shakey's Pizza shop.Another bad night for an American company trying to make it in Japan?Hardly. The place is packed mostly with young affluent Japanese -- every one of them gobbling away.In many respects, their numbers are a wordless tribute to the success U.S. fast-food companies are having marketing themselves in Asia.While the major chains have been in Japan for 25 years, even smaller players are showing up in droves, parlaying profits from the status-symbol image of American tastes.

TOKYO -- President Clinton, as he heads to Asia today for a multilateral summit, will probably be very glad to get out of the United States for a few days.But his party's defeat in Tuesday's midterm elections may help him get what he wants from the Asian leaders he will meet next week. In navigating the sensitive waters of Asian diplomacy, humility can only help.Mr. Clinton will participate in a Nov. 15 summit of leaders of 18 countries in the Asia-Pacific region at the Indonesian resort town of Bogor near the capital, Jakarta.

A 22-year-old Baltimore woman who called 911 and said she found her boyfriend fatally shot in an alley this summer has been charged in his murder, according to court records. Asia La'trice Cutler was charged on Dec. 14 with first-degree murder and related charges in the Aug. 30 killing of boyfriend Donte Harris, 21. Police have also charged 21-year-old Shanda Cure and 24-year-old Willie Brockington with accessory after the fact, records show. Charging documents contain few details about the case.

McCormick & Co. announced Monday that it had signed an agreement to buy a popular bouillon maker in China, expanding its growing presence there. Sparks-based McCormick has agreed to acquire Wuhan Asia-Pacific Condiments Co. Ltd. for about $141 million, according to a statement released by the company. Completion of the agreement, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected in mid-2013, the spice company said. The acquisition fits into McCormick's continued push to expand in overseas markets such as China, said Alan Wilson, its chairman, president and CEO, in the statement.

W.R. Grace said Thursday that it will acquire the assets of Chinese manufacturer Noblestar Catalysts Co. Ltd. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Noblestar, based in Qingdao, makes fluid catalytic cracking catalysts and other related products, which are used in the petroleum refining industry. As part of the agreement, Grace established a new, wholly foreign-owned enterprise in China. Grace officials said the acquisition would help the Columbia company better serve its refining customers in China and northern Asia.

With Osama bin Laden dead, the war in Iraq over and the war in Afghanistan winding down, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told graduating midshipmen Tuesday to prepare themselves for "one of the key projects" of their generation: building American strength in the Asia-Pacific region. "America's future prosperity and security are tied to our ability to advance peace and security along the arc extending from the Western Pacific and East Asia into the Indian Ocean and South Asia," he told the Class of 2012 during the graduation ceremony at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.

Gov. Martin O'Malley is planning to lead a trade mission to India, he said Tuesday, in what would be his second international trip this year. O'Malley said the purpose of the trip is jobs and that he hopes to go "before the year's end. " "We're working on it," O'Malley said. "We promote the competitive strengths of Maryland. " He listed life sciences, biotech, information technology and health care as those strengths. India is Maryland's 12th-largest trading partner, and the state is host to branch offices for five Indian companies, according to the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

More than 20 percent of my Baltimore factory's sales are exports, and we want more. We ship to 35 countries; however, that is not good enough. Developing new markets to sell our sheet metal fabrications, wire baskets, and wire forms to new markets will grow jobs in Baltimore and strengthen my company's base. That's why I accepted an invitation from Gov. Martin O'Malley to accompany him and other Maryland officials and business leaders to Asia in June. This trip was a startling eye opener for me. I came home shocked with how advanced our economic rivals are. My major observation is that we have some very tough, smart, aggressive competition.

NOW THAT the United States must save Earth's economy, at least we possess talent equal to the job: the ability to hock ourselves to the scalp and consume like T. Rex at the brontosaur carryout.Keeping Asia out of a bad recession will require concentration, diligence and higher credit limits from the American people. We're up to it.We owe half a trillion dollars on our personal Visas and MasterCards, $5.5 trillion on our federal government's behalf and $3.7 trillion in home mortgages. We have to borrow $3 billion every week to fund our distending trade deficit.

NOW THAT Asia is becoming the economic wreck foreseen by the canny, talk of reform has risen from the moot to the academic to the urgently topical.Papers by obscure analysts at Treasury are doubtlessly nesting inside diplomatic pouches, and the notion of geo-financial overhaul on the scale of the 1944 Bretton Woods agreements is no longer just chitchat over Campari at Geneva's Hotel de la Paix.Prescriptions teem.Asian banks are overexposed weaklings; the cure is fatter capital requirements.

Patching potholes and balancing Howard County's or Maryland's budget may seem far removed from visits to foreign and exotic places, but several local elected officials traveled overseas this spring, visiting places as diverse as Israel, Turkey, northern Europe and Asia. County Executive Ken Ulman, a Democrat, spent a week in Israel, and Del. Gail Bates, a Republican, made a similar trip to Turkey, both invited and financed, at least in part, by local groups with ties to those countries interested in building good relations with American officials.