Pacific Rim

Some restaurants, you feel, will succeed simply because of the force of the owner's personality. In the case of Umi Sake, the new sushi restaurant in Cockeysville where Pacific Rim used to be, I imagine people will go just because the owner, Lisa Lee, is such a positive presence in the dining room. Lee used to own Johnny's Sushi in Timonium, named after her brother the chef. She sold the place and had a baby. Three years later when Pacific Rim in Cockeysville closed, the landlord called her to see if she'd be interested in being a restaurateur again.

PETE AND CATHY NELSON of Cape St. Clair coordinate the local chapter of Youth For Understanding (YFU) international exchange program and act as a host family to exchange students. The Nelsons recently played host to a student from the former Soviet Union. They are seeking homes for other students who have arrived in the Baltimore area.Volunteer's comments: "Although some of the kids have been placed, we still need to place about 17 students into permanent homes for the school year," Mr. Nelson said.

Yesterday's must-see is next year's been there, done that. Last year's tourism pariah is this season's hot spot.In the supersonically shifting world of travel, nothing is more constant than change. The new year is no exception.Former travel destination all-stars Vietnam and Hong Kong have stumbled, while Los Angeles and Miami have rebounded on the strength of newfound chic.When it comes time to choose a 1998 vacation, no one wants to be a travel fashion victim. No worries (as they say in Australia)

Next to the General Motors Corp. plant on Broening Highway, where 2,700 workers were sent home after the plant ran out of parts, Titan Steel Corp. and its 60 workers are waging their own economic battle.Unlike the GM plant, paralyzed by sparring between labor and management in Flint, Mich., Titan Steel is wrestling with a more distant foe: the Asian currency crisis.The company, which buys tin-plated steel, customizes it and resells it, ordinarily ships 40 percent of its products to Asia."That's down to 20 percent and falling even further," said Peter Reid, the company's president.

When Dave Trembley took over as Orioles manager in 2007, I'm pretty sure he never imagined that the job would require a knack for international diplomacy. Take Saturday, for instance. Japanese pitcher Koji Uehara was scheduled to play catch on flat ground two days after walking off the mound at Dunedin Stadium with another twinge in his troublesome left hamstring. Trembley was asked for an update and proceeded to explain that he is not the least bit worried that Uehara might not be ready to open the regular season on time.

WASHINGTON - -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.

NEW YORK -- Hideki Irabu was a smash on Broadway. He took the mound at Yankee Stadium last night a portly, unproven Japanese pitcher and came back a star.The newest New York Yankee struck out nine batters over 6 2/3 innings and held the Detroit Tigers to just five hits on the way to a 10-3 victory in his long-awaited American major league debut.The ramifications could be felt as far East as the Pacific rim -- where more and more Asian players figure to set their sights on American baseball -- and as far south as Baltimore, where the prospect of another star-quality pitcher in the Yankees starting rotation cannot be very comforting.

When Dave Trembley took over as Orioles manager in 2007, I'm pretty sure he never imagined that the job would require a knack for international diplomacy. Take today, for instance. Japanese pitcher Koji Uehara was scheduled to play catch on flat ground two days after walking off the mound at Dunedin Stadium with another twinge in his troublesome left hamstring. Trembley was asked for an update and proceeded to explain that he is not the least bit worried that Uehara might not be ready to open the regular season on time.

The trade-off for Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev is excruciating: He craves Japanese investment of $2.5 billion or more to exploit gas and oil on Sakhalin island. He would like some $28 billion in aid that Japanese sources have suggested is available to develop Soviet East Asia.If he could bring them home, such foreign gains might shore up his weak domestic support. And he knows that Japanese business hungers for the resources in the eastern sector of the Russian republic that is much closer to Tokyo than to Moscow.

BOGOR, Indonesia -- Leaders of 18 Pacific Rim countries formally committed themselves yesterday to dismantling all trade barriers within the next 25 years, but last-minute objections from two nations showed how fragile their alliance remains.After a 6-hour meeting at the opulent summer palace of Indonesian President Suharto, the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum pledged that their industrialized members will drop all barriers by the year 2010 and that developing countries will do so by 2020.