The Economist reading - 24/03/07 week 4 March 2007 (part 1)

Election in India's most populous state, Utah Pradesh, promises another unstable regime

** New word: social caste (n) /ka:ste/

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Malaysia - though the economy is doing well, corruption is getting to the hot point, said to be worsening in Malaysia since last year

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China's orphans are traditionally specially surnamed Dang (meaning party) for girls or Gou (meaning the country) for boys, creating tough their life thereafter. Some states have now regressed from such rules (eg. Dalian and Ghuanzou) while others still stick to those.

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UNDP is suspecting that North Korea is misusing its fund but it's hard to prove. Korea is also denying that it has an alleged uranium-enrichment programme.

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March 19th, Nyepi event, day of silence, rest and reflection that the Hindu people, most of Indonesian population observes to celebrate the New Year

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Central Asia - Once a place of exile, Kazakhstan is now attracting a large number of workers. World Bank even ranks it as the world's ninth biggest attraction to migrants.

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India and Pakistan are playing out their riveries in Afganistan.

Afganistan - Pakistan - India - Taliban : a war on borders and oil.

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Now that books are getting digitalized, how will people read? Everyday, Google is expectedto digitalize 3000 books, thus 10m books estimated per year. The current source of books now stops at 65m. And Google is not the only agent scanning books. Other names to mention include Internet Archive, Microsoft and Yahoo.

People might still come to paper books for the meer idea of "sourvenirs of the way we feel".

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Your financial savvy may reach its peak at 53, a survey suggests.

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France is having its presidential election.

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Kosovo is heading for independence whatever the Russians say or do.

They want to become European newest state.

Kosovo is home to some 2m people, at least 90% of whom are ethnic Albanians who have long demanded independence from Serbia. Since 1999 it has been under UN jurisdiction, although it is a province of Serbia. Some 14 months of UN-sponsored talks chaired by Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, have not produced a deal. So Mr Ahtisaari has unilaterally presented his plan for Kosovo's future to the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon. He proposes independence for Kosovo, but with conditions, including an EU-led mission to succeed the UN one and an international overseer, whose job would be modelled on Bosnia's.

Kosovo's Albanians grudgingly accept this but its Serbs, as well as Belgrade, do not. Because jurisdiction now lies with the UN, a new UN Security Council resolution is needed to transfer powers to the EU-led mission and international overseer. But an angry (and veto-wielding) Russia insists it will not assent to the Ahtisaari plan if Belgrade does not. Indeed, Russian spokesmen say that if Mr Ahtisaari cannot find common ground between Serbia and the Kosovo Albanians, somebody else should do the job. Yet this is just a delaying tactic. The Russians know that the Serbs and Kosovo Albanians will never agree.

So it is significant that Mr Holbrooke adds what many suspect: if Russia blocks a new resolution, Kosovo will declare independence anyway--and the Americans will "probably" recognise it. Many Muslim countries will follow, though Mr Holbrooke thinks most EU countries may not. Without a new UN resolution, diplomats say the choice is not independence or not; it is between "controlled" and "uncontrolled" independence.