Asia's wealthy surpass North Americans for first time

The number of rich Asians surpassed North Americans for the first time last year, but their fortunes shrank slightly and still trailed total wealth on the other side of the Pacific, Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management said on Wednesday.

The Asia-Pacific region is now home to 3.37 million high net worth individuals (HNWI) - people with $1 million or more to invest - compared with 3.35 million in North America and 3.17 million in Europe, the firms said in a report.

Asia's wealthy - 54 percent of whom are concentrated in Japan, almost 17 percent in China and more than 5 percent in Australia - saw their total fortunes slip to $10.7 trillion last year from $10.8 trillion in 2010, and lag North America's $11.4 trillion.

The Asia-Pacific Wealth Report, compiled by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management, is closely watched by wealth managers, high-end property agents, luxury goods retailers and other businesses for signs of how and where the ultra-wealthy are investing and how their fortunes are faring.

Many of Asia's rich made their millions and billions through family businesses and property.

"We don't see massive shifting in the allocations of portfolio management," Claire Sauvanaud, vice president of Capgemini Financial Services, told a news conference.

Wealth fell most significantly last year in Hong Kong (20.1 percent) and India (18 percent) and grew most strongly in Thailand (9.3 percent) and Indonesia (5.3 percent). Growth was more modest in Japan (2.3 percent) and in China (1.8 percent).

Weakness in Europe and other global trends played their part in the slight fall in total Asian wealth, the report said, but the "region grappled with its own economic challenges, including inflation, slowing growth and capital outflows."

"Nevertheless, Asia-Pacific is expected to continue showing stronger growth than other regions going forward, and its HNWI population and wealth are likely to keep expanding," it said.

As part of that, Asia's rich are looking more to offshore wealth centres close to home, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, in search of wider access to products and services, tax advantages and financial confidentiality, the report said.

Challenges for the offshore wealth management industry include a scarcity of skilled talent, lower profitability, and the costs of compliance and restrictions on services due to higher regulatory scrutiny, it said.

Diversity of the backgrounds and expectations of rich clients means there is more demand for tailored products and a greater desire to play an active role in managing their portfolios, the report added.- Reuters

Japan should drop its sense of superiority and tricks over China, Asia

Sept. 18 - Eighty-one years have passed since the Japanese invasion of China's northeast. But now, it is time for Japan to drop its sense of superiority regarding China and Asia in general.

Japan has to recognize that China is no longer weak and poor as it was in the 1930s, when it suffered great disasters brought by Japanese militarism. The balance of power between the two countries has drastically changed.

Sept. 18, 1931 is a day of disgrace in Chinese history, as it marks the day Japan launched an invasion of China's northeast and occupied the whole region four months later. The incident was followed by Japan's invasion of Pacific Asia in 1941, leading to one of the greatest disasters in the region.

The anniversary this year is quite different from before, as it coincides with Japan's "purchase" of part of the Diaoyu Islands, triggering fierce anti-Japan sentiment in China.

Japan's arrogance and provocation regarding the Diaoyu Islands is in line with its complex formed over one century ago, when it proclaimed superiority over China and Asia.

The two countries became rivals over the last 500 years, with Japan catching up with and defeating China in the late 19th century. Even its defeat in World War II could not break its sense of superiority, as Japan considered China's victory to be a present from the United States and the Soviet Union, turning a blind eye to the Chinese people's heroic resistance.

Japan has been heavily influenced by China and learned a great deal from Chinese culture. China enjoyed comprehensive superiority over its neighbor in all fields, including military strength, at that time.

However, China experienced decline since the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), while Japan rose as a world power in the late 1860's, when the country completely reformed its political and social structure by using European powers as models.

During the Meiji Restoration, Japan adopted a policy of breaking away from Asia and merging with Europe. It viewed China at that time as an antiquated and decaying country.

Its fear of China died with Japan's overwhelming victory in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). The defeat also obliterated China's first attempt to modernize.

Japan subsequently established its superiority over China, both in actual strength and in mentality, as it no longer viewed China as a teacher.

During its expansion, Japan forced China to cede Taiwan in 1895 and annexed the Korean Peninsula in 1910. In the early 1940s, Japanese aggression saw little resistance in Asia and reached its peak after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Japanese militarists called for a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" in the 1930s, attempting to create a bloc led by the Japanese and free of Western powers.

Although Japanese militarists and war criminals' pipe dreams ended with the country's unconditional surrender to Allied powers, Japan's sense of superiority continued due to the U.S. desire to contain the Soviet Union and China.

But 60 years after World War II, the situation has completely changed. China has maintained rapid economic development and in 2010 surpassed Japan to become the world's second-largest economy. The strength of China's national defense has grown accordingly.

Japan is now suffering from a long-term economic downturn, along with an aging population.

China's rise has touched the nerves of some Japanese, who have resorted to tricks to disturb China's peaceful development. This may be the cause of the tension experienced after a short friendly period in the 1980s.

The present China is not the same as the China of years past. Japan should face the situation, drop its obsolete sense of superiority and take a constructive attitude to solve disputes.

This is the only way to achieve common development in both countries and Asia as a whole.

 By Xinhua writer Ren Ke

Gangnam Style, like the Korean Psy?

Psy Breaks Down Greatest Assets Of 'Gangnam Style' Vid

'I want to tell you the reason why for the first time in the United States: honestly, I love butt,' Psy tells MTV News.

Psy's "Gangnam Style" doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. In less than a month, Psy has appeared at the Video Music Awards, the "Today" show, appeared in the season premiere of "Saturday Night Live" and currently has the #1 song on the iTunes charts.

In what was meant to be a music video just for Psy's Korean fanbase, the clip's infectious dance moves soon sparked an Internet firestorm, with nearly 200 million people on YouTube watching the colorful, spontaneous and sometimes ridiculous music video that was shot over the course of 48 hours in July.

Get More: Music News

"With this video and director we kept on focusing on to be ridiculous as possible, that was our point," Psy recently told MTV News about the video. "So we were so serious thinking to be ridiculous."

With so many unexpected twists and turns throughout the four-minute clip, we had Psy break down his favorite scenes and explain the thought process behind the "dress classy and dance cheesy" phenomenon.

Beach Turned Playground

The video kicks off with Psy lounging in style at the beach, but as the camera zooms out, one can see that Psy is sunbathing at a local playground and is joined by an extremely talented child dancer.

"This is playground for kids, and it looks like I'm sitting at the beach," Psy said. "See this kid he is 5 years old. As you have 'America's Got Talent,' we have 'Korea's Got Talent' and he was from there, so I picked him, and he did all the Michael Jackson moves when he was 3 without any education."


Sleeping in the Sauna

Rapping and dancing for 48 hours straight can take a lot out of you, which is what happened to Psy. Once they began filming the final scene at the sauna, the Korean star was out of creative ideas and opted to nap instead.

"This was the very last scene of filming so me and all the staff was totally exhausted and too ridiculous for 48 hours without sleeping, it's awful and we were all exhausted," Psy said. "We were getting panic like 'What were we doing all these two days?' and everybody is like 'what are we going to do in the sauna?' and let's just go in and play music and as you can see I was so tired."


Psy's Favorite Part of a Woman

When creating this video there was one thing that Psy just couldn't ignore — a woman's butt. In the scene where a group of women seem to be toning their bodies, Psy yells at them, but he promises, it's all in good fun.

"I'm yelling at her butt," Psy said. "I want to tell you the reason why for the first time in the United States: honestly, I love butt. I'm sorry, but I literally love butt. Honestly, what can I say?"


Dirty Dancing in the Elevator

For one of the most-talked-about scenes in the video, Psy enlisted friend and Korean comedian Noh Hong-cheol to step in, even if he had no idea what he was getting in to.

"He is a huge comedian in Korea and he didn't expect even filming this, he just came to the scene and he was there because he's a good friend of mine and he was there to cheer me up," Psy said. "We were suddenly getting on the elevator to move and to the next spot and I asked him 'Hey, why don't we make some film in the elevator?' and he did the dance move. This move is really dirty and really famous in Korea so I said, 'I'm gonna go underneath between your legs,' so it was really ad-libbed."


Toilet Talk

In what looks to be a close-up shot of Psy fiercely rapping the lyrics to "Gangnam Style," the camera quickly pans out to reveal Psy in an awkward position.

"The purpose of this music video was just for fun, just for entertaining, but the director said 'Hey Psy just for one scene let's be serious let's make something look good so," Psy said. "They filmed this and I said, 'All right, I'll do this to satisfy you and then I'm going to take off my pants, and then you're going to zoom out and it's going to be a toilet.' Isn't this lovely? I love this scene."

What is your favorite scene in "Gangnam Style"? Let us know in the comments.

By Christina Garibaldi (@ChristinaMTV)  
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IBM scientists take image of atomic bonds

How’s this for a close-up: an image that can differentiate between the different chemical bonds in an individual molecule? That’s what IBM’s Zurich research lab is claiming in a paper published in Science.

The paywalled piece is titled with the pizazz typical of science papers – Bond-Order Discrimination by Atomic Force Microscopy – but it’s worth browsing because the image is so cool.

IBM's image of a nanographene molecule: the bonds at the centre involve more electrons and are shorter than those at the edge. Image: IBM

Created with an atomic force microscope (AFM), the image shows a nanographene molecule and clearly visualises the bonds in the molecule, showing different lengths of bonds. The scientists say the imaging technique will help them characterise graphene, the wonderstuff of developments in electronics.

"This can increase basic understanding at the level of individual molecules ... in particular, the relaxation of bonds around defects in graphene as well as the changing of bonds in chemical reactions and in excited states were observed", IBM says.

To quote IBM scientist Leo Gross from its announcement: "We found two different contrast mechanisms to distinguish bonds. The first one is based on small differences in the force measured above the bonds. We expected this kind of contrast but it was a challenge to resolve.”

"The second contrast mechanism really came as a surprise: bonds appeared with different lengths in AFM measurements. With the help of ab initio calculations we found that the tilting of the carbon monoxide molecule at the tip apex is the cause of this contrast.”

The AFM uses a single carbon monoxide molecule as the sensing tip. The molecule oscillates above the sample to measure the forces between the CO molecule and the sample to create the image.

Update: The original version of this story identified the image as showing C₆₀. That has now been corrected. IBM imaged both nanographene and C₆₀ "buckyballs". There are more images on Flickr, here

By Richard Chirgwin

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Related stories:

• IBM tells electrons to strictly come dancing in spintronics first (13 August 2012)
• IBM carbon probe views electron movement in molecule (27 February 2012)
• IBM boffins claim phase change memory breakthrough (30 June 2011)
• IBM makes superdense magnetic Lazarus (16 May 2006)

China announces geographic codes for Diaoyu Islands baseline to UN

BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Releasing the geographic coordinates of Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islets marks China's latest move to affirm its sovereignty and administrative jurisdiction over the islands, according to a maritime expert.

China has had the islands under continuous surveillance for a long time, said Jia Yu, vice director of the China Institute for Marine Affairs attached to the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), in an interview with Xinhua on Saturday.

The SOA announced the exact longitude and latitude of Diaoyu Island and 70 of its affiliated islets while publishing location maps, three-dimension effect graphs and sketch maps for the islands on Saturday.

Since 2009, the SOA carried out a general survey of all Chinese islands, including the Diaoyu Islands, and announced their standard names and locations in March, Jia said.

"Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islets have been an inherent part of Chinese territory since ancient times and China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands," Jia said.

Announcing the geographic codes is an important step for the country to exercise its administrative jurisdiction over the islands, he said.

"Only the sovereign state and its government can do that and no other nation, organization or individual has the right to do it. Even if they did, the announcement would be invalid," he said.

The move also aims to help the public learn about the islands more vividly through the location maps, three-dimension effect graphs and sketch maps, provided that it remains difficult for the general public to visit the islands, Jia said.

"Through these documents, the country will conduct better surveillance and protection over the islands for future development," Jia added.

On Monday, the Chinese government announced the base points and baselines of the territorial waters of Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islets, as well as the names and coordinates of 17 base points.

Also on Thursday, China's permanent representative to the United Nations Li Baodong met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and filed a copy of the Chinese government's Diaoyu Islands baseline announcement with the United Nations.

"The two sets of coordinates are meant to maintain China's sovereignty over the land as well as its adjacent waters," Jia said.

UN receives China announcement on Diaoyu Islands baseline

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 VIDEO: UN RECEIVES CHINA ANNOUNCEMENT ON DIAOYU ISLANDS BASELINE CCTV News - CNTV English

The United Nations has received a copy of Chinese government’s Diaoyu Islands baseline announcement, submitted by China’s permanent representative to UN, Li Baodong.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the document will be dealt with appropriately on the basis of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. On Thursday, Li Baodong met with Ban Ki-moon, and filed the copy, officially fulfilling the country’s obligations as stipulated in the UN Convention.

Under the Convention on the Law of the Sea, coastal states are required to deposit with the UN chief charts showing straight baselines and archipelagic baselines, as well as lists of geographical coordinates.

Related stories

Books show China's historic links to Diaoyu Islands 2012-09-15

• China announces geographic codes for Diaoyu Islands 2012-09-15
• Assistant foreign minister: Japan's tricks cannot change China's sovereignty over Diaoyu Islands 2012-09-15
• China: Patrol mission around Diaoyu Islands is legal

	Roundup: Chinese rally in U.S. cities against Japan's provocations over Diaoyu Islands
•	China's non-CPC parties condemn Japan's "purchase" of Diaoyu Islands
•	Chinese literary, art circles condemn Japan's "purchase" of Diaoyu Islands
•	Meeting held in Sydney to protest against encroachment of Japan to Diaoyu Islands

 

Anti Japanese rally over Diayo Island erupted in twenty over cities in China :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAOsRNLb0vQ&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Us2WQdbhM&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73wXdmuVUH8&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adsJETC5h4U&feature=player_embedded

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