Woot! Back in South Dakota. After yesterday's abbreviated entry, finally a wrap-up of news from Asia. Enjoy!

Japan
Between talking trees, Hello Kitty panties, and Japanimation Laws of Physics, what else is there to say?

Only the arrival of Love Socialism.

Korea
South Korea made a tremendous breakthrough in stem cell technology. Some respond with calls for protectionism against South Korea. And the Japanese claim to live on the Lianscourt Rocks. And the ROK-USA alliance is dead. And South Korea's ruling party is splitting up into factions.

South Korea had one Kwangju. North Korea has had thousands.

Luckily, not all of Korea is sad. The North opened and art gallery in Beijing. And let's not forget no more Seoul-ful machinations of the exchange rate.

China
Stuart Berman and Jing join the fracas over Barnett v. Kaplan.

According to Sina.com, President George W. Bush will sell Hawaii to Japan to pay for the Global War on Terror. Sina's source? The joke tabloid World Weekly News. Not the first time Chinese media has stolen from American sources.

China doubts that it's the shoes. Or the electric baton, for that matter.

Maybe the high-tech currency exchange center being built in Shanghai is the thing to watch.

Maybe it's the huge media conglomerates?

Or maybe the Chinese just want Americans to know they are friends

Babe Socialism, Airline Edition.

South East Asia
Singaporean strongman-with-a-human-face Lee Kuan Yew has advice for China.

South Asia
Will Indian-Pakistani closeness spread the AIDS plague? If HIV doesn't destroy Pakistan, maybe the Indian blitzkrieg will.

Central Asia
Josh at One Free Korea calls for One Free Uzbekistan. Would he be happy with One Free Islamic Republic of Korasuv? Not if the Uzbek military that crushed the uprising has anything to say about it.

Updates on the Phony-Newsweek-story-about-the-Koran-and-Gitmo scandal: Some blame the Pentagon. Norman Mailer accuses the White House

South-West Asia
In Syria, the Kurds are restless. Capitalists and Democrats are more hopeful. In Lebanon, the Christians are obnoxious. In Iraq, the Persians are moving in. From Palestine/Judea-and-Samaria, Hu's their daddy.