Why Fewer Americans are Adopting Overseas | Newsweek Scope

Why India Fears China
Jeremy Kahn 10/10/2009 12:00:00 AM
On June 21, two Chinese military helicopters swooped low over Demchok, a tiny Indian hamlet high in the Hima-layas along the northwestern border with China. The helicopters dropped canned food over a barren expanse and then returned to bases in China. India's military scrambled helicopters to the scene but did not seem unduly alarmed. This sort of Cold War cat-and-mouse game has played out on the 4,057-kilometer India-China border for decades. But the incident fed a media frenzy about "the Chinese dragon." Beginning in August, stories about new Chinese incursions into India have dominated the 24-hour TV news networks and the newspaper headlines.
Asians Open Their Wallets
Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop 10/8/2009 12:00:00 AM
The contemporary-art market is not much more robust in Asia than it is anywhere else. But in other genres, Asian buyers are showing some surprising muscle, snatching up pieces that Western buyers have shunned and creating a lone bright spot in an otherwise bleak market. Collectors from mainland China continue to bid aggressively on imperial artworks and porcelains viewed as heirlooms that must be repatriated. At Sotheby's New York auction last month, Asian buyers took all but one of the top 10 lots; at Christie's, 14 of the top 20 went to Asians. An Asian buyer spent $362,500 on a 12th- or 11th-century B.C. bronze food vessel, which Christie's had estimated at $20,000 to $30,000, while a rare imperial zitan stand and cover, also estimated at $20,000 to $30,000, went for $1.42 million.
Natural Disasters You Never Heard About
Katie Paul 10/7/2009 12:00:00 AM
Thousands of people were killed. Cities were leveled and billions of dollars in damage was caused. But most of these natural disasters that caused all this devastation never got much media attention. Like the past week's earthquakes and tsunamis in the South Pacific, disasters in far-off lands often get bumped quickly from prime news real estate, even when the scope and scale of the damage is large. Only when the death toll shatters records, as did the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, media attention lingers. Here's our take on the biggest natural disasters that didn't get the attention they deserved:
Containing a Nuclear Iran
Fareed Zakaria 10/3/2009 12:00:00 AM
It is time to clarify the debate over Iran and its nuclear program. It's easy to criticize the current course adopted by the United States and its allies, to huff and puff about Iranian mendacity, to point out that Russia and China won't agree to tougher measures against Tehran, and to detail the leaks in the sanctions already in place. But what, then, should the United States do? The critics are eager to denounce the administration from the sidelines for being weak but rarely detail what they would do to be "tough." Would they attack Iran today? If not, then what should we do? It is time to put up or shut up on Iran.
An SOS for Science
Daniel Lyons 10/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
Two weeks ago I spent time with some of the top scientists in the field of alternative energy, including John Holdren, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, a.k.a. our national "science czar." We were attending a conference in Washington, D.C., that drew CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, as well as entrepreneurs and investors. I came away convinced that the United States, which for decades has been the world leader in science and technology, will soon be eclipsed by China and other countries. Alternative energy is the next tidal wave in tech innovation. If we miss it, we will not only weaken our economy and harm our national security—we will turn ourselves into a second-rate nation. And as I sat there listening to the experts speak, all I could think was, we're doomed. (Click here to follow Daniel Lyons)
AMERICA AND ITS IMAGE
Where Bush Was Right
David Frum 12/31/2008 12:00:00 AM
Yet there are some things the next president shouldn't change. George W. Bush hasn't gotten much good press in recent years, but he's accomplished some important things that the next president would do well to preserve and extend.