PHOTO: On the banks of the Sangam

An Indian child, dressed as Hindu god Lord Shiva, plays with sand on the banks of the Sangam in Allahabad on March 5. The Sangam is a holy bathing site during The Kumbh Mela, which runs from January until March, and takes place every 12 years in Allahabad while smaller events are held every three years in other locations around India. (Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images)

PHOTO: Communist Party changover in China

A delegate from an ethnic minority leaves the Great Hall of the People following the opening session of the National People's Congress in Beijing on Tuesday. Thousands of delegates from across China were meeting this week to seal a power transfer to new leaders whose first months running the Communist Party have pumped up expectations with a deluge of propaganda. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

New Asian tiger ... the Philippines?

Economic growth in the Philippines is moving along, causing one World Bank expert to call it the “rising tiger.”

But the news isn’t all rosy for the nation of 94.8 million.

Seems as though the wealth is only being passed around to a small circle of 40 people.

According to data from 2011, the 40 richest families on the Forbes list of the wealthy accounted for 76 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product growth, reports Agence France Press.

Further, the two richest people in the Philippines, Henry Sy and Lucio Tan, are worth about 6 per cent, or a combined $13.6 billion, of the entire country’s economy, AFP says.

Sy, a Chinese immigrant and shopping mall magnate, is number 68 on Forbes list of billionaires. Tan, also born in China, trails Sy on the Forbes billionaire club list at 248. He made it big on his investments in beer and cigarettes.

One of the biggest rich-poor divides in Asia is in the Philippines where 26 per cent of the people live in dire poverty.

Meanwhile, across the Philippine Sea, China’s $7.31 trillion economy keeps roaring along.

And life is getting marginally better in the country of 1.3 billion. It only has a 2.8 per cent poverty ratio, World Bank data shows.

China’s economy is on track to expand 8.2 per cent in 2013, indicates TD Senior economist Martin Schwerdtfeger, in a new report released Monday.

Private consumption is rising solidly. Increasingly available credit is supporting real estate and construciton projects, he notes in his report: Chinese Economy Will Pull its Weight Amidst Subpar Global Economic Growth.

China’s expanding economy should help prop up nearly everyone else’s lack luster performances as countries like U.S. and Canada are expected to gain from increased exports to the biggest Asian tiger.

Tanya Talaga is the Star’s Global Economics correspondent. Follow her on Twitter @tanyatalaga

PHOTOS: Australian airshow

An aerobatics team perform during the Australian International Airshow in Melbourne on March 1. About 180,000 patrons are expected through the gates over the duration of the event staged at the Avalon Airfield some 80 kilometres southwest of Melbourne. (PAUL CROCK/AFP/Getty Images)

Airshow patrons watch a battlefield attack simulation by the Royal Australian Air Force FA-18 Super Hornets on the first public day of the Australian International Airshow. (PAUL CROCK/AFP/Getty Images)

Saving rhinos: by shaving their horns off?

In this photograph taken Sept. 26, 2012, Indian villagers look at a wounded endangered one-horned rhino that was shot and dehorned by poachers near Kaziranga National Park, about 250 kilometers east of Guwahati.

Can rhinos be saved from extinction if their horns are humanely shaved of?

That is the controversial subject of a recent paper in Science journal by researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia.

In their report, the researchers argue that by humanely shaving the horns of live rhinos, the material generated could meet global demand. Rhinos grow about .9 kilogram of horn every year and scientists say that the risks to the animals from horn “harvesting” are minimal.

That way, the demand for horn could be met legally by humanely shaving the horns of live rhinos, and from animals that die of natural causes, the scientists said.

It would save rhinos from poachers.

At present in South Africa, poachers are killing two rhinos every day on an average.

It is estimated that there are around 20,000 White rhinos left now, with the majority in South Africa and Namibia. There are also an estimated 5,000 Black rhinos still alive but in South Africa, poachers are killing two rhinos every day.

Trade in rhino horn is prohibited but the article in Science says the ban is boosting illegal poaching by constricting the supply of rhino horn and driving up the price: for example, in 1993, a kilogram sold for around $4,700 but in 2012, it was selling for as much as $65,000.

South-East Asian countries like China, Vietnam and Thailand use rhino horns for traditional medicines.

Raveena Aulakh is the Toronto Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact, now and long-term. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

'Dear Leader' to live on in 'unauthorized autobiography'

(Courtesy MichaelMalice.com)

Well, it was only a matter of time.

Now, North Korea’s late, great “Dear Leader,” Kim Jong-il shall have his life immortalized in an, “as dictated to” autobiography penned by self-proclaimed ghost writer to the stars, Michael Malice.

The writer, fresh off the plane with a suitcase full of propaganda he personally spirited out of Pyongyang, says he’s ready to write the unauthorized tome, Dear Reader, just “the way the Dear Leader would have wanted it.”

An “unauthorized autobiography” you say?

What’s that?

“People, please,” pleads Malice, “this is Kim Jong-il – nothing is impossible.”

Malice promises he’ll sort fact from fiction in his research of the famous man who, until his death in Dec. 2011, rattled the West repeatedly with threats to use nuclear weapons.

Kim Jong-il, “may not have invented the hamburger,” Malice offers authoritatively – debunking a claim the Dear Leader made in July 2004. But he did invent a lot of other stuff, like operas and calendars.

And for Malice, he remains “the ultimate celebrity ghost.”

True, Malice never had a single sit down with Kim, the way Malice has with other subjects like music star Brett Michaels and footballer Matt Hughes. But he feels he can rely – in the main – on bedrock North Korean propaganda like Kim Jong Il: Lodestar of the 21^st Century and a dozen other definitive works.

Just how he’ll work in Pyongyang Ostrich Ranch – which Malice promises to do – he hasn’t revealed.

And what better way to fund a book about a man of the masses, he says, than by the masses themselves?

Malice launched his fund raising efforts on Kickstarter.com this week, already amassing more than 100 supporters, while simultaneously mounting an email campaign aimed at influential Western journalists (ahem!) with the wily opener, “Greetings, fellow imperialist!”

Make no mistake though, Malice has a track record for success.

Concierge Confidential, which he co-authored with Manhattan concierge Michael Fazio, won a strong following in the U.S.

Could Dear Reader be a similarly explosive success?

Oh – let’s not go there.

Bill Schiller has held bureau postings for the Toronto Star in Johannesburg, Berlin, London and Beijing. He is a NNA and Amnesty International Award winner, and a Harvard Nieman Fellow from the class of '06. Follow him on Twitter @wschiller

North Korea or South Korea? Dennis Rodman is confused

Flamboyant former NBA star Dennis Rodman is surrounded by journalists upon arrival at Pyongyang Airport, North Korea, Feb. 26. (Kim Kwang Hyon/AP)

Dennis Rodman is confused. That's probably not a surprising statement to anyone aware of the fact that former NBA star has embarked on a dubious diplomacy mission to North Korea. 

But Dennis Rodman is even more confused than initially anticipated. On Tuesday, Rodman tweeted this:

Maybe I'll run into the Gangnam Style dude while I'm here @psy_oppa #WORMinNorthKorea

— Dennis Rodman (@dennisrodman) February 26, 2013

 

The "Gangam Style dude" is, of course, K-pop star Psy. Psy is from South Korea. South Korea and North Korea are a) not very similar and b) not huge fans of each other.

Stay tuned; this can only get weirder.

Kate Allen is the Star's global science and technology reporter; follow her on Twitter at @katecallen.

 

 

PHOTOS: A panda-themed hotel in China

An employee dressed in a panda costume poses for a photo during the opening of a panda-themed hotel at the foot of Emei Mountain, in southwest China's Sichuan province, Feb. 25. (China Daily/Reuters)

According to local media, the hotel is the first panda-themed hotel in the world and will officially open in May with room rates from 300 to 500 yuan ($49-83) per night. (China Daily/Reuters)

A hotel employee wears a panda suit in one of the rooms. (AFP/Getty Images)

A hotel employee dressed up as a panda talks to a woman outside the hotel. (AFP/Getty Images)

(China Daily/Reuters)

Customers chat in the yard of the hotel. (China Daily/Reuters)

PHOTO: Lantern Festival

A Chinese blacksmith throws molten metal against a cold stone wall to create sparks, during the Lantern Festival which traditionally marks the end of the Lunar New Year celebrations, in Nuanquan, Hebei province on Feb. 24. For over 300 years, the village which is famous for its blacksmith skills, has maintained the tradition which they considered a cheaper alternative to buying fireworks during the festival. (Mark RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)

PHOTO: Nepalese Hindu devotees

Nepalese Hindu devotees dressed as the Hindu god Madhav Narayan look on during the Madhav Narayan festival in Thecho, Lalitpur on the outskirts of Kathmandu on Feb. 22. Married and unmarried women in the Himalayan nation are marking the month-long fast of the Narayan festival in the hope of a prosperous life and conjugal happiness. (PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP/Getty Images)