Seoul- South Koreans have mixed feelings about Obama’s election. On the one hand, they expect Obama to reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula by engaging in dialogue with North Korea, as he promised many times during his campaign. Unlike President Bush who refused to talk to Pyongyang during the first six years of his term, Obama is likely to try and resolve the North’s nuclear weapons program. On the other hand, they worry that Obama’s protectionist stance could hurt the Korean economy, which depends heavily on trade. The Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement has to be ratified by the U.S. Congress as well as the Korean National Assembly, and experts in Seoul fear the new Democratic administration in Washington may not be enthusiastic it. Obama has said the FTA is unfair in that Korea exports hundreds of thousands of cars to the United States and buys only a few thousand American cars every year.

By Barrett Sheridan and Fred Guterl 

The most common reaction across the world to Barack Obama’s Tuesday night victory was a simple one: “Thank you.” It was a sentiment directed not at the president-elect himself, but at the American people. Having felt abandoned by the United States for so long, and especially after the 2004 reelection of George W. Bush, people across the world saw Obama’s victory as an affirmation that yes, America still does represent something special. Nelson Mandela, in a congratulatory letter to Obama, perhaps summed it up best: “Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.” It was also a good excuse to celebrate. Kenya, the home of Obama’s father, declared a national holiday, and Brazilians proclaimed a new era of "esperanza". The few disappointed by the final tally—a dour-looking Tory in London, some security-conscious Israelis—did little to dampen the global celebration.

Parisians reacted with enthusiasm and relief to the news, some of them turning on a dime to become Amero-philes. And the French newspapers, after 8 years of George W. Bush, might perhaps be forgiven for getting a little tipsy on Obama.

Our team of foreign correspondents has cavassed the globe for the morning-after reaction to this historic election. The event was cause for celebration and contemplation in London, Paris, Jerusalem, Seoul, Durban, Lahore, Tokyo and Rio.

By Sudip Mazumdar

What guns and bullets, terrorists and troops could not establish in the disputed region of Kashmir, boxes of apples, bottles of honey and sacks of spices achieved this week when trade links between India and Pakistan were revived after nearly six decades of hostility. Two convoys of trucks carrying the goods from two sides of Kashmir crossed a "Peace Bridge" in an historic journey reviving hopes of peace to the strife-torn region. As school children cheered and waved flags, officials and security personnel from both sides, hugged each other and exchanged gifts amidst much bonhomie. "Today marks the beginning of the dismantling of the border," said Mubeen Shah, president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries. "I am sure this trade will grow and help bring peace in the region."

The move to revive the old historic trade routes and links that stretched all the way to Central Asia was proposed by Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh nearly two years ago, but could not get off the ground as both sides remained constrained by mutual suspicion, their respective domestic politics and unrest. Things began to thaw when Singh met Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, in New York in September and they agreed to push for the opening of the trade routes. Officials and diplomats from both sides quietly worked on the modalities and a new era of confidence-building measures started with the trucks crossing the bridge. "Today is an historic day marking yet another chapter of friendship in Indo-Pak bilateral relations," said H.H. Tyabji, a senior Indian official.

Ever since the British divided the Indian subcontinent in 1947 into India and Pakistan, the two nations have had disputing claims on the state of Kashmir. Following a war a year later, a tense Line of Control (LOC) sliced Kashmir into two and triggered an unrest that later turned into an Islamic separatist insurgency. India has deployed nearly 300,000 troops to keep peace while Islamic separatists launch terror attacks from across their sanctuary in the Pakistan-held Kashmir. Both sides deployed troops on the LOC and they often skirmished as terror attacks and civil unrest kept the valley of Kashmir on the boil. Barely four months ago, a popular uprising against the Indian rule nearly derailed a faltering peace process between the two nuclear-armed rivals. But with the revival of trade routes and the enthusiasm it has generated among the people on both sides, Kashmir appears to be at a turning point to see an end to its strife, and maybe an end to the terrorism that has turned South Asia into one of the most violent places on earth.

By Jaimie Seaton

Yesterday, when Thailand’s Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej declared emergency rule, I took a break from reporting, ran to the store and grabbed batteries and candles. After all, anti-government demonstrators calling themselves the People’s Alliance for Democracy were threatening chaos. They said they’d cut water and power, halt rail and air traffic and organize sympathetic trade unions to stage a crippling general strike. I awoke the next morning expecting gridlock, blackouts and chaos on Bangkok’s streets. But the threats turned out to be empty. The biggest news: one Thai Airways flight was canceled because the crew said it wasn’t 'feeling ready' to fly. Otherwise, it was a perfectly normal day. As the Bangkok Post put it, “the strike fizzled.”

It's the sort of thing that almost makes you long for the days of the samurai. Those guys had swords, and strong beliefs, and, well, cojones. Certainly not like modern-day Japanese prime ministers. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe quit last year after less than a year on the job. And now his predecessor, Yasuo Fukuda,  announced his resignation last night here in Tokyo, also after a little less than a year.

It wasn't just that Fukuda left so quickly. Japan has gone through periods before when there was plenty of turnover among senior politicians, such as the 1990s, when no one had any bright ideas for pulling Japan out of its seemingly endless recession. Fukuda's departure was different. It was ignominious. Pitiful. Wimpy.

By Zachary Kussin

As Jason McClure writes in this week's magazine, piracy off the coast of Somalia has become a major maritime headache. Just last week, on Aug 20, another three vessels -- a Malaysian palm oil transport, a Japanese tanker, and a German cargo ship -- were hijacked. The machine gun-carrying pirates threatened uncooperative crewmembers with death, locked them up and steered the vessels to pirate bases on the northern Somali coast. Shortly thereafter, they began ransom negotiations with the ships' owners. The Gulf of Aden, which lies off Somalia and leads to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, is now considered to be the world's riskiest area for international shipping, according to the International Maritime Bureau, a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting marine crime. So far in 2008, 15 vessels have been hijacked off Somalia alone.

Lawlessness and heavy traffic -- 7.5 percent of world shipping passes through the Gulf each year -- makes the area a fat target for pirates. They can operate in Somalia's territorial waters with impunity. The Somali government, unable to patrol the Gulf on its own, asked the United Nations for help back in June, and the result was Resolution 1816, which allows the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Pakistan and Canada to help patrol the dangerous waters. The measure will help cargo containers and other commercial ships, of course, but its intended beneficiaries are the ships delivering humanitarian assistance to Somalia, which depends on food aid to feed close to three million of its desperately poor inhabitants.

The multilateral initiative hasn't lived up to expectations, however. In its three months on the job, the Canadian security contingent, which will head up the patrol until December, has helped prevent just two hijackings. And as of now, no naval force has agreed to take over from Canada once its six-month rotation is up. Pottengal Mukundan, the IMB's director, attributes the lack of participation "to items in other nations' foreign policy agendas, such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which surpass piracy." For now, ship crews will have to keep rolling the dice, or avoid the Gulf of Aden altogether.

By Jonathan Kent

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is again under arrest on charges of sexual misconduct that appear to be politically motivated. Police detained him today in Kuala Lumpur before he was to appear voluntarily to face questioning over new charges that he violated Malaysia’s anti-sodomy law with a political aide. Days before his latest arrest, Anwar told Newsweek that the new charges against him were “disgusting” and said elements of the current government had framed him.

Refugees International researchers were surprised when they showed up in Taghi Naghi, an area in northwestern Afghanistan in June to assess one of the country’s 11 “land allocation schemes” for returning refugees. What they found differed sharply from the government’s plans for the hundreds of thousands of people returning from exile in Pakistan and Iran. Despite UN objections, the shelters had been built in the desert, an hour’s trip to the nearest city of Herat. A water pump was hooked up to a dry well, but an NGO trucking in water said their contract was going to run out soon after the visit. Only 12 families were occupying the more than 200 shelters that had been built, none of whom had any means of finding employment. According to one man living at Taghi Naghi, he might be forced to move his family to Herat despite being unable to pay its high city rents, since it was becoming increasingly difficult to feed his children.

The floundering Taghi Naghi project, one of 55 planned across Afghanistan, cost $2 million, and is just one example of how the refugee situation in Afghanistan is bad and growing worse, according to a Refugees International (RI) report published July 10. Since things started looking up for Afghanistan in 2002, the largest-ever refugee homecoming brought more than 5 million Afghan refugees back into the country, some of whom had been living in exile for three decades as their country weathered war with the Soviets, Taliban rule, and the NATO invasion. But over 3 million people are still stranded in exile, RI says, while many of those who have returned are ill-equipped to deal with Afghanistan’s harsh land and security crises. Deteriorating conditions in recent months due to a food crisis and an insurgency again on the rise have further complicated matters, while an impending Pakistani threat to bulldoze camps in their country by the end of 2009 has contributed an added time pressure to deal with the problems.

“The situation in Afghanistan is worsening, and we’re running the risk of losing the gains we’ve made in the past few years,” said RI advocate Patrick Duplat, who produced the report after traveling with a colleague for a month to meet with refugees in Pakistan and returnees in Afghanistan. “Of course, the situation in general in Afghanistan is quite dire. From 40 to 60 percent of the country is inaccessible, so all Afghans are vulnerable. But that being said, a large percentage of the population--5 million people--are particularly vulnerable.”
 
The report blames a lack of planning and coordination on the part of both Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government and its international backers, who provide over 90 percent of the country’s budget. While billions of dollars have been invested in reconstruction projects in Afghanistan since 2001, too few have made their way to real development projects, RI contends; large-scale infrastructure and counter-insurgency efforts have sapped most of the funds.

As a result, RI is calling on donors to coordinate and fund their efforts in Afghanistan at a joint UN and Afghan conference in Kabul in November. “What we’d like to see is the returnees being integrated into the mainstream national programs,” said Duplat, cautioning that a failure to act could lead refugees to either try their luck at returning to Pakistan or swell the ranks of Afghanistan’s urban poor. A lack of resources is not the problem, he says; the international community just needs to put its money where its mouth is to integrate refugees without forcibly displacing them, whether they want to come back to Afghanistan or stay in Pakistan permanently.