* Kangbashi--a district in Ordos City, in the Inner Mongolia region of China--is a modern-day ghost town, a spectacular example of "property oversupply." Kangbashi was going to be a "showpiece," an urban center of Ordos City half an hour's drive away; Ordos City is a wealthy coal-mining hub where 1.5 million people live. Kangbashi is a sprawling development of suburban homes, office towers, government buildings, museums, theaters, and sports fields, all built in a rush over the course of five years to accommodate a planned injection of 1 million people--but utterly devoid of residents today.
* The government of the Caribbean island of Anguilla has finalized a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with both Australia and Germany; Anguilla now has such agreements with 13 countries, and is next looking to complete one with France. This is a step toward Anguilla's moving away from its reputation (along with several other Caribbean islands) as a tax haven; the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has placed Anguilla on its "white list" of jurisdictions that have substantially improved their tax standards.
* "To me, piracy is something adventurous. It makes you think about Johnny Depp." --Agnete Haaland, president of the International Federation of Actors, on why we need a less appealing term for illegally downloading music.
* In Barbados, there is a tradition that the consul general of Barbados in New York attends the birthday party of every Barbadian who turns 100; the consul general also attends every subsequent birthday party for that person, and brings flowers to each party as well as a proclamation celebrating the person's life and longevity. But Mae Bishop, a Barbadian woman who now lives in Brooklyn and whose birth certificate attests that she is 101 years old (The New York Times), refuses to acknowledge her age. From The New York Times: “It’s vanity,” said her daughter, Colga Hylton-Springer, explaining that her mother, who was born in Barbados, had learned a hard lesson here in her adopted country. “In this society, you are over the hill, and she never felt over the hill.” Invitations to Mae's 100th birthday party referred to "the 70th anniversary of her 30th birthday."
* "This kind of mistreatment is very common in Chinese zoos." Hua Ning, program director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, after 11 rare Siberian tigers died at a zoo in Shenyang; three others are in critical condition.