Asians

South Korea's successful satellite launch this week served as the latest act of one-upmanship in an accelerating space race gripping Northeast Asia. Membership in the elite global space club is being pursued by wealthy countries that can afford it as well as economic basket cases that cannot, a quest for political stature driven more by emotion and nationalism than economic promise. What nations get out of creating their own space programs is a heady cocktail of national pride, technological muscle-flexing and the power to project military menace as a reminder to neighbors that they won't back down from the region's mounting territorial disputes.

In a bold bet on the digital future of entertainment, Time Warner Inc. has named Kevin Tsujihara as chief executive of its Warner Bros. studio - ending a fiercely fought battle for one of the most powerful jobs in Hollywood. Tsujihara has been president of Warner Bros.' home entertainment unit, which is responsible for home video, online distribution and video games. In winning the top spot, he edged out rivals overseeing the larger and more prestigious film and television divisions.

Shipping lanes along the California coast - the oceanic superhighways for Asian goods coming to America - are poised to be rerouted in order to protect endangered whales from collisions. The International Maritime Organization, which governs global shipping, has approved three proposals that would shift one lane through the Santa Barbara Channel and the approaches to the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex and ports located in San Francisco Bay. The route adjustments were recommended by the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration after four blue whales were thought to have been killed by ship strikes in the Santa Barbara Channel in 2007 and an additional five whales were suspected ship-strike victims off the Central and Northern California coast in 2010.

Even before the Christmas tree went up at 124-year-old Bucherer watch boutique in the lakeside town of Lucerne, Switzerland, the shop was already planning decorations for the year of the snake. Chinese symbols marking the start of the lunar new year Feb. 10 will greet the busloads of Asian shoppers who visit Lucerne every day and invite them inside to see watches from Tag Heuer, Rolex and more than 20 other brands. Less than half the timepieces bought at the Lucerne store in December may be for Christmas, said Joerg Baumann, Bucherer's marketing director.

YANGON, Myanmar - It was a subtle, but effective, way for critics to rankle the brutal generals running the country during the darkest days of global isolation: Call the nation Burma rather than Myanmar. The message: We don't believe your rule is legitimate. Over the years, that tug of words became highly politicized. "Everyone gets confused with the terminology," said Tin May Thein, executive director of Asia21 MJ Co., a Yangon consultancy. "It can make you go a bit crazy. " Now that Myanmar is opening up to the world, easing media restrictions and freeing more political prisoners, the linguistic and political battle lines are blurring.

Muscle-flexing over the archipelago of disputed islands in East Asian seas featured prominently in the political campaigns that have brought forth new leaders for China, Japan and South Korea. But don't expect an end to the posturing and provocations just because the political season is over, Asia watchers say. China claims that a handful of rocks in the East China Sea is a part of its ancient heritage. Known as the Diaoyus, they are a strategic component of China's mission to project an image of power throughout the region.

In the scramble to make the GOP more diverse, a lot of people are looking at Asian Americans, whom many believe are a natural constituency for the party. I would love it if Asian Americans converted en masse to the Republican Party, but the challenge for Republicans is harder than many appreciate. President Obama did spectacularly well with Asian Americans, garnering nearly three-quarters of their vote. This runs counter to a lot of conventional wisdom on both the left and the right.

It's Day 3 of his four-day visit, and, of course, Yuki Izuka - for the third time - is back at South Coast Plaza. Sporting black slacks, leather tote, a pinstripe jacket and crisp tie, the pharmacist from Gunma, Japan, heads straight for the most glittering of shops: Tiffany. He's on a mission to find a ring for his wife. "It is very expensive - but even more expensive in my home," he says. "Better if I can get something here. " Skipping tariffs and taxes, foreign shoppers flush with cash fill their Southern California trips with shopping sprees at places like South Coast Plaza, and increasingly, employees at the luxury shopping center are taking extraordinary steps to host them, trained to fulfill the tiniest of needs.

As the dust settles on the presidential election, there seems to be a new theory daily as to why Mitt Romney lost and what it signals for the future of the Republican Party. Common to nearly all the speculation are the partisan implications of demographic change. The United States is shifting gradually toward a majority-minority electorate, with ever-growing numbers of Latino and Asian American voters. Notably, these groups are increasingly voting as Democrats. According to exit polls from Nov. 6, 73% of Asian Americans and 71% of Latinos voted for President Obama.

Some staggering new figures about Asian American consumers are out this month: Their buying power is up 523% since 1990, reaching $718.4 billion this year. If the demographic were a nation, it'd be the 18th-largest economy in the world. Within five years, Asian American buying power will surge over $1 trillion, according to a report this month from Nielsen. At the moment, 28% of households in the group have annual incomes greater than $100,000, compared with 18% of all Americans.