Economic  power over the last few years has been shifting. In today's global  market, China and India are playing an increasingly more powerful role.  Other Asian nations are also players on the world stage.

South Korea: South  Korea is warning of the possibility of power shortages in mid-August.  That is when the vacation period ends and demand is expected to peak. At  that time, four of the country's 23 nuclear reactors are likely still  to be out of commission.

The country depends on atomic plants to generate more than one-third of its electricity.

The  latest setback occurred Monday, when the No. 6 reactor at the  Yeonggwang nuclear power plant in South Jeolla province, 330 kilometers  south of Seoul failed. Officials say an alert signal for protection of  the reactor triggered an automatic shutdown.

The  reactor has had previous problems with its fuel rods, but there has  been no announcement on the source or severity of this latest trouble.

Real-time  data from monitoring stations at and surrounding the plant, posted on  the Internet show no unusual levels of radiation.

http://voanews.com/content/reaktor_shutdown_in_south_korea_raises_blackout_fears/1451553.html

Burma AKA Myammar: Myanmar's  censors have suspended two weekly magazines indefinitely in the latest  confrontation between the government and the newly aggressive press.

The  Press Scrutiny Board informed Voice Weekly and Envoy editors Tuesday  that their publications have been suspended for violating regulations.  The authorities did not explain the reasons for the bans.

Reporters  at the publications said privately they suspected they were linked to  articles speculating about the details of an anticipated Cabinet  reshuffle.

President Thein  Sein eased censorship as one of his reforms after decades of repressive  military rule. The flourishing of press freedom has brought serious  investigative reporting and sensationalism, both of which make the  government uncomfortable.

Voice Weekly also faces a defamation suit over a story alleging irregularities in several government ministries' accounts.

http://azstarnet.com/news/world/myanmar-censors-suspend-publication-of-magazines/article_f9c13384-af62-5271-8236-2a6082dfe8e9.html

India: Hundreds  of millions of people across India were left without power on Tuesday  in one of the world's worst blackouts, trapping miners, stranding train  travelers and plunging hospitals into darkness when grids collapsed for  the second time in two days.

Stretching  from Assam, near China, to the Himalayas and the northwestern deserts  of Rajasthan, the outage covered states where half of India's 1.2  billion people live and embarrassed the government, which has failed to  build up enough power capacity to meet soaring demand.

"Even  before we could figure out the reason for yesterday's failure, we had  more grid failures today," said R. N. Nayak, chairman of the state-run  Power Grid Corporation.

http://news.yahoo.com/even-wider-blackouts-sweep-india-second-day-090157631.html

Trains  stopped, traffic lights failed and hospitals were forced to switch to  emergency generators as three of the country’s regional electricity  grids failed, creating the world’s biggest ever power cut and leaving  half the population in the dark.

SK Soonee, head of Power System Operation Corporation, said engineers worked through the night to restore supplies.

“Power has been restored fully across the northern, eastern and north-eastern grids,” he said on Wednesday morning.

http://telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/9443045/Power-restored-in-India-after-worlds-biggest-blackout.html

The Markets: Asian  stock markets mostly fell Wednesday after four days of gains as China's  manufacturing slowed despite government stimulus efforts.

But  sentiment in Asia took a hit after an expected improvement in China's  manufacturing failed to materialize. Doubts have also grown about  whether the ECB's bold talk will translate into definitive action. As so  often before in the debt crisis, the risk is that Europe's leaders  overpromise and under-deliver.

China's  manufacturing remained weak in July, according to surveys released  Wednesday, and analysts said weakening export demand pointed to the need  for more efforts to revive growth in the world's second-biggest  economy.

The  state-affiliated China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said its  purchasing managers' index, or PMI, fell 0.1 percentage point to 50.1 in  July, the slowest growth in eight months and just above the 50 level  signifying expansion.

Japan's  Nikkei 225 stock average was down 0.5 percent at 8,650.19 while Hong  Kong's Hang Seng added 0.4 percent to 19,876.62. Australia's S&P/ASX  200 lost 0.2 percent to 4,260.90. South Korea's Kospi shed 0.2 percent  to 1,878.08. Markets in Thailand, Indonesia and India also fell while  the Shanghai Composite gained 0.8 percent to 2,119.67.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-01-02-24-01

From  the Cornfield, the interlocking of the US economy with economies around  the world makes it imperative that we are aware of what happens on the  other side of the globe lest we be caught off guard to our detriment.