Rumaisa Is World’s Smallest Baby
CHICAGO — A baby who weighed less than a can of soda when she was delivered by Caesarean section three months ago is believed to be the smallest baby in the world ever to survive.
The little girl, named Rumaisa, whose parents came from Hyderabad, India, weighed 8.6 ounces when she was delivered Sept. 19. That is 1.3 ounces smaller than the previous record holder.
The newborn is doing well and is expected to leave the hospital in January. She was 9.75 inches long at birth, about half as long as a full-term baby. Her twin sister is also in good condition.
“Rumaisa” means “white as milk” in India, according to the hospital.
South Korean Publisher to be New Envoy
SEOUL, South Korea — Hong Seok-hyun, 55 — publisher of mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo and brother-in-law of the owner of Samsung, South Korea’s No. 1 conglomerate — was named the nation’s new ambassador to Washington.
Hong assumes his new post at a sensitive time in the 50-year-old alliance. The allies are discussing a reduction and realignment of U.S. troops in South Korea. Seoul also seeks a bigger role in U.S.-led international efforts to resolve a standoff over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs. It insists on a peaceful end to the crisis.
Indonesian’s Killer-Rapist Sentence Reduced to Life
STILLWATER, Okla. — Lloyd Edward Mollett Jr. will not face the death penalty, having struck a deal for life in prison for his conviction in the raping and drowning of Sri Sedjati Sugeng, 21, an interior-design student from Indonesia.
Mollett had been sentenced by a jury to death, but federal appeals Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange overturned that and ordered a new trial. However, Sugeng’s family who attended the first trial said now they “just could not come back here and go through it all again.”
Sugeng, 21, was raped in the bedroom of her Stillwater apartment and then drowned in her bathtub, where friends found her body on Oct. 25, 1993.
Asian Shoppers a Potential N.J. Market for Growers
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Economists and food scientists at Rutgers University are studying immigrant Korean, Chinese and Indian shoppers, hoping to discover exactly what fruits and vegetables they will buy.
State officials then hope to determine which ones can be grown in New Jersey to boost the state’s agricultural output.
Approximately 17% of New Jersey residents were born in another country, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. Hispanic and Asian immigrants are by far the largest immigrant groups, but the state has large numbers of European immigrants as well.
Bobby Wo says he’s more than happy to put the Jersey Fresh logo on tomatoes in his Hong Kong Supermarket in New Brunswick. And he buys some Asian melons and water squash from local growers.
“It’s going to be hard to compete with the West Coast,” Wo said since growers there can offer lower prices due to higher volume.
Locke Announces Scholarship for Foster Kids
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Gov. Gary Locke on Dec. 10 announced that applications for the fourth year of the Washington State Governor’s Scholarship for Foster Youth are now available. Locke established the program in 2001 to help children in state or federally recognized foster, group and kinship care enroll in and complete college in the state of Washington.
“Higher education should be a right, not a privilege,” Locke said.
The scholarship program is funded by proceeds from the annual Governor’s Cup
Golf Tournament and is managed by the Washington Education Foundation.
Applications can be downloaded at www.waedfoundation.org or from 1-877-655-4097. Applications must be postmarked by March 1, 2005.
Immigrant Integration Project Shows Promise
WASHINGTON — Building the New American Community Initiative, a consortium of leading organizations in three mid-sized metropolitan areas, has issued a report on community-building efforts for new immigrants outside of large urban areas.
“This is the story of how immigrants and refugees in the United States struggle to become not just guests but leaders in their communities and society as a whole,” said Max Niedzwiecki, executive director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center. “With the right forethought, resources and cooperation between groups and sectors, America’s small- and medium-sized cities can integrate immigrants every bit as well as cities the size of New York or Los Angeles.”
The project was conducted in Lowell, Mass.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Portland, Ore. Each site was required to establish a coalition of integration partners that included public-private partnerships reaching across levels of government and a broad array of non-governmental organizations. The project focused on youth and adult education, workforce and business development, neighborhood socioeconomic development, and civic engagement.