Global Briefs
July 29, 2005
Largest Property Trust Good to Go
HONG KONG –– Hong Kong’s highest court has approved the initial public offering of what could be the world’s biggest real estate investment trust.
The massive deal, including 151 government-owned shopping centers and 79,000 parking spaces, was 130 times oversubscribed before the court proceedings delayed its issuance and drew $36 billion in orders from more than 500,000 small investors.
The government hoped to use the deal to shore up the finances of its Housing Authority, which provides public housing to nearly 30% of the territory’s 6.9 million people.
Viet. Police Arrest 2 for Shipping Human Skull
HANOI, Vietnam –– Police arrested two men in southern Vietnam for allegedly attempting to send a human skull to a relative in the United States to be used as a prayer idol.
Doan Ngoc Phang, 37 and Huynh Thai Son, 49, were arrested in Ho Chi Minh City and accused of “encroaching on graves and remains,” the Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper said.
Customs officials found the skull stuffed in a plaster bust. Phang said he paid Son 1.6 million dong (US $100) for the skull, which he tried to send to a relative in California who wanted to use it to pray for prosperity.
Police are investigating where Son got the skull.
U.S. Expresses Regret over S. Korean Assaults
SEOUL, South Korea –– U.S. military commanders in South Korea are taking note over increasing assaults by U.S. soldiers against South Korean civilians.
“I deeply regret the recent incidents that have resulted in injury to Korean civilians,” chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Charles Campbell, said in a statement.
South Korea’s YTN news channel reported a U.S. soldier was under investigation for drunkenly attacking the owner and waiter of a bar in Incheon, near the capital Seoul, after being denied entry to the bar.
On July 3, another drunk U.S. soldier hit a passer-by in the face with a beer bottle. Two other soldiers were also detained. July 15, three U.S. soldiers attacked a taxi driver and two pedestrians while drunk.
About 32,500 American troops are in South Korea.
Wal-Mart to Open 1st Shanghai Outlet
SHANGHAI, China –– Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, plans to open its first store in Shanghai at the end of July.
Wal-Mart already operates 47 stores employing 20,000 people in China, and has its headquarters in the southern commercial center of Shenzhen.
The 194,000 square foot outlet in the western district of Pudong is one of three Wal-Mart stores planned for Shanghai, home to about 20 million people –– among them many of China’s wealthiest consumers.
“We aim to ensure the success of our first store in Shanghai and to see the market response,” Hu Minghua, a manager was quoted as saying by the Shanghai Daily newspaper.
India asks Pepsi to Help Spread AIDS Awareness
India, which has the world’s second largest number of people with HIV/AIDS, has asked U.S. cola giant Pepsi to carry anti-AIDS messages on its bottles and cans to help combat the spread of the disease.
S.Y. Quraishi, director general of the state-run National Aids Control Organisation (NACO), said PepsiCo “has responded well.”
“It’s well known that 90 per cent of the 5.1 million HIV/AIDS cases in the country are in the most productive age group of 15 to 49 years,” Quraishi said in this southern coastal city.
“We can use companies like PepsiCo to carry AIDS messages on soft drink bottles and cans to target this group,” he said.
NACO says 5.1 million people live with HIV/AIDS in India. International health groups say the number is far greater.
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