Global Briefs
September 22, 2006
China Aircraft Arrives in Taiwan For Emergency
TAIPEI, Taiwan — A Chinese aircraft arrived in Taiwan recently in the first medical emergency flight between the longtime rivals.
A Taiwanese businessperson’s 70-year-old relative, surnamed Chen, was flown from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to Taipei, accompanied by medical personnel from China.
Chen was treated for a brain hemorrhage at the Veterans’ General Hospital in Taipei.
China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949 and Taiwan fears that aircraft and ships from the mainland could be used as a cover for attack.
Christians March Against Planned Executions
TENTENA, Indonesia — Thousands of Christians marched through the streets of an Indonesian island that has been the scene of sectarian violence, demanding the government not execute three men convicted in the killings of Muslims six years ago.
The Christian men — Fabianus Tibo, Marinus Riwu and Dominggus da Silva — are accused of leading an attack on an Islamic school that left at least 70 people dead.
Some 3,000 Christians and a handful of Muslims turned out for the rally on Sulawesi island, where religious violence killed at least 1,000 people between 1998 and 2002.
Thousands Go Taste Sweet Seawater
NEW DELHI — Thousands flocked to a Bombay beach after word spread that the seawater had turned sweet, many believing it was a miracle.
Many were drinking seawater, and even bringing it home in bottles.
However, the state’s top elected official immediately ordered the testing of the seawater and warned it could contain dangerous substances. The state Pollution Control Board said it could be an upsurge of ground water.
Due to heavy rainfall, the ground water gets fully charged and may exert excess pressure. This can cause fine cracks in the rocky bottom through which ground water tends to come out, said Dilip Boralkar, a board member.
Japanese Women Catch the ‘Korean Wave’
TOKYO — In recent years, the huge success of male celebrities from South Korea has redefined what Asian women want in a mate.
Kazumi Yoshimura, 26, is among the 6,400 women who have signed up with Rakuen Korea, a Japanese-Korean matchmaking service. The company says its popularity has skyrocketed since 2004, when Winter Sonata became the first of many well-received Korean television shows to debut in Japan.
South Koreans are so sweet and romantic — not at all like Japanese guys, who never say ‘I love you,’” Yoshimura said as she waited for her blind date with a Korean man.
Sex Symbol Passes Out During Kiss
NEW DELHI — Bollywood sex symbol Mallika Sherawat, who holds the record for the most on-screen kisses in an Indian movie, passed out while shooting a kissing scene in her new movie.
The scene for Side Effects was shot under water that was very cold.
When Sherawat started shivering, she was given some brandy as a tactic to combat the cold. But the cold and brandy turned out to be a potent combination that caused her to pass out.
Kissing in films is still rare in India, which remains very conservative.
City May Be Sitting On WWII Secret
TOKYO — Toyo Ishii, 84, a World War II nurse has broken over 60 years of silence to reveal that she buried dozens, perhaps hundreds, of bodies at a site on the west side of Tokyo where today stands an apartment building and park.
A mass grave of between 62 and over 100 possible war-experiment victims was uncovered in a nearby area in 1989. But the account from Ishii could yield a firmer connection to Unit 731, Japan’s germ and biological warfare outfit.
Unit 731 and related units injected war prisoners with typhus, cholera and other diseases for germ warfare research, according to historians. Unit 731 also is believed to have frozen prisoners to death in endurance tests.
Ishii says she was never involved in nor knew about experiments on humans.
China Upset Over Medal for Dalai Lama
BEIJING — China denounced a decision by the U.S. Congress to award the Dalai Lama a Congressional Gold Medal, its highest honor.
The House of Representatives recently passed the bill, which recognizes the exiled spiritual leader for “his many enduring and outstanding contributions to peace, nonviolence, human rights, and religious understanding.”
Passed by the Senate, it requires the signature of President George Bush.
The Chinese government had accused the Dalai Lama of waging a clandestine campaign for formal independence, though he says he wants only greater autonomy in hopes of preserving Tibet’s Buddhist culture.
Cambodia’s King Becomes Honorary Citizen of Prague
PRAGUE, Czech Republic — The municipal assembly in the Czech capital voted to give honorary citizenship of Prague to Cambodia’s king Norodom Sihamoni.
The assembly awarded Sihamoni, who lived in Prague in the 1960s and 1970s, citizenship to show Prague holds him in esteem and to appreciate what he has done for the Czech capital’s international reputation and for the development of friendly relations between Cambodia and the Czech Republic, a statement released by the City Hall said.
12 Ethiopians Seek Asylum in S. Korea
SEOUL, South Korea — A dozen Ethiopians sought political asylum in Seoul while on a trip to mark the opening of a museum commemorating the African country’s participation in the Korean War.
The group was among a total of 33 Ethiopians — including a nine-member folk troupe, 12 veterans and 12 children — who arrived in South Korea on an invitation from the Korean Veterans’ Association to mark the opening of the museum in Chuncheon.
Ethiopia sent one infantry battalion to help South Korea repel invading communists from North Korea during the Korean War and 122 of them were killed in action.
Record-high Violence at Japanese Schools
TOKYO — Violence at Japanese primary schools reached a record high during 2005, including over 450 incidents of attacks against teachers, according to a report by the Education Ministry.
The number of reported cases of violence at primary schools rose to 2,018, up from 1,890 the year before.
The number of cases at junior high schools during the last academic year was 23,115, up five from a year earlier. Violent incidents at senior high schools totaled 5,150, up slightly from 5,022 the previous year.
The report, which surveyed Japan’s 37,176 public elementary, junior high and high schools, did not give any analysis about the results.
South Pacific to Sign Up for Dolphin Conservation
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Up to 11 South Pacific nations will sign an agreement to help protect and conserve whale and dolphin species.
The memorandum, developed under the international Convention on Migratory Species, is due to be adopted at a ministerial meeting of the South Pacific Regional Environment Program in Noumea.
Among various South Pacific states likely to take part are Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Cook Islands, Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu.
Vanuatu was the latest state to join several other South Pacific states in declaring a whale sanctuary in its exclusive economic zone — stretching up to 200 miles from its shoreline.
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