Frustration for Thousands Sharing Name
SHANGHAI, China — The name Chen Jie is shared by almost 4,000 Shanghainese, topping the list of the city’s most common monikers.
That’s become a problem for many with the name, playing havoc with school enrollments, residency registration, bank accounts, mail delivery and health insurance.
Authorities have implored parents to choose less common names, but insist that names be drawn only from a list of standard Chinese characters.
Following the 3,937 people named Chen Jie, Zhang Min comes in second.
While many Chinese characters are homonyms “Jie” is especially popular due to its connotations of purity or cleanliness. “Min” also reflects positive attributes, most often associated with sensitivity or nimbleness.
Rare Earthquake Shakes Hong Kong
HONG KONG — The Hong Kong Observatory said an earthquake, measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale, struck in the sea around 22.4 miles off the coast of Hong Kong.
According to the observatory’s website since 1874, only six tremors measuring over 5.0 have hit the area, and since 1979, 51 tremors measured up to 4.0.
The epicenters of most locally felt tremors lie outside Hong Kong, which sits on the southern Chinese coast, in Guangdong, Taiwan and the Philippines.
Child Brides May Declare Marriage Void
NEW DELHI — Amendments to the Child Marriage Restraint Act are being considered.
Some of the significant changes include allowing a girl under 18 and has been married off without her consent, to have the choice to declare her marriage void without be treated as a divorcee in the eyes of the law. Currently, the provisions of the act could only restrain and not invalidate such marriages.
The proposed amendments also call for the husband to pay alimony to his former wife and children. Another proposal is to rename the Act to the Child Marriage Prohibition or Prevention Act.
According to 2001 Census data, three girls under 15 have given birth to at least one child and about 35% of women in India are married between the ages of 15 and18.
Long Reigning Tongan King Dies
NUKU’ALOFA, Tonga — Tonga King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, a towering figure in the tiny Pacific island nation for 41 years, has died in a New Zealand hospital, at the age of 88.
The king died after a long, unspecified illness in a hospital where he had spent most of the past several months, plunging the remote country into a mourning period expected to last for months.
The end of King Tupou IV’s reign is likely to fuel a push for more democracy in the near-feudal kingdom, where the royal family has ruled since tribal groups on more than 170 Polynesian islands united into a single kingdom in 1845.
Taufa’ahau Tupou had dismissed calls for democracy. “The solutions provided by majority rule are not acceptable to certain segments of the population,” he said. “This is why in other places there have been military coups.”
Smuggling Gang Busted that Used Sewage Pipe
SHANGHAI, China — Police in southern China busted a criminal ring that used a cross-border sewage pipe to smuggle mobile phones and other electronics from Hong Kong.
The gang had dug a hole in an apartment they’d rented on the Chinese side, which they then linked up to the 66-foot-long sewage pipe.
Police recovered about 900 mobile phones and other devices worth about US$200,000 involving US$33,750 in unpaid taxes.
After spending about 20 days digging, the gang was only able to use the tunnel three times before being caught. It is estimated the gang could have smuggled up to US$75 million worth of products a year had they been successful.
Youths Address Trafficking
HANOI, Vietnam — Children from Vietnam and China met to discuss how to stop hundreds of women and children being trafficked between the two countries each year and forced into prostitution or marriage.
Children ages 11 to 18 attended the three-day forum to exchange views and provide recommendations on how to prevent the trafficking of women and children, said Jesper Morch, the U.N.’s Children’s Fund representative in Vietnam.
Vietnamese authorities have uncovered 167 cases of women and children being trafficked in the first six months of 2006, up 65 cases from the same period last year.
It is estimated that thousands of Vietnamese women and children are sold to China each year to work as prostitutes or for forced marriages.
Nguyen Thi Oanh, vice chairwoman of Vietnam Woman Union, said her agency has actively engaged in the fight against the trafficking of women and children.
Haryana Gov’t Orders Seizure of Gandhi Book
CHANDIGARH, India — The Haryana government has ordered seizure of every copy of a book on Mahatma Gandhi, as it has some alleged derogatory references to the Father of the Nation.
The decision to seize the book, Mahatma Gandhi: A Curse for Bharat, written by Anand Parkash Madan, was made after carefully going through it and finding “objectionable and derogatory” remarks about Gandhi, an official spokesman said.
It was also found that the book “tends to promote feelings of enmity, hatred and ill-will between different communities,” he added.
Hyderabad Kid Enters ‘Guinness Book’
NEW DELHI — Nischal Narayanam, 11, beat his own teacher to set a new world record for memorizing the most number of random objects, which earned him a spot in the Guinness Book of Records.
Narayanam achieved the record by memorizing 225 random objects, beating his teacher Squadron Leader Jayasimha, who had set the record in 2005 by memorizing 200 objects. The boy not only recalled all 225 assorted objects, but also remembered the numbers assigned to them.
“I am very excited on achieving this feat. All the credit goes to my mother who is also my mentor,” said Narayanam, of his mother, who is a housewife with a Ph.D. in Sanskrit.