Global Briefs
December 22, 2006
Edison Chen Goes Global
International crossover star Edison Chen opened his second store in Shanghai called ACU, which takes its name from the words acupuncture and acupressure. Chen is the proprietor of Hong Kong’s biggest street wear store, Juice, and is also famous for his films, including The Grudge 2 and Infernal Affairs. Chen is also a musician and designer for his label, Clot.
Chen was born in Vancouver, Canada, and has previously collaborated with Levi’s, and Nike, among others. Chen’s Levi’s had a design element honoring the Chinese American laborers who built America’s transcontinental railroad.
The Shanghai store’s opening follows Chen’s show on Nov. 28, with hip-hop artist Kanye West in Hong Kong. West featured Edison on his Touch the Sky mix tape, and is producing tracks for Chen’s forthcoming Mandarin album set for release in February 2007.
Muslim Rep. Served Pork Slaps Waitress
MANILA, Philippines — A Muslim lawmaker raged at a catering crew member of a Chinese restaurant for serving her food with pork.
Rep. Faysah Dumarpa, of Lanao del Sur, reportedly slapped the crew member, Virginia Fernando Altamirano, and held a bread knife at her.
Altamirano, 36, has filed a complaint against Dumarpa with the Quezon City police.
Dumarpa said she “felt betrayed” and “grossly insulted” by being served food containing pork. “I assumed your [catering] crew purposely caused that by intentional concealment of the fact herein set forth. If it was not at all intentional, then there must have been gross negligence on their part.”
Seoul to End Iraq Mission in ‘07
South Korean troops are to “terminate their mission” in Iraq by the end of 2007, the defense minister and the ruling Uri party have said.
Spokesman Noh Woong-Rae said, “The government reported to the Uri party that it will draw up a plan by the end of June to terminate the mission and wrap up the mission by the end of 2007.”
Noh said that while the government had not “accepted or agreed” to Uri’s proposal for withdrawal, it would have to accept Parliament’s position on troop deployments.
Kim Jang-soo, the defense minister, agreed that “the government will follow Parliament’s decision.”
North Korea Claims Success In AIDS Fight
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea is giving credit to Kim Jong-il for preventing any outbreaks of AIDS in the country.
North Korean media, which often gives glowing reports of Kim offering expert guidance on subjects as varied as cobbling shoes, firing howitzers and irrigating fields, said Kim has been deeply concerned about AIDS.
“Under the wise guidance of leader Kim Jong-il, the DPRK [North Korea] established the strategy of prevention and control of AIDS with orderly systems of its information, prognostication and watch, and examination across the country,” an official newspaper said.
UNAIDS said it has no definitive data on AIDS in North Korea, but estimated that by 2002, fewer than 100 cases of HIV infection had occurred in the country of just over 22 million.
Ethnic Hmong Surrender in Laos
BANGKOK, Thailand — Over 400 members of the Hmong hill tribe minority who have been on the run for decades from the communist government of Laos surrendered to the authorities.
The group, which came out of the jungle to Ban Ha village in the central province of Xieng Khouang at about 5 a.m., is one of several ragtag bands of Hmong who constitute a tragic legacy of the Vietnam War, during which they served a pro-American government that fell to the communists in 1975.
Fearing persecution after the takeover, many Hmong fled to the jungles where they faced intermittent attacks from Laotian government forces.
In recent years, facing more isolation and starvation as well as continued military pressure, several bands of Hmong have turned themselves in.
The group of 405 people — mostly children — appeared to be very hungry and tired.
Ban Ki-moon Takes Oath of Office
UNITED NATIONS — South Korea’s Ban Ki-moon took the oath of office as the next secretary-general of the United Nations, promising to restore the world body’s tarnished reputation and push for peace in the Middle East and conflict-wracked Darfur.
In his sharpest comments afterward, he said Iran’s call for Israel’s destruction and its dismissal of the Nazi Holocaust were “unacceptable,” and he expressed concern at the regional and global implications of Tehran’s nuclear program.
Calling himself “a harmonizer and bridge-builder,” Ban said his first priority will be “to restore trust” in the United Nations, which has been criticized for corruption and mismanagement as well as trust among member states who have been deeply divided over U.N. reforms.
Exploding Growth In Asia Posing Pollution
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Asia’s economic boom has caused a surge in car and motorcycle sales, undercutting efforts to promote public transport in the region and clean up its dirty skies, announced delegates at the Better Air Quality Conference 2006.
While some Asian governments were praised for toughening vehicle emission standards, and most have phased out leaded gasoline, many of the region’s big cities are doing little to enforce laws or establish effective bus and train networks.
The meeting — one of the biggest air quality conferences in the region — comes at a time when Asia has begun to address the bad air that has resulted from double-digit economic growth rates, especially in India and China. Soot from coal-fired power plants, greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and haze caused by slash-and-burn land clearing activities have all helped turn the region into the world’s most polluted.
Reform to Promote Patriotism At Schools
TOKYO — A Japanese parliamentary committee approved a revised education law that would require schools to encourage patriotism in the classroom.
The measure, a reform of Japan’s 1947 education law, would call on schools to teach “love of country” and “public spirit” in a bid to stem academic and disciplinary decline.
Critics, however, have attacked the move as being reminiscent of Japan’s pre-1945 education system, in which children were encouraged to sacrifice themselves for the emperor and nation.
The reform is part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s overall effort to distance Japan from its pacifist postwar system. He has also supported nationalist writers fighting references to Japan’s wartime atrocities in public school textbooks.
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