Miscarriage Prompts Japan Pledge
TOKYO — Japan’s health minister has pledged to address the shortage of doctors in the country after a woman in labor was turned away by eight hospitals.
A ninth hospital refused to admit her even after she miscarried in an ambulance and her baby died.
The woman lived just three minutes away from a hospital, but was forced to travel 45 miles by ambulance looking for a facility that would admit her.
For more than an hour, the ambulance crew tried to find a hospital to accept her.
On the way to the ninth hospital, the ambulance crashed and the woman miscarried. The hospital then changed its mind and refused to admit her. An official claimed the treatment would be difficult and that they were already busy with an emergency operation.
The problem is there are neither enough doctors in Japan, nor emergency facilities to admit patients.
— BBC News
Anger at Taiwan’s ‘Heaviest Pig’
Animal rights groups have expressed outrage at the force-feeding and sacrifice of the world’s heaviest pig in Taiwan.
The obese pig was sacrificed as part of the country’s annual “Pig of God” contest held in Taiwan.
Animal activists filmed the slaughter and the parading of its body for its online video campaign.
The pig weighed more than 2,000 pounds after being force-fed sand and metal. It was unable to stand on its own feet and took 20 men to carry.
After its slaughter in Hsin Chu, the pig was painted and paraded through the streets.
The heaviest pig contest is part of the annual “Pig of God” festival, and hundreds of pigs are force-fed as farmers seek to increase their weight.
The competition is illegal in Taiwan, but activists say that authorities in Hsin Chu have been reluctant to enforce the ban on such slaughters, fearing a backlash from various religious groups.
— BBC News
South Korea Picks First Astronaut
Officials in South Korea have chosen Ko San, a 30-year-old engineer, to be the country’s first citizen in space.
San, who works at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, will fly with two Russian cosmonauts to the International Space Station in 2008. He will spend seven or eight days there, conducting a series of scientific tests and experiments.
San was chosen over female engineer Yi Soo-yeon, 29, after the two spent time training in Russia. The candidates, who were chosen from a list of over 36,000 applicants, have been working with Russian cosmonauts since early this year.
San’s mission will make South Korea the sixth Asian country to put an astronaut in space.
— BBC News
China Executions At 10-year Low
The Chinese authorities are expecting fewer executions this year than at any time in the past decade.
The reduction is due to a new rule that directs the country’s top court to review every death sentence.
China, however, does not release the figures on the number of people it executes each year. But officials with the Supreme People’s Court, the nation’s top judicial body, said numbers had fallen significantly. China is believed to carry out more executions than any other country.
There were repeated claims of miscarriages of justice after lower courts were given the right to approve the death sentence in the 1980s. But a change in the law came into effect on Jan. 1, 2007, stating that any death sentence handed out by a lower court must be given final approval by the Supreme People’s Court before the execution takes place.
— BBC News
Lovers ‘Bring Down’ Chinese Boss
SHAANXI, China — Eleven former mistresses of a senior Chinese official have accused him of corruption.
The lovers of Pang Jiayu from the central Shaanxi province joined forces after some of their husbands had been given death sentences for corruption.
The say Pang, 63, seduced the wives of his subordinates, and in return, helped their husbands make money by giving them big financial projects.
Pang was a Communist Party boss of Baoji city in Shaanxi and also vice chairman of the provincial assembly until 2006.
Using his influential position, he had made several women – mostly “pretty and young wives” of his junior colleagues – become his mistresses.
The husband of one of the mistresses had been executed for running a corrupt investment scheme set up by Pang.
— BBC News
Jakarta Bans Beggars and Buskers
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Indonesian authorities have approved a new law banning people from giving money to buskers, beggars and hawkers in Jakarta.
Offenders could face up to six months in jail and $5,000 in fines if found not obeying such laws.
Jakarta’s outgoing Governor Sutiyoso urged residents to follow the new rules, saying they would bring order to the city of 10 million people.
But critics fear the new laws are ill thought-out, with little understanding about the realities of the city’s poor.
As well as banning donations to beggars and buskers, the new law also regulates other aspects of public order, from banning squatter settlements on river banks to spitting and smoking on public transportation.
Critics fear it will be a difficult law to enforce in such a sprawling and congested city such as Jakarta, which has seen an influx of poor migrants from the countryside enter the city.
— BBC NEWS
Estrada Gets Life For Corruption
Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada has been found guilty of corruption and jailed for life.
The former film star was accused of embezzling about $80 million before he was forced from office in an army-backed revolt in 2001.
Estrada denounced the verdict as a “political move” and said he had been tried in a “kangaroo court.”
Security was high in the capital, Manila, but fears that the verdict would spark mass protests appeared to be unfounded.
A few hundred pro-Estrada demonstrators had gathered for the verdict, but the protests were reported to be low-key and peaceful.
Following a six-year trial, the special anti-corruption court ruled that Estrada was guilty of plunder.
He had been accused of receiving millions from illegal gambling, tax kickbacks and bribes while in power.
A successful movie star with populist appeal, Estrada was elected president in 1998 by the biggest margin ever.
— BBC News
Abortions Increase As School Starts
GUANGZHOU, China — Doctors in southern China’s Guangdong province observed an increase in the number of female students visiting hospitals in search of abortions during the weeks leading up to the start of school.
Some hospitals in Dongguan, a city in the province, reported two to three times as many abortion requests in the week before the start of new semester, which began on September 1, than during other times of the year.
Most of the young girls seeking abortions were between 16 and 22 years old. About half were high school students.
“It has become a routine that the beginning of every new semester is a busy season for the abortion departments of most hospitals,” Zhang Yurong, a doctor with the gynecology and obstetrics department of the Guangdong Second Provincial Chinese Medicine Hospital, said. “It’s not just in Dongguan, but all across the province,” she said.
She said that because so few students know about birth control, summer flings can often lead to unwanted pregnancies.
— Chinadaily.com
Broadway Hits China
HONG KONG – Chinese-language versions of classic Broadway and West End musicals such as Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera will begin in China next year.
The productions will be co-presented by British producer Cameron Mackintosh and are part of an agreement with the Chinese performing arts agency China Arts and Entertainment Group, which is affiliated with China’s Ministry of Culture. Under the agreement, Mackintosh will help train Chinese writers, performers and production crews to create original Chinese musicals.
“This initiative will bring fundamental changes to our musical theater industry by attracting new audiences with affordable and easy-to-appreciate musical offerings, and train a young generation of local musicians and production professionals,” said Zhang Yu, president of China Arts and Entertainment Group.
Among the other musicals to be presented are Cats, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins and My Fair Lady.