Global Briefs

October 30, 2007

Explosion Rocks Manila Mall

MANILA, Philippines — A powerful blast ripped through three floors of a shopping mall in the heart of Manila’s financial district on Oct. 19, killing eight people, injuring scores of others, and sending police and troops on the highest state of alert.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said that contrary to early police reports that the blast was caused by a fuel tank, “circumstances indicate it is highly probable that it was caused by an explosive device.”

She said police and the military went on the highest alert and deployed an additional 2,000 personnel to secure public areas “to prevent a similar occurrence.”

The 1:30 p.m. explosion caused extensive damage throughout the glitzy Glorietta 2 mall, toppling roofs, destroying walls and sending debris crashing onto cars outside.

At least eight people were killed and about 130 others were wounded.

Four Marines in Japan Accused of Raping Teen

TOKYO – Japanese authorities are investigating the alleged rape of a teenager by four U.S. Marines recently in southwestern Japan.

Police in Hiroshima prefecture are working with U.S. military officials to investigate the allegation, which the 19-year-old woman made to police.

The woman allegedly met the men, believed to be Marines from the nearby Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station, at a restaurant or bar in Hiroshima early Saturday morning. The men allegedly took the woman outside to a car and drove her to a parking lot about a mile away where they raped her.

The U.S. has about 50,000 troops based in Japan under a bilateral security treaty. Many Japanese complain of crime, pollution and noise associated with the bases.

The rape of a schoolgirl in Okinawa, which has the largest U.S. military presence, by three American servicemen sparked large protests in 1995.

Text Message Votes Could Decide S. Korean Elections

SEOUL, S. Korea — As the race for the next president of South Korea heats up, the introduction of text message voting has created a stir among the electorate here.

Cell phones and text messaging are so ubiquitous here that they have now made their way into South Korea’s developing democratic institutions, leading to a new phenomenon: mobile-voting.

Election day on December 19 will be the first election following the lowering of the voting age from 20 to 19, raising the number of eligible voters to 37 million, 7% more than the previous election in 2002. In one of the world’s most tech-savvy countries, where an estimated 87% of people own at least one cell phone, these new, younger voters represent a considerable voting bloc that can be reached at the tip of a finger.

— New America Media

Booming Vietnam’s Nouveaux Riches Indulge in Luxury

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — The luxury market is booming in Vietnam, where Ho Chi Minh’s communist revolution exalted equality and the common man just a generation ago.

As the country begins to embrace private enterprise, its nouveaux riches are snapping up shoes at Gucci, handbags at Louis Vuitton and watches at Cartier, offering proof of how much the country has changed after decades of war.

Not long ago, displays of wealth were frowned upon in Vietnam. Troops wearing sandals made of tires, who bested the French colonial army and outlasted the Americans, embodied frugality and egalitarianism. The revolutionary government snatched up the assets of the wealthy and redistributed them to the poor.

But since the late 1980s, a government that once micromanaged all economic affairs has been introducing free-market reforms and courting foreign investors, and with them have come new Western styles and attitudes.

China: Establishing Communist Party In Space

BEIJING — China might not have a permanent presence in space yet, but the country’s rocket men are already thinking about setting up a Communist Party branch in the outer reaches.

Now 14-strong, the Chinese astronaut corps more than meets the party’s minimum requirement of at least three members for a branch.

China’s space communists would “carry out the regular activities of a Communist Party of China branch in space in the way we do on Earth,” said Yang Liwei, the first Chinese astronaut to fly into space on the sidelines of the national party congress.

Yang said a party branch would have to await establishment of a permanent presence in space, such as a space station, something China is decades from achieving.

Yang orbited Earth in 2003 aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft, making China only the third country to launch a person into space.

S. Korea Joins Rush to Build Ever Taller Buildings

INCHEON, S. Korea — Incheon is planning twin skyscrapers reaching 2,013 feet into the sky, higher than the tallest building in the world today. Developers in Seoul will erect a 220-story building that would be twice as high as the Sears Tower.

Incheon and Seoul are part of one of the biggest booms in tall-building construction since the skyscraper appeared more than a century ago, a rush spreading from established tower magnets like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Shanghai and Hong Kong, to lesser-known cities across fast-rising East Asia.

Awash with cash from South Korea’s economic takeoff, Incheon and Seoul are being joined in the building rush by Busan, which also plans two skyscrapers of more than 100 stories.

One reason for the sudden proliferation of ambitious skyscraper plans here has been a desire to keep up with its booming neighbors: China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

— The New York Times

Japanese Taste Nostalgia in Adult Candy Shops

TOKYO — Tokyo’s all-you-can-eat dagashi or “cheap candy” bars are giving stressed-out Japanese a chance to relive the good old days when their biggest problem was deciding between fizzy sticks and sour plums.

Tokyo is dotted with places catering to downtrodden office workers who yearn for the years before the financial bubble of the 1980s, which left Japan in a slump for most of the next decade.

There are cafes where waitresses dressed as maids play childish games with customers, and theme parks that recreate school cafeterias and 1960s living rooms.

At one dagashi bar, a lively group of men and women in their 20s, some wearing suits, picked at a selection of sweets.

“I used to eat this as a child,” one of the men said. “Now there’s all this stress. When we were children, there was no stress, so we’re comforting each other.”

— Reuters

Japanese Find Romance Far From Home

PARIS — Japanese couples are flocking to Paris and other romantic European locations in search of rituals, stained glass and bellowing pipe organs, all chosen from convenient online catalogs.

These dream weddings — with prices from about $2,750 to $5,800 — are, in fact, fantasies. Few Japanese couples can establish the 40-day residency requirements for a legal French marriage, and most arrive on a 6:30 a.m. flight from Tokyo hours before their ceremonies.

Instead, they marry in civil ceremonies in Japan and then head to the Parisian churches for blessings, celebrations or thanksgiving ceremonies.

Wedding tourism companies are an established tradition in Japan. Hawai‘i remains the preferred destination, but lately, officials there have started to fret about a softening in the romance market.

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