Global Briefs
January 8, 2008
Vietnam Deports Vietnamese Am. Dissident
HANOI, Vietnam — Communist Vietnam deported a Vietnamese American pro-democracy activist recently, state media said.
Leon Truong was arrested on Nov. 17 with five other pro-democracy activists, including one U.S. citizen, one French citizen, one Thai and two Vietnamese nationals, accused of plotting terrorism against the Communist state.
Truong, a member of the banned California-based Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party), left on a Taipei-bound China Airlines flight from Saigon, Vietnam Television reported.
The arrests had led to a rally of Vietnamese Americans outside the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington, a protest letter to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung from a group of Congress members, and a call to explain the charges from the U.S. ambassador to Hanoi.
— Nguoi Viet
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Where Boys Were Kings, a Shift Toward Baby Girls
SEOUL, South Korea — In South Korea, a centuries-old preference for baby boys is fast receding. And that has led to what seems to be a decrease in the number of abortions performed after ultrasounds that reveal the sex of a fetus.
According to a study released in October, South Korea is the first of several Asian countries with large sex imbalances at birth to reverse the trend, moving toward greater parity between the sexes.
The most important factor in changing attitudes toward girls was the radical shift in the country’s economy that opened the doors to women in the work force as never before.
Demographers say the rapid change in South Koreans’ feelings about female babies gives them hope that sex imbalances will begin to shrink in other rapidly developing Asian countries — notably China and India — where the same combination of a preference for boys and new technology has led to the widespread practice of aborting female fetuses.
— New York Times
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This Revolution Will Be Text-Messaged
MANILA, Philippines — Several Filipino military officers recently attempted to overthrow the government by taking over a hotel in Manila’s business district by publicizing the protest through text messages. However, seven hours after the standoff began at a hotel in Makati City, it was over. The coup’s ringleader, Antonio Trillanes, and several other people were arrested and hauled off to jail.
Newspapers reported that Trillanes and his supporters sent hundreds of text messages, but few people responded to the coup because it occurred during work hours.
Even though their efforts may have failed, historically, the technology has been used very successfully in organizing other protests in the Philippines. In 2001, millions of text messages were sent as thousands of protesters forced President Joseph Estrada out of office. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took over the presidency.
Now Arroyo’s political rivals are trying to use the same tactics to overthrow her government.
-CNET News
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School Shootings Exported to India?
NEW DELHI — Two boys who said they were sick of being bullied opened fire in a private school, killing a classmate, the object of their hatred.
For the first time, the template of a U.S. campus shooting has been exported to the Indian capital.
Police say two boys, both 14 and in the eighth grade, took turns in broad daylight shooting their victim, 14-year-old Abishek Tyagi, five times.
The shooting set off an avalanche of anger directed at the parents, media and society — echoing the outrage that follows shootings in the United States.
Police said Tyagi and his shooters had been fighting for months and that the school should have done something to prevent the shooting.
Some are warning that this type of shooting could become commonplace in India.
— ABC News
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Buddhist Monks March In Cambodia
Hundreds of Buddhist monks and nuns have been marching in Cambodia in support of the upcoming trials of the former leaders of the Khmer Rouge.
Almost two million Cambodians are thought to have died during four years of Khmer Rouge rule in the late 1970s. The organization targeted religious institutions, destroying churches, mosques and temples.
Muslim and Christian leaders joined the Buddhist monks and nuns to demonstrate their support for the tribunal. The organizers said the trials would be crucial in helping Cambodia forget its troubled past and look to the future. The marchers were welcomed at the courts and granted a question and answer session with officials.
Legal officials from around the world are working at the special courts. Next month, the tribunal will appeal to international donors for tens of millions of dollars in extra funding. Without the cash, the long-awaited process could grind to a halt.
— BBC News
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Korean President-Elect Pledges Improved Economy
In an election that was largely perceived as a recall on a liberal government that has been accused of failing economy and egalitarian ideals, Myung Bak Lee, the candidate for the conservative Grand National Party, won a landslide victory in South Korea.
Despite the concerns over his ethical standards, Lee, 66, who — at 36 years old — led six affiliates of Hyundai and is ex-mayor of Seoul, successfully persuaded voters that he is the candidate best qualified to revive the economy and to guard national security.
In contrast to the diaspora’s keen interest in the election, the Korean presidential election failed to grab the electorate’s attention. The voter turnout rate was below 63%, which is the lowest in the history of Korean presidential elections.
Lee, who is considered a pragmatic rather than ideological leader, is likely to be less generous to North Korea and more cooperative with the United States.
— New America Media
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Vietnam Hardens Internet Censorship
HANOI, Vietnam — Ten years after the Internet went live in Vietnam, the number of Web users in the country has soared, with dissidents using it as a forum and others surfing it to learn about the outside world, Vietnamese-language newspaper Nguoi Viet reports. Internet cafés in the main cities are packed with young people addicted to online games or chatting. But online access also has increased the sources of information available to the population, even though its reach is limited to Vietnam’s cities, with the countryside having little access. The government also tries to keep close tabs on what it posts online. Media rights group Reporters Without Borders is critical of such controls.
“For 10 years, Vietnam’s network has followed the Chinese example,” the Paris-based group said in a recent statement. “Censorship hardens on Internet sites dealing with politics and religion, and bloggers suffer the same hardships as journalists.”
— New America Media
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Miss China on Top of the World
Pre-contest favorite Miss China won the Miss World 2007 title in her own country, much to the delight of the audience, in front of an estimated two billion viewers around the globe. Twenty-three-year-old Zhang Zilin was crowned the winner in Sanya, China. Miss Angola came second and Miss Mexico third at the beauty pageant, held on the southern island of Hainan, dubbed China’s answer to Hawai‘i.
Viewers in 200 countries were expected to tune in to watch the show, which saw Miss China take the crown ahead of 105 of the world’s most beautiful and talented women. The secretary from Beijing was the pre-contest favorite with British bookmakers, along with Miss Dominican Republic. At six feet, Zhang was also the tallest contestant. Contestants were rated on an array of disciplines, including physical fitness, style, dress, personality and beauty.
— Agence France Presse
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