TOKYO — Though some analysts note public disenchantment over food shortages and inflation, the Kims — backed by the military, deified by propagandists, enriched by what little money flows into the country — still exercise muscular authority in the places that matter....
Analysts and foreign government officials have noted numerous signs that Pyongyang is redoubling its efforts to ensure a successful father-to-son power transfer....
Yeah, which is WHY they would be the LAST ONES WANTING a WAR in the region!
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Related: North Korean Bed Check
Also see: Cha Sun Chon et al. - "Our Kindergarten Teacher
"Condos served as maternity site for Chinese" by Associated Press / March 25, 2011
SAN GABRIEL, Calif. — Authorities have closed three upscale townhouses that were operating as a maternity center for Chinese mothers paying thousands of dollars to give birth in the United States so the children would automatically gain citizenship....
The women, Chinese and Taiwanese nationals who spoke little English, told officials their families had paid to send them to the United States to give birth, city code compliance officer Clayton Anderson said....
US law automatically entitles children born on US soil to citizenship, and it is not illegal for pregnant women to visit the United States to give birth.
Women from other countries have long traveled to the United States legally on tourist or student visas and given birth, but this case is unusual in that it appears to involve an organized business, analysts said....
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"American convicted of killing husband" by Associated Press / March 26, 2011
HONG KONG — An American who drugged her investment banker-husband with a milkshake and bludgeoned him to death more than seven years ago was convicted of murder yesterday at her second trial in a case that grabbed world attention with lurid details on the breakdown of a wealthy expatriate marriage in Hong Kong....
A woman ahead of her time.
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Also see:
China reduces number of capital crimes
Wary of protests, China puts more restrictions on journalists
Mattel closes Barbie store, but vows to stay in China
China in plane deals with Boeing, others
Obama to name Locke as China envoy
China cracks down on indoor smoking
Chinese activist charged, wife says
"Vietnam repressing Christians, report says " by New York Times / April 1, 2011
BANGKOK — Vietnam has increased repression of indigenous minority Christians in the country’s Central Highlands, Human Rights Watch said in a report yesterday.
The hill tribe minorities, known as Montagnards, are traditionally animist but have been converted to Christianity in large numbers over the past half-century. Culturally and ethnically distinct from the majority lowland Vietnamese, the believers worship clandestinely in informal settings known as house churches, illegal under Vietnamese law.
The conflicts involve more than religion as Vietnam’s population and economy expand and lowland Vietnamese settlers encroach on the farmland of indigenous hill tribes, primarily with agricultural plantations.
There is a political aspect, involving government concerns over links with evangelical groups in the United States among some of the Montagnards. Many Montagnards fought alongside American and South Vietnamese troops during the Vietnam War.
For the most part, Montagnards today are nonpolitical. But the government is concerned about a branch known as Dega, which is associated with a movement for land rights.
The United States designated Vietnam, which is largely Buddhist, as a “country of particular concern’’ for religious freedom in 2004 but removed it from the list two years later, saying it was satisfied with the government’s moves to loosen restrictions.
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Vietnam lake cleanup aims to save turtle
Myanmar quake death toll up to 73
Thailand seizes smuggled ivory
"Tip cited in arrest of Bali bomb suspect" by Associated Press / March 31, 2011
ISLAMABAD — A CIA tip-off led to the arrest in Pakistan of the main Indonesian suspect in the 2002 nightclub bombing in Bali, Pakistani security officials said yesterday, but it was not clear whether the Americans will get access to the militant.
The officials did not say where or when Umar Patek, a deputy commander of Al Qaeda’s Southeast Asian affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah, was detained. But the Philippine army, which has also been hunting him, said he was picked up in Pakistan Jan. 25 alongside a Pakistani associate assumed to have been harboring him.
The arrest of Patek, who has a $1 million American price on his head, ends a 10-year international manhunt and is a major achievement in the global fight against Al Qaeda and its offshoots. If he cooperates, the 40-year-old militant could give valuable intelligence on the current state of the extremist organization and its hardy affiliates in Southeast Asia.
But questions remain over how he was able to travel to Pakistan undetected and what he was doing in the country, which continues to attract foreign militants seeking contact with Al Qaeda leaders based there, especially in the northwest close to Afghanistan....
News of the arrest initially came from intelligence officials in Indonesia and the Philippines on Tuesday. Yesterday, Pakistani security officials confirmed the capture.
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"FIRE IN THE PHILIPPINES -- Residents tried to salvage items from the remains of their homes yesterday after a fire raced through a shantytown in a slum area in suburban Manila. No casualties were reported, but an estimated 300 homes were destroyed, leaving about 1,000 people homeless (Boston Globe March 18 2011)."
Philippine TV host sorry for 6-yr-old's sexy dance
Philippine family planning bill opposed
Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea.
I will be taking much of the afternoon off to do some cleaning of my own.
