Hello friends, hope your weekend was wonderful. Since we were off yesterday there have been some news and developments so let’s get started.
North Korea
The American missionary who was sentenced to 15 years hard labor for supposedly trying to overthrow the government has asked the U.S. government to negotiate his release. Kenneth Bae, a Korean American, has been held for more than a year and the U.S. has offered to send a special envoy to help secure his release.
South Korea
So, the cyber security breach at Target that potentially affected millions of customers was bad. Well, credit card details were stolen for half of all Koreans (about 20 million people) and sold to marketing firms.
Basically, I am including this story because the headline allows me to use this gif:
Thailand
There has been some major upheaval in Thailand at the moment. Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra declared a 60-day state of emergency in Bangkok in the aftermath of violence that is threatening to derail government elections on February 2nd.
Pakistan
The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed 20 Pakistani soldiers. The bombing took place in the North Waziristan tribal region.
Three polio workers were killed in Karachi the day after the start of a vaccination drive. This is the latest in a series of attacks against aid workers in a country where polio is still endemic. Khairun Nissa, the head of the provincial polio workers’ association, said vaccinations would halt as a result of the attacks. The political situation is no longer safe for aid workers and groups.
India
The wife of a prominent Indian minister who is in the middle of a sex scandal was found dead of an apparent suicide. Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor, the wife of Shashi Tharoor used her Twitter account to allege that her husband was having an affair with a Pakistani journalist.
The governments of Canada, France and the UK have updated their travel warnings for women traveling in India after several high profile attacks on foreigners.
Myanmar
The army has freed about 98 child soldiers from service in a move that the UN praised.
China
It is believed that the spreading of the H7N9 bird flu virus is sporadic among humans and there is no evidence that the virus will be sustained or widespread.
Japan
Japan has strict immigration and visa policies and as this story shows, even celebrities like Paris Hilton and Russell Brand aren’t guaranteed entry.
One reply on “News in Asia”
I wanted to comment about another woman in India raped, this time as “punishment” but nope, not bringing that into the world just so we can sigh about it.
So I’ll just go with “Damn, that’s a bad headline.”