News from the archives

I had these old, yellowing clips of newsprint and thought that I would share them with you.

#1. From a 2003 Reuters wire found in the Korea Herald:

"Chubby suspect outpaces police"

SYDNEY- A chubby, barefoot Australian man outran police on Wednesday when he bolted through security gates left open at the back of a court he was being led into, officials said.
Security footage showed the overweight man dashing down a back lane in central Sydney pursued by at least four police and prison guards, two of whom tripped over while giving chase. Asked how an overweight, barefoot man had outrun police, inspector Peter Thorne said: "I don't know, I wasn't here."

# 2 from the Japan Times
"International Energy Agency: China 2nd largest CO2 emitter"

The article is very long. The headlines tells the gist. So now 1/7 of global pollution can be traced to China. Now that is the mark of modernization and progress!

Between 1990 and 2002 China's CO2 gas output increased 44.5%.

America, according to the IEA, lays claim to 23% of global carbon dioxide emissions, followed by Russia (6.2%, Japan 5%, India 4.2% Canada 2.2%, Britain 2.2%, Korea 1.9% and France 1.8%)

Troubling news for us, living next to China...

#3 from the China Post: "Malaysian volunteers to harass illegals"

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, AP

"More than half a million civilian volunteers will be given the power to arrest illegal immigrants next year, local media reported Friday, despite fears such a move would encourage vigilantism and undermine the law... The government has said illegal immigrants detained from the beginning of 2005 risk being whipped with a rattan cane, fined and jailed before being deported...Most of Malaysia's illegal immigrants are employed in the construction, plantation and domestic service sectors."

Well the article goes on to say that an amnesty program to let illegal workers become legitimate employees only reigned in "about 109,000 of the estimated 1.2 million illegal workers in Malaysia" So, now the price is upped, via a rattan cane. This plan is definitely a shout out to the globe to the friendliness Malaysia shows to its at-risk working poor labor force!