Samoan King, 3^rd Longest-Reigning Monarch, Dies at 94

APIA—One of the world’s longest reigning monarchs, King Malietoa Tanumafili II, died May 11 at Tupua Tamasese National Hospital in this Samoan capital, news services reported.  The cause of death of the 94-year-old sovereign was not given.  The king was the world’s third longest serving monarch after Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has reigned since l946, and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who ascended to the throne in l952.  As king, Malietoa made numerous state visits, including to communist China in l976.  He also attended the funeral of Japanese Emperor Hirohito in l949 and the l948 Los Angeles Olympic Games.  He succeeded to the Malietoa title in l940 when his father died.  He was made Samoa’s joint head of state with Tupua Tamasese Meaole when the nation became independent from New Zealand in l962.  A year later, he became sole head of state when Tupua Tamasese died.

Myanmar, N. Korea Agree to Resume Ties

YANGON (RANGOON)—During a recent visit here by North Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Yong Il, North Korea and Myanmar (formerly Burma) signed an agreement to resume diplomatic recognition, Myanmar deputy foreign minister Kyaw Thu said.  Myanmar cut ties with the Stalinist state in l983, after a fatal bombing blamed on North Korean commandos while then-South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan was visit to the Southeast Asian nation.  Myanmar and North Korea have been working for several years to normalize ties.  Their officials meet at regional meetings and Myanmar reportedly has purchased arms from the “Hermit Kingdom,” as North Korea is sometimes called, because of its reclusiveness. 

Korean Mixed Marriages Fail at ‘Shocking Rate,’ Paper Says

SEOUL—Mixed marriages are “disintegrating at a shocking rate,” editorialized a newspaper in this Korean capital.  JoongAng Ilbo said it is “no secret that nearly half of Korean men in rural areas must look abroad to find wives.”  A local girl, the paper said, would rather move to a city, find work and support herself than marry a “poor peasant.”

So, what do the men do?  They go to “international marriage brokers” to procure wives, often from Vietnam or Cambodia.  But these arrangements frequently fail, the paper noted.  “The divorce rate among mixed couples has quadrupled in just the past three years, to reach nearly 16 percent.”  The brides—or –ex-brides—say that’s because they were “given false information regarding their bridegroom’s character, job or habits.”  Imagine, it said, trying to maintain a marriage in a foreign culture when you learn the man you are “supposed to trust and lean on” did not mention “his extreme poverty, his physical disability or his expectation that you play nursemaid to two ancient parents with Alzheimer’s.”  Honesty would indeed be the best policy in such cases, said JoongAng Ilbo, adding that a woman who accepts an offer knowing exactly what to expect in a marriage is more likely to stay in it.  “It is heartbreaking to see a bride fleeing poverty in her home country, and a (rural) bridegroom who desperately needs a wife, ending up with a divorce.”

Tasmanian Devils Moved to Save Them from Extinction

TASMANIA, Australia—Thirty Tasmanian Devils, fox-sized marsupials native to this island off the southeast Australian coast, are being moved by scientists to Maria Island, a former prison island now a wildlife sanctuary, in the hope of saving them from a mysterious cancer of the face, reports This Week magazine.  The devils’ nickname comes from their viciousness and spooky screeching.  Wildlife researcher Hamish McCallum said he sees “a real risk of extinction” of the devils within 20 years “across the whole of Tasmania.”  Some of McCallum’s colleagues worry that the relocated devils will feast on Maria Island’s endangered birds.  But the researcher said he doesn’t want to get into “an argument about whether a devil is worth more than a 40-spotted pardalote.”  We wouldn’t either.  Also, “Maria Devils” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. 

Singapore Develops New Anti-Terror Tool

SINGAPORE—This Southeast Asian island nation has developed a new strategy for detecting terrorist threats, reports its Washington embassy newsletter, Singapore.  Called he Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning System (RAHSS), it relies on an online network of government agencies and is designed to help authorities “sift through masses of date for signs of threat” against Singapore.  Backers of the project said horizon scanning has been used by such companies as Nokia and IBM to make market predictions, but that its application to national security is “novel.”  RAHSS was developed by the Singapore National Security Coordination Centre in collaboration with the U.S. think tank The Arlington Institute and several other organizations. 

Kazakhstan Aiding Afghan Economic Recovery

ASTANA—An inter-agency delegation from Kazakhstan recently visited nearby Afghanistan to explore ways to assist that country’s economic rehabilitation, reports the Kazakhstan News Bulletin of the Kazakh embassy in Washington.  Kazakh Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nurlan Yermekbayev led the delegation which included representatives of the ministries of industry and trade, energy and mineral resources, Kazakh institutions of development, and private companies.  The report said Kazakhstan is “keenly aware of challenged to regional security emanating from the lack of stability in Afghanistan” and is interested in “various projects and the development of trade and economic cooperation” with the Afghans.  This interest is not new.  Previously, Kazakhstan has shown interest in various sectors of the Afghan economy, including construction, agriculture and trade.  After the Taliban was ousted, Kazakhstan also sent grain as humanitarian assistance and provided support for U.S.-led military operations.

Trial Stalls, Economy Surges in Cambodia

PHNOM-PENH—Bad and good news from Cambodia.  The bad is that international judges in a UN-backed tribunal to try surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge, according to the Financial Times Amy Kazmin, said the trial was “unable to move forward due to a dispute the Cambodian Bar Association over hefty registration fees for foreign defense lawyers.”  The judges, she said, postponed a “crucial” meeting during which they were expected to adopt rules for the court, a “final processing hurdle before prosecutions can begin.”  They also urged the bar association to “rethink” its demand for a $4,900 fee for foreign lawyers, because it would “discourage foreign participation” in the trial, “especially among attorneys otherwise willing to work pro bono in the historic case.”

The good news, as reported by the Reuters news agency, is that the Cambodian economy grew 10.5 percent in 2006 due to “robust expansion” of the tourism, garment export, construction and agriculture sectors, according to the International Monetary Fund.  And after a week-long mission to Cambodia, the IMF predicted growth of about nine percent in 2007.  About 1.7 million foreign tourists visited the Southeast Asian nation in 2006, up from 1.4 million in 2005, and foreign investment rose to almost $4 billion U.S. in 2006.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Mosque…

SYDNEY--Muslim clerics don’t have a sense of humor?  Not according to the Sydney Morning Herald’s Mike Carlton.  His countrymen, he said, are once more in “high dudgeon” over the “rantings of Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilaly,” the Australian imam who said unveiled women look like “uncovered meat.”  Well, wrote Carlton, al-Hilaly was at it again recently on an Egyptian talk show, when he “dissed Australians for their convict heritage.”  Anglo Saxons, he said, “came to Australia in chains…while we paid our way and came in freedom.  We are more Australian than they.”  Oh.  The outcry back home, said the columnist, was “predictable---and misplaced.”  Nobody seems to have considered that “the canny old cleric just might have been playing it for laughs.”  After all, he added, Aussie comedians “make jokes about our origins all the time.”  Carlton said al-Hilaly’s comments were a “funny shtick” which “might have been even more of a thigh-slapper in Arabic.”  Rather than getting “huffy” about it, he added, “we should encourage al-Hilaly and other “witty imams” to open a comedy club where they could show Australians their “warm side.”  Right.  “Hey,” he said, “it worked for the Jews in America.  Soon we could have our own Woody Allen.”  Or Woody Imam. 

…and to the Cathedral

HANOI—“To be religious is now officially welcomed in Vietnam,” writes Singapore Straits Times correspondent Roger Mitton. For the first time, he said, “the ruling communist regime has published a formal document explaining a new liberal policy toward religion.”  It says all Vietnamese, which includes about six million Catholics, as well as foreign visitors and residents, are “free to practice their religion without any hindrance from the state.”   Vice Chairman of the Committee for Religious Affairs Mr. Nguyen The Doanh said “Vietnam has never exerted strict control over the number of religious followers, but now our policy is much clearer and freer.”  Previously, religious activity was “frowned on” because of “its potential to conflict with government policy,” Mitton said, adding that this “change in attitude” is part of Hanoi’s goal of integrating more into the world community.”  Well, it may be working, because the U.S. has removed Vietnam from its list of “countries of particular concern” regarding religious freedom.  In answer to a question from Mitton, Mr. Doanh said that even “traditionally atheist, if not anti-religionist” members of the ruling Communist Party are now “legally free to practice any religion they choose.”  That said, wrote Mitton, “Mr. Doanh conceded that party members must swear allegiance to communist ideology, which effectively prevents them from holding concurrent religious beliefs.”