N. Korean leader reportedly pardons U.S. journalists

Source: CNN

North Korean President Kim Jong Il has pardoned and ordered the release of two U.S. journalists, state-run news agency KCNA said Wednesday.

The announcement came after former U.S. President Bill Clinton met with top North Korean officials in Pyongyang to appeal for the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who had been arrested while reporting from the border between North Korea and China.

"Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it," the news agency reported. "Clinton courteously conveyed to Kim Jong Il an earnest request of the U.S. government to leniently pardon them and send them back home from a humanitarian point of view.

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What a strange place North Korea is. There is absolutely no laws there at all. Looking at this from a neutral point of view, the two journalists are either guilty or not guilty right? How is it that they can be guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison one minute and then because Bubba pays them a visit, they are now free! And that's all it took? Bill Clinton flys into the country, takes a few pictures and North Korea lets them go? I thought it would be much more difficult?

Two journalists = 1 photo-op :)


So strange. If I went and did something crazy, I'm not sure my Prime Minister could get me pardoned even though I live in his riding and I am his friend *wink wink wink*

As happy as I am that the journalists are free, this is not good precedence. Now North Korea can do anything they want (like arrest people) and the US will have make a deal each time!

So happens now? Does the US play nice to get a couple of journalists out and then go back to being tough? We'll see.

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All the jokes are coming out now, like:

When Bill Clinton wants to bring home two women at the same time, not even North Korea can stop him! :D

Journalists sentenced to twelve years of hard labor camps

Source: Reuters

North Korea, facing U.N. sanctions for last month's nuclear test, on Monday raised the stakes in its growing confrontation with Washington by jailing two U.S. journalists to 12 years hard labor for "grave crime."

The sentence follows U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's warning on Sunday the United States was considering putting the North back on its list of states that sponsor terrorism, which would further isolate the impoverished country.

The journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, of U.S. media outlet Current TV, were arrested in March working on a story near the border between North Korea and China. The trial for the two, working for the media outlet founded by former Vice President Al Gore, opened on Thursday.

"The trial confirmed the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing as they had already been indicted and sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor," the official KCNA news agency said in a brief dispatch.

The harsh sentence is certain to deepen the chill in relations with the United States which has been trying for years, with scant success, to convince North Korea to give up its dreams of becoming a nuclear weapons power.

I was expecting death. The government of North Korea is no joking matter and people who wanted to play nice with them and be their friends and support their policies, this is what their policies are. For those of you who feel this is an injustice, it isn't. It's an injustice to us because we are fortunate to be able to live in a free society. I've escaped communism, this is their normal way of dealing with things. I know there's an immediate outcry that this is wrong. But let's step back and look at the facts.

I'm curious why journalists feel the need to go onsite when doing their reporting when the report is not at all relevant to Current TV. What was this report about? Especially when the journalists are American and the country is North Korea. Why did they feel the need to go to the North Korean border? If it was investigative journalism, maybe they should have realized it wasn't the safest place to be, especially without official military backing. Major new organizations always need passes and credentials to enter any country. Different countries have difference laws, what are you going to do? Argue with them?

Not saying they deserve what happened to them but it was very poor decision-making on their producer's part. Hell, if they did cross into North Korean territory, you can't even claim North Korea is doing anything wrong. There are journalists legally entering North Korea all the time, and secretly snooping around a bit. I've seen the documentaries that gets sneaked out. CBC has reporters there all the time. That's the proper way to do it. In this case, you more or less forfeit your rights to freedom by waltzing in, like these two did. It was a huge mistake.

I feel for them but there isn't much the US can do. They can't be protecting every Tom, Dick and Harry who goes running into all these different countries without permits. And to be frank, these are two small-time unknown reports. It's not like they caught Katie Couric which would really get America all riled up. Of course CBS would never do something this stupid.

Hopefully the North Korea will use the women as a bargaining chip and the government can get them out with just a little food and supplies. Otherwise, there's no way to save them :(

In Sichuan, Harassment Continues

Source: TIME

The Foreign Correspondents Club of China has troubling news today of three attacks on journalists in the Sichuan earthquake region. What reporters are facing there now in the days before the one-year anniversary of the May 12 disaster pales with what families seeking answers about why their children died in collapsed schools are dealing with, as ngos including Amnesty International and Chinese Human Rights Defenders have documented recently. But the way journalists are being handled in Sichuan now is a clear sign of how sensitive the issue remains one year later.

See the FCCC's full statement with details of the attacks after the jump.

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What's left to be reported? What are these journalists doing there? If there's any news the Chinese media will handle it. You know how reporters are.. you go around in those areas asking stupid questions like "DUH, what's it feel like to lose your one and only child"?. "DUH, what's it feel like too see no progress and no schools being built". "DUH, do you feel better today, one year later or does it still linger in your head?"

"DUH, what's it feel like to lose in the first round for the fourth consecutive year!?"

Sorry, I got carried away.

Chinese 'classical poem' was brothel ad

Source: The Independent

A respected research institute wanted Chinese classical texts to adorn its journal, something beautiful and elegant, to illustrate a special report on China. Instead, it got a racy flyer extolling the lusty details of stripping housewives in a brothel.


Chinese characters look dramatic and beautiful, and have a powerful visual impact, but make sure you get the meaning of the characters straight before jumping right in.

There were red faces on the editorial board of one of Germany's top scientific institutions, the Max Planck Institute, after it ran the text of a handbill for a Macau strip club on the front page of its latest journal. Editors had hoped to find an elegant Chinese poem to grace the cover of a special issue, focusing on China, of the MaxPlanckForschung journal, but instead of poetry they ran a text effectively proclaiming "Hot Housewives in action!" on the front of the third-quarter edition. Their "enchanting and coquettish performance" was highly recommended.

This is unbelievable. There is a Chinese person in every city in the world I think.
Chinese people outnumber every other type of 'people' in the world. And this journal couldn't find ONE chinese person to proofread this?

Look around your office right now. Wherever you work, there is a person who can read Chinese no more than 20 metres from you.

Changing The Game? - Give me a Break!

Source: SF Chronicle

Baseball fans are disillusioned, and here's why: Pumped up with money and medication, the sport has gotten ever bigger and badder -- and more boring. The one thing that has always distinguished baseball is the feeling of history in the making: Each season, records fall, milestones are passed, boundaries are broken. That's all been eclipsed by the asterisk of cash and steroids; it's hard to feel excited at new benchmarks when the bench is dipped in 24-karat gold and the marks are injection scars.

Two recent events, however, are enough to refresh one's faith-because they're reminders that the game exists beyond the sport; that its history reaches past the margins of the MLB, or even, for that matter, America…and that there's still plenty of room ahead for real and remarkable change.

On November 16, the Kobe 9 Cruise of Japan's new Kansai Independent League drafted an unlikely prospect: 5'0", 114-pound Eri Yoshida would have been a jaw-dropping choice even if she weren't a 16-year-old schoolgirl, and the nation's first-ever female to play in a men's professional league.

Two days later, on this side of the Pacific, the Seattle Mariners announced they'd chosen a new helmsman: Don Wakamatsu, the first Asian American ever hired as a major-league manager. His pick was as solid as Yoshida's was surprising; a journeyman catcher and veteran coach, Wakamatsu is considered a brilliant student of the game. The real question, perhaps, is why it took so long for him to get his chance: A contender to manage the A's and the Texas Rangers, he lost out narrowly both times.

What a crock. You say you are a lifelong fan who has been turned off by recent developments in baseball from the 1994 strike, to the overpaid players to the steroids. I know you are not alone as many many fans feel the same way. But the two issues that will bring you back to the game are a fourth-generation Japanese-American who is now the manager of one of the worst teams in the league, and a 16-year old publicity stunt in some minor-league team in Japan? This is what is bringing you back? Does a story have to involve Asians in order for you to notice? I'm so tired of this attitude. This is almost as bad as, I'm not interested in baseball anymore because Kim Ng isn't a GM.

So you bash the selection of a GM because he's not an Asian woman and then turn around a week later and celebrate the fact that this same GM hired a Japanese-American manager? Such hypocrisy.

As for being a disillusioned baseball fan, Hideo Nomo didn't bring you back? Not Ichiro, Not Daisuke, Not Fukudome, Not Iwamura? Not The Tampa Bay Rays? But a 16-year old publicity stunt gives you renewed faith in the game of baseball? Ridiculous.

Your comparision of Yoshida and Kenichi Zenimura is comical. Kenichi was lightning fast and played in an era where speed and guile dominated the game instead of size and power. And he was a man! A 60mph knuckleball thrown by a girl would get absolutely crushed by even college players. This is a publicity stunt to get attention for a new league. No different then when the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning recruited Manon Rheaume in a pre-season game. She took a few pucks to the head and quickly went away. The difference between men and women in sports is astronomical.

Baseball is a wonderful game in all of its forms. It's true that MLB might not be to your liking because of the ongoing problems (which by the way I don't consider as problems) but there are many other forms. There's minor league baseball all over California. There's college baseball with Fresno State's incredible run to the title last year. Or even the Little League World Series where kids from Hawaii won for the first time ever. All these are wonderful stories that should have brought you back into the game it you weren't back already.

Baseball, as old fashioned as it is, cannot be accused of discrimination. Yes the Negro League was unfortunate but those were the times. Since then, baseball has been a pioneer in welcoming blacks, latinos and asians without any fanfare. Blacks in the 50s, Latinos in the 60s and Asians in the 90s.

If you really really needed a hard-on and wanted to talk about an Asian baseball story, the most important development in the past few weeks is the Pirates signing two Indian pitchers. This is a much more important development because MLB would be marketing in a new area of the world (Selling Willie Stargell caps in Mumbai) and these guys were scouted and have fantastic arms. A 16-year old Japanese girl throwing a knuckleball? Come on....