19. februar 2006 [...] ZüRICH/SINGAPUR · Die Zinssteuer, welche die Schweiz im Juli 2005 auf Druck der EU einführt, leitet einen Exodus aus der Schweiz ein: Immer mehr Reiche und Superreiche aus Europa verlagern ihr Vermögen nach Singapur. Sie ärgert nicht nur, dass die Schweiz ihnen einen Teil ihres Zinsgewinns abzieht und an ihren Heimatstaat überweist, sie fürchten auch, dass das Schweizer Bankgeheimnis immer löchriger wird.

Tatsächlich fliessen zum Beispiel auf dem Weg der informellen Amtshilfe zunehmend Informationen aus der Schweiz an ausländische Behörden, ohne dass die Betroffenen sich dagegen wehren könnten. Der Abfluss europäischer Gelder aus der Schweiz nach Singapur ist beträchtlich. So wurden in den letzten Jahren selbst von kleineren Banken wie der Julius Bär oder der Bank Sarasin Milliardenbeträge deutscher und italienischer Kunden nach Singapur verschoben.
Credit Suisse betreut im asiatischen Stadtstaat umgerechnet 6 Milliarden Franken an Vermögenswerten allein aus Europa, wie das «Wall Street Journal» dieser Tage enthüllt hat. UBS verwalte in Singapur rund 4 Milliarden Dollar Vermögen von Kunden in Europa. Die Banken wollen diese Zahlen nicht kommentieren.

Credit Suisse hat in Singapur gar einen speziellen «Eurodesk» aufgebaut, wo vielsprachige Berater Kunden in Europa bis gegen Mitternacht Lokalzeit in der jeweiligen Muttersprache bedienen.

Schweizer Banken verwalten derzeit rund 30 Prozent der weltweiten Vermögen, die sich ausserhalb ihrer Heimmärkte und damit im Bänklerjargon «offshore» befinden. Seit Singapur im Jahr 2001 ein Bankgeheimnis nach dem Muster der Schweiz und Liechtensteins geschaffen hat, gilt die Stadt als beste Alternative zur Schweiz.
Der Stadtstaat, der wie seinerzeit die Schweiz auf seine Unabhängigkeit pocht, muss weder eine Zinssteuer an die EU abliefern, noch ist er Mitglied der OECD, die ihren Druck auf den Finanzplatz Schweiz stetig erhöht hat.

[...]

http://www.sonntagszeitung.ch/dyn/account/smd/archiv_suche.html

january 20, 2006 [...] So, Gridskippertells us about this photographer named Ellen Jong. Like all of us, she urinates every day. Unlike most of us, she gets photographed doing it … all over the world. The fruits of her labor are now available in a hardcover coffee table book entitled Pees on Earth: A Pissin’ Mission. The book comes out in May — you can pre-order it from Amazon. Why are we telling you this? Is Shanghaiist consumed by bizarre Bitter Moon-esque fetishes? Not as far as you know. It’s just that at least one of Jong’s photos was taken in Shanghai, a city where every person with a camera has at least one photo of a person pissing in public. We used to shake our heads at this practice … but now we know it’s art! [...]

http://www.shanghaiist.com/archives/2006/01/20/woman_pisses_in.php

by the bbc's daniel lak, december 2001 [...] Nepal's worst disaster of its horrible year was the massacre of eight members of the royal family on 1 June.... A government inquiry later found that he had turned a gun on himself soon after shooting his father King Birendra, his mother Queen Aishwarya, his sister and brother, uncles and aunts.... No one who was in Nepal at the time will ever forget the sense of doom and grief that seethed through a shocked population on the morning of 2 June. [...]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1729511.stm

november 4, 2005 [...] Sure, Zen gardens, sushi and the Sony Walkman are great, but the greatest Japanese invention of all time has to be the love hotel. In the concrete wasteland of the modern Japanese city, the love hotel stands out as a refreshingly off-the-wall escape from conformity, a monument to hedonism, and a libertine's paradise. It's also a godsend when you're tired of taking your girlfriend back to your gaijin apartment with its half-inch plywood walls and nosy neighbours. Nearly every foreigner in Japan has a love hotel story to tell and number of Japanese people who were conceived in one must be enormous. [...]

http://www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~edjacob/hotels.html

october 22, 2005 [...] Former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui, who knows a thing or two about replacing dictatorship with freedom and democracy, urged the West to be on alert as China grows in economic strength and not to tolerate its aggression and human rights abuses.
...As long as the capital from free countries continues to pour into China, China’s already oppressive practices will become more entrenched and the ensuing and everexpanding militarism will make the likelihood of transition to a peaceful country ever more unlikely.
...If China insists on maintaining its one-party dictatorship, if it continues to exploit and suppress its people at home and expand its military threats against its democratic neighbours, then China will retain its current status and we will continue to witness the rise of a militarist hegemony.
...Free nations must develop and strengthen their global and regional cooperation in both supporting the people of China in their struggle for freedom and democracy as well as taking measures to stop Chinese acts of oppression and aggression. [...]

http://www.pekingduck.org/archives/003042.php

von patricia engelhorn, 22. oktober [...] Die jetzt noch eine eher beschauliche, offiziell nach Ho Chi Minh benannte Stadt mit nostalgischem Charme entwickelt sich zur Mega-Metropole Vietnams
.... dass Ho Chi Minh City nicht mehr für das verwunschene Indochina aus Graham Greenes «Der stille Amerikaner» steht, sondern zu einer dynamischen Acht-Millionen-Einwohner-Metropole geworden ist. [...]

http://www.welt.de/data/2005/10/22/791957.html

von johannes francke, 21. oktober 2005: Gebucht wird All-Inclusive mit Doppelzimmer für 314 Euro: einmal Nordkorea in fünf Tagen. Zu sehen gibt es leere Strassen, stalinistische Protzbauten und wenig Pärchen. Eine Pauschalreise von Peking nach Pyongyang. [...] Vor den Schaltern des Pekinger Hauptbahnhofs stehen die Reiselustigen drei Stunden Schlange, der Schwarzmarkthandel mit echten und gefälschten Tickets floriert ...
...Irgendwann am fünften Tag fährt der kleine japanische Bus mit den chinesischen Touristen plötzlich nicht mehr zum nächsten Kim-Denkmal, sondern zum Flughafen. Die zu Beginn der Reise abgenommenen Handys und Pässe werden zurückgegeben ... [...]

http://www.stern.de/lifestyle/reise/fernreisen/:Nordkorea-Pauschalreise-Stacheldraht/548132.html

kathmandu, october 21 (reuters) [...] Nepal banned imports of poultry from the 25 nations of the European Union on Friday over fears that the deadly avian flu could reach the tourism- and aid-dependent Himalayan kingdom, an official said.
Nepal imports about half a million live birds for breeding a year, about 10 percent of them from European nations, he said. [...]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/B282339.htm

october 21, 2005 [...] Reporters Without Borders today called on the Chinese authorities to stop blocking accessing to the website of the independent online encyclopedia Wikipedia, whose popularity has been growing steadily in China.

...This latest online censorship paradoxically comes at a moment when China is openly raising the issue of democracy by publishing its first white paper entitled “The construction of political democracy in China” on 19 October.

The authorities are censoring Wikipedia in the same way that they censor thousands of websites with information that strays from the official Chinese propaganda on certain issues as Tibet and human rights in China.

Internet users trying to visit the Wikipedia site since 18 October get an error message referring to temporary connection problems for unknown reasons. [...]

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15374

october 21, 2005 [...] The father of Australian model Michelle Leslie denies his daughter is a drug user.... "As far I know, Michelle has never been a drug user of any kind - not even a headache or cold tablet," Mr Leslie told News Ltd newspapers. Leslie, 24, will face trial next Friday, October 28, on the Indonesian island of Bali after she was arrested for ecstasy possession two months ago. The former underwear model was arrested in August when Bali police allegedly found two tablets of the designer drug in her handbag during a sweep at a rave party in the hills near Kuta.... Leslie's mother Violie told News Ltd she was devastated and sick to the stomach on the day she leaned of her daughter's arrest.... They have not visited her in Bali because Leslie does not want them to see her in the grim Kerobokan jail cell. [...]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Models-father-denies-she-uses-drugs/2005/10/21/1129775965977.html