Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
April 2, 2018
South Korean K-Pop singers to perform in North Korea
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea sent a 160-member artistic
delegation to North Korea, including about 10 popular K-Pop singers, on March
31. A joint statement issued after the two Koreas made the agreement said the
South Korean artistic group’s visit to Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, would
last through April 4 and feature two performances. The development occurred
during a thaw in the North Korean nuclear crisis. A North Korean band
performed in South Korea during the recently ended PyeongChang Winter
Olympics. The South Korean delegation includes some of the country’s most
celebrated singers, including Cho Yong-pil, Lee Sunhee, and Cho Jin Hee, who
performed in Pyongyang during a previous era of detente. Popular girl band Red
Velvet is also among the South Korean groups.
Papuan teen dies hours after release from Indonesia jail
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A spokesman for the family of a Papuan
teenager who died after 24 hours in Indonesian police custody said the
17-year-old had multiple bruises and injuries, and that it did not accept the
explanation he died of alcohol poisoning. Rico Ayomi died March 13 just hours
after police returned him to his family after holding him in custody for alleged
theft. According to police, they had rescued him from an angry mob in the coastal
West Papua city of Sorong. A photo released by police showed the dead teenager
with a container of 70 percent alcohol beside him. The leader of the Sorong Youth
and Student Association, Simon Soren, who is representing Ayomi’s family, said
police officers returned Ayomi to his family home unable to stand or speak.
Tahiti loses rugby qualifier over ineligible players
SYDNEY (AP) — Tahiti’s 13-9 win over the Cook Islands in a Rugby World
Cup qualifier has been overturned because Tahiti used two ineligible players,
meaning the Cook Islands will proceed to the next round of qualifying for next
year’s tournament in Japan. World Rugby said in a statement that followed a
request from the Cook Islands Rugby Union, it investigated claims that the
Tahiti Rugby Union had used the ineligible players during the match in
Rarotonga on August 4, 2017. It said independent judicial officer Tim Gresson of
New Zealand determined that the Tahiti Rugby Union had breached regulations
because neither player had family ties to Tahiti or had fulfilled three-year
residency requirements to make them eligible to play. With Cook Islands
declared the winner, they will now play the winner of the Asia Rugby
Championship in the Cook Islands on June 30, and the return leg on July 7.
Malaysia, South Korea, and Hong Kong will play in the Asia Rugby
Championship, a four-match round-robin tournament ending in early June.
Ban on Filipinos going to work in Kuwait stays as talks fail
MANILA, The Philippines (AP) — A Filipino official says the Philippines and
Kuwait have failed to conclude a migrant labor protection pact after two days of
talks sparked by the February discovery of a dead Filipina housemaid in an
apartment freezer there. Labor secretary Silvestre Bello III told reporters that a
ban on Filipino workers going to Kuwait will continue indefinitely after
negotiators failed to conclude a labor pact after the talks in Manila. They agreed
to hold more talks later. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said the ban
won’t be lifted until Filipino workers are given better protection in Kuwait and
justice is served for the death of the woman, Joana Demafelis.
Thailand drafting plans to regulate, tax cryptocurrencies
BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s cabinet has agreed to draft a law to oversee
cryptocurrency trading, seeking to tax the largely unregulated market.
Government spokesman Nathporn Chatusripitak said the Ministry of Finance
also proposed the new regulations to help prevent the use of digital currencies in
money laundering and fraud. He said details of the proposed regulations would
be announced soon. In February, Thailand’s central bank issued a circular
asking financial institutions to not handle transactions involving cryptocur-
rencies. Across Asia, governments have been belatedly moving to exert control
over bitcoin exchanges and other fast-growing cryptocurrency-related activities.
India sends notice to Facebook over alleged data breach
NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s government has sent a notice to Facebook asking
whether the personal data of Indian voters and users has been compromised by
U.K.-based Cambridge Analytica or any other downstream entity. A similar
notice was dispatched to Cambridge Analytica following media reports that it
had misused data to profile Indians and influence their elections. The
government set an early April deadline for Cambridge Analytica and April 7 for
Facebook to respond to its inquiry. Facebook is facing unprecedented scrutiny
following reports that the data-mining firm used ill-gotten data from tens of
millions of its users to try to influence elections. India’s Ministry of Electronics
and Information Technology said in a statement that Facebook has its largest
footprint in India in terms of its user base and sought to know “what proactive
measures it is taking to ensure the safety, security, and privacy of such large
user data and to prevent its misuse by any third party.” The governing
Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition Congress Party have accused
each other of utilizing the services of the British company, but denied any link
with it. Cambridge Analytica’s allegedly unauthorized harvesting of Facebook
data and a series of leaks linked to India’s biometric database has refocused
public attention on digital privacy in the country. Digital law experts say Indian
regulations offered particularly weak safeguards against data breach.
BOOK BUS. Afghan children read books inside a bus library in Kabul, Afghanistan. From sunrise to sunset, the bus
drives around Kabul’s neighborhoods, stopping in each place for a couple of hours at a time. The mobile library was the
initiative of 25-year-old Freshta Karim, who wanted to give Kabul’s children something badly missing in her own childhood
— a chance to widen one’s horizons, free of the shadow of war and poverty. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Library on wheels brings
joy of books to Afghan kids
By Rahim Faiez
The Associated Press
ABUL, Afghanistan — The children of
Kabul love the blue bus — they rush
toward it every time it pulls into their
street, eager to come onboard, their young eyes
brimming with excitement.
But it’s no ordinary bus. Its name is
Charmaghz, the Dari word for Walnut, and it’s
a library on wheels — the first such enterprise
in Afghanistan’s war-battered capital.
Inside the bus are rows of neatly stacked
books for children, hundreds of them in both
Dari and Pashto, the two main languages in
Afghanistan. And small tables and stools for
the kids to sit on as they discover the joys of
reading.
From sunrise to sunset, the bus drives
around Kabul’s neighborhoods, stopping in
each place for a couple of hours at a time.
The library was the initiative of Freshta
Karim, a 25-year-old who recently earned her
master’s degree in public policy from the
University of Oxford, England. She wanted to
give Kabul’s children something badly missing
in her own childhood — a chance to widen
one’s horizons, free of the shadow of war and
poverty.
The idea came to her two years ago, Karim
said, when she was hosting a small reading
club for children at her home. She thought
about ways to expand the project and bring
reading opportunities to more children in the
city.
“I don’t know how many of us can really
forget the pain that the war has given us.
Maybe children are too young to think about it,
but I still feel that they realize it,” she said. “I
hope a program like this can give them an
K
opportunity to forget those things.”
Just weeks into the project, she was thrilled
by the kids’ fondness for the bus.
“We were not expecting so much love from
the people and such acceptance, I am so
amazed,” she said.
Karim said few people her age remember
going to libraries as kids, the war had deprived
them of so much. According to Save the
Children, nearly a third of all Afghan children
are unable to attend school, leaving them at
increased risk of child labor, recruitment by
armed groups, early marriage, and other
forms of exploitation.
“Many schools even don’t have buildings,”
Karim said. “Talking about a library is a
luxury.”
On a recent day in her western Kabul
neighborhood of Kart-e-Char, 11-year-old
Marwa could hardly wait for the bus to turn
the corner of the road so she could see it, run,
and jump in — and start reading.
“The first day I came on the bus, I was so
happy that I didn’t want to leave and go home,”
Marwa said, smiling.
She wants to know more about everything —
her homeland and the world, she says.
Karim and her team believe it’s important
for the children to choose the books that appeal
to them freely and keep reading. It’s the best
way to develop critical thinking, she said —
and hopefully also a step toward combatting
Afghanistan’s 62-percent illiteracy rate.
The blue bus, decorated with colorful
paintings to appeal to the young ones, was
provided by the transportation ministry. All
the books have been donated by different
organizations or individuals. The donations
also pay for the fuel that keeps the wheels
Continued on page 4
Affordable Quality Retirement Living
for Seniors 62 years and older
Alberta Simmons Plaza
6611 NE Martin Luther King Blvd
Portland, Oregon 97211
503 . 240 . 4198
. One–Bedroom Apartments with Full
Sized Kitchens and Living Areas
. Planned Activities, Laundry Facility,
Conference & Meeting Room,
Elevator and Library
. Conveniently Located to Shopping,
Restaurants, Pharmacy and
Medical Offices
Asian Currency
Exchange Rates
Units per U.S. dollar as of 3/30
Bangladesh Taka· ·
Cambodian Riel · ·
China Renminbi · ·
Fijian Dollar · · · ·
Hong Kong Dollar ·
Indian Rupee · · · ·
Indonesian Rupiah ·
Iranian Rial · · · ·
Japanese Yen · · ·
Laos New Kip · · ·
Malaysian Ringgit ·
Nepal Rupee · · · ·
Pakistani Rupee · ·
Papua N.G. Kina · ·
Philippine Peso· · ·
Russian Ruble · · ·
Saudi Riyal· · · · ·
Singapore Dollar · ·
South Korean Won ·
Sri Lankan Rupee ·
Taiwan Dollar · · ·
Thai Baht · · · · ·
Vietnam Dong · · ·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
83.017
3994.5
6.2755
2.04
7.8488
65.121
13728
37765
106.28
8297.0
3.8635
104.39
115.71
3.2301
52.2
57.341
3.7501
1.3115
1063.6
155.7
29.11
31.181
22621