■CHINA
Sculptor ‘rams’ Madoff
A sculptor has created a critical commentary on capitalism in the wake of the global financial crisis in a work that shows a springing, farting bull ramming a horned Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff against a wall. The work by Chen Wenling (陳文令) entitled What You See May Not Be Real is on display in the 798 Art District of Beijing. The muscle-bound bull, symbolizing Wall Street, appears to be rocket-propelled as clouds billow out behind it.
■MYANMAR
Suu Kyi meets junta official
Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi held talks yesterday with a junta official, the second such meeting within a week following her call for a new era of cooperation, official sources said. The unannounced meeting between Suu Kyi and Relations Minister Aung Kyi was taking place at a government guest house near her lakeside home in Yangon, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Details of the talks were not immediately known. The meetings follow a letter Suu Kyi sent late last month to junta chief Senior General Than Shwe. In it, she said she is willing to cooperate with the junta in having international sanctions lifted and proposed that she meet with Western diplomats to discuss the measures, her National League for Democracy party said.
■NORTH KOREA
Kim Jong-un takes post
The youngest son of leader Kim Jong-il, 67, has been given a post in the ruling Communist Party in preparation for his eventual takeover of the leadership, a South Korean lawmaker said on Tuesday. Kim Jong-un is expected to be officially named as successor to his father some time between next year and 2012, Legislator Yoon Sang-Hyun of the ruling Grand National Party said. “The son has taken on a deputy director-level position in the Workers Party of Korea,” he said, citing a confidential report he received from South Korean government officials. The elder Kim is widely thought to be grooming his third son Jong-un as successor, but the secretive state has disclosed no information on Jong-un or any succession plan.
■THAILAND
Groups call for climate deal
Killer typhoons and floods in Asia over the past week have provided a timely “wake-up call” for world leaders to push through a new climate deal in December in Copenhagen, international humanitarian relief agencies said on Tuesday. “In the past week, the world has witnessed again how vulnerable, poor families in the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and India are bearing the brunt of climate change,” said Richard Rumsey, World Vision’s director of disaster risk reduction and community resilience. UN statistics show nearly nine of every 10 natural disasters are now weather-related, and their frequency and intensity are on the rise. “We’ve seen an increase in weather-related disasters from 200 [per annum] in the 1990s to 350 since the year 2000,” said Madeleen Helmer, head of the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Center. Rumsey said research conducted by the UN indicated that every US$1 spent on disaster risk reduction saves nearly US$7 in emergency response funds.
■GERMANY
Farm wins coffee pot record
A German farm declared victory on Monday in a bizarre race to acquire the world’s largest collection of old china coffee pots, saying the Guinness Book of World Records had certified it as the winner with 13,267. Karl’s Farm, which offers fields of pick-your-own strawberries, restaurants and children’s playgrounds, had appealed to visitors to search their attics for old china sets and to donate the pots. The porcelain is now arrayed on every available wall at the visitor attraction in the small town of Roevershagen near Rostock. Karl’s said the previous top collection in the Records Book numbered 5,014. None of the pots are allowed to be duplicates. The collection was begun by the strawberry farm owner, who ran out of home space when the collection became too large. A Karl’s spokesman said donors would be invited to a free coffee party to celebrate.
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