Quotes of the Day
Person of the Week
As president of strife-torn Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai is on the hit lists of some of the world's most dangerous warlords and terrorists. On Thursday, Karzai narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Kandahar, just hours after a car bomb killed 30 people in Kabul. Karzai later remarked, "I expect things like this to happen."
Verbatim
"We go from summit to summit but our peoples go from abyss to abyss."
HUGO CHAVEZ,
President of Venezuela, discussing the failings of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg
"Iraq is like a runaway freight train loaded with explosives barreling toward us."
BOB DOLE,
former Senate Majority Leader, on the necessity of confronting Iraq
"We may be poor and experiencing severe food shortages, but we aren't ready to expose our people to ill-defined risks."
LEVY MWANAWASA,
President of Zambia, refusing U.S. food aid because the grain is genetically modified
"I am already the Golden God. How can I step down that far?"
ROBERT PLANT,
former Led Zeppelin frontman, on whether he would accept a knighthood
Numbers
104 days is how long a U.S. man spent riding a roller coaster—10 hours daily with five-minute breaks each hour—to beat his previous world record
568,902 South Korean schoolchildren had contracted conjunctivitis as of last Friday following high humidity and rainfall in August, government officials report; 699 schools closed due to the outbreak
52% of all people disciplined in the U.K. for workplace infractions were punished for e-mail and Net-related abuses, two-thirds of them involving porn, says an industry study
15 young girls from the streets of Calcutta will be invited to live in Hollywood actress Melanie Griffith's home as a philanthropic gesture, the actress announced at a charity dinner in France
600 tons of chemical agents might be stockpiled in Iraq, say U.N. weapons experts
170 choirs worldwide will mark the Sept. 11 anniversary by performing Mozart's Requiem at 8:46 a.m. in each of the earth's 24 time zones
Omen
Following the recent abduction and murder of two 10-year-old girls in England, a cybernetics expert offered to implant tracking microchips in children so they can be located if they're abducted
Trend Alert
Boot Up, Urban Cowboy
By KATE DRAKE/Hong Kong
The deer and antelope are still less than abundant, but when it comes to fashion, Hong Kong is now at home on the range. Cowboy boots and fringe-covered suede boots are suddenly hotter than Death Valley in August. Local magazine Fashion & Beauty recently ran a full page story flogging the new style, and retailers are finding it difficult to keep their shelves stocked. Local store i.t, which started carrying Western-style boots in July, sold out its first shipment of over 1,000 pairs in just two weeks. Zarina Kitchell, divisional merchandise manager of Joyce Boutique, which has outlets in China and Taiwan as well as Hong Kong, says the popularity of the boots reflects a yearning to stand out from the herd: 'Customers look for something new. The hip ones want something other than just a regular pair of boots.' The trend is more rooted in Italy than Arizona. According to Shanghai Tang's international marketing manager Joanne Ooi, buckskin, fringes and cowboy boots are the latest twist on the 'motorcycle chic' look engineered by Gucci and Nicolas Ghesquiere a few years back. 'There is a Western vibe in fashion now. (Designers) are looking to the Wild West for inspiration.' Giddy up!
- For the Week of September 16, 2002