Talk of the Streets

MUNICH: Last Friday's magazine section of the Suddeutsche Zeitung tried to bring the violence done to women in war right into 520,000 readers' homes. American artist Jenny Holzer used blood donated by eight German and Yugoslav women volunteers in her design for the cover, a black page with a white card glued to it carrying the sanguinolent message: "Anywhere women are dying, I am wide awake." Many found the approach too sensational: "Repulsive and absurd," was the response of Peter Heimer at the German Red Cross. But Hamburg fashion designer Wolfgang Joop, a financial backer of the project, asked, "What times are these when a single sentence printed in blood donated by volunteers shocks more than the incessant flood of pictures showing real bloodshed?"

TOKYO: For Masaichi and Mieko Hattori, the 15 minutes with President Clinton were necessary to ensure that their son had not died in vain. Most Japanese were outraged and bewildered in 1992 after a homeowner in Louisiana shot Yoshihiro, a 16-year-old exchange student; the man who did it was acquitted of manslaughter. The Hattoris pinned a Coalition to Stop Gun Violence sticker on Clinton. Public sentiment in Japan strongly supports the couple.

MOSCOW: Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, claiming that 40% of crimes in the capital are committed by people from former Soviet republics, ordered them to register with the police and pay a daily levy of 800 rubles, about 66 U.S. cents but equal to one-tenth of the Russian minimum monthly wage. Those who fail to register and pay will be fined as much as 500,000 rubles and deported. A widespread animosity was displayed by many Muscovites. "Those buggers are so packed with dough that these fines won't stop them," said one local worker.

CARTAGENA: This year's Miss Colombia pageant set tongues wagging over statistics other than the usual vital ones. The ruckus began with whispers that a contestant, Catherine Sanchez Hernandez, was secretly married and therefore ineligible. The current Miss Amazon issued a denial -- "I would never falsify my marital status because after all I am studying law" -- but resigned after the priest who performed her wedding ceremony appeared with certificate in hand. She was not studying law; she wasn't even from the Amazon region. In fact, only nine of the 25 contestants were born in the departments they represented. La Prensa concluded that Sanchez's resignation "ends up being the only nonbogus aspect of the entire pageant."

ATHENS: After noticing a Volkswagen van parked on Mythimnis Street for three days, a resident called police. Two men arrested at the scene turned out to be U.S. diplomats, and the contents of the van included a wig, a 9-mm Browning pistol and radio transmitters. The snoopers were arrested, questioned and, thanks to their diplomatic immunity, whisked out of the country 24 hours later. Greek journalists speculated that the diplomats were investigating activities of the Nov. 17 terrorist organization, which claims to have killed 10 victims of various nationalities, including diplomats and a U.S. serviceman, since 1975. Local architect Dmitris Papadopoulos was unsurprised by the discovery: "It is an agreement between the Greeks and the Americans to find the terrorists."

U.S. President Bill Clinton looks at pictures of Japanese exchange student Yoshihiro Hattori Tuesday November 16, 1993 at the White House as his parents, Mieko, right, and Masaichi Hattori, center, look on. Yoshihiro Hattori was shot and killed by a homeowner who mistook him for a robber. The Hattoris appealed to Americans to get guns off the streets and end the spreading terror which led to the death of their son last year.