Talk of the Streets

TOKYO: In a shocking departure from Japan's usual civility, ethnic-Korean schoolchildren are being victimized by racist assaults and taunts, apparently in reprisal for North Korea's intransigence over nuclear inspections. Last Monday evening, a 17-year-old female student at a Tokyo high school run by Chongryun, a North Korean residents' association, was riding home when a young man tried to push her off her bicycle. The assailant then slashed her school uniform with a pair of scissors. That assault was one of more than 120 verbal or physical attacks reported in Japan by Chongryun since April. Though Japanese police put the total much lower, the issue has alarmed Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata, who condemned the incidents as "intolerable." Said a 78-year- old Korean woman who has lived in Japan for more than 70 years: "These attacks are crazy. Those children have committed no crimes. If the Japanese people want to protest against the North Korean regime, they should do so openly." Most Japanese are also dismayed. Said Sadako Nakano, 49, an accountant and mother: "I wonder why such an ordinary young man did such a nasty thing to an innocent girl."

SYDNEY: Jubilant in September when Sydney beat out Beijing for the 2000 Olympics, Australians are still looking for an organizer to mount the spectacle. As of last week, two handpicked candidates had turned down the top job, both saying their existing employers offered generous pay raises to keep them. Many critics feel the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games flubbed by offering bronze-medal remuneration -- $292,000 a year -- for a gold-medal job. Others are aghast that the honor of the position is apparently not incentive enough. Said salesman Charlie Perkiss: "They must start looking for someone who believes in the Olympic spirit."

HYERES: The investigation into the February murder of French legislator and anticrime crusader Yann Piat near this southern city took a new twist last week. Shortly after her murder by two motorcycle-riding gunmen, police had collared two thugs who worked as musclemen for Piat's political rivals. A probe of the local political milieu then resulted in charges of corruption against several officials. Last week police dropped murder charges against the original suspects and arrested Lucien Ferri, 22, who has confessed to firing the fatal shots, and Marco Di Caro, 21, who admitted driving the motorcycle. This opens a fresh investigation into the presumption that the masterminds of the slaying were not Piat's political opponents but drug dealers linked to the local Mafia. "If the police keep digging with what they've got," said a Hyeres cafe owner, "we won't be finished with this for years!"

PADUA: Four imposters masquerading as Italian police freed six inmates from the Due Palazzi prison last week -- making a mockery of the facility's maximum-security status. Permitted to enter by an inexperienced guard, the foursome -- two of whom wore jackets with CARABINIERI written across the back -- snatched keys from the janitor's office, took one guard hostage, tied up 15 others. They then unlocked the cells of six prisoners, including Felice Maniero, an alleged Mafia boss, and his lieutenant, Sergio Baron, both on trial for drug trafficking and armed robbery. Escaping in two cars through an electronically controlled security gate, the gang dropped off its hostage -- then vanished. Said one Paduan: "They made monkeys out of the police, the prison guards, everyone."