Busan News for Monday, March 15th, 2010

Suspect in Busan Middle School Girl Rape & Murder Case Confesses

The police have reported that 김길태, the suspect in the recent kidnap and murder of a middle-school girl, has confessed to part of the crimes yesterday including dumping the body and the possibility of kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder.  The police have attempted to secure an official statement from 김길태 that he committed the crimes of kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder.

Busan News for Friday, March 12th, 2010

Busan Citizens’ Health at a Critical State

Reports show that the number of patients suffering from 5 major later-in-life diseases, including high-blood pressure, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, arteriosclerosis, and cardiac disorders has increased by about 140 thousand in the period from 2005 to 2009.

Busan already had the highest mortality rate in the country for circulatory organ diseases and ranked 2nd in deaths caused by cancer and endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases in 2008.

Such figures have given Busan the unwelcome title as the “city of diseases,” and reconfirmed the belief that the health condition of local citizens is at a critical level.

World’s richest man shares thoughts…

William Henry Gates III better known as “Bill Gates” is the world’s richest man (at least for now) according to Fortune Magazine.  Many people are fascinated about the man who’s accrued more wealth than anyone else for most of the years Fortune has compiled their list for the past 20 or so years.  I’ll admit I also wonder what the richest person in the world thinks and wonder if what he says and thinks that may inspire me to do the same.

So, where can we find these profound thoughts?  He wrote “The Road Ahead” in 1995.  So, here’s the first chance beyond his emails and communication to his coworkers and friends that the public could read about what he was thinking.  He followed up in 1999 with “Business @ the Speed of Thought. ”  Of course Gates is profiled in the media quite often, but since that’s unpredictable when he’ll be quoted, there’s a few other ways to follow this very successful individual.

Busan News for Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

R & D District to be established in Busan for Materials Industry

The city of Busan has confirmed plans to construct a special district for research and development for the parts and materials industry.

 The city is preparing to designate 57.4 square kilometers to the district from different western areas, including the Busan-Jinhae Free Economy Zone or BJFEZ, the 강서 high-tech industry logistics city, 동아 University, 신라 University and the 녹산 industrial complex.The city is planning to set up organzing and pratical affairs committees with help from the BJFEZ, the Busan Development Institute, the Southeast Economy Institute and the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology or KITECH.

Busan News for Monday, March 8th, 2010

Middle School Student Murder in Busan

Now that the body of the missing middle school girl,  Lee, has been found in Busan, police are concentrating their full efforts on arresting the murder suspect.

 Lee’s body was found around 9:30 pm on the 6th in a water tank on the roof of a one-story house only 50 meters from her house.

 She was stripped naked and her clothes and shoes were placed in a plastic bag and hidden under lime powder and construction tiles in the tank.

Busan News for Friday, March 5th, 2010

Accident Rate in Busan is the Highest among 7 Largest Korean Cities

Reports show that Busan has the highest rate of death by accidents of the 7 largest cities in the country and the economic loss from those deaths amounts to more than 1 trillion 11 billion won.

The results were revealed through a diagnosis of the safety of local communities and were presented by a team led by professor 배정이. The analysis, which is based on 2008, showed that accidents killed nearly 60 out of every 1 thousand people in Busan, compared to 45.5 in Seoul, 49.7 in Ulsan, 57.1 in Daegu, and 57.3 in Incheon.

Busan News for Thursday, March 4th, 2010

East Busan Tourism Complex Sites to be Sold

Sites at the DongBusan tourism complex will be will be divided and sold separatedly now that the project has been delayed for a short time due to a lack of investors. The Busan Metropolitan Corporation said that it is hard to more forward with the project because it has yet to draw in a massive resource of capital. The corporation said that it would find investors by slicing up the complex into individual units and facilities. The entertainment and beach zones will be divided into 185 square meters plots first and investors will be sought after until the 25th. This new tactic has increased the voices of concern about the project now that it is proceeding in a way without unity.

Busan to the North Pole: Discussions Start

Busan News for Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Plans to Enhance Gaming Industry in Busan

The city of Busan is coming up with a plan to boost the gaming industry.

The plan is aimed at building a “2020 game industry center city” that will generate 1 trillion won in sales.

It contains initiatives to attract major domestic players and global research and development teams as well as ramp up local game businesses to the status of a major complex with an investment of 420 billion won.

In particular, the “Busan Culture Contents Complex,” which is being built in Centum City, will be the center for development and integration for the local gaming industry.

The city is also considering plans to draw in a branch center to develop game contents and solutions and create models for the game industry and the global industry of cooperation.

In addition, the successful international game fair, “G-Star,” will be held regularly and an international game machine certification center for exporting arcade games will be launched at Dongseo University.

10 Most Famous Twitters

I haven’t caught on fully in terms of Tweets or Twitter, but it does seem quite interesting to see some of the most famous people including the richest man on the planet talking to me and you and you and you.

Yes, they’re talking to all of us via twitter.  Not everyone’s jumped on, but these are the 10 most famous that I arbitrarily decided are tweeting today.

• Britney Spears @ http://twitter.com/britneyspears
  • Supposedly, she has the 2nd most followers in the Twitter Universe currently, but the twitter account seems more like her management company than her
• Lady Gaga @ http://twitter.com/ladygaga
  • 10th highest number of followers on Twitter
• Lil Wayne @ http://twitter.com/liltunechi
  • while Lil Wayne doesn’t have the traffic now, he’s recently jumped on and if he continues to tweet, I predict he’ll be up there eventually (this story on billboard.com talks about how Lil Wayne jumped on the Twitter bandwagon)
• John Mayer @ http://twitter.com/johncmayer
  • 6th most followed Twitter account
• Bill Gates @ http://twitter.com/billgates
  • MSNBC, a division of his own company verifies that the real Bill Gates did join Twitter.  The latest tweets seem quite real if you read them.  

Busan News for Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Busan Mayor Huh Nam Sik

Dredging up the Nakdong River

The project to dredge the Nakdong river has hit a snag because of the clay composition of the soil at the site.

According to the city of Busan, results from a geological survey showed that 10 of 13 samples take from a 3.8 kilometer section of the surface layer turned out to be clay.

Clay was also discovered in another 3 samples take from depths below 9 meters.

This is a problem because the dredged soil cannot be moved to the Meongji International Business City because of its weak foundation.

If the soil has to be used elsewhere, transportation costs would soar, putting the company in increased financial hardship.

Busan News for Monday, March 1st, 2010

Today’s Samil Jul (삼일절), a national holiday here in Korea.  So, the staff downstairs at KNN aren’t here to write some Busan specific news for all of you to read.  So, I scoured the Internet for any “Busan” specific news stories.  Not much was available today unfortunately.

S Korean ex-convict hopes to visit Japan

(from Japan Today)

A South Korean man, who served time in a Japanese prison for the murders of two gangsters in 1968, said he hopes to make a return visit to Japan to pay his respects at his mother’s grave. Kim Hui Ro, 81, who was released on parole in 1999 and currently lives in Busan, South Korea, said he plans to file a request with the Japanese government around March seeking permission for a visit.