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Seoul, South Korea -- East Asian cities like Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore, where high standards of public security are maintained, are relatively safe from the threat of car bombing. Car bombing has developed mainly as a unique weapon of desperation in the hands, mostly, of Islamic extremists. It is seldom used by their peers from other religious groups.
Seoul, South Korea -- Taiwan has been effectively independent from mainland China for a very long time, even predating the 1949 movement of Chiang Kai-shek to the island after his defeat by Mao Zedong's forces. The island was under Portuguese and Dutch rule before Japan formally annexed it in 1895-1945. The island was seriously populated only from the 17th century, when fishermen from China's southern coasts began arriving in numbers. Before that, Taiwan had -- as it still does -- it own "aborigines." Even today, people claiming roots from China constitute just 14% of the populace, with the rest composed of people whose ancestors began arriving three, four or more generations ago.
Seoul, South Korea -- Nothing in President Vladimir Putin's career background (in the KGB) nor anything in the long history of the harsh Soviet system, of which he is an inheritor, suggests that Moscow is likely to hand over Andrei Lugovoi, the former KGB agent wanted for the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko in London. It's not simply that the Russian Constitution expressly forbids extradition of its nationals. It has more to do with the nature of Russia's transition from a totalitarian system to authoritarian rule.
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