August 23, 1992

China and South Korea signaled today that they would establish diplomatic relations in the next few days, turning their backs on decades of enmity dating to the Korean War and raising the possibility of a new pattern of economic and security relations throughout the region. South Korea's Foreign Minister, Lee Sang Ock, will visit China on Sunday for three days of talks to discuss "the normalization of relations," officials announced today. The visit and other signals strongly suggest that the two sides will soon establish diplomatic ties, perhaps as early as Monday.

The race for the Presidency began in earnest this weekend, as President Bush and Gov. Bill Clinton engaged in a furious exchange over each other's economic proposals and, by extension, their political character. The opening debate set the tone and the subject matter for what strategists in both campaigns predict will be a harsh and brutally competitive 10-week struggle that could ultimately come down to a handful of states in the industrial Midwest.

One of the oldest community development corporations in New York City, Hope Community Inc., has opened a 30-unit affordable housing complex called Hope Place at 415 East 115th Street in East Harlem. The development is an important phase in a community-planned strategy to revitalize 115th Street between First and Pleasant Avenues. Thus far, three buildings with 62 units have been completed by the 24-year-old organization, each with the help of more than $500,000 in low-interest loans and grants from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, as well as $1.1 million in equity from the New York Equity Fund. "This is one more thing on a whole block that is turning around," said Joan Lebow, a spokesperson for the Local Initiatives entity.

Contrasting London landmarks, from the newly restored Westminster Abbey to the historic sites of rock and a cluster of old Thameside pubs.

From small clubs in Moscow to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to MTV in Tokyo, rap has begun to elbow its way onto the world's stage. This is not to suggest that hip-hop's insistent beats and unruly lyrics have attained a global influence approaching their impact in the United States, where rap is at the epicenter of pop music. But increasingly, rappers in other countries are using their music to reflect on and grapple with their local realities, adding their own flavor to an American art form. Why is a music so closely identified with the rebelliousness of young American blacks catching on far from its homeland? Rap's rising popularity may have to do with the reasons it has been vilified in this country. Rap is abrasive, loud, often crude and disrespectful of melody and traditional pop-song structures, say its critics. But such irreverence lends it an aura of danger and exhilaration, which speaks to the restlessness inherent in youth. How well this defiant spirit translates outside an American context, where rap and race are inextricably bound, is another question.