No. It's valid in the US but only on GSM cellphones and it's certainly not global.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_telephone_number - scan down to 'Emergency numbers'.

Gosh, not even 'global' in North America. The USA and Canada have 911 and Mexico has 066, 060, or 080.

It is just a matter of time now, I am afraid... :rolleyes:

GSM (which stands for GLOBAL Spec for Mobile or something like that) is global, including the USA, as you note. I'm not sure how you can say it's "certainly not global," -- when was the last time you went somewhere where there was no GSM coverage? Given that you can find GSM coverage here, here, and here, amongst many other places, I think its fairly accurate to refer to GSM as "global".

But for everywhere there is GSM service, is 112 always an emergency service response number?

Sounds like someone needed a 20ft Ethernet cable at home...

I had a tiny sewing kit with prethreaded needles taken from me at CDG last Sunday.

There can be GSM service, but it's useless if you don't have a GSM phone. To of the major US phone networks (Sprint and Verizon) are CDMA based and therefore 112 does not work on these (millions of) phones.

And to answer your question :) Japan?

Whatever they take from you at the security checks, always make sure that it can not be used anymore afterwards by the thief of the moment. ;) A bottle of booze: open it before throwing it in the trash can; a cable: find something to cut it in pieces. But I'm not so sure about what I would do with the previously mentioned Gillette cartridges... :p

When TSA confiscated my soldering iron last Monday, they wouldn't give it back to me to destroy. Said it had to be done on the other side of the checkpoint. Funny thing is that TSA has never confiscated anyone else's soldering iron (electric). Suspect that it was a retaliatory confiscation over the shoes on the belt/bin with another TSO that day. TSO Pierce wasn't a happy camper that day.