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1
MON. 03
December 2012
T. 14º/ 19º C
H. 65/ 98%
N.º 1716
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Founder & Publisher Kowie Geldenhuys
Editor-in-Chief Paulo Coutinho
“ THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ ”
WORLD BRIEFS
CHINA Sixteen miners
were trapped underground
after a coalmine in
northeast China’s
Heilongjiang province
was flooded last night,
the official Xinhua news
agency reported, citing
the local government.
Six miners managed to
escape after the accident
which happened at the
Furuixiang coal mine in
Qitaihe city. Rescuers are
working to pump water
from the pit which was
licensed and operated
by Furuixiang Coal Co.,
according to the report.
China expressed
concern yesterday over its
ally North Korea’s plans
to launch a long-range
rocket in mid-December.
All sides should work for
stability and avoid acts
that raise tensions, the
Foreign Ministry said in a
brief statement.
Ethiopians sweep Macau
Marathon, course mistake
makes athletes run more
P7
Kasparov visit covers “big gap”
in his “geographical map”
P5
CAMBODIA Four workers
are missing and presumed
to have drowned after
the partial collapse of a
dam being constructed
in western Cambodia,
officials say. Maj. Theang
Leng, chief of police in
the district where the
hydroelectric dam is
located on the Atay river,
says the collapse appears
to have occurred because
the dam was holding
too much water and had
started leaking.
HUNGARY Thousands of
people have attended an
anti-Nazi rally organized
by Hungarian Jewish and
civic groups to protest
a far right lawmaker’s
call for the screening of
Jews for national security
risks. Yesterday’s rally
was uncommon because
politicians from government
and opposition parties
shared a stage set up
outside parliament.
More on last page
Gov’t aims
to set up new
elderly welfare
mechanism
P2
ap photo
PHILIPPINE officials say
fishermen and villagers in
landslide- and flood-prone
areas have been warned
to take precautions
as a powerful Pacific
typhoon blows toward the
country’s south.
Out of jail,
‘Broken Tooth’
promises “no
trouble”
P3
2
MACAU
03.12.2012 mon
澳聞
2013 Policy Address
Government aims to set up new
welfare mechanism for the elderly
Grace Yu
O
n the second day of
the policy address
sector debate amid
legislators and officials, the Legislative Assembly
kept grilling Cheong U, who
heads the Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture, over
healthcare issues. In response,
Cheong announced that the
government would set up a social security system to protect
the welfare of the elderly. “The
government plans to build up
a systematic security mechanism for the elderly. An interdepartmental working group
has now been established, which is being led by the Social
Welfare Bureau. The group is
going to devote three years to
conduct comprehensive research and draft an execution
scheme for the first 10 years,”
said Cheong, in the face of repeated calls by legislators for
real action to solve the issue.
Chan Meng Kam asked when
the government would put forth measures to encourage the
building of affordable hotels.
João Manuel Costa Antunes,
representing the Tourist Office,
believed there was no relation
between tourists’ staying time
and hotel prices. “Macau lacks hotels, not only affordable
hotels, but also general hotels.
Data shows only half of the 28
million tourists to Macau chose to stay overnight. We are not
paying less attention to building
affordable hotels. Now there are
1,480 affordable hotels rooms
and there are 18 applications for
launching new affordable ones.
We believe there will be more in
the future.”
Meanwhile Angela Leong
again urged the government
to take the initiative and push
for a complete smoking ban
in all casinos since she thinks
that the gaming operators will
not be able to set up smoking
areas as prescribed in the next
two months.
Lei Chin Ion, Director of the
Health Bureau, stated in reply
that Leong’s suggestion was
not in line with the new tobacco rule in which the govern-
Many
lawmakers
are concerned
about medical
and health
affairs. There
is definitely
room for
improvement,
but I appreciate
our colleagues’
hard work
www.macaudailytimes.com.mo
MDT’s Website has had an average of
18.22 pages per visit
since January 1st, 2012 up to today.
Thank You!
Cheong U
ment is not authorized to take
such an initiative. But he said
the gaming industry is welcome to take the lead instead
and cancel their submissions
for smoking zones. The bureau
head also disclosed that all six
gaming operators have delivered their applications for casino smoking areas. “We will review these requests according
to the law and hand them over
to the Chief Executive for the
final decision.”
In Cheong U’s closing speech, he reiterated: “Many
lawmakers are concerned
about medical and health
affairs. There is definitely
room for improvement, but
I appreciate our colleagues’
hard work. They have been
faced with a great workload
in recent years”.
two week 60th grand prix
doesn’t please all
The Secretary mentioned
in his introductory speech on
Thursday that the government
aims to make Macau “the city of
great events”, and the planning
to transform the 60th Grand Prix
will become a whole yearlong
activity. Chan Wai Chi said the
intention of making Grand Prix
more popular is understandable,
“But please avoid disturbing local
residents or creating too many
traffic problems,” he added. Chui
Sai Peng expressed a similar
appeal to shorten the planned
two-week 2013 Grand Prix to one
week in order to minimize disruption. Besides, Chui proposed the
idea of encouraging residents to
participate in the event together
Director and Editor-in-Chief_Paulo Coutinho [email protected]
Managing Editor_Paulo Barbosa [email protected]
Contributing Editors_Eric Sautedé, Leanda Lee, Severo Portela
China & foreign editor_Vanessa Moore [email protected]
Design Editor_João Jorge Magalhães [email protected] | Newsroom and Contributors_Albano Martins,
Annabel Jackson, António Espadinha Soares, Cyril Law, Emilie Tran, Grace Yu, Imelu Mordeno, Irene Sam, Jenny Philips, Joseph Cheung,
Juliet Risdon, Keith Ip, Francisco Cordeiro (designer), Renato Marques (photographer), Richard Whitfield, Robert Carroll (Hong Kong
correspondent), Ruan Du Toit Bester, Sandra Norte (designer), Sum Choi (chief reporter), Viviana Seguí | Associate Contributors_
JML Property, MacauHR, MdME Lawyers, PokerStars, University of Saint Joseph | News agencies_ Associated Press, Bloomberg,
MacauHub, MacauNews, Xinhua | Secretary_Yang Dongxiao [email protected]
with some racing car drivers. “We
can invite some racers to drive
slowly while Macau residents will
have the chance to sit in their cars
and enjoy the annual event”. The
statements came after the Secretary announced his plans for the
60th Grand Prix: “Races in the
first week will be arranged on Saturday and Sunday. Since it’s on
the weekend, citizens will feel less
impact. As for the second week,
the competition will operate
from Thursday to Sunday”. The
Secretary similarly expressed the
wish of making the Grand Prix a
“carnival”, “It (the Grand Prix) is
the collective memory of Macau
people. We will learn from the
experience of the 50th edition.
A Macau Times Publications Ltd Publication
Administrator and Chief Executive Officer
Kowie Geldenhuys [email protected]
Secretary Juliana Cheang [email protected]
Address 2nd Floor 62 Av. Infante D. Henrique, MACAU SAR
Telephones: +853 287 160 81/2 Fax: +853 287 160 84
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ISSN 2305-4271
mon 03.12.2012
澳聞
T
3
Out of jail, ‘Broken Tooth’
promises “no trouble”
ap photo
he Macau gangster
known as ‘Broken
Tooth’, once accused
of plotting to kill the
local police chief, said his release from prison would not
threaten law and order.
Wan Kuok-koi was freed after more than 14 years of imprisonment at around 7 a.m.
Saturday, Stephen Fok, Macau Prison’s media relations
officer said in a telephone interview. Wan was convicted of
loan sharking and triad membership in 1999, a year after he
was arrested during an investigation into a car bomb attack
on then-Judiciary Police chief
António Marques Baptista.
“It definitely won’t happen,”
Wan said from the passenger
seat of a car when asked whether his release would affect
Macau’s law and order, according to footage broadcast by
Hong Kong’s Now TV. “Nobody is causing trouble so why
would there be any trouble?”
According to the South China
Morning Post, the newly freed
Wan was driven to Taipa’s
Pearl On The Lough residential building where he met his
mother, other relatives and
friends. He appeared to say he
was mentally well, adding it
wouldn’t matter what he said,
since he would be misrepresented in the media anyhow.
“I’ve no special feeling about
being free. I’ve waited a long
time for this, so I found it hard
to sleep last night. I thought I
could get out earlier this morning, but procedures delayed
my release. I’m glad to be finally out of there,” he said.
Saying he was no longer young, Wan added: “I don’t want
to affect the stability of Macau. There’s absolutely no way
I want to do that. I want to be
left alone.”
Reports in Hong Kong and
Macau’s Chinese media hinted
that the local police had been
given approval to eavesdrop
on Wan’s communications,
and a source even said the former gangster was told to leave
Macau temporarily to avoid
possible trouble.
During Wan’s time in jail,
Macau’s annual casino revenue surged to MOP268 billion
(USD34 billion), more than
five times that of the Las Vegas Strip, boosted by the entry of foreign players including Las Vegas Sands Corp.
and Wynn Resorts Ltd. The
U.S. operators will probably
stay away from Wan should
he return to running a junket
operator, which brings high
-stakes gamblers to casinos,
said Gabriel Chan, an analyst
at Credit Suisse Group.
“They will be under greater
scrutiny and closely watched
given his high profile,” said
Chan, who expects Macau’s
casino revenue to grow to as
much as USD38 billion this
year. “There’s too much money at stake. If I were another
MACAU
Macau crime boss Wan Kuok-koi, known as “Broken Tooth Koi”, walks out of Coloane Prison in Macau
junket, I’d do my best to stop
him messing things up.”
A week before Wan’s release, one of his former lieutenants was arrested, as the
Times reported. “The arrest
of Broken Tooth’s former right-hand man can be seen as
one of the pre-emptive measures taken by the police,” said
Grant Govertsen, a Macau-based analyst at Union Gaming
Group. “They want to send a
clear message.”
The former Triad boss, who
was 43 when jailed, walked
out of the high security prison located in Coloane into a
transformed city. He left the
prison in early morning at
around 6:45 am, and immediately got into a white sedan
parked outside by his brother
and brother-in-law, who drove
‘Broken Tooth’ to his residence in Taipa. Wan’s mother was
seen visiting the residential
building later in the day, and
she was quoted by the media
as saying that she had told her
son to “remain low-profile”
for the time being.
In the late 1990s, Macau, still
administered by Portugal, was
the scene of “triad wars,” with
Wan claiming in 1998 that his
gang had 10,000 members,
according to the book “The
Politics of Cross-Border Crime
in Greater China” by Sonny
Shiu-Hing Lo.
According to an Economist
report in May 1998, the violence was so widespread that
Macau’s then-security chief
Manuel Monge told tourists,
“The hit men never miss their
mark” and they wouldn’t hit
innocent bystanders.
A month after Wan’s conviction, the territory returned to
Chinese rule. Since then, Macau’s per-capita gross domestic product has more than quadrupled to about USD66,000
last year. The number of crimes related to organized criminal gangs fell to just 15 last
year from a total of 81 in 2000.
Billionaire Stanley Ho’s casino
monopoly used to lure bettors
into smoke-filled gambling
halls with fading paint and
worn carpets, with prostitutes
and loan sharks patrolling the
entrances. Now, U.S., Australian and Hong Kong players
compete with Ho to draw
gamblers into lavish casinos
that combine malls with conference venues.
Casino moguls Sheldon Adelson’s Sands and Steve Wynn’s
namesake company, together
with Galaxy Entertainment
Group Ltd., Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. and MGM
China Holdings Ltd., have
invested more than USD 15
billion in the city since the government ended the 40-year
gaming monopoly held by Ho
in 2002. All of these five casino operators and Ho’s SJM
Holdings Ltd. plan to expand
in Macau.
Trouble flared in Macau in
August with raids at casino and hotels. Almost 1,300
people were questioned and
about 150 detained after a
series of attacks and murders, including the beating
of Ng Man-sun, the biggest
shareholder of junket operator Amax Holdings Ltd. Ng,
also known as “Street Market
Wai”, who was attacked by
six men who beat him with
hammers and sticks while
avoiding hitting him in the
head, the New York Times
reported in June. Porda Havas, a public relations company hired by Amax, said the
company wouldn’t comment
before Wan’s release.
Broken Toooth may try to go
back to providing services and
loans to VIP gamblers, who
bet as much as the legal limit
of MOP250,000 a hand, said
Victor Yip, a Hong Kong-based analyst at UOB Kay Hian
Ltd. “There are concerns within the gaming industry because he used to be so influential,” said Yip. Still, the industry “is big enough for an additional player,” he said. Junket
operators provide “crucial
intermediary services” as they
identify potential high-rollers,
offer them credit and collect
gambling debts, said Steve Vickers, a former Commander of
the Royal Hong Kong Police’s
Criminal Intelligence Bureau
who now runs Steve Vickers
and Associates, a Hong Kong
-based risk consultant.
High-stakes gamblers from
China turn to junket operators because currency controls limit the amount of cash
they can take out of China
to RMB20,000 a day. High
rollers provide Macau with
more than two-thirds of its
casino revenue. Triads were
involved in loansharking, kidnapping, extortion and illegal gambling, according to the
biography of Rocha Vieira,
Macau’s last governor. Gang
members had infiltrated the
police force and on Baptista’s
first day as chief on Nov. 30,
1995, two bombs exploded
at the entrance of the police
headquarters, it said.
“I don’t anticipate a return of
Macau’s violent past, as Macau casinos are growing and
the pie is getting bigger,” said
Au Kam-san, a lawmaker who
grew up in the city. “The Chinese government has made it
clear that it wants stability in
Macau. It can take away everything it granted if these guys
don’t behave.” “Wan Kuok-Koi
is yesterday’s man,” said Vickers. “Whilst he remains connected with his previous gang
members, there is just no room
for the ‘wild bunch’ in Macau
anymore.” MDT/ Bloomberg
4
MACAU
03.12.2012 mon
澳聞
Local tourism needs
image promotion system
Sum Choi
I
n a seminar on tourist souvenir design and tourism
culture, experts said the
local culture and tourism
business could form a mutual
support circle for regeneration
of the arts and promotion of the
travel industry, but Macau needs
a more systematic city image
promotion scheme to build itself as a tourist destination with
more unique brand names and
creative products.
In the seminar held yesterday
at the Macao Polytechnic Institute, Tan Li Ping, Deputy General
Manager of the China National
Arts & Grafts Group, stressed the
importance of tourist souvenir
design: “(local) Culture is the essence of travel and the purchase
of such souvenirs is also a demand to understand and acceptance of the local culture.” She
warned that if a design fails to include cultural elements, the souvenirs produced would be vulgar
products, threatening to make
tourism a purely commercial
activity. On the contrary, good
Zheng Wei Ming, General Manager of
Shanghai advertising company Punch Idea
designs don’t just generate sales
figures, but also serve to better
promote the culture of the tourist
destination in question.
She raised the technique of cloisonné as a typical example of giving visitors to China an enjoyable process of seeing how vitreous
enamel, gemstones, glass and
other materials are used to decorate a metalwork object, which is
an artistic souvenir in itself.
Talking about Macau’s tourism
promotion, Zheng Wei Ming, General Manager of Shanghai advertising company Punch Idea, said
that Macau has many competitive
advantages when it comes to tourism, such as its four-century old
cityscape that creates numerous
historical and cultural heritage sites, and a natural combination of
eastern and western cultures that
are integrated into the daily lifestyles of local people. But he also
warned that the region has some
weaknesses, such as its unshakable image as a city of gambling,
coupled with lack of powerful
brand names and creative products in the travel industry.
The advertising industry expert
pointed out that Macau needs a
well-rounded system that includes not just festivities and celebrations or events, but also an
academic and artistic exploration
of its image and orientation, as
well as marketing support such
as promotional slogans, mascots,
theme songs, movies and other
related products.
As a more practical example, he
quoted the story of how Korean
pop star PSY’s hit (the now world
famous Gangnam Style), has successfully extended the country’s
favorite travel destination from
Seoul to the previously unknown
district of Gangnam in just a few
short months. Another successful story is the Hollywood movie
the Bridges of Madison County
that attracts some 15 million visitors to the district annually, which makes up some 35 percent of
the county’s tourism revenue.
The seminar for local design
students was part of the 2012
Competition and Summit of Tourist Souvenir Design of Macao,
organized by the Chinese and
Western Cultural Creative Industries Promotion Association
(Macau). Themed the “Memory
of Macao”, the event encouraged
participants to incorporate iconic cultural and historical sites
into their designs, with the aim
of introducing the territory’s attractions to visitors, leaving them
with some pleasant and enjoyable memories of the city. The organizer also hoped the competition
would help Macau to build up its
image as a world travel and leisure hub.
Over 190 entrants won prizes
divided into seven major categories, including 3 winners of the
supreme “Best Originality Prize”,
most notably, a cap decorated
with Macau folklore graphics by
Ho Mok Wan Yan, from a local
Macau design firm.
Half a million
for civic
education
The Government will
allocate a total of
MOP557,000 to various
social service institutions
to support more than
a dozen projects for
the promotion of civic
education among children
and young people. The
funding is part of the
Social Welfare Bureau’s
“legal knowledge
and compliance of
discipline” campaign
which aims to help the
younger generation
equip themselves with
basic legal knowledge
and improve their civic
awareness. From the
applications received for
the Subsidy Scheme for
Civic Education, the Social
Welfare Bureau chose
14 projects that will be
implemented between this
month and August next
year. Among the planned
activities are group
meetings, workshops,
seminars, competitions,
and visits to local
communities for learning
and exchanges. The public
can visit the Bureau’s
website at www.ias.gov.mo
for more information.
ad
Certified
Public Accountant
( Registered Auditor since 1983 )
Expat from Australia. Over 200-years Family history in Macau
畢世華
Luiz F. Da Silva Pedruco
Bach. Fin. Admin. U.N.E (Aust.)Fellow of H.K.I.C.P.A., CPA (Aust.)
[email protected]
Address: No. 665 Av. da Praia Grande
Edif. Great Will, 14th “B” Macau
Tel: 28 355 388
Website: www.cpamacao.com
mon 03.12.2012
澳聞
MACAU
5
Kasparov visit to Macau covers
“big gap” in his “geographical map”
Viviana Seguí
G
arry Kasparov won
yesterday’s chess match against the female
Chinese chess master
Xiong Junyang, which took place at the University of Macau.
The final score, however, didn’t
seem to be so clear cut from the
beginning, even if Mr Kasparov
stated afterwards that “it was not
the most complicated game”, as
the whole match lasted one and a
half hours in total.
Invited by the “Riquito Advogados” solicitor’s office, Garry
Kasparov, considered to be the
“greatest chess master of all time”,
played against Ms Xiong Junyang,
a Chinese player and a two-time
winner of the Chinese National
Chess Championship in the junior
category who lives in Macau.
The Russian chess master started
the game as White, with a traditional “King’s Pawn opening”, which
means moving the pawn into the
e4 position. Ms Xiong responded
with an e5 move of her pawn, called “Open Game” or “Double King’s
Pawn Game”, which was quickly
countered by her adversary with an
Nf3 move of his knight.
While both players conducted
the first moves without much
interruption, the next ones were
followed by longer periods of consideration and great moments of
suspense for the audience. From
time to time, Mr Kasparov turned towards the audience, giving
the impression of watching them.
Then again, one could often see
his hand touching his other hand
or remaining at his chin when
thinking. At almost no point
however did he stop swinging
his chair (except when making
a move), and eventually he even
started cleaning his jacket. At times it would take him as long
as his adversary to think about a
strategy, then again, he advanced
with a couple of moves when Ms
Xiong had hardly finished pressing the button of the chess clock.
After 30 minutes, when no pieces
had been lost by either side, Mr
Kasparov moved his Bishop – and
paulo barbosa
Badminton finals: an
international title affair
T
he “Kumpoo Macau Open Badminton
Grand Prix Gold” finals
were played yesterday at
the Macau Forum, with
China dominating the singles tournaments. Yuekun
Chen was the winner of the
men’s singles, beating his
compatriot Huan Gao in
two matches (21-9, 21-17).
In the women’s singles,
Sun Yu defeated the Thai
Busanan Ongbumrungpan
(21-19, 21-8).
subsequently moved it back again.
It was only after 38 minutes that
Ms Xiong captured her adversary’s
knight in exchange for one of her
bishops. Only a couple of minutes later the Chinese chess master
had both of Mr Kasparov’s knights in her grip. Nevertheless she
had to give up her second bishop
with Kasparov’s next move. After
an hour, the audience watched an
exchange of queens by the players.
But it was only after an hour and a
half and a range of piece exchanges that the Russian player put his
adversary in check, threatening
her king with his bishops and rook,
which finally also resulted in a checkmate for Ms Xiong.
The game was broadcast live on a
screen located at one corner of the
stage; while at the same time, another screen on the opposite corner
transmitted each move on a “conventional” chess board, as the match was played on a special one-of
-a-kind set. The artistic chessboard,
which consisted of a set of “different
and individual” artworks for each
piece, was conceived by Konstantin Besmertny, the Russian painter
and sculptor who resides in Macau.
As to playing on this unconventional set, the chess master said it was
indeed “a little bit confusing”, and he
went on to joke, “It’s the first time in
In the men’s doubles final, Sheng Mu Lee & Chia
Hsin Tsai (Taiwan) beat
the Russians Vladimir
Ivanov & Ivan Sozonov
in three matches (14-21
21-17 21-16). The Korean
team did well in the women’s doubles competition, and two of the pairs
reached the final, with
Hye Won Eom & Ye Na
Jang winning to Hye In
Choi & So Young Kim (2118 21-16).
The mixed doubles final
was an Indonesian affair,
with the favorites Tontowi Ahmad & Liliyana
Natsir getting the better of Muhammad Rijal
& Debby Susanto (21-16
14-21 21-16). For the 7th
year, the tournament was
organized by the Badminton Federation of Macau.
The championship was
one of the BWF World
Grand Prix Gold tournaments and the fourteenth of its kind this year
following matches in India, the Netherlands and
Germany, with this year’s
total prize money adding
up to MOP1,000,000.
More than 200 athletes
from 19 countries and regions participated. PB
It’s the first time
in 44 years that
somebody has
explained the
value of the
pieces to me
Kasparov,
referring to Besmertny’s
artistic chessboard
44 years that somebody has explained the value of the pieces to me.”
After his victory, Mr Kasparov
stated, “It was a very good game”
and praised Ms Xiang: “Definitely,
she had a great time.” The game
was followed by a long autograph
session and by an even longer photograph taking session, after which
Mr Kasparov started to complain
that there seemed to be “infinite
possible positions of taking pictures” with him.
Regarding his visit to Macau, the
chess master concluded: “It’s interesting and I’m glad that I got an invitation just before my 50th birthday
to cover such a big gap in my geographical map. I hope I will be visiting
this part of the world more often.”
Cotai Water Jet carries
28 million passengers
since 2007
Cotai Water Jet has served nearly 28 million passengers over
the last five years since its maiden voyage on November 30,
2007. The company announced the figure over the weekend,
and said with predictions estimating 30 million visitors to
Macau in 2013, Cotai Water Jet will continue “providing
transportation accessibility to travellers with a comfortable,
secure and convenient journey”. At the beginning of its
operations, Cotai Water Jet’s three-vessel fleet provided 20 daily
sailings between Macau and Hong Kong. The company has
since expanded to its current fleet of 14 high-speed catamarans,
ferrying passengers between Hong Kong and Macau an
average of 83 times per day. Last Friday marked the fleet’s
five-year anniversary. Cotai Water Jet runs routes from the
Macau Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal, Taipa Temporary Ferry
Terminal, Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal in Sheung Wan,
Kowloon’s China Ferry Terminal and Hong Kong International
Airport’s Skypier. In its efforts to continually improve the travel
experience of its passengers, the company is undergoing several
enhancements for 2013, including updated service quality
training and new uniforms for its staff and crew.
Historical Archives launch
new homepage
As part of its continued efforts to facilitate the use of Macau’s
rich archive of historical documents by students, researchers
and the general public, the Historical Archives of Macau, a
subsidiary of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, on Friday launched
a new and improved homepage on the Internet. The updated
website features a greater array of enhanced functions, granting
visitors more in-depth access to the Archives’ collections, aiding
in the location and retrieval of documents. These enhancements
aim to facilitate more frequent use of archival materials as a
resource for academic studies and research on Macau.
6
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03.12.2012 mon
廣告
mon 03.12.2012
澳聞
Ethiopians sweep Macau
Marathon, course mistake
makes athletes run more
N
early 6000 athletes participated in the 31st edition
of the “Macau Galaxy Entertainment International
Marathon” that took place yesterday,
bringing together sportsmen from 60
countries and regions running in several classifications. However the race
was marked by a course mistake that
resulted in the athletes running for an
extra three kilometers.
Ethiopia’s Heile Haja Gemeda and
Ehitu Kiros Reda were the winners
of the marathon. Gemeda sailed past
the finish line in two hours 23 minutes and 56 seconds in chilly drizzle to
lift the men’s title. Kenyan Duncan
Cheruiyot Koech followed close at heel
in 2:24:00, while Gemeda’s compatriot Gezahegn Alemayehu Abebe was
third in 2:24.11.
In the women’s event, Ethiopia
had a one-two finish as Reda set the
winning pace in 2:50:11 before Tsega
Gelaw Reta finished in 2:51.04. Irene
Kemunto Mogaka of Kenya took bronze in 1:21. Each winner won a total of
USD20,000 in prize money. According to the organizers, this edition of
the annual event recorded the highest
ever number participants. The marathon and half marathon started in the
early morning at 5 am, with the mini
marathon following at 5:15 am. The
Ethiopian men’s winner Gemeda Haile Haja had already participated last
year and finished third. According to
the organizers, he came back this year
to “fulfill his dream of winning”, doing
so while achieving a record time.
In addition, the following athletes
were also winners: Chepngabit Noah
Kipruto, Maina Charles Wachira and
Ngare Joseph Mwangi from Kenya in
the male categories A, B and C. Chien
Pei Yu from China and Jepngetich
Naomi from Kenya won in the female categories A and B respectively. Ho
Pui Yan won in the Macau half marathon category, and Elisabete Lopes,
winner of the half marathon, received
USD 3,000. The special prize in the
mini marathon was given to the oldest
participant, 75-year-old Peter Kwan
from Canada.
MACAU
7
Roller Hockey:
Macau finishes sixth
Macau’s roller hockey team came sixth in the
World Cup B-Series, which was held in Canelones,
Uruguay. In the pool to determine the rankings
from fifth to ninth place, the Macanese team won
7-5 against Mexico and 7-1 against Israel. Their
other victory was against Egypt (8-6). However, the
MSAR team was defeated by the Netherlands (3-5),
finally finishing in sixth place overall.
46 individuals and entities
receive decorations
The government announced the recipients of
Decorations, Medals and Certificates of Merit to
46 individuals and entities “in recognition of their
outstanding achievements, contributions and
distinguished services rendered to the MSAR”. In
accordance with the nominations of the Decoration
Awards Committee, the Decoration of Honour Grand Lotus was given to Mr Lao Kung Po, with
the Decoration of Honour - Golden Lotus going to
the Macao Chamber of Commerce, while the Silver
Lotus was granted to Ms Au Ieong Iun Han and Mr
Leong Chong Kao. Seven types of Medals of Merit
were also awarded for categories like “industry and
commerce,” “tourism,” “education” and “sport”.
ad
8
ADVERTISEMENT
03.12.2012 mon
廣告
mon 03.12.2012
分析
BUSINESS
9
C
hina’s official manufacturing
index
rose to the highest
level in seven months
as new orders and export demand climbed, underscoring
optimism the economy is recovering after a seven-quarter slowdown.
The Purchasing Managers’
Index was 50.6 in November,
the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of
Logistics and Purchasing said
the day before yesterday in
Beijing. That compares with
the 50.8 median estimate in
a Bloomberg News survey of
28 analysts and 50.2 the previous month. A reading above
50 indicates expansion.
The report reduces pressure on China’s new leadership to roll out more policies
to support a growth rebound as they push ahead with
overhauling state-owned enterprises and boosting consumption. Confidence in China’s economy is at the highest
in more than a year amid
faith that Xi Jinping’s administration will improve the
investment climate, a Bloomberg investor poll last week
showed.
“It’s especially encouraging
that the rise in the PMI was
mainly driven by new orders,
which suggests output will
be further boosted in coming
months,” said Lu Ting, chief
Greater China economist
at Bank of America Corp.
in Hong Kong. “Beijing will
maintain the current policy
stance, which is featured as
marginally pro-growth without big-bang stimulus.”
Lu said he expects no cut
in interest rates and at most
one reduction in banks’ reserve requirement ratio before the end of the year. He
estimates economic growth
will accelerate to 7.8 percent
in the fourth quarter from a
year earlier after a 7.4 percent pace in the previous
three months, which was the
slowest in three years.
The preliminary November
reading of a separate manufacturing survey from HSBC
Holdings Plc and Markit
Economics, which focuses
more on smaller businesses,
showed the first expansion in
13 months. The final figure is
due today.
The yuan had its fourth monthly gain, its longest winning
streak in more than a year, on
signs economic growth is recovering. The currency climbed
0.2 percent in November to
6.2267 per dollar in Shanghai
and last Thursday reached the
ap photo
China manufacturing strengthens
as optimism grows for recovery
highest level since China unified official and market exchange rates in 1993.
The federation’s PMI is based on responses from purchasing managers at 820
companies in 31 industries.
The day before yesterday’s
report showed a gauge of new
orders expanded for a second
month to its highest level
since April after contracting
for the previous five months,
while the output sub-index
was the highest in six months
at 52.5.
A measure of export orders
rose above 50 for the first
time since May, with gains
boosted by Christmas demand, the federation said in
a separate statement.
“Economic growth will continue to maintain a moderate
rebound,” Zhang Liqun, a senior researcher at the Development Research Center of
the State Council, said in the
federation’s release. The data
“indicate that destocking is
now shifting to restocking,
which means industrial production will continue to
ramp up.”
Among respondents to last
Thursday’s quarterly global
poll of 862 investors, analysts
and traders who are Bloomberg subscribers, 72 percent
see the Chinese economy im-
proving or remaining stable,
up from 38 percent in September’s survey. Fifty-three
percent said they’re more
optimistic about the effect of
Xi’s policies on investors, up
from 42 percent who were
asked in September about
Supportive
policies on
the domestic
level have led
to a gradual
rebound of the
manufacturing
sector
Hu Yifan
chief economist, Haitong
International Securities Co.,
Hong Kong
President Hu Jintao.
China’s gross domestic product may expand 7.7 percent
in the fourth quarter from a
year earlier, the first acceleration in eight quarters,
according to the median estimate of 29 analysts in a
Bloomberg survey.
Economists have scrapped
projections for any easing of
monetary policy in the rest of
2012. Analysts surveyed by
Bloomberg News Nov. 14-19
see China holding the reserve-requirement ratio for the
biggest banks at 20 percent
through the end of the year,
based on the median estimate. That compares with
the median forecast for a 0.5
percentage-point cut in October’s survey.
While China’s central bank
has refrained from monetary
easing since a cut in interest
rates in July, the government
is making efforts to sustain
investment momentum. Last
Wednesday the top economic-planning agency posted
approvals on its website for
three transport projects with
a total value of 75.2 billion
yuan (USD12.1 billion), expanding potential sales for
companies including China
CNR Corp. and CSR Corp.,
the country’s two biggest
train makers.
“Supportive policies on the
domestic level have led to a
gradual rebound of the manufacturing sector,” said Hu
Yifan, chief economist at Haitong International Securities
Co. in Hong Kong, who previously worked at the World
Bank. She estimates fourth-
quarter growth will accelerate
to 7.9 percent.
At the same time, Zhang
from the Development Research Center said the decline
in a gauge of input prices in
the PMI “shows the market’s
confidence is not solid enough and the strength of the
economic recovery is still
weak.” The reading dropped
to 50.1 from 54.3 the previous
month.
A measure of employment
fell to 48.7, the steepest drop
in the gauge’s six-month stretch of contraction and the
PMI index for smaller companies remained below the 50
line that divides expansion
from contraction, the report
showed.
“We remain cautious about
the sustainability of the recent improvement, worrying
that much fragility persists,” Alistair Thornton and
Ren Xianfang, Beijing-based
analysts with IHS Global Insight, wrote in a report after
the data release. “Whilst activity is resuming, economic
efficiency is declining,” they
said, pointing out that in
many parts of the economy,
local state-owned enterprises
are “riding to the rescue of
debt-laden firms which, in a
pure market economy, would
be going bust.” Bloomberg
10
CHINA
03.12.2012 mon
中國
A
Court jails 10 for illegally detaini
ap photo
Beijing court has sentenced a group of men
for illegally detaining
people seeking to
have their complaints heard by
the central government, state
media reported yesterday, in an
apparent blow against attempts
by local governments to cover
up corruption and other abuses
of power.
Beijing’s Chaoyang District
Court sentenced one defendant
to a year in prison on Friday and
gave months-long sentences to
nine others, according to state
media reports. The plaintiffs
were not identified and calls to
the court rang unanswered.
The official Guangmingwang
website said the men had detained a number of people from
central Henan province who
had traveled to the capital hoping to have their complaints
settled by the central government. Such petitioners are frequently intercepted by local government agents and detained
illegally in shabby hostels commonly known as “black jails.”
The website said police acting on a complaint raided a
compound in the northeastern suburbs of Beijing at the
beginning of May and freed a
dozen illegally detained petitioners who said they had been
beaten and threatened for having brought their complaints
to Beijing.
The government has recently
begun acknowledging the existence of black jails as part of
modest attempts to stamp
out the most glaring abuses of
power, but has met with only
middling success. A central
government order to close representative offices maintained
in Beijing by local governments for the purpose of blocking
A petitioner rests on a bed she rents in a room she shares with two other
petitioners, after the rental room was raided by unidentified men and dwelling
petitioners were taken away a week ago
complaints and lobbying for
projects and funding has been
mostly ignored.
The
petitioning
system
harkens back to ancient times
when Chinese emperors were
obligated to hear complaints
brought from commoners in
the provinces. In recent years,
it has been employed to skirt
violence, threats, and bureau-
cratic hurdles put in place to
block redress over corruption,
illegal land seizures, unjust discrimination and other abuses at
the local level.
Black jails have also been used
in the past to detain political
and religious dissidents, especially members of the outlawed
Falun Gong meditation movement. AP
Chinese petitioner Wang Xiulan shows documents she received from local authorities over her ye
Lone home destroyed; farmer accepts deal Gillian Wong, Beijing
A
uthorities have demolished
a five-story home that stood incongruously in the middle of a new main
road and had become the latest symbol
of resistance by Chinese homeowners
against officials accused of offering unfair
compensation.
Xiayangzhang village chief Chen Xuecai
told The Associated Press the house was
bulldozed the day before yesterday after
its owners, duck farmer Luo Baogen and
his wife, agreed to accept compensation of
260,000 yuan (USD41,000).
There was no immediate confirmation
from Luo, whose cellphone was turned off
the day before yesterday.
The couple had been the lone holdouts
from a neighborhood that was demolished
to make way for the main thoroughfare
heading to a newly built railway station on
the outskirts of the city of Wenling in Zhejiang province.
The razing comes a week after images of
the house circulated widely online in China,
triggering a flurry of domestic and foreign
media reports about the latest “nail house,”
as buildings that remain standing as their
owners resist development are called.
Luo, 67, had just completed his house at a
cost of about 600,000 yuan (USD95,000)
when the government approached him
with their standard offer of 220,000
(USD35,000) to move out — which he
refused, Chen has previously said. The
offer then went up to 260,000 yuan
(USD41,000) last week.
It was not immediately clear why Luo
accepted the compensation in a meeting
with officials Friday afternoon when the
amount of money offered was the same
as a week ago.
Village chief Chen said Luo was tired of
all the media attention and voluntarily consented to the deal. “Luo Baogen received
dozens of people from the media every day
and his house stands in the center of the
road. So he decided to demolish the house,” Chen said.
Authorities commonly pressure residents to agree to make way for development with sometimes extreme measures,
such as cutting off utilities or moving in
to demolish when residents are out for
the day. In Luo’s case, however, he had
told local reporters last week his electricity and water were still flowing.
Real estate is one of the big drivers of China’s runaway growth in recent decades. But
the rapid development has run into objections from many of the hundreds of thousands of residents who have been forced
out to make way for new housing, factories
and other business ventures, creating a major source of unrest. AP
mon 03.12.2012
中國
ing petitioners
CHINA
11
11
Blind activist’s nephew
sentenced to 3 years’ jail A
Chinese court sentenced the nephew of legal activist Chen Guangcheng to more than
three years in jail for assault in a hurried, suddenly announced trial Friday that his parents
were barred from attending.
The punishment against Chen Kegui is seen
as retaliation by local officials angered by
Chen Guangcheng’s daring escape from house
arrest in April. Chen, who is blind, fled to the
U.S. Embassy and set off a diplomatic tussle
between Beijing and Washington that embarrassed the central government.
Friday’s surprise trial and sentencing were
the final steps in the seven-month long, secretive prosecution of Chen Kegui since he
clashed with officials who barged into his house looking for his uncle.
At every step of the legal process, his supporters
say, Chinese authorities have showed their willingness to run roughshod over justice in order to
achieve their political aims. They blocked his wife
and parents from seeing him and prevented them
from hiring lawyers for him. His father found out
about the trial only hours before it took place.
Chen Guangcheng said he was infuriated by
the punishment of his nephew, who he says
acted in self-defense as would anyone whose
house had been raided by armed men in the
middle of the night.
“This is a case that tramples on the rule of law. It
is a declaration of war against fairness and justice
in the world. I absolutely cannot accept this and
am very, very angry,” said Chen Guangcheng in
an interview from his home in New York where he
has been studying English and law. “There is no
doubt that this is a kind of retaliation against me.”
The United States said it was deeply disturbed by Chen Kegui’s sentencing after what
it described as a summary trial and “deeply
flawed” legal process. AP
Philippines denounces
Beijing’s plans to board ships
T
ears of petitioning during an interview in Beijing
n World AIDS Day,
Xiao Qi (pseudonym)
is unsure if he will win a
lawsuit against education
authorities which allegedly
turned down his job application because he is HIV
positive. In fact, his lawsuit against the education
bureau of Jinxian county
in east China’s Jiangxi Province has yet been formally
registered for handling
after it was filed to a local
court on Nov. 26. Nevertheless the young man is
determined to pursue the
legal battle. “Because this is
not only for me, but for the
whole group of people with
HIV/AIDS who are vulnerable,” he said. Xiao Qi passed a teacher qualification
examination in June with
high scores. But his dream
to be a teacher was crushed
after he was found HIV positive in a mandatory pre
-employment health check.
The result was cited by the
county’s education bureau
AIDS patients fight for equal
employment opportunities
xinhua
O
he Philippines the day before yesterday
denounced Chinese plans to search ships
sailing through what Beijing says is its territory in the South China Sea in the latest irritant between the countries.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the plans should be condemned by
the international community because they violate
maritime domains of countries in the region and
impede freedom of navigation.
Chinese state media announced the plans, saying
southern Hainan province, which Beijing says administers the South China Sea, had approved laws
giving its police the right to search vessels that pass
through the waters.
Last week the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and
India protested a map on a new Chinese passport
that depicts disputed areas as belonging to China.
The Philippine statement said it wants Beijing to
“immediately clarify its reported plans to interdict
to disqualify him.
Defiant, Xiao Qi decided to
defend his legitimate rights through the lawsuit. But
he said he is not optimistic,
although government regulations on HIV/AIDS stipulate that rights to employment, schooling and medi-
cal care of people living with
HIV/AIDS and their family
members shall by protected
by laws.
Xiao Qi is not the first person in China to file a lawsuit
due to AIDS-related employment discrimination.
Yu Fangqiang, director of
an anti-discrimination organization Tianxiagong (meaning justices for all), said
he had assisted three HIV
carriers who suffered similar discrimination. But their
lawsuits were either lost or
just not handled by the court.
“After losing the lawsuit, they
were forced to hide their HIV
status to look for other jobs,
or simply stay at home with
nothing to do,” said Yu.
China, with a population of
over 1.3 billion, has an estimated number of 780,000
people living with HIV/
AIDS. The number of reported cases of HIV/AIDS stood
at 492,191 by the end of October, including 68,802 new
cases this year, according to
the Ministry of Health.
A 2010 report issued by In-
ships that enter what it considers its territory in
the South China Sea.”
It said Manila was concerned that ships entering
waters claimed by China, which is “virtually the
entire South China Sea ... can be boarded, inspected, detained, confiscated, immobilized and expelled, among other punitive actions.”
China’s action will be “illegal and will validate the continuous and repeated pronouncements by the Philippines that China’s claim
of indisputable sovereignty over virtually the
entire South China Sea is not only an excessive claim but a threat to all countries,” the
statement said.
The maritime territorial disputes include the
Spratly Islands over which China, the Philippines,
Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have conflicting claims. The Spratlys chain is believed to sit
atop rich oil and gas reserves and straddles one of
the world’s busiest sea lanes. AP
ternational Labor Organization and the Chinese Center
for Disease Control and Prevention said people living
with HIV/AIDS in China
were faced with employment discrimination, such
as mandatory testing, denial
of job opportunities, forced
resignations, and downgrading of job responsibilities.
HIV/AIDS sufferers fighting against employment discrimination face
much tougher situation
than people with other infectious diseases, as many
people tend to give moral
judgment to people with
HIV, said Liao Qinghua,
director of AIDS control
and prevention at Jiangxi
Provincial Center of Disease Control and Prevention.
Health criteria for employing public servants in
China stipulates that being
HIV positive should be disqualified. Many other employers, such as schools, public institutions and many
state-owned
enterprises,
also adopt this criterion. Yu
Fangqiang said abolishing
such a criteria could be a
breakthrough in fighting
AIDS-related employment
discrimination.
On the eve of World AIDS
Day, Vice President Xi
Jinping visited a group of
people living with HIV/
AIDS at a community clinic
in Beijing, where he said
that HIV/AIDS is not terrible in itself, but what is really
alarming is the ignorance on
HIV/AIDS and the prejudice against AIDS patients.
“All HIV carriers and AIDS
patients are our brothers
and sisters, and the whole of
society should light their life
with love,” he said. The government should
take the lead in eliminating
AIDS-related discrimination through various ways,
for example, establishing a
committee on equal opportunities, said Yu Fangqiang. Xinhua
12
ASIA-PACIFIC
03.12.2012 mon
亞太版
JAPAN
7 missing in highway tunnel collapse
Elaine Kurtenbach, Tokyo
A
t least seven
people
were
feared missing
yesterday after about 150 concrete
panels fell from the roof
of a tunnel on the main
highway linking Tokyo
with central Japan.
Efforts to rescue any
survivors trapped inside the tunnel were hindered by heavy smoke
after one vehicle caught
fire inside the Sasago
Tunnel, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) outside Tokyo.
Rescuers also temporarily suspended work because of fears of a further
collapse. They were at-
tempting to reach at least
several vehicles believed
buried in the rubble, including a truck whose
driver was trapped inside
and had called his company for help.
“I could hear voices of
people calling for help,
but the fire was just too
strong,” said a woman interviewed by public broadcaster NHK after she
escaped from the tunnel.
Local media reported
that at least three bodies had been found inside the tunnel. However, Norio Furusawa, a
spokesman for the Fire
and Disaster Management Agency, said he
could not confirm that
information.
At least seven people are missing and several cars remain trapped after parts of a major road tunnel
collapsed in central Japan
Executives for Central
Japan Expressway Co.
said the company was
investigating why the
concrete panels had given way. A check of the
tunnel’s roof in September and October found
N KOREA
nothing amiss, they said.
A woman who escaped from a rental car
that was trapped in the
4.7-kilometer (3-mile)
tunnel told authorities
that she was unsure
about the condition of
five other people who
had been in the vehicle with her. Two other
vehicles were known to
be buried in the rubble,
suggesting at least seven
people were trapped inside, according to a statement by the Fire and
Disaster Management
Agency.
It said two people were
confirmed injured, one
of them moderately.
The location of the
collapse, about 1.7 kilometers (a mile) inside
the tunnel, was complicating rescue efforts, reports said. AP
AFGHANISTAN
Pyongyang schedules rocket
US-Afghan base
launch as South prepares to vote attacked
N
orth Korea will fire a
long-range rocket this
month in defiance of international sanctions as the totalitarian regime marks the anniversary of former leader Kim Jong
Il’s death and as South Koreans
go to the polls to elect a new
president.
The communist state will launch a polar-orbiting earth observation satellite southward
atop an Unha-3 rocket sometime between Dec. 10 and Dec.
22, state-run Korean Central
News Agency reported the day
before yesterday, citing the Korean Committee for Space Technology.
The launch, from the Sohae
Space Center about 130 kilometers (80 miles) northwest
of the capital city of Pyongyang, will probably complicate international efforts to
engage North Korea. An unsuccessful attempt by Kim’s
regime to fire a rocket into
space earlier this year cost the
impoverished country a food
aid deal with the U.S.
“North Korea is trying to make
up for the failure of the April
rocket launch and thereby solidify new leader Kim Jong Un’s
rule,” said Baek Seung Joo, an
analyst at Seoul-based Korea
Institute for Defense Analyses.
“The launch is timed to mark
the first anniversary of Kim
Jong Il’s death.”
North Korea, ruled by third-
Rahim Faiez, Kabul
ap photo
Eunkyung Seo and Sangwon Yoon
T
North Korea’s Unha-3 rocket stands at Sohae Satellite Station in Tongchang-ri,
North Korea
generation dictator Kim Jong
Un, is developing missiles that
may be able to reach North
America and carry warheads
weighing as much as 1,000 kilograms, according to U.S. and
South Korean estimates. The
U.S. has previously called North Korea’s satellite announcements a cover for testing long
-range ballistic missiles.
Kim, believed to be in his
twenties, has also shown no
sign of abandoning his country’s nuclear ambitions. The rocket is likely to be launched on
Dec. 17, the anniversary of the
late Kim’s death from a heart
attack, Baek said. South Korea’s
Dec. 19 election to choose a suc-
cessor to President Lee Myung
Bak is also a factor in the timing, he said.
South Korea’s military is “closely monitoring” North Korea’s
launch preparations, Defense
Ministry spokesman Shin Won
Sik said the day before yesterday by phone. No unusual troop
movements have been spotted
in the North and South Korean
alert levels remain unchanged,
he said.
The U.S. agreed in October
to allow South Korea to extend
the range of its ballistic missiles to 800 kilometers (497
miles) against possible nuclear and missile attacks from
the North. Bloomberg
aliban suicide bombers attacked a joint U.S.
-Afghan air base in eastern
Afghanistan early yesterday,
detonating explosives at the
gate and sparking a gunbattle
that lasted at least two hours
with American helicopters firing down at militants before
the attackers were defeated.
The attackers and at least
five Afghans were killed, officials said. Taliban spokesman
Zabiullah Mujahid claimed
responsibility for the attack.
It was the largest clash at
the Jalalabad air base since
February, when a suicide car
bombing at the gate triggered
an explosion that killed nine
Afghans, six of them civilians.
In yesterday’s attack, two
vehicles packed with explosives barreled toward the main
gate of the base around 6 a.m.
local time. The first vehicle, a
four-wheel-drive car, blew up
at the gate, said Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal, a spokesman for the provincial police
chief. Guards started shooting
at the second vehicle before it
too exploded, he added. It was
unclear if the explosives were
detonated by the attackers
themselves or by shooting
from the guards.
Two Afghan university students caught up in the attack
and three other Afghan civilians working at the base were
killed, Mashreqiwal said. He
did not know if the three were
private guards, members of
the security forces or civilian
employees.
Nine attackers took part in
the assault in total, he said,
three of whom were killed in
the suicide blasts and another
six gunmen who died in the
ensuing fighting that lasted a
few hours.
Maj. Martyn Crighton, a
spokesman for the international military force in Afghanistan, said that helicopters
“were deployed and used” but
it was unclear if they were key
to killing the militants.
The NATO military coalition
described the attack as a failure.
“We can confirm insurgents, including multiple suicide
bombers, attacked Jalalabad
Airfield this morning. None
of the attackers succeeded in
breaching the perimeter,” Lt.
Col. Hagen Messer, a spokesman for the international
military coalition, said in an
email. He said that the fighting had ended by midmorning and that reports showed
one member of the Afghan security forces was killed. Several foreign troops were wounded, but Messer did not give
any numbers or details.
“The final assessment of
what happened this morning
is not yet complete, but initial
reports indicate there were
three suicide bombers,” Messer said. AP
mon 03.12.2012
亞太版
M
yanmar’s government has appointed
a commission led by
opposition
leader
Aung San Suu Kyi to investigate
the recent violent dispersal of peaceful protesters at a copper mine
and advise whether the project
should continue.
State television announced the
day before yesterday that the
30-member commission was
created by a presidential order.
Security forces on Thursday
ousted protesters at the Letpadaung mine near Monywa in
northwestern Myanmar. Dozens
of villagers and Buddhist monks
were hurt, mostly with burns they
said were caused by incendiary
devices. The crackdown was the
biggest use of force against demonstrators since the reformist
government of President Thein
Sein took office last year.
The protesters say the mine is
causing environmental, social and
health problems. The project is a
joint venture between a Chinese
firm and a company controlled by
Myanmar’s military.
The appointment of Suu Kyi,
a Nobel Peace Prize laureate,
to head the probe gives it credibility that the army-backed
government lacks.
Suu Kyi visited the area after
MYANMAR
Suu Kyi to head probe
into copper mine ap photo
Yadana Htun, Mandalay
ASIA-PACIFIC
Buddhist monks march towards the Chinese Embassy during a protest against a
violent crackdown on monks by Myanmar police at Letpadaung copper mine
the crackdown, meeting with
mining company officials, activists and injured protesters,
as well as security officials. In
speeches to residents, she said
the use of force was not justified,
but also suggested that protesters might have to compromi-
se on the mine issue because
Myanmar was honor-bound to
respect contracts, even if they
were done under the previous
military regime. Government officials have said repeatedly that
shutting down the project could
scare off much-needed foreign
investment.
Monks were among the most seriously wounded protesters, many
with severe burns, and fellow
monks have been holding protests to demand an apology from the
authorities.
In a possible sign of government nervousness about possible
unrest, police in Yangon the day
before yesterday night detained a
prominent former activist monk,
Shin Gambira, his mother said. It
was unclear whether his detention
was related to protests in Yangon
against the crackdown at the Letpadaung mine.
U Pandita, a monk from the
Monywa monastery, welcomed
13
13
3
the creation of Suu Kyi’s investigating commission but said
authorities must reveal who ordered the crackdown.
“Buddha teaches us to forgive,
but how we can forgive without an
apology to us?” said Shin Nanda
Thara of the Bawdi Mandaing Monastery in Pakkoku township. “We
thought President Thein Sein was
gentle and his way of handling disputes would be gentle. But now the
mask on his face has fallen and we
see the reality of what he is. It’s a
tough situation for him to redeem
and regain his good reputation in
the international community, which has supported him with trust
for his so-called reform process,”
he said. “We still have some small
hope and trust in him. Maybe he
ordered for us to be dispersed, but
the authorities used more force
than what he ordered.”
The investigation commission
includes two prominent former
student activists, Min Ko Naing
and Ko Ko Gyi, several lawmakers,
representatives from political parties, villagers from the area of the
mine and government officials.
The announcement said the
commission is tasked with assessing the reasons for the
protests against the mine, the
handling of the protests and
whether the mine should continue to operate. It is to submit
its findings by Dec. 31. AP
ad
14
WORLD
03.12.2012 mon
分析
EGYPT
E
gypt’s
President
Mohammed
Morsi
called the day before yesterday for a
referendum in two weeks on
a contentious draft constitution, setting a date for another milestone in the country’s transition to democracy.
Widespread disputes over
the charter and Morsi’s recent seizure of near absolute
power have marred the process and thrown the country
into turmoil.
As has been the case in nearly two years since Hosni Mubarak was ousted, what should
have been a cause for national
celebration turned into dueling protests between opponents and supporters of how
the transition has been managed — largely divided along
Islamist and secular lines.
More than 100,000 Morsi
supporters organized by the
Muslim Brotherhood and ultraconservative Salafi groups
took to the streets of Cairo and
other cities a day after a massive opposition demonstration
against his recent decrees giving him immunity from judicial oversight and the charter
that was rushed through an assembly packed with allies.
Supporters of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi rally in front of Cairo University
The presidency has been locked in a tug of war with the
powerful judiciary and secular
and Christian activists since
Morsi granted himself far-reaching powers on Nov. 22 in
a bid to pre-empt an expected decision by the Supreme
Constitutional Court to dissolve the constitutional panel,
as it had done the Islamist-led
parliament earlier this year.
Morsi also decreed that courts cannot dissolve the Islamist-dominated upper house
of parliament, known as the
MEXICO
President sworn in
amid violent protests Mark Stevenson and Olga
R. Rodriguez, Mexico City
E
nrique Pena Nieto
took the oath of office
as Mexico’s new president Saturday vowing to
restore peace and security and take on the vested
interests that have hindered economic prosperity.
As several hundred protesters threw fire bombs
at police and smashed
plate glass windows, Pena
Nieto marked the return
of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI,
with a 13-point plan heavy on old-party populist
handouts but with reforms designed to boost the
economy and modernize
the education and justice
systems.
“Mexico has not achieved the advances that
the population demands
or deserves,” Pena Nieto said in an inaugural
speech unusual for its
heavy emphasis on policy. “It’s time for us together to break the myths
and paradigms and all
else that has limited our
development.”
Inaugural events were
marred all day by protesters opposed to the
return of the PRI after a
12-year hiatus. At least
76 people were treated
for injuries, including 29
who hospitalized, as the
result of clashes between
protesters and tear-gas firing police, the Red Cross
said. City officials said
103 people were detained, including 11 minors.
Pena Nieto countered
with a speech full of specifics, from creating an
integrated crime prevention program to ending the patronage and
buying of teacher positions that rule the public
education system.
He said he will put security at the center of all
policies for Mexicans and
their families and will
work to ensure that roads
and cities are again “peaceful areas where Mexicans can travel safely without fear of loss of their
liberty or life.”
Mexico has suffered a
spike in violence since
outgoing President Felipe Calderon launched an
offensive against organized crime upon taking
office six years ago.
Some 60,000 people
have been killed by drug
violence since then, according to some estimates. While officials first
said most of the victims
were involved in organized crime, the killings
and kidnapping spread
to innocent civilians as
drug gangs came to rule
entire towns and even
parts of some states.AP
Shura Council — another decision slated to be before the
Constitution Court. In protest,
most of the nation’s judges
have gone on strike.
“After receiving this draft constitution, and out of
keenness to build the nation’s
institutions without delay or
stalling, I will issue today the
call for a public referendum
on this draft charter on Saturday, Dec. 15,” Morsi said.
“I pray to God and hope that
it will be a new day of democracy in Egypt.”
However Egypt’s top court
yesterday postponed a session
during which it was expected
to rule on the legitimacy of the
Islamist-dominated panel that
rushed to approve a disputed
draft constitution last week, according to officials at the court.
The officials cited “administrative reasons” for the delay,
although the announcement
came as several thousand supporters of Islamist President
Mohammed Morsi surrounded
the Supreme Constitutional
Court, holding aloft placards
denouncing the judges and
preventing members of the judiciary from entering the Nileside courthouse in Cairo.
The dispute has thrown
Egypt into a fresh round of
turmoil after months of protests, rising crime and economic woes. It also has mobilized an increasingly cohesive opposition leadership of
prominent liberal and secular
politicians — a contrast to the
leaderless youth uprising last
year that toppled Mubarak. AP
CONGO
Rebels complete
Goma pullout Melanie Gouby, Goma
R
ebels believed to be backed by
Rwanda completed their retreat
from Congo’s eastern provincial capital the day before yesterday less than
two weeks after taking control of the
strategic city, a military official said.
Ugandan Brig. Jeffrey Muheesi, who
is part of a mission sent by regional
leaders to oversee the rebel retreat,
said the rebels’ pullout from Goma
was complete. “They have pulled out
of Sake and Goma, and now Congolese
government policemen are controlling
the central bank, the governor’s office and the border post,” he said from
the outskirts of Goma. The M23 rebels
took the capital of North Kivu on Nov.
20, after battling the Congolese army
for nearly a day. The group had defied
two earlier ultimatums to leave Goma,
raising the possibility they did not intend to leave and giving credence to a
U.N. report accusing Rwanda of using
the rebels as a proxy to annex territory
in the mineral-rich eastern Congo. The
eight-month-old M23 rebellion is led
by fighters from a now-defunct rebel
group, who agreed to lay down their
ap photo
Sarah El Deeb, Cairo
ap photo
Morsi sets date for constitution vote M23 rebels withdraw from the eastern Congo
town of Goma
arms on March 23, 2009, in return for
being allowed to join the ranks of the
Congolese army. In fact, most analysts
believe the origin of the rebellion is a
fight over Congo’s vast mineral wealth, a good chunk of which is found in
the North Kivu province where Goma
is the capital. Starting this spring, the
fighters seized a series of small towns
and villages in North Kivu, culminating with the capture of Goma, a population hub of 1 million and a key,
mineral trading post. AP
mon 03.12.2012
廣告
Macau Daily Times
WEBSITE STATS 2012
Since January 1st 2012 to date, Macau Daily Times
online has logged more than 26 million page views. This
huge traffic was driven by half a million unique visitors
to the Macaudailytimes.com.mo site making it by far
and large the most visited Macau-based news website
in English – in the MSAR and abroad.
539,480
Visits 1,438,224
Pageviews 26,831,815
18.22 Pages Per Visit
Unique Visitors
COUNTRIES RANKING
www.macaudailytimes.com.mo
The top countries of origin for visitors to the MDT website
are Macau, greater China and the East Asia region. But
the USA, Australia, Great Britain and other European
countries are also in the top 10. The Times website has
a true worldwide reach welcoming visits from more than
120 countries.
mo
cn
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my
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ru
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Updated every Friday
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15
15
3
16
INFOTAINMENT
what’s ON
...
Contemporary 21 - New Works by Fortes
Pakeong Sequeira and José Drummond
03.12.2012 mon
資訊／娛樂
TV canal macau
13:00
TDM News (Repeted)
13:30
News at 24H (RTPi) Delayed Broadcast
15:00
Debate on Social Affairs and Culture Policy Report for
Time: 12pm-2am (next day, Sunday-Thursday)
12pm-3am (next day, Friday-Saturday)
Until: December 30, 2012
Venue: SKY21, 21/F, AIA Tower,
251A - 301 Avenida Comercial de Macau
Admission: Free
Telephone Enquiries: (853) 2836 6064
Exhibition of ‘The Best Snaps
of Macau - Photo Competition 2012’
Time: 9am-7pm
Until: November 30, 2012
Venue: Pavilion, Lou Lim Ieoc Garden,
No. 10 Est. de Adolfo Loureiro
Admission: Free
Telephone Enquiries: (853) 2833 2886
‘Immortality’ and ‘Jingmai’ by Carol Kwok
Time: 12pm-8pm (Mondays to Thursdays)
11am-9pm (Fridays to Sundays)
Until: December 31, 2012
Venue: 285-Signum Living Store,
No. 285, Rua do Almsergio R/C
Admission: Free
Telephone Enquiries: (853) 2896 8925
Winter in Venice Extravaganza
Skating Rink
Time: 2:30pm-10pm
Venue: Outdoor Lagoon, The Venetian Macao-
Resort-Hotel
Admission: MOP40 (30mins)
Spectacular 3D Light and Sound Show
‘The Magic of The Seasons’
Time: 6pm-10pm daily (30-min. intervals)
Until: January 13, 2013
Venue: Façade adjacent to Lagoon,
The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel
Telephone Enquiries (853) 2882 8888
Autumn Comic Fair
Time: 3pm-6pm
Until: December 23, 2012
Venue: 10 Fantasia - A Creative Industries Incubator,
No.10, Calçada da Igreja de S. Lázaro
Admission: Free
Telephone Enquiries: (853) 2835 4582
Offbeat
Pacific
nations alarmed
by tuna overfishing
Pacific island governments and environmentalists are
raising an alarm over destructive fishing methods and
overfishing that are threatening the bigeye tuna — a fish
popular among sushi lovers the world over. Palau fisheries official Nanette Malsol, who leads a delegation from
a bloc of Pacific island nations, said yesterday at the start
of a weeklong tuna fisheries conference in Manila that large countries should cut back on fishing, curb the use of
destructive fishing methods and respect fishing bans to
allow tuna stocks to be replenished in the Pacific Ocean,
the world’s largest tuna fishing grounds. Malsol said small
island nations like Palau have launched conservation efforts, but many foreign industrial fishing fleets have tried
to skirt restrictions and continued to catch tuna beyond
sustainable levels.
2013 (Live)
20:00
Non-Daily Portuguese News
20:30
Main News, Financial & Weather Report
21:00
TDM Talk-Show
21:30
Lost Sr.6
22:15
Drama
23:00
TDM News
23:30
Miscellaneous
0:20
Main News, Financial & Weather Report (Repeated)
cinema
cineteatro
29 Nov - 05 Dec
Killing Them softly_
room 1
2.30, 6.00, 9.45 pm
Starring: Brad Pitt, Richard Jenkins, james
Gandolfini, Vincent Curatola
Director: Andrew Dominik
Language: English
Duration: 97min
cOLD WAR_
1
4.15, 9:30 pm
Starring: Aaron Kwok, Andy Lau, Tony
Leung Ka Fai
Director: Longman Leung, Sunny Luk
Language: Chinese (English)
Duration: 127min
room
Life of Pi_
2
2.30, 4.45, 7:15, 9:30 pm
Starring: Suraj Sharma, Gerard Depardieu
Director: Ang Lee
Language: Mandarin (Chinese, English)
Duration: 85min
room
Rise of the Guardians_
3
2.30, 4.15, 6:00, 7:45 pm
Director: Peter Ramsey
Language: Cantonese
Duration: 97min
room
Alex Cross_
3
9:30 pm
Starring: Tyler Perry, Matthew Fox, Jean
Reno
Director: Rob Cohen
Language: English
Duration: 101min
room
macau tower
02 Dec - 12 Dec
Life of Pi (3D)_
2.30, 4.45, 7:15, 9:30 pm
Starring: Suraj Sharma, Gerard Depardieu
Director: Ang Lee
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 85min
this day in history
1989 Malta summit
ends Cold War
The leaders of the two world superpowers, the
USA and the USSR, have declared an end to the
Cold War after two days of storm-lashed talks
at the Malta summit. At a joint news conference held on board the Soviet cruise ship, Maxim
Gorky, the two men announced they had set the
stage for big reductions in troops and weapons
in Europe.
The Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, also
said: “I assured the President of the United
States that I will never start a hot war against
the USA.” For his part, US President George
Bush said: “We can realize a lasting peace and
transform the East-West relationship to one of
enduring co-operation. That is the future that
Chairman Gorbachev and I began right here in
Malta.”
The Malta summit is being hailed as the most
important since 1945 when Churchill, Stalin and
Roosevelt agreed a post-war plan for Europe at
Yalta. The two men have met face-to-face for
the first time against a backdrop of fast-moving
change in Eastern Europe. In the past few weeks
Hungary has opened its borders with the West,
the Berlin Wall has fallen, followed by the government of Czechoslovakia. Only yesterday the
fledgling East German government of only seven
weeks was also forced to resign.
Both leaders spoke hopefully of the changes
sweeping Eastern Europe - but they also spoke
of the need for caution, particularly with regard
to the future of Germany and the prospect of
reunification. Mr Bush said: “It is not for the
United States to dictate the pace of change in
Germany or anywhere else.” Mr Gorbachev said:
“The world is leaving one epoch and entering
another. We are at the beginning of a long road
to a lasting, peaceful era. “The threat of force,
mistrust, psychological and ideological struggle
should all be things of the past.”
The summit was not all plain sailing. High winds
and heavy seas yesterday left the American president stranded aboard his cruiser in Marsaxlokk
Bay. An afternoon session of talks had to be
abandoned while the Russians waited in vain for
Mr Bush to arrive on their ship, the Maxim Gorky,
which was moored in a calmer position. A joint
dinner was also cancelled as the president remained marooned. A final eight-hour round of
talks was held today aboard the Maxim Gorky,
during which differences emerged over policy
on Central America and cuts in naval forces. Mr
Bush is due to brief NATO leaders in Brussels,
where he will fly tonight. Mr Gorbachev will address members of the Warsaw Pact tomorrow.
The two men have agreed to hold another summit in June next year.
Courtesy BBC News
In context
The Malta summit is regarded by many as the official end of the Cold War, although little of substance
was actually agreed. The summit followed a series of
arms-reduction treaties between the two superpowers,
including Salt II in 1979 and the Intermediate-range
Nuclear Forces treaty in 1987. Presidents Bush and
Gorbachev went on to sign a treaty on Conventional
Forces in Europe in November 1990, establishing parity between East and West, and the first of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties (Start) in December
1991. The collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe
continued with the fall of the Romanian government
and the reunification of Germany in 1990. Although
Mikhail Gorbachev was seen as a hero by the outside
world, within the Soviet Union the slow progress of
reform and declining economic conditions eventually
led to the break-up of the union and his resignation in
December 1991.
mon 03.12.2012
資訊／娛樂
Mar. 21-Apr. 19
17
17
The Born Loser by Chip Sansom
YOUR STARS
Aries
INFOTAINMENT
Taurus
April 20-May 20
Get things rolling today — your
energy is just right for giving that
gentle nudge that ensures events
take place without your having to
direct every little detail. It may get
crazy!
Car trouble may pop up — so you’re
well advised to keep cars out of your
life for the day. Ride the bus, take the
train or work from home if need be.
You’re not in physical danger, you
just don’t need the hassle.
Gemini
Cancer
May 21-Jun. 21
Jun. 22-Jul. 22
You may find it harder to cope with
changes today — so see if you can
just slow down and handle things
one step at a time. It may not be
the optimal solution, but it should
work as well as can be hoped.
You need to branch out today — so
it’s a good thing your energy levels
are practically doubled! It’s the
perfect time for you to step up and
show the world how it’s done. Show
off a little!
Leo
Virgo
Jul. 23-Aug. 22
Aug. 23-Sept. 22
All you want is for people to quit
fighting — is that too much to ask?
Apparently the answer is yes, as
weird sniping breaks out over tiny
issues all day long. Just do your best
to keep people civil!
Who needs help? You should keep
an eye out for trouble, especially
if your people don’t see it coming.
You may be able to do something
about it before anyone even realizes
trouble is afoot!
Libra
Scorpio
Sep.23-Oct. 22
Oct. 23 - Nov. 21
Chill out a bit and show that you
can respond with calm to the
slings and arrows of fortune. You
may find that you need to stretch
yourself a little past your limits, but
that’s healthy.
Travel is highlighted today, so
even if you’re stuck at home for the
foreseeable future, now is a good
time to plan, or at least to dream
about, your next big trip. Make it
legendary!
Sagittarius
Capricorn
Nov. 22-Dec. 21
Dec. 22-Jan. 19
You aren’t quite feeling the love you
usually do at home or at work, but
don’t panic — it’s temporary! Every
now and then, you fall out of sync
with those you love, but it doesn’t
last too long.
People seem to be losing their minds
over something that you think is kind
of silly — but good luck explaining
that to them! You may just have to
bide your time and wait for them to
calm down on their own.
Aquarius
Pisces
Jan. 20-Feb. 18
Feb.19-Mar. 20
Try to take one positive step
toward greater health today — and
remember that it’s not all or nothing!
Even that one piece of fruit or
flight of stairs can help make a real
difference in your life.
Write out your feelings — and make
them rhyme, if possible! You need
a little whimsy to show your people
what’s really going on with you, and
they are sure to be responsive if you
commit.
SUDOKU
Weather
Min
Easy
Medium
Hard
foggy/clear
Beijing
-4
3
Harbin
-14
-7
snow
Tianjin
-7
0
overcast/clear
Urumqi
-13
-6
cloudy/moderate snow
Xi’an
-3
8
clear
Lhasa
-5
11
clear/cloudy
Chengdu
3
11
cloudy/overcast
Chongqing
7
15
cloudy
Kunming
5
20
cloudy
Nanjing
4
10
cloudy/clear
Shanghai
7
12
overcast/cloudy
Wuhan
3
13
cloudy
Hangzhou
5
12
overcast/cloudy
Taipei
18
21
moderate rain
Guangzhou
11
16
cloudy/drizzle
16
21
moderate rain
Moscow
-3
1
cloudy
Frankfurt
-2
2
overcast
Paris
2
9
cloudy/heavy rain
London
-1
8
drizzle/overcast
6
14
drizzle/cloudy
Hong Kong
world
New York
Crossword puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com
Down: 1- Does in; 2- Former French colony of north-western Africa; 3- Not much;
4- From now on; 5- ___ Fideles; 6- Shooting sport; 7- Office fill-in; 8- Decide; 9- On
the line; 10- Pier; 11- Large artery; 12Friday’s solution
Sucrose; 13- Lying flat; 21- Make weary;
23- Concerning; 25- Noted; 26- Don; 27Writer Sarah ___ Jewett; 28- Kiln for drying
hops; 29- Rod used to reinforce concrete;
32- Turkish money; 33- Morse messages;
34- Neat as ___; 35- Oboe, e.g.; 36Longings; 38- Actress Sophia; 42- DNArelated; 43- Apiece; 47- ___-tung; 48Milan’s La ___; 49- Fortune-telling cards;
50- Lend ___; 51- Orange Bowl site; 52Rotates; 54- Turning point; 55- Yeah, right!;
56- Flat-fish; 57- Yard tunneler; 60- Sun
Devils’ sch.;
Condition
China
Easy+
Crosswords
Across: 1- City in Nebraska; 6- Greek portico; 10- Flying stinger; 14- Destined;
15- Held on to; 16- It may be happy; 17- Blaze; 18- CPR experts; 19- Jason’s
craft; 20- Duck; 22- Plaid; 24- Arguing; 25- Trumpet flourish; 26- Low-frequency
loudspeaker; 29- Autumn tool; 30- Part of Q.E.D.; 31- Simple; 37- First name in
photography; 39- May ___ excused?; 40- Conical dwelling; 41- Moving backward;
44- Legal claim; 45- Back; 46- Recompense; 48- Pollen producers; 52- Heroin,
slangily; 53- Like a dog; 54- Apothegm; 58- Extent of space; 59- Cab; 61Forbidden; 62- Rich soil; 63- The doctor ___; 64- Sniff; 65- Longfellow’s bell town;
66- Curse; 67- First name in cosmetics;
Max
Useful telephone numbers
Emergency calls 999
Taxi (Yellow) 28 519 519
Fire department 28 572 222
Taxi (Black) 28 939 939
PJ (Open line) 993
Water Supply – Report 1990 992
PJ (Picket) 28 557 775
Telephone – Report 1000
PSP 28 573 333
Electricity – Report 28 339 922
Customs 28 559 944
Macau Daily Times 28 716 081
S. J. Hospital 28 313 731
Kiang Wu Hospital 28 371 333
Commission Against
Corruption (CCAC) 28326 300
IACM 28 387 333
Tourism 28 882 184
Airport 59 888 88
ad
18
SPORTS
03.12.2012 mon
體育
Lions’ hopes lifted by
England win over All Blacks
Steve Douglas, London
E
ngland’s
rugby
players awoke to headlines of “The Incredibles” and “World Beaters” yesterday’s after ending
New Zealand’s 20-test unbeaten run in one of the most jawdropping international results
in years. The 38-21 victory at
Twickenham shook up the established rugby order, giving
the English renewed hope of
success at the 2015 World Cup
that they will host.
In the short term, however,
the result and dominant performance will have reignited
belief among the home unions
that the British & Irish Lions
can end a 16-year barren
streak when they tour Australia next year. With Wales also
pushing the Wallabies mightily close Saturday, losing
14-12 after conceding a lastminute try, Australia coach
Robbie Deans has seen close
up what his side will be facing
in June and July.
“I think we have seen from
the two encounters that the
Lions series is going to be
huge,” Deans said. “These (Australia) players have
earned some respite, a good
break, but I’m sure at the
back of their minds that it’s
looming. “It won’t be just
them that’s excited about it.
It’s going to be a great series.”
Saturday’s results may have
altered the thinking of Warren Gatland, the New Zealand-born Wales coach who will
also lead the Lions to Australia. Many pundits have been
predicting the Welsh will provide the biggest contingent of
players to the Lions, having
won the 2012 Six Nations
and also been the only British
team to reach the semifinals
of last year’s World Cup.
However, they have now
come unstuck in their last 16
matches against the southern
hemisphere giants — a run
that includes eight straight
losses to Australia — and the
team’s composure in critical moments has been found
wanting. Suddenly, it is a young England side — under the
calm, progressive stewardship of Stuart Lancaster —
that appear to have the brightest future, with the likes
of flyhalf Owen Farrell and
locks Geoff Parling and Joe
Launchbury coming of age
against the All Blacks. While
the autumn test matches have
given Gatland some pointers,
it will be the Six Nations tournament across February and
March that will finalize his
decisions. AP
Valencia fires Mauricio Pellegrino as coach
V
alencia
fired
Mauricio Pellegrino as coach after the
5-2 home loss to Real
Sociedad in the Spanish league on Saturday. “We have been exchanging opinions and
we have decided to fire
ad
Mauricio Pellegrino,”
said club president Manuel Llorente.
Valencia, which has
reached the knockout
phase in the Champions
League, had gone undefeated in six previous
league matches at Mes-
talla stadium before Saturday’s loss. But it had
not won in seven away
games in the league this
season and was also
thrashed 4-0 at Malaga the previous round,
leaving it languishing in
12th place.
Llorente said the decision to let Pellegrino go
was based on the team’s
poor record on the road.
All of Sociedad’s goals
came after Valencia
forward Jonas received
a red card in the first
half, leaving his team
with 10 men.
This was Pellegrino’s
first season after taking
over from Unai Emery,
who was recently fired
from Spartak Moscow in
the Russian league. Pellegrino formerly played
for Valencia as a defen-
der. Pellegrino is the second coach to be fired in
the Spanish league this
season after last-place
Espanyol’s Mauricio Pochettino was let go last
week. Former Mexico
coach Javier Aguirre took
Pochettino’s place. AP
mon 03.12.2012
體育
19
Beckham wins 2nd MLS title,
Galaxy beat Dynamo 3-1
Greg Beacham, Carson
ap photo
D
avid
Beckham
stood on the podium
with his three sons, a
Union Jack knotted
around his Los Angeles Galaxy
jersey. With a practiced lift
and a broad smile, he raised
the sparkling MLS Cup over
his head to a raucous ovation
amid a confetti blizzard. Now
that’s a Hollywood ending
worthy of a star.
Beckham wrapped up his
MLS career as a two-time
champion Saturday as the Galaxy came from a goal down
to beat Houston Dynamo 3-1.
With a stirring second-half
surge capped by penalties by
Landon Donovan and Robbie
Keane, Los Angeles won its
fourth MLS Cup, tying D.C.
United for the MLS record.
The Galaxy also gave an
appropriate farewell to Beckham, the 37-year-old former
England captain who transformed the league and his team
over six seasons in Los Angeles. “It’s been a successful six
years here, and now that we’ve
won the second one, it’s even
more satisfying,” Beckham
said. “I just hope people have
enjoyed me playing here. It’s
what I always hope for when I
step on the field.”
Beckham will play elsewhere
in the new year before eventually returning to MLS as
a team owner. With rumors
linking him everywhere from
Sydney to Paris, he hasn’t disclosed his immediate plans
beyond a Christmas vacation
back home in England. Los
Angeles will miss Beckham,
but the glamorous global icon
is going out at an apex for
MLS’ highest-profile franchise. “I just hope I’ve brought
a bit of interest to the game
in American,” Beckham said.
“If that’s the single thing I’ve
done, then great.”
After Calen Carr put Houston ahead in the 44th minute, Beckham and his high-scoring teammates systematically broke down the
defense of the Dynamo, who
lost the MLS Cup 1-0 to Los
Angeles on the same field
last year. The Galaxy equalized through Omar Gonzalez’s
long-range header in the 61st
minute. Donovan redeemed
himself for missing an open
net in the 13th minute by
burying his penalty in the
65th after a Houston handball. The U.S. national team
star, who is also contemplating a departure from MLS,
won his record-tying fifth
league title while scoring his
fifth career MLS Cup goal
and the record 22nd goal of
his postseason career.
“It’s a little surreal,” Donovan said. “In any sport, to repeat is really hard to do. ... For
me personally, this felt more
satisfying (than last year). We
could enjoy it a little bit more.”
Keane played another stellar
SPORTS
Los Angeles Galaxy’s David Beckham, center, of England, is sprayed with champagne as they celebrate in the dressing room after defeating Houston Dynamo 3-1 in the
MLS Cup championship soccer game
Today was
always going
to be an
emotional day
for myself, win
or lose
Beckham
attacking game for Los Angeles before earning his own
penalty in stoppage time when
Houston’s Tally Hall knocked
him down, and the Irishman
sealed the victory.
Beckham left the game to
a raucous standing ovation
from the packed stadium
amid chants of “Thank you,
David!” Beckham hugged Galaxy coach Bruce Arena, who
won his fourth MLS title, and
just about everybody on the
Galaxy bench before the game
ended moments later. “Today was always going to be an
emotional day for myself, win
or lose,” said Beckham, who
also won trophies in his final
seasons at Real Madrid and
Manchester United. “Coming
off was tough, but I enjoyed
the win today.”
The pregame rain cleared
long enough for MLS’ sunny
farewell to Beckham, who arrived in Los Angeles in 2007
from Real Madrid with designs on changing the American
perception of the world’s most
popular game. The league has
grown steadily during his tenure, with most MLS franchises
on sound financial footing and
in excellent stadiums, although the sport’s popularity and
TV ratings haven’t matched the
other American pastimes.
Beckham was wildly cheered
by many of the same diehard
Galaxy supporters who booed
him three years ago after his
loans to AC Milan and an injury-riddled start to his Galaxy career. The Home Depot
Center souvenir stands were
loaded with Beckham shirts,
including one that said “Take
Me With You!”
Beckham has been in outstanding form for the past two
years, patrolling the Galaxy’s
midfield and launching his
usual sharp setup passes. He
played aggressively for Los
Angeles until the end, diving
into the box and nearly converting a long pass for a goal
in the 85th minute. These
two franchises have combined to win eight of the past 12
MLS titles, dating back to the
Dynamo’s days in San Jose.
Houston seems stuck as a supporting player in the Galaxy’s
story, although the departures
of Beckham and maybe Donovan will trigger big offseason
changes in Los Angeles.
“You have to be proud of
what we’ve accomplished once
again,” Houston captain Brad
Davis said. “It isn’t easy to get
to this game, and this is the
fourth time in seven years.
It’s a credit to this group of
guys.” After winning the title last year on a Beckham-to
-Keane-to-Donovan beauty of
a goal, Los Angeles nearly had
another storybook goal in the
13th minute when Beckham
launched a long, high pass to a
sprinting Keane, who slipped
behind the defense and centered it perfectly for Donovan.
But he inexplicably pushed his
shot inches wide of the post,
leaving him with both hands
on his head while the stadium
released the usual post-goal
confetti anyway. “When you’re
in a moment like that, you feel
like you let the team down,”
Donovan said. “Candidly, it
sat with me until halftime.”
The Dynamo improved their
pressure late in the first half,
and Adam Moffat’s long pass
eventually set up Carr’s impressive near-post goal past
Josh Saunders. Carr leaped
the corner flag in celebration
of a rare score for the forward,
who joined the Dynamo last
season and managed just four
goals this year. With Keane
and Beckham leading the second-half charge, the Galaxy
finally broke through when
Gonzalez stuck around the
box after a failed setpiece and
managed to bounce a looping
header past Hall. Gonzalez
was MLS’ top defender last
year, and his late return from
injury this season sparked the
Galaxy’s late-season surge.
Ricardo Clark was then called
for a handball in the box in the
65th minute after an extended
defensive scramble by the Dynamo. Donovan squatted down
to prepare for his penalty before burying it in a back corner.
Houston frantically pressed
for an equalizer in the final
minutes, but Saunders and his
defense repeatedly denied the
Dynamo. After Hall wrapped
his hand around Keane’s thigh to stop a chance in the box,
Keane confidently buried his
sixth goal of a spectacular six-game postseason run in the
Irish national team captain’s
first full MLS season. AP
West Point chapel hosts
BUZZ its first same-sex wedding
THE
20
Cadet Chapel, the landmark Gothic church that
is a center for spiritual life at the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point, hosted its first same-sex
wedding Saturday. Penelope Gnesin and Brenda
Sue Fulton, a West Point graduate, exchanged
vows in the regal church in an afternoon ceremony, attended by about 250 guests and conducted by a senior Army chaplain. The two have been
together for 17 years. They had a civil commit-
opinion
World Views
China’s Reach (I)
In the most abrupt global shift of its kind since
World War II, the trend is changing the way people
live and do business from Africa to Arizona, as
farmers plant more soybeans to sell to China and
students sign up to learn Mandarin. The findings
show how fast China has ascended to challenge
America’s century-old status as the globe’s dominant trader, a change that is gradually translating
into political influence. They highlight how pervasive China’s impact has been, spreading from neighboring Asia to Africa and now emerging in Latin
America, the traditional U.S. backyard. Despite
China’s now-slowing economy, its share of world
output and trade is expected to keep rising, with
growth forecast at up to 8 percent a year over the
next decade, far above U.S. and European levels.
This growth could strengthen the hand of a new
generation of just-named Chinese leaders, even
as it fuels strain with other nations.
Last year, Shin’s Ena Industry Co. made half his
sales of rubber and plastic parts to U.S. factories. But his plans call for China, which overtook
the United States as the biggest auto market in
2009, to rise fivefold to 30 percent of his total by
2015. He and his children are studying Mandarin.
“The United States is a tiger with no power,” Shin
said in his office, where three walls are lined with
books, many about China. “Nobody can deny
that China is the one now rising.” Trade is a bit
like football — the balance of exports and imports, like the game score, is a neat snapshot of a
jumble of moves that make up the economy, and
both sides are apt to accuse each other of cheating from time to time. Also, the U.S. and China
are both rivals and partners who can’t have a match without each other, and a strong performance
from both is good for the entire league.
Trade may get less publicity than military affairs
or diplomacy, yet it is commerce that generates
jobs and raises living standards. Trade can also
translate into political power. As shopkeepers say,
the customer is always right: Governments listen
to countries that buy their goods, and the threat to
stop buying is one of the most potent diplomatic
weapons. China has been slow to flex its political
muscle on a large scale but is starting to push
back in disputes over trade, exchange rates and
climate change.
The United States is still the world’s biggest importer, but China is gaining. It was a bigger market
than the United States for 77 countries in 2011,
up from 20 in 2000, according to the AP analysis.
The AP is using International Monetary Fund data
to measure the importance of trade with China
for some 180 countries and track how it changes
over time. The analysis divides a nation’s trade
with China by its gross domestic product. The
story that emerges is of China’s breakneck rise,
rather than of a U.S. decline. In 2002, trade with
China was 3 percent of a country’s GDP on average, compared with 8.7 percent with the U.S.
But China caught up, and surged ahead in 2008.
Last year, trade with China averaged 12.4 percent
of GDP for other countries, higher than that with
America at any time in the last 30 years. Of course, not all trade is equal. China’s trade is mostly
low-end goods and commodities, while the U.S.
competes at the upper end of the market.
Also, even though Chinese companies invest
abroad and employ thousands of foreign workers,
they lag behind American industry in building global alliances and in innovation, which is still rewarded in the marketplace. China’s competitive edge
remains low labor and other costs, while the U.S.
is the world’s center for innovation in autos, aerospace, computers, medicine, munitions, finance and pharmaceuticals. The Chinese have yet to
build a car that will pass U.S. or European emission standards. And the United States still does
more trade overall — but just barely. If the trend
continues, China will push past the U.S. this year,
a remarkable feat for a country so poor 30 years
ago that the average person had never talked on
a telephone. “The center of gravity of the world
economy has moved to the east,” said Mauricio
Cardenas, the finance minister in Colombia. Like
most of Latin America, his country is still more
closely tied to the U.S., but its trade with China
has risen from virtually nothing to 2.5 percent of
GDP, a more than tenfold increase since 2001. “I
would say that there is nothing comparable in the
last 50 years.” AP
ap photo
Joe McDonald, Youkyung Lee
ment ceremony that didn’t carry any legal force
in 1999 and had long hoped to formally marry.
The way was cleared last year, when New York
legalized same-sex marriage and President Barack Obama lifted the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy
prohibiting openly gay people from serving in the
military. The brides both live in New Jersey and
would have preferred to have the wedding there,
but the state doesn’t allow gay marriage.
03.12.2012
mon
WORLD
BRIEFS
JAPAN At least seven
people are feared missing
after about 150 concrete
panels fall from the roof
of a tunnel on the main
highway linking Tokyo with
central Japan. More on p12
S KOREA’s Foreign Ministry
says Somali pirates have
released four South Korean
crewmen from 19 months of
captivity after a ransom was
paid. The four were among
25 crew members whose
palm oil tanker was hijacked
by the pirates off the coast
of Kenya in April 2011. The
pirates released the oil
tanker and 21 crew members
later in 2011 but kept the four
South Koreans as hostages.
AUSTRALIA Police are
searching for a 9-year-old
boy who was snatched
by a crocodile as he was
swimming in the mouth of a
river in northern Australia.
From left, award recipients George Stevens Jr., D.A. Pennebaker, Hal Needham and Jeffrey Katzenberg poses
with their Oscar statuettes
Katzenberg, Spielberg
attend Governors Awards
SANDY COHEN,
AP Entertainment Writer
T
om Hanks. Quincy Jones. Kristen Stewart.
Warren Beatty. Quentin Tarantino. George Lucas. Steven
Spielberg. Kirk Douglas. Amy
Adams. Richard Gere. These
and other famous folks came
to the film academy’s Governors Awards Saturday to honor filmmakers whose names
may not be as well known, but
whose contributions to the
industry have affected movielovers everywhere.
Documentarian D.A. Pennebaker helped make the
medium mainstream with
his direct-cinema approach.
George Stevens, Jr., founded
the American Film Institute
and established the Kennedy Center Honors. Hal Needham developed new ways
of performing and directing
death-defying movie stunts. DreamWorks Animation
chief Jeffrey Katzenberg raised hundreds of millions of
dollars for charity.
Octogenarians
Pennebaker, Stevens and Needham received honorary
Oscars for their distinguished careers and Katzenberg was recognized
with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the
Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences’ Governors Awards ceremony, held
at the Ray Dolby Ballroom
at Hollywood and Highland
Center. The film academy
has long awarded honorary
Oscars, but established a
new tradition four years ago
of presenting those statuettes at a private dinner party
where there are no time limits on speeches. Portions
of the untelevised event may
be included in the Feb. 24
Academy Awards telecast.
Stars mingled in the ballroom and dined on filet mignon and banana cream pie before academy president Hawk
Koch urged them to “finish the
deals, make the deals” so the
program could begin. Each
honoree was introduced by a
pair of stars and a short film
of their work. Michael Moore
and Sen. Al Franken introduced Pennebaker. Moore called
him an inspiration and the
inventor of the modern documentary. Pennebaker ditched
the tripod and carried his camera on his shoulder, and “all
filmmaking changed,” Moore
said, “nonfiction and fiction.”
The 87-year-old Pennebaker
seemed to thank every colleague from his six-decade career during a nearly 20-minute speech that prompted his
family to signal him to finish
and inspired a joke from Will
Smith later in the evening.
“Before I get started, D.A.
Pennebaker has a couple
more people he wanted to
thank,” Smith cracked. Sidney Poitier and Annette
Bening introduced Stevens,
speaking of his commitment
to honoring, preserving and
furthering the art of film. In
accepting his Oscar, Stevens
thanked his late father for
encouraging him to consider
film a timeless art and “for
opening the door for me to
a creative life.” Needham
“pushed the boundaries of
what could be done in action,” Tarantino said as he
introduced the stuntman and
director, adding, “I’ve ripped
off many shots from you.”
Al Ruddy, Oscar-winning
producer of “The Godfather,”
described Needham as “one
of the good guys” and “a gift
to any producer.” Ruddy told
a story about making 1982’s
“Megaforce,” which Needham directed. The stuntman helped design a rocket
for the film’s action sequences, and when brought it to
the Goldwyn lot to demonstrate it, he accidentally launched it into a new soundstage and burnt the whole thing
down. Later, while filming
another stunt, Needham
crashed a motorcycle and
got a concussion, but he was
back on set shooting the next
morning. The 81-year-old
Needham called himself “the
luckiest man alive”: He grew
up a sharecropper’s son with
eight years’ education and
went on to work with Billy
Wilder, Jimmy Stewart and
John Wayne. Now he’s getting an Academy Award.
“My mom’s looking down
on tonight with a big smile on her face,” he said,
choking up and dabbing at
his eyes with a handkerchief.
He closed by thanking “the
entire Hollywood community for allowing me to be a
part of it.” Tom Hanks and
Will Smith introduced Katzenberg by joking about his
persistent calls for charitable
donations. The DreamWorks
executive has raised more
than USD230 million as
chairman of the Motion Picture and Television Fund
foundation. “Jeffrey has no
problem asking for way too
much money,” Smith said.
“Mostly, all I did was pick up
the phone and ask you,” Katzenberg said as he accepted
his award. “It’s you who did
it. You who gave of your time,
your talent, your money,
your hearts. Because that’s
what you do. That is what
Hollywood does.” AP
SINGAPORE will deport
29 Chinese immigrant bus
drivers who were involved
in the city-state’s first strike
in 26 years, the government
said the day before
yesterday. The Ministry of
Manpower said the drivers’
work permits have been
revoked and that another
driver will be charged with
instigating the strike. Four
others were arrested and
charged on Thursday and
face up to a year in prison if
found guilty.
ITALIANS vote in a runoff
primary to choose a centerleft candidate for elections
early next year amid high
unemployment, a deep
recession — and lingering
questions about whether the
challenger might be Silvio
Berlusconi.
SYRIA’s news agency and
activists say a car bomb has
exploded near a mosque in
the central Homs province,
killing at least seven people.
Homs has been a frequent
battleground in the 20-month
Syrian civil war.
AFGHANISTAN Taliban
suicide bombers attack a
joint U.S.-Afghan air base
in eastern Afghanistan,
detonating explosives
at the gate and sparking
a gun battle that lasts
at least two hours with
American helicopters firing
down at militants before
the attackers are defeated.
More on p12
THAILAND A British man
wanted on suspicion of
murdering a former U.S.
Marine has arrived in the
resort town of Phuket for
trial in what Thai police said
yesterday is the first-ever
case of extradition of a
criminal suspect from Britain
to Thailand. Lee Aldhouse,
29, is wanted on suspicion
of murdering a former U.S.
Marine Dashawn Longfellow
in August 2010.