Georgia Asian Times Vol 10 No 1

www.gasiantimes.comJanuary1-15,2013Vol10No1Covering The Multicultural Asian American Community in Georgia

Fiscal Cliff Averted

Publisher: Li WongAccount Manager: Adrian WestContributors: Andrian Putra, May Lee, Mark Ho Photographer: Ben Hioe

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Georgia Asian Times January 1-15, 2013 Page 3

2013 Georgia Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting DinnerDate: Tuesday Jan 15, 2013Time: 6:00 pmVenue: Georgia World Congress Center

2013 Eggs & Issues BreakfastDate: Wednesday Jan 16, 2013Time: 7:00 amVenue: Georgia World Congress Center

Chinese Business Association of Atlanta Annual MeetingDate: Saturday Jan 19, 2013Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pmVenue: Golden House RestaurantFor more info: 404-519-3889

NACA Chinese New Year BanquetDate: Saturday, February 2, 2013Time: 6:00 pmVenue: Canton House, Buford HwyFor more info: www.naca-atlanta.org

Lunar Tet New Year Festival 2013Vietnamese Community of GeorgiaDate: Sunday, Feb 10, 2013Time: 11:00 am -8:00 pmVenue: Grand Ballroom, 6100 Live Oak Pkwy, Norcross GA 30093For more info: Kim Hanh 678-849-6470

Tet Vietnamese New Year 2013Vietnamese American Community of GeorgiaDate: Sunday, Feb 17, 2013Time: 10:00 amVenue: Grand Ballroom, 6100 Live Oak Parkway, Norcross

Charity Golf TournamentOrganized by Consul General IndonesiaDate: Sunday April 21, 2013Time: 2:00 pmVenue: Hamilton Mill Golf Club - Canongate Golf Club

Page 4 January 1-15, 2013 Georgia Asian Times

EDUCATION

PEMAGARSARI, Indonesia, Dec 28, 2012 (AFP) - Kiswanti went to great lengths to get people to read in Indonesia, a nation addicted to social media but with a lack lustre interest in books.

For six years, as she cycled on bumpy village mud tracks in western Java as a door-to-door herbal medi-cine vendor, Kiswanti would carry a stack of books on the back of her bike to lend to children.

Her humble efforts have snowballed and her modest village is now home to a library, a rare sight even in Indone-sia’s biggest cities.

“Reading gives you knowledge and knowledge is power. Nobody, no mat-ter how poor, should be deprived of reading,” said Kiswanti.

Kiswanti gave up her days as a “mo-bile librarian” in 2005 when a liver ill-ness struck, confining her to her tiny concrete block house in Pemagarsari village, where narrow dirt trails lead off the main road.

As a neighbor kept the mobile li-brary on its wheels, international and local donors caught wind of the initia-tive and fronted the cash to start the Lebakwangi Reading House, which now boasts a collection of 5,000 titles.

“This library is a dream come true. I had to pinch myself many times to make sure it was real,” Kiswanti said in the library, set up in the house next to hers.

The library gets around 100 visitors a day, mostly students, and Kiswanti is plot-ting ways to expand her reach, already

touting her library to teachers and students at schools in three villages.

Indonesia has an impressive literacy rate for a developing nation -- nine out of 10 adults can read, the World Bank reports -- but books are consid-ered luxury items for many of its 240 million people, half of whom live on less than $2 a day.

The country has a much richer tradition of oral story-telling, with age-old shadow puppet shows and plays still popular.

Libraries are few and far between, and many are run by foundations, like the Yayasan Usaha Mulia which has two libraries, in west Java and central Kalimantan.

“There are also very few public libraries, and most stock encyclope-dias, not novels or books for pleasure reading,” the foundation’s executive director Noriyana Parabawati said.

Indonesians, however, read vol-umes of text every day online -- they make up the world’s third-largest Facebook community and fifth-largest on Twitter, and they are avid text and messaging users.

Tom Ibnur, a lecturer at the Jakarta Institute for the Arts, said that social media, as well as TV, have “become

Indonesian helps turns page for literacy with library

something like a drug and encourage people to watch and listen more than they read”.

There is also a history of distrust in books in Indonesia, where dictator Suharto used them as a vehicle for propaganda under his iron-fisted New Order regime.

“One reason people don’t like to read is that they feel that books are force-feeding them information about the New Order. Other aspects of his-tory, especially concerning important figures and heroes, have been deliber-ately removed,” Ibnur said.

But Kiswanti is still hopeful she can get her community to pick up books, and her spirit has rubbed off: 16 vol-unteers, mostly graduate housewives, help her run a pre-school in the same building that holds the library, teach-ing English and mathematics.

The two-story library houses children’s books, novels and non-fic-tion books, as well as self-help books, mostly in Indonesian. English titles include works by popular writers Paulo Coelho, Sidney Sheldon and Agatha Christie.

“What will make me happier now is Tintin in my library,” she said, her voice rising and eyes sparkling with

excitement as she raved about the hugely popular Franco-Belgian comic series.

Born to a trishaw rider father and herbal medicine vendor mother, Kiswanti was the eldest of five chil-dren was forced to drop out of school at the age of 12.

She spent her childhood removing peanut shells and picking fruit for a pittance, which she would spend immediately on books. As an adult, she washed and scrubbed expatriates’ homes in exchange for rare novels.

Her passion for reading even prompted her to place an unusual precondition for her marriage to con-struction worker Ngatmin.

Ngatmin, 57, who now works as swimming pool maintenance worker, said he had to agree to let her buy as many books as she could afford.

“It’s obvious my wife loves books more than me. She goes to bed with one and reads until she falls asleep,” he said.

“But because I love her, I don’t mind being her second choice.”


BUSINESS

Strong currency hurts Philippine call centers MANILA, Dec 26, 2012 (AFP) - The

peso’s rise is hitting call centres in the Philippines, handicapping the global leader in the lucrative business as it combats a challenge from top rival In-dia, industry officials said Wednesday.

Forty percent of the members of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines had cancelled expansion plans and an equal number reported losing business to other destinations, the industry group said.

Nearly half disclosed in a group survey that they were having trouble meeting revenue targets because of the strong peso, it said in a statement.

The association said the local cur-rency had become uncompetitive compared to the rupee in India, the Philippines’ main rival for outsourced business services.

“The combination of an appreciating peso and a depreciating Indian rupee has provided India with a meaningful cost advantage,” the statement said.

The Philippine peso has strength-ened by about seven percent from about 43.90 to the US dollar on Janu-

ary 2 to about 41.05 at the close of last week.

Industry president Benedict Hernan-dez said Philippines-based call centres must be able to operate “within accept-able market prices”, but added: “That’s becoming increasingly difficult as the peso continues to appreciate”.

The Philippines overtook India as the world leader in call centres in revenue terms in 2009 and in manpower terms in 2010, according to industry figures.

Manila is also making strides in other outsourced businesses like medi-cal and legal transcription, accounting, software writing and animation.

Earlier this year the association had forecast that call centre revenues would rise to $8.4 billion this year with 493,000 people employed.

They said this should increase to $14.7 billion by 2016, when the sector is tipped to employ 862,000 people.

Hernandez did not say if the targets were now in danger of not being met.

Change of guard at India’s Tata Group MUMBAI, Dec 28, 2012 (AFP) -

India’s head of the Tata Group empire, industrialist Ratan Tata, retires on Fri-day -- his 75th birthday -- while quietly handing over the reins to a younger successor from outside the immediate family.

Tata, who steered the group for 21 years as chairman, has been credited with transforming it into a streamlined conglomerate of more than 100 com-panies and earning a global reputation for eye-catching acquisitions of West-ern firms.

There was no event scheduled to mark the transition but the group last week formally named Cyrus Pallonji Mistry -- the first chief from outside the immediate Tata family in its 144-year history -- to be the new board chairman once Tata retired.

From luxury cars to steel, Tata is India’s largest group with total com-bined sales of $100 billion in 2011-12, nearly 60 per cent of which came from business outside India, mainly the United States and Britain.

“Tata led the group with vision, drive, tenacity and skill,” said Pradip Shah, chairman of IndAsia Fund Advi-sors, adding that Mistry’s challenge will be “inheriting people and building teams”.

Mistry, 44, chosen as Tata’s succes-sor in November last year, and Tata are both from India’s tight-knit Zoroas-trian community of Parsis, and have a family link.

Mistry’s sister is married to Tata’s younger half-brother Noel, who was initially tipped to be the group succes-sor.

Mistry is the son of Irish citizen Pallonji Mistry, whose construction firm Shapoorji Pallonji is the biggest shareholder of Tata Sons. Mistry suc-cessfully grew his family’s construction business turnover seven-fold to almost $1.5 billion since he became managing director in 1994.

The avid golfer will now head several Tata group firms including top vehicle maker Tata Motors, India’s largest software outsourcer Tata Consultancy Services and the world’s seventh-larg-est steel producer Tata Steel.

Tata Steel made a bold $13.7-billion purchase of Anglo-Dutch firm Corus in 2007 but it now is having problems with business conditions downbeat in Europe. The group’s telecom, power, hotels and finance arms also face dif-ficulties.

“Mistry faces headwinds,” said Shah.

Tata, a bachelor with no children, won headlines as the driving force be-hind the creation of the Nano, billed as the world’s cheapest “people’s” car as well for the 2008 purchase of prestige British cars Jaguar and Land Rover.

Tata, now “chairman emeritus” with the group, plans to remain head of the charitable trusts that own two-thirds of main holding company Tata Sons.


BUSINESSTaiwan plans oil, gas exploration in South China Sea TAIPEI, Dec 28, 2012 (AFP) - Tai-

wan plans to start exploring for oil and gas in the South China Sea from next year, an official and local media said Friday, in a development that could in-crease tensions in the contested waters.

The Bureau of Mines and state-run oil supplier CPC Corp are expected to kick off exploration in 2013 in the sea around Taiping, the biggest islet in the Spratly archipelago, the United Daily News website and other media reported.

Jerry Ou, head of the Bureau of En-ergy, announced the plan Thursday in parliament, the paper said, adding that a budget of Tw$17 million ($585,000) had been set aside for the project.

“At the moment, it’s something that’s being planned by the government, and we haven’t received any details yet,” said an official with CPC Corp, declin-ing to be named.

The Bureau of Energy declined com-ment, while the Bureau of Mining was not immediately available for a reac-tion to the report.

Taiwan, which does not have any oil resources of its own and is dependent on imports mainly from the Middle East and Africa, would seem to have solid economic reasons for looking for new energy reserves.

However, carrying out oil and gas ex-ploration in the Spratlys could ratchet up tensions, as the islands are claimed entirely or in part by Taiwan, Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

All claimants except Brunei have troops based on the group of more than 100 islets, reefs and atolls, which are spread across a vast area but have a total land mass of less than five square kilometers (two square miles).

Taiwan maintains a small coastguard garrison on Taiping, 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from its southern coast, and earlier this year sent new mortar and anti-aircraft systems to the islet, angering Vietnam.

Japan’s Sharp considering $1.15 Bn public offering: report

TOKYO, Jan 1, 2013 (AFP) - Embat-tled Japanese electronics firm Sharp is considering making a public share of-fering worth more than 100 billion yen ($1.15 billion) early this year, a report said Tuesday.

The public offering could take place in the spring with the firm hoping to use the funds to strengthen its main-stay liquid crystal display (LCD) busi-ness and improve its creditworthiness, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said.

Sharp has started talks with major

creditor banks and wants to include the capital increase scheme in a mid-term business plan to be announced as early as February, the mass-circulation daily said without naming its sources.

The cash-strapped company said in December it had struck a 9.9-bil-lion-yen capital injection deal with US-based chipmaker Qualcomm as it moves to repair its tattered balance sheet.

The Qualcomm deal will see the pair jointly develop energy-efficient LCD

panels for smartphones using the Japa-nese firm’s technology, with the US company initially getting about 2.64 percent of Sharp’s stock.

Japan’s battered electronics sector has suffered from a myriad of problems including a high yen, slowing demand in key export markets, fierce overseas competition and strategic mistakes that left its finances in ruins.

Sharp has suffered a series of credit rating downgrades and warned it expects to lose about $5.6 billion in the

fiscal year to March 2013.

The Osaka-based maker of Aquos-brand electronics has announced thou-sands of job losses while cutting wages for employees -- from the factory floor to the boardroom -- and selling real estate to shore up its balance sheet.

Sharp said last year it had reached a capital injection deal worth about $800 million with Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision, which makes Apple gadgets in China, but the deal stalled as Sharp’s share price nosedived.

Singapore likely in recession after GDP data: analysts SINGAPORE, Dec 31, 2012 (AFP)

- Singapore likely slipped into reces-sion in the three months to Decem-ber, analysts said on Monday, as data showed growth in 2012 came in lower than expected.

In his New Year’s message, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said “growth was slower this year, at 1.2 percent”, which is well off the official growth forecast of 1.5-2.5 percent.

However, CIMB Research economist Song Seng Wun said the figures for the year indicate the economy shrank 3.5 to 4.0 percent quarter on quarter in October-December, which followed a contraction of 5.9 percent in the previ-ous three months.

Two consecutive quarters of contrac-tion point to a technical recession.

“It’s basically just the magnitude of (the recession) rather than if,” he said.

And Jason Hughes, head of premium client management for IG Markets Sin-gapore, said: “It would seem that the PM’s statement of 1.2 percent growth for 2012 would suggest that we’ve contracted in the fourth quarter which would put us in technical recession territory.”

An official breakdown of the data will be released by the trade ministry on Wednesday.

Lee said growth had been hit by weakness in the city-state’s key export markets of Europe, which is battling a debt crisis, and the United States and Japan, where economic recovery is sputtering.

“The weak US, European and Japa-nese economies dampened our growth, but some industries have also had dif-ficulty hiring the workers they need to grow. Next year we expect to grow by 1.0-3.0 percent,” he added.

Singapore, widely regarded as a bellwether for Asia’s export-driven economies, went through its worst-ever recession during the global financial crisis from the third quarter of 2008 to the second half of 2009.

Unlike its bigger neighbors, however, Singapore is more vulnerable to exter-nal trade developments because it has a small domestic base of just over five million residents.


FEATUREUS Congress agrees last-minute

fiscal-cliff deal, stocks surge

WASHINGTON, Jan 02, 2013 (AFP) - The US Congress pulled back from the brink of “fiscal cliff” disaster and sparked a New Year stock rally with a last-minute deal averting tax hikes and massive spending cuts which threat-ened to unleash economic calamity.

Relief rippled out through European and Asian stock markets, with stocks in Spain and Italy surging by more than 3.0 percent, before the all-important opening on Wall Street.

The House of Representatives passed a deal between the White House and Republicans late Tuesday to raise taxes on the rich and put off automatic $109 billion budget cuts for two months, lift-ing the clouds of immediate crisis.

But more hard haggling is due in two months’ time over further specific budget measures.

The deal’s fate had hung in the bal-ance for hours as House conservatives sought to add spending reductions to a version passed by the Senate in the early hours of 2013 that would likely have killed the compromise.

In the end, the House voted 257 votes to 167 to pass the original bill with minority Democrats joining a smaller band of majority Republicans to pass the legislation after a fiercely contested and unusual session on New Year’s Day.

President Barack Obama, who cam-paigned for re-election on a platform of building a more equitable economic system, declared the deal was a prom-ise kept, despite falling short of earlier hopes for a grand deficit bargain.

“I will sign a law that raises taxes on the wealthiest two percent of Americans while preventing a middle class tax hike that could have sent the economy back into recession,” Obama told reporters after the vote.

“The deficit needs to be reduced in

way that’s balanced. Everyone pays their fair share. Everyone does their part,” Obama said, before heading to Air Force One to resume his inter-rupted annual vacation in his native Hawaii.

Had the deal fallen apart, all Americans would have been hit by tax increases and the spending cuts would have kicked in across the government, in a combined $500 billion shock that could have rocked the fragile recovery.

Relief was felt internation-ally.

European stock markets soared Wednesday, making a bright start on the first trading day of 2013, as inves-tors welcomed news that the United States has clinched the deal.

Asian shares also rose sharply. Hong Kong shares, for example, ended 2.89 percent higher on Wednesday.

But not all observers found the de-velopment encouraging. China’s official news agency warned Wednesday that the United States was heading towards an “abyss” -- fiscal deal or no deal.

“As the world’s sole superpower, the United States is clearly not Greece,” the Xinhua news agency said. “But eco-nomics and common sense do not lie.

“People, or governments, can over-spend for some time, but they simply cannot live on borrowed prosperity forever.”

China, which has the world’s biggest foreign exchange reserves, is a major buyer of US Treasury debt.

Leading up to the deal, political feud-ing which spanning the Christmas and New Year holidays reflected the near impossibility in forging compromise in Washington, where power is divided between a Democratic president and the Republican House.

It was also a signal that Obama, despite a thumping re-election win in November, may find it tough to achieve second term legislative goals that include immigration reform, clean energy legislation and gun control.

The truce in Washington is likely to be brief, given the fight that will ensue over the spending cuts that now loom at the end of February as well as over regular budget bill extensions.

Those fights will be paralleled by one over a request by Obama for Congress to lift the country’s $16 trillion borrow-ing limit. Republicans are already de-manding concessions on expenditures in return for allowing it to rise.

Obama issued a blunt warning on Tuesday that he would not play ball with Republicans by enjoining in an-other batter over the debt ceiling.

“If Congress refuses to give the Unit-ed States government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic, far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff,” he warned.

House Speaker John Boehner, smarting from a defeat by the re-elect-ed president on tax rates, warned that the focus would now turn to Republi-can turf of tightening the budget.

“Now the focus turns to spending.

The American people re-elected a Re-publican majority in the House, and we will use it in 2013 to hold the president accountable for the ‘balanced’ ap-proach he promised,” Boehner said.

The Republican leader promised “significant spending cuts and reforms to the entitlement (social welfare) programs that are driving our country deeper and deeper into debt.”

Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell, a key figure in engi-neering the fiscal cliff deal, also warned of spending cuts.

“That’s a debate the American people want,” he said.

The legislation raises taxes on indi-viduals earning more than $400,000 per year, and on couples earning more than $450,000, while retaining tax cuts for Americans with lower incomes put in place under the administration of former president George W. Bush.

The deal also included an end to a temporary two-percent cut to payroll taxes for Social Security retirement savings -- meaning all Americans will pay a little more -- and changes to inheritance and investment taxes.


ARTS

Pakistan gallery defies dictators ISLAMABAD, Dec 25, 2012 - It may

not seem the most obvious setting, but a squat building overlooking a slum is home to one of Pakistan’s leading galleries, which for 30 years has defied dictatorships and funda-mentalists to champion cutting-edge art.

Rohtas Gallery was founded in 1981, at the height of military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq’s martial law, as Paki-stan was undergoing a program of Islamization that imposed Draconian restrictions on culture and entertain-ment.

With all but the most insipid forms of visual art officially banned as “un-Islamic”, architect Naeem Pasha and a group of friends decided Pakistan’s artists needed a space to express themselves freely.

“Abstract art was un-Islamic,” said Pasha.

“Calligraphy, landscape without even a crow or a goat or anything living in it, insipid crayon portraits of your gardener that the expatriates would take home and say ‘this is what Pakistanis look like’ -- they were al-lowed.

“But we did what we had to do, and we showed nudes, we showed ab-stracts, we showed everything.”

Maintaining the gallery’s com-mitment to showing progressive art meant a delicate game of cat-and-mouse with Zia’s powerful intelligence agencies -- and taking advantage of Cold War rivalries.

Diplomats would vie with each oth-er for invitations to exhibition open-ings at Rohtas’ tiny original venue.

“The American ambassador would make sure he came before the Soviet ambassador and the Soviet ambassa-dor would try to beat him to it because they wanted to show they supported art,” Pasha explained.

“Zia-ul-Haq always gave you the impression he was very magnanimous and non-interfering -- at least that’s the impression he wanted to give to the diplomats, so they didn’t touch us.”

But the secret police came calling after a picture appeared in a news-paper of the Soviet ambassador at an exhibition next to the drawing of a tailor’s dummy wearing a general’s uniform with a snake coming out of the sleeve.

After a tip-off from a friend in the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, Pa-sha rushed to the gallery to take down the pictures -- which the newspaper article said had all been sold.

“Sure enough by 11, 12, o’clock these people came and they said ‘where are these pictures?’” said Pasha.

“So I said ‘Well, you saw it in the newspapers, they’re sold, they’re gone.’ Usually if somebody buys the picture will stay on the wall for a month.”

Rohtas helped launch the careers of many of the biggest names in modern Pakistani art, including Quddus Mir-za, Rashid Rana and Irfan Qureshi, who has been named artist of 2013 by Berlin’s Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle.

Pasha said the censorship of the Zia-era acted as an inspiration to art-ists.

“Fascism becomes an instrument by default to make good art happen,” he said.

“It is against that repression that the artist woke up and today what you see in Pakistani art -- the breed-ing ground was in that 1980s martial law.”

Mirza, who curated a show celebrat-ing Rohtas’ 30th birthay in October, said the gallery had encouraged artists

to follow their creative impulses free not only from political restrictions, but also commercial pressures.

“Installation or sculpture or digi-tal prints at one time were not sold. When you have that kind of show, it’s not going to be beneficial commercial-ly but Rohtas supported it,” he said.

“I think that role was important -- it supported young artists and artists who were not given the chance any-where else.

“If there’s no place to show you amend, you censor, you clip your vision. In that way it was very impor-tant.”

Demand for contemporary art among collectors in Pakistan is grow-ing, particularly among the young, Pasha says, but shows sell 25 percent of the exhibits at most.

His architecture practice supports the gallery financially and Pasha said he was proud to have been able to maintain its commitment to progres-sive art without watering it down with more commercially friendly pieces.

“We knew the type of art that we wanted to show, which is not eco-nomically viable, if our architecture practice doesn’t subsidize it, it will not last,” he said.

“So it’s more madness, indulgence,

a commitment that this is something that one must do. That’s how we sur-vived and we still do.

“If we were going to be commercial maybe we would have changed direc-tion and not shown art of this calibre, mixed it with folk and trinkets and all this.”

The overt oppression of Zia’s rule has long gone, but Pakistan remains a deeply conservative country where religious extremists seek to impose limits on culture.

Pasha says the fundamentalist re-ligious movements are now inspiring artists.

“Now we have got another fuel to make art which is the ‘fundo’ label and the ‘terror’ label,” he said.

“A lot of work you see is coming out and in one kind or another it repre-sents that.”

Qadir Jhatial, 26, whose debut exhi-bition opened recently at Rohtas, said a show at the venerable gallery was something to which all young artists aspired.

“Rohtas is really supporting young talent,” he said. “In Pakistan definitely I will get good exposure, people will get to know my work.”


FOCUS

KATHMANDU, Dec 26, 2012 - The remorse felt by Himali Chungda Sherpa after he killed three snow leopard cubs in retaliation for his lost cattle inspired him to set up a scheme to prevent other herd-ers from doing the same.

Sherpa lost his cattle near Ghunsa vil-lage at the base of Mount Kangchenjunga on the Nepal-India border, later finding their remains in a cave beside three sleep-ing snow leopard cubs.

The Nepalese herder put the cubs in a sack and threw them into the river, finding their bodies the next day.

“From that night onwards the mother snow leopard started crying from the mountain for her cubs, and my cattle were crying for the loss of their calves.

“I realized how big a sin I had com-mitted and promised myself that I would never do such a thing in the future.”

Four years ago Sherpa, 48, founded with other locals an insurance plan for livestock that conservationists say is de-terring herders from killing snow leopards that attack their animals.

In doing so the scheme has given hope for the endangered cat, whose numbers across the mountains of 12 countries in south and central Asia are thought to have declined by 20 percent over the past 16 years.

Under the scheme, herders pay in 55 rupees ($1.50) a year for each of their hairy yaks, the vital pack animal that is also kept for milk and meat, and are paid 2,500 rupees for any animal killed by the endangered cat.

“The (Himalayan) communities have been able to pay out compensation for more than 200 animals since the scheme started,” WWF Nepal conservation direc-tor Ghana Gurung told reporters at a presentation in the capital Kathmandu.

“The community members are the ones that monitor this, they are the ones who do the patrolling and they are the ones who verify the kills.”

The global snow leopard population

is estimated at just 4,080-6,590 adults according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which lists the animal as “endangered” on its red list of threatened species.

Experts believe just 300 to 500 adults survive in Nepal, and few can claim ever to have seen the secretive, solitary “mountain ghost”, which lives 5,000 to 6,000 meters (16,500 to 20,000 feet) above sea level.

Despite its name, it is not a close rela-tive of the leopard and has much more in common genetically with the tiger, though it is thought to have a placid tempera-ment.

“There has never been a case of a snow leopard attacking a human,” Gurung said of the animal, revered for its thick grey patterned pelt.

It does, however, have a taste for sheep, goats and other livestock essential for the livelihoods of farmers and is often killed by humans either as a preventative mea-sure or in revenge for the deaths of their animals.

‘Threat’ to livelihoods

WWF Nepal revealed details of its insurance scheme in filmed interviews shown at the recent Kathmandu Interna-tional Mountain Film Festival.

Sherpa now campaigns to convince Himalayan farmers that killing snow leopards is wrong, but has been frequently told they need to kill the animal to protect their livelihoods.

“I swear if I can catch a snow leopard. They rob our animals and our source of livelihood,” herder Chokyab Bhuttia told the WWF.

The insurance plan, which also cov-ers sheep and goats, was set up with 1.2 million rupees donated by the University of Zurich.

Since the Kangchenjunga Con-servation Area Snow Leopard Insurance plan was launched four years ago no snow leopard is thought to have been killed in retaliation for preying on livestock since.

Locals, who count the number of cattle attacked as well as tracks, fecal pellets and scratches in the ground, believe snow leopard numbers have significantly increased.

“There is now an awareness among people that the snow leopard is an endan-gered animal and we have to protect it. The insurance policy has made people more tolerant to the loss of their livestock,” Sherpa said.

He believes protect-ing the snow leopard is vital to boosting the economy in an area which gets just a few

hundred trekkers a year, compared with 74,000 in Annapurna.

“If a tourist sees a snow leopard and takes a picture of it there will be public-ity of our region and more tourists will come,” Sherpa said.

Evidence of the scheme’s benefits will remain anecdotal until the publication next year of the results of a wide-ranging camera trapping survey.

But locals are optimistic about the ani-mal’s future, according to Tsheten Dandu Sherpa, chairman of the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area Management Council.

“In this area there was never any poach-ing of snow leopards for trade. They were killed only as a retaliatory act by livestock owners,” he said.

“Now with this insurance policy there will definitely be protection of the snow leopard and its numbers will increase.”

‘Yak insurance’ plan saving Nepal’s snow leopard


GREEN

Red racer Ferrari joins green revolution

MARANELLO, Italy, Dec 25, 2012 (AFP) - Italy’s red racing giant Ferrari wants to go green, cutting emissions without sacrificing horsepower and working on a new hybrid model set to thrill pro-environment speed junkies.

“We’re working on reducing energy consumption without forgetting that the symbol of Ferrari is performance,” Matteo Lanzavecchia, head of de-velopment, said at the luxury car-maker’s historic factory in Maranello, a small town in the Emilia Romagna region.

“We’ve also managed to up horse-power to 100 while still reducing CO2 emissions by 30 percent,” he said.

The sleek “California 30”, one of the brand’s most sought-after mod-els with a price tag of 180,000 euros ($239,000), has been vamped up with the new technology -- extra horsepower but weighing 30 kilogram (66 pounds) less than the previous version.

“We’re going all out, not just using the lightest materials but making ad-justments across the board. We have improved the brake system to reduce friction and the fan to reduce energy consumption,” Lanzavecchia said.

And the green drive does not stop there: among the towering steel ma-chines on the Maranello factory floor trees have been planted to control the air’s humidity levels.

The most recent buildings have also been built with vast glass bays to al-low more light in and slash electricity consumption.

The hybrid car -- set to hit sales-rooms in the next few months -- aims to lure customers not only with its green credentials but also the promise of an off-piste taste of a Formula One experience.

It will have the Kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) used in the famous racer -- which recovers energy during braking and stores it for future use -- “to reduce consumption but also capture the thrill of driving a Fer-rari,” Lanzavecchia said.

The luxury brand has managed to avoid fallout from the economic crisis which hit the standard automobile industry.

Last year 7,200 Ferraris were sold around the world, up 10 percent from 2010, and the company’s turnover this year has shot up over the two bil-lion euro level for the first time in its history.

As well as focusing on emerging

markets, the brand has been tempting clients with “personal stylist” services and gadgets to gussy up the inside of gleaming new Ferraris.

“There are opportunities all over the world. Of course, we are more prudent about some markets such as Europe, but there are others where the economy is growing -- China, Indonesia, Malaysia or the United States,” commercial director Enrico Galliera said.

For a small fee -- up to half the cost of the vehicle -- customers can personalize the car’s interior with cashmere, peccary or teak and choose their favorite model of seats, seat-belt, hi-fi system and touch-screen.

“We have personal designers who help the client choose and give him advice,” Nicola Boari, head of the

personal shopper system, said in the factory’s workshop.

Nearby, women in red overalls cut out meters of fabric for the cars’ inte-riors, tailoring them specially for each new owner.

Anything goes -- as long as it stays within the limits of good taste and conforms to Ferrari’s glossy and se-ductive “Italian style.”

“We would never let a Ferrari leave our factory with crocodile-leather seats or our trademark horse symbol done in diamonds,” one of the stylists said.

The extras may cost, but that does not seem to put eager customers off -- around 98 percent of them choose to jazz up their brand new racers.


CULTURE

PARIS, Dec 31, 2012 (AFP) - Two cen-turies after the French people beheaded Louis XVI and dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, scientists believe they have authenticated the remains of one such rag kept as a revolutionary souvenir.

Researchers have been trying for years to verify a claim imprinted on an ornately decorated calabash that it contains a sample of the blood of the French king guillotined in Paris on January 21, 1793.

The dried, hollowed squash is adorned with portraits of revolutionary heroes and the text: “On January 21, Maximilien Bourdaloue dipped his handkerchief in the blood of Louis XVI after his decapitation”.

He is then believed to have placed the fabric in the gourd, and had it embel-lished.

The sinister souvenir has been in the private hands of an Italian family for more than a century, said the team of experts from Spain and France which published its findings in the journal Forensic Science International.

Two years ago, analysis of DNA taken from blood traces found inside the ornate vegetable revealed a likely match for someone of Louis’ description, including his blue eyes.

But not having the DNA of any kingly relation, researchers could not prove beyond doubt that the blood belonged to Louis.

Until now.

Using the genetic material, the team managed to draw a link to another gruesome artifact -- a mummified head believed to belong to Louis’ 16th century predecessor, Henri IV.

In so doing, they provided evidence for authenticating both sets of remains -- uncovering a rare genetic signature shared by two men separated by seven generations.

“This study shows that (the owners of the remains) share a genetic heritage passed on through the paternal line. They have a direct link to one another through their fathers,” said French forensic pa-thologist Philippe Charlier.

The revolution in which Louis and queen Marie-Antoinette lost their heads in public executions also saw mobs ransack the royal chapel at Saint-Denis, north of Paris -- hauling ancient monarchs like Henri from their tombs and mutilating the remains which they tossed into pits.

An individual was recorded to have res-cued a severed head from the chaos.

Long thought to belong to Henri, as-sassinated at the age of 57 by a Catholic fanatic in 1610, the head changed hands several times over the next two centuries, bought and sold at auction or kept in secretive private collections.

Scientists in 2010 said they found proof that the head was indeed Henri’s, citing physical features that matched 16th cen-tury portraits of the king, as well as radio-carbon dating, 3D scanning and X-rays.

The 2010 study, however, found no DNA and its findings have been contested by some.

With the new evidence, “it is about 250 times more likely that the (owners of the) head and the blood are paternally related, than unrelated,” co-author Carles Lalueza Fox of the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva in Barcelona said by email.

Taken together with all the physical and forensic evidence, historical records and folklore, it would be “extremely surpris-ing” if the remains did not belong to the two assassinated monarchs, he added.

“One can say that there is absolutely no doubt anymore,” about the authenticity of the mummified head, added Charlier.

The DNA data obtained from Louis XVI could now be used to decipher the genetic code of France’s last absolute monarch and his living relatives.

Dried squash holds headless French king’s blood: study

Taiwan holds first Chinese music concert

Thousands of music fans packed a Taipei stadium to watch the island’s first concert staged by Chinese sing-ers and rock bands, reports said, in the latest sign of warming cross-strait relations.

The concert organized by the Chi-nese Music Chart, dubbed China’s Grammy Awards, saw some 60 bands and singers from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan perform before screaming fans Saturday, but also drew dozens of anti-China protesters.

They chanted pro-independence slo-gans and waved anti-Beijing banners outside the stadium, television reports showed, but were unable to interrupt the concert which included perfor-mances by Chinese singer Han Geng and actress Zhang Ziyi.

Without the prior approval of Taiwanese authorities, organizers of the Chinese Music Chart unilaterally announced in November that an award ceremony would be held in Taipei for the first time after it was set up in 1993.

The plan drew fire from the opposi-tion, prompting the Chinese award organizers to change the award pre-sentation ceremony to a concert at the demand of Taiwanese authorities.

The concert “is part of Chinese com-munist... tactics against Taiwan people and we’re here to voice our desire that we don’t want to be ruled by China,” said protester Tsai Ting-kui, according to the Liberty Times.

Beijing still insists Taiwan is part of China even though the island has ruled itself for more than 60 years after their split in 1949 at the end of a civil war.

But ties with China have improved markedly since Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang came to power in 2008 on a Beijing-friendly platform. He was re-elected in January for a second and final four-year term.


LIFESTYLE

NEW DELHI, Nov 29, 2012 (AFP) - India’s “guru of giggling” Madan Ka-taria, who has got thousands of people guffawing globally in pursuit of better health, has an unexpected confession -- he hasn’t got a very good sense of humor.

“But you don’t require one to laugh,” chortles Kataria, founder of “Laughter Yoga”, a movement that has attracted fans worldwide includ-ing celebrities Oprah Winfrey and Goldie Hawn.

Kataria -- who travels constantly spreading his “laugh with no reason” gospel -- has been hired by multina-tionals from computer giant Hewlett-Packard to automaker Volvo to hold team-building laughter sessions.

Now he is setting up a “Laughter University” in the southern city of Bangalore on land donated by a build-ing contractor and $250,000 from an anonymous tycoon.

“In three months we will start build-ing and by the end of 2013 we will be up and running. We want to build a worldwide community headquarters of laughter yoga,” he said.

Kataria envisions holding laughter sessions and conferences at the centre and setting up an alternative medicine unit to expand medical knowledge about the beneficial health effects of laughter.

Studies already suggest laughter re-leases feel-good endorphins, the brain chemicals that are linked with a sense of wellbeing.

“Laughing is the healthiest thing you can do -- it’s the best medicine,” said the towering, bald 58-year-old, whose movement has inspired thou-

sands of “Laughter Clubs” in India and around the world from Beirut to Dublin.

Kataria also holds laughter sessions in schools, prisons, hospitals and re-tirement homes, and a few years ago testified before a US Senate commit-tee that laughter yoga could help the country cut healthcare costs.

A qualified doctor, he hit upon medical literature advocating laugh-ter as a stress-buster and remedy for other ailments. In 1995 he decided to “field-test” his findings before setting up the first of his clubs.

Medical benefits

Kataria started with four strangers in a Mumbai park. They stood in a circle and “laughed like hyenas,” he recalled. Numbers soon swelled to around 50.

They recounted jokes but realized they didn’t have enough gags -- then he found that the body was unable to distinguish between fake and genu-ine laughter with both producing the same “happy, healing chemistry”.

“Anyway, fake laughter turns into real laughter after a few moments. Try it,” he said.

He persuaded his group to laugh with him for one minute with no reason. It stretched into 10 minutes as the laughter turned infectious -- and the Laughter Yoga movement was born.

“Laughter is more about social con-nection and bonding than something being funny,” said Amit Sood, a doc-tor at the Mayo Clinic in the United States.

India’s giggling guru says laugh yourself to good health

“Studies show all kinds of benefits from laughter from better immunity and coping skills, lower stress, better relationships to improved digestion,” he said.

Many Indian parks now host ses-sions every morning with peals of laughter ringing out from people standing in groups.

“It relaxes me. If I laugh in the morning, the rest of the day goes well,” said Lisa Singh, 39, one regular “laugher” in New Delhi.

Kataria, who runs his non-profit Laughter Yoga Institute with a dozen employees from his Mumbai home, says one needs a full 15-to-20 min-utes of giggling daily to reap the full benefits.

Researchers believe it may be the use of abdominal muscles in laughing that triggers the release of endorphins -- a phenomenon also associated with exercise, such as running.

“It’s not enough to just watch a funny movie because you just laugh a few seconds at a funny line -- you need to laugh for a stretch to get the rewards,” Kataria said.

Big ambitions

Kataria was the youngest of 14 children from a poor farming fam-ily in the state of Punjab. Six siblings died as medical help was too far away

and his mother set her heart on him becoming a doctor.

She sold her gold bangles so he could go to medical school. He qualified as a physician but was more drawn to acting and admits he was a “bit of a showman”.

“My family was rather disappointed -- but now they have seen how big Laughter Yoga has become, they’re proud,” he said.

His talent to engage people came across at a recent financial analysts’ team-building session in New Delhi.

He stretched his arms out and led off with his signature “tee-hee, ho, ho” that finally gave way to unrestrained bellows.

There were a few nervous titters, then within minutes the room was engulfed by laughter and some people were wiping away tears.

“Laughter is contagious -- like yawning,” said Kataria who inter-sperses the merriment with deep breathing yoga exercises and stretch-ing.

“We need to laugh to help us deal with life, which can be very difficult,” he said, briefly sounding serious.

“When you laugh you’re joyful -- you’re living in the moment.”

by Penny MacRae


SPORTSJapan club to keep ex-Braves star despite arrestTOKYO, Dec 27, 2012 - Japanese

baseball club Rakuten Eagles, who re-cently signed former US major league star Andruw Jones, said Thursday they had no plans to cancel the deal after he was arrested on suspicion of battering his wife.

The Curacao-born outfielder, 35, was held early Christmas morning at his home in suburban Atlanta, Geor-gia, after police were called following a dispute between him and his wife, according to media reports.

He was released on $2,400 bail.

“There is no such possibility for now,” Rakuten Eagles public relations director Yoshiki Sato said when asked if the one-year contract, signed earlier this month for an estimated $3.5-mil-lion, could be annulled.

“At the moment it is our under-standing” that he did not do anything wrong, he said by telephone.

The club said representatives had spoken to Jones, who told them he had continued drinking after a Christ-mas Eve party and had quarreled with his wife, who called the police.

Jones, a five-time All Star who has played for five Major League teams in-cluding the Atlanta Braves, told them there was no physical assault on his wife and that she did not expect police to take him away, the club said.

In a statement released by the team, Jones said he was sincerely sorry for worrying Rakuten Eagles fans who were looking forward to seeing him play.

Rakuten Eagles president Yozo Tachibana said: “Our baseball club for its part will ask him to be more conscious of his actions and will be more thorough in its management and education.”

Japan boy wonder to follow Darvish’s pathTOKYO, Dec 27, 2012 - A Japanese

high-school pitching sensation who gave up his plan to go straight to the US leagues took the perfect first step Thursday in his domestic career, by inheriting Yu Darvish’s room.

Shohei Otani, 18, who signed with Japan’s Nippon Ham Fighters this month, was given the room used by Texas Rangers pitcher Darvish until his major league move last January, at the club’s training and lodging facility near Tokyo.

The club had previously announced he would also take the No. 11 shirt --Darvish’s old number.

“I am greatly honored. I want to hang in there. I wonder if I deserve it,” said Otani, whose 160 kilometer (100-mile)-per-hour pitch and impressive slugging record made him a stand-out in the well-followed high school leagues.

“I’m happy to start in such a place,” said the 193-centimeter (6ft 4in) right-hander, who will graduate in March from Hanamaki Higashi high school in rural northern Japan.

Darvish, 26, the two-time Japan League Most Valuable Player, also cultivated his talents with the Fighters from 2005 and became the highest-paid player in Japanese baseball.

Otani stunned Japan’s baseball establishment in October when he said he would turn professional in the United States, a move that would have required him to spend several years in the US minor leagues.

But the Fighters, the Japanese Pa-cific League champions, succeeded in persuading him to start his career in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) after naming him their first-round draft pick.

Otani signed for a 2013 salary of $176,400 with a $1.2 million signing bonus and $5,900 in performance-based incentives -- the maximum figures allowed by NPB for a first-year pro.

Beckham considering several offersLONDON, Dec 27, 2012 (AFP)

- David Beckham insists he has no intention of rushing into his next move as the former Manchester United star considers several offers from teams across the world.

Beckham left LA Galaxy earlier this month at the end of his contract after helping the California side win the MLS Cup and is now looking for the right option for what will likely be the last club of his illustrious career.

The 37-year-old former Real Madrid midfielder, who spent five years in LA, has been been linked with QPR in Eng-land and Monaco in France, as well as teams from China and Australia.

A spokesman for Beckham said the former England captain plans to weigh

up his options over the holiday period and isn’t concerned about coming to a quick decision.

“There are a number of serious pro-posals on the table from a host of clubs across the world,” the spokesperson said.

“David is no hurry to make a deci-sion, the key is making the right one as he has always done successfully in his career.

“It’s early days in the process. David is enjoying spending quality time with his family over the holidays.”

It is believed reports in France that Beckham has priced himself out of a move to Monaco are premature.

Monaco, currently second in Ligue 2, are coached by former Chelsea manag-er Claudio Ranieri, who has previously stated his interest in bringing Beckham to the club and is backed by wealthy Russian owner Dimitri Rybolovlev.


SPORTS

TOKYO, Dec 28, 2012 (AFP) - Japanese baseball managers, players, fans and media showered with praise former New York Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui Friday as he announced his retirement after 20 years in Japanese and US baseball.

Some hoped the 38-year-old outfielder would remain in the game and one day manage Japan’s hugely popular Yomiuri Giants -- his club for his first 10 profes-sional years before a high-profile move to the US major leagues.

“Thank you, glorious Godzilla,” the Yo-miuri Shimbun said in its evening edition hours after Matsui, named after the world-famous Japanese movie monster, bade farewell at a news conference in New York.

“Japanese and American fans who watched his dynamic play are all filled with sadness,” the mass-circulation daily said.

“Hitting a total 507 home-runs while loved in Japan, US”, read a headline in the Mainichi Shimbun.

Matsui, who played for three differ-ent clubs over the last three seasons after becoming the Most Valuable Player of the 2009 World Series with the Yankees, said he had not been able to produce good results in the past two years due to nagging knee problems.

“I felt it was the end of a great Matsui era,” said Giants manager Tatsunori Hara, who used Matsui as the key fourth batter in 2002 during his first stint in the post.

The Giants won the Japan Series title that year and Matsui left for the Yankees the next season. The Tokyo team also won the title in 2012 under Hara.

“I was stunned by his very strong will, sturdy body and unmatched power,” said

Hara, who was in his last year as a player when Matsui joined the team in 1993. “He grew up quickly from his first year.”

Hara, 54, said he had always considered Matsui as an “old boy” of the Giants.

“I believe he wishes to work himself to the bone for the development of Japanese baseball,” he said. “I believe he has a strong feeling particularly toward the Giants.”

Giants owner Kojiro Shiraishi said he would “back up” Matsui if he had plans to study the sport’s management and contrib-ute to Japan’s baseball world.

The daily Nikkan Sports, devoting four pages -- including the front -- to Matsui in its morning edition which was published before the announcement, said in a head-line that he was due to “bring Godzilla II to the Giants”.

It estimated he had earned $84 million in salary over 10 years in the United States, in addition to 2.3 billion yen ($27 million) paid to him by the Giants over 10 years.

Matsui’s father Masao, 70, said his son had “nothing to regret as a baseball player with such good results”.

“I do feel that he has been loved by fans in both the United States and Japan,” said the senior Matsui. “I believe he has a mis-sion to contribute to the baseball world and children.”

After the Yankees, Matsui played for one year each with the Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics. He appeared in 34 ma-jor league games for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2012, batting .147 with two home runs and seven RBIs.

He hit .282 with 175 homers and 760 RBIs in his major league career.

Retiring Matsui showered with praise

Brazil legends to play in MyanmarYANGON, Dec 28, 2012 (AFP) - World

Cup winners Cafu, Bebeto and Roberto Carlos will join an All-Star Brazil team in Myanmar next month as the nation tries to boost its footballing prowess, a sporting official said Friday.

The veteran trio are expected to play in an exhibition match in Yangon against a local XI, consisting of current and former national team players, after talks between the Brazilian Embassy and Myanmar’s Football Federation.

Cafu, a flying wingback who won the World Cup with Brazil in 1994 and 2002, will arrive in Yangon on January 20 with striker Bebeto and former Real Madrid star Carlos.

“As we will have the chance to see nearly all the players of the 1994 Champion team here, both the football industry and fans will get an amazing experience, I think,” said Soe Moe Kyaw of the MFF.

“We are still adjusting the player list of who will come here. We will finalize it next week,” he said, adding the date of the match has not yet been confirmed.

Impoverished Myanmar, which is undergoing major political and economic reforms after years of junta rule, was once a regional powerhouse in the sport, winning

the Asian Games in 1966 and 1970, and sweeping the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games between 1965 and 1973.

But it has endured a four-decade slide down the rankings since then and the national side limped out of this year’s Southeast Asian AFF Suzuki Cup at the group stages without a win.

Young Myanmar football players will be given a chance to meet the Brazilian stars at a football clinic during their stay.

Bebeto and Cafu were stars of Brazil’s 1994 World Cup triumph, with the former becoming a household name with a ‘cradle-rocking’ celebration after scoring in the quarter-final in honor of his new born son.

In 2002 Cafu became the first person ever to play in three World Cup finals.

Famed for his marauding runs from left-back and thunderbolt free-kicks Roberto Carlos was also a member of the 2002 World Cup-winning side.

He became the last of the trio to quit playing when he hung up his boots this year aged 39 after a season with Russian big spenders Anzhi Makhachkala.

SHANGHAI, Dec 19, 2012 (AFP) - Chi-nese researchers have identified a bacteria which may cause obesity, according to a new paper suggesting diets that alter the presence of microbes in humans could combat the condition.

Researchers in Shanghai found that mice bred to be resistant to obesity even when fed high-fat foods became excessively over-weight when injected with a kind of human bacteria and subjected to a rich diet.

The bacterium -- known as enterobacter -- had been linked with obesity after being found in high quantities in the gut of a morbidly obese human volunteer, said the report, written by researchers at Shanghai’s Jiaotong University.

The mice were injected with the bac-

terium for up to 10 weeks as part of the experiment.

The experiments show that the bacterium “may causatively contribute to the develop-ment of obesity” in humans, according to the paper published in the peer-reviewed journal of the International Society for Microbial Ecology.

A human patient lost over 30 kilograms in nine weeks after being placed on a diet of “whole grains, traditional Chinese medici-nal foods and prebiotics”, which reduced the bacterium’s presence in the patient’s gut to “undetectable” levels, the paper said.

One of the report’s authors, Zhao Liping, lost 20 kilograms in two years after adopt-ing a diet of fermented probiotic foods such as bitter melon to adjust the balance of

bacteria in his gut, the American magazine Science said in an article this year on his previous research.

Zhao’s work on the role of bacteria in obesity is inspired by traditional Chinese beliefs that the gut is the “foundation for human health”, Science reported.

The scientists wrote in their latest paper that they “hope to identify more such obe-sity-inducing bacteria from various human populations” in future research.

Obesity worldwide has more than doubled since 1980, according to the World Health Organisation, with more than 500 million adults worldwide suffering from the condition according to 2008 statistics.

HEALTH

CHICAGO, Dec 26, 2012 (AFP) - Obesi-ty rates among small children may finally be on the decline after more than tripling in the United States the past 30 years, a study out Wednesday indicated.

The study found that obesity rates peaked in 2004 and then declined slightly among low-income children aged two to four who receive benefits from a federal food stamp program called SNAP.

“To our knowledge, this is the first na-tional study to show that the prevalence of obesity and extreme obesity among young US children may have begun to decline,” wrote lead author Liping Pan of the Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The results of this study indicate mod-est recent progress of obesity prevention among young children. These findings may have important health implications because of the lifelong health risks of obesity and extreme obesity in early child-hood.”

Obesity is most prevalent among minor-ity and low-income families and has been associated with a range of health problems and premature death.

The researchers analyzed data from a pediatric nutrition surveillance system which monitors almost half of the children eligible for federally funded maternal and child health and nutrition programs.

They were able to access height and weight data from 27.5 million children aged two to four in the 30 states which consistently reported their data.

In 1998, obesity levels were at 13.05 percent of the children. This rose to a peak of 15.36 percent in 2004 before declining to 14.94 percent in 2010.

Extreme obesity rates rose from 1.75 percent in 1998 to a peak of 2.22 percent in 2003 before slipping down to 2.07 per-cent in 2010, the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Associa-tion found.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. David Ludwig said the declines seen are not enough, and he urged an overhaul of the federal food stamp program (SNAP) to help low-income families tackle obesity by eliminating junk food and adding more fruit and vegetables to their diet.

“SNAP is essential for hunger preven-tion in the United States, but its exclusive focus on food quantity contributes to mal-nutrition and obesity, and is misaligned with the goal of helping beneficiaries lead healthier lives,” wrote Ludwig, who works in an obesity prevention center at Boston Children’s Hospital.

While other federal food programs, like the free meals offered in schools, have been revised to focus on healthful eating, SNAP has no regulations to influence the quality of food purchased.

Ludwig noted that it pays for an esti-mated $4 billion in soft drinks per year, which adds up to about 20 million serv-ings of soda a day.

“The public pays for sugary drinks, candy, and other junk foods included in SNAP benefits twice: once at the time of purchase, and later for the treatment of diet-induced disease through Medic-aid and Medicare,” he wrote.

“The nation’s $75 billion investment in SNAP could provide a major opportu-nity to reduce the burden of diet-related disease among low-income children and families if policies that promote nutrition-al quality are instituted.”

More than a third of US children were overweight in 2008, the CDC found in a previous study.

Childhood obesity rates jumped from seven percent of children aged six to 11 in 1980 to 20 percent in 2008. The number of obese teens aged 12 to 19 jumped from five percent to 18 percent over the same period.

US childhood obesity dips for first time in decades: study


Revealed: secrets of ancient Chinese medicinal herb

PARIS, Dec 23, 2012 (AFP) - Scientist in the United States on Sunday offered a mo-lecular-level explanation for how a Chinese herbal medicine used for more than 2,000 years tackles fever and eases malaria.

The herb is an extract of the root of a flowering plant called blue evergreen hy-drangea, known in Chinese as chang shan and in Latin as Dichroa febrifuga Lour.

Chang shan’s use dates back to the Han dynasty of 206 BC to 220 AD, according to ancient documents recording Chinese oral traditions.

In 2009, researchers made insights into its active ingredient, febrifuginone, which can be pharmaceutically made as a mol-ecule called halofuginone.

They found that halofuginone prevented production of rogue Th17 immune cells which attack healthy cells, causing inflam-mation that leads to fever.

A study published in the journal Nature on Sunday found halofuginone works by hampering production of proteins for mak-ing “bad” Th17 cells, but not the “good” ones.

Specifically, it blocks molecules called transfer RNA (tRNA), whose job is to as-semble a protein bit by bit, in line with the DNA code written in the gene.

As for malaria, halofuginone appears to interfere with the same protein-assembly process that enables malaria parasites to live in the blood, the study said.

“Our new results solved a mystery that has puzzled people about the mechanism that has been used to treat fever from a ma-laria infection going back probably 2,000 years or more,” said Paul Schimmel, who headed the team at the Scripps Research Institute in California.

Halofuginone has been tested in small-scale human trials to treat cancer and muscular dystrophy. Drug engineers also eye it as a potential tool for combatting inflammatory bowel disease and rheuma-toid arthritis, which are also autoimmune diseases.

China researchers link obesity to bacteria


Misc Asia

SEOUL, Dec 26, 2012 - South Korea is not necessarily committed to buying US Global Hawk surveillance drones, a spokesman said Wednesday, after the Pentagon requested congressional permission for such a sale.

Seoul’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said it would decide early next year whether to buy the high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles made by Northrop Grumman that have come with a higher than ex-pected price tag, at $1.2 billion for four of the drones.

“We will decide whether to proceed with the purchase plan only after we receive a letter of intent and care-fully study the sale’s terms,” a DAPA spokesman told AFP.

Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified top government official as saying Seoul could consider other choices, such as Boeing’s Phantom Eye and the California-based AeroViron-ment Global Observer.

The US Defense Security Coopera-tion Agency (DSCA) said Tuesday it had notified Congress of a possible sale of four remotely-piloted Global Hawk aircraft.

“We’ve never said we would buy no other surveillance drones than Global Hawks,” the South Korean official was quoted as saying by Yonhap after the price tag suggested by DSCA appeared to be prohibitively high.

“Competing drones could be consid-ered”, the official said.

“Negotiations would have to start anywhere below 800 billion won (745 million dollars) in total, as was sug-gested by the US side last October,” the official added.

South Korea relies heavily on its ally the United States for intelligence gath-ering and surveillance capabilities over nuclear-armed North Korea.

Seoul says has other drone options than Global Hawks

Taiwan upgrades dozens of fighter jetsTAIPEI, Dec 31, 2012 - Taiwan

plans to complete the first stage of an ambitious plan to upgrade its fighter jet force by the end of 2013, in an ef-fort to maintain a credible deterrent against China into the 2030s.

Some 60 of Taiwan’s Indigenous Defence Fighters (IDFs) will be upgraded and ready for deployment within 12 months, according to a report submitted to parliament by the defence ministry.

The aircraft will be equipped with enhanced radar, avionics and elec-tronic warfare capabilities, along with a locally-produced cluster bomb, ac-cording to the report.

The remainder of the country’s 127-strong fleet of IDFs will be upgraded by 2017, the report said.

Taiwan deployed the IDFs in 1992 and the upgrade, which kicked off in

2009, will extend the service life of the aircraft for about another two de-cades according to the report, which was submitted to parliament last week and by a legislator on Monday.

The United States last year agreed to equip Taiwan’s 146 ageing US-made F-16 A/B jets with new tech-nologies in a $5.85 billion deal that irked China.

Beijing still sees Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, even though the island has governed itself since 1949.

China has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan should the island de-clare formal independence, prompt-ing Taipei to develop more advanced weapons or seek to buy them from abroad.

Vietnam imposes funeral wreath limit in austerity driveHANOI, Dec 21, 2012 - Vietnam has

imposed strict limits on the number of wreaths that can be laid at officials’ funerals and banned civil servants from burning ‘ghost money’ in a bid to assuage public anger over government waste.

Ghost money -- fake banknotes or paper mache replicas of highly-prized consumer goods such as iPads and sports cars -- are burnt during funerals and to venerate ancestors during pub-lic holidays or on special occasions.

The amount burnt often reflects a person’s wealth or status, while senior officials are routinely honored at their funerals with huge piles of ornate, expensive wreaths.

“Funerals must be solemn, civilized (and) thrifty, to match the country’s socio-economic situation,” stated a decree, signed on Monday by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung but made public on Thursday.

“We must limit and eventually elimi-nate customs that are backward and extravagant,” the decree added.

Vietnam’s authoritarian government, which has launched an anti-corruption campaign in recent months, is strug-gling to contain growing public discon-tent over a weak economy and a string of scandals linking high-level officials to graft and wasteful spending.

The ban applies to civil servants, politicians, party officials, state-owned enterprise employees and anyone else paid by the state.

The number of floral wreaths at fu-nerals will be restricted to between five and 30, depending on the rank of the deceased, the website of the Lao Dong newspaper reported Friday.

The decree also bans state employees from commissioning glass windows in the tops of coffins to allow mourners to see the deceased one final time.

Lavish funerals are common in Viet-nam and some officials questioned the wisdom of the new rules and whether the government would be able to

implement them.

“Vietnamese lawmakers are good at drafting regulations but some of them seem pretty unrealistic,” said Nguyen Quy Dung, 52, a police officer.

“Limiting flowers to prevent waste-ful spending makes sense. But banning ‘ghost money’ and glass-topped cof-fins? I find this weird.”

Words of WisdomMisc AsiaGeorgia Asian Times January 1-15, 2013 Page 17

Conservative Abe elected as Japan’s new prime ministerTOKYO, Dec 26, 2012 - Japan’s

newly-elected prime minister Shinzo Abe pledged to rebuild the economy and mend Japan’s alliance with the United States in the face of an assertive China at his first press conference on Wednesday.

Abe was elected premier by the lower house of parliament earlier in the day after sweeping to power on a hawkish platform of getting tough on diplomat-ic issues while fixing the economy.

“A strong economy is the source of Japan’s national strength. With-out a strong economy, Japan will not achieve fiscal reconstruction and have a future,” Abe told the late-night press conference.

Earlier Wednesday, the yen had tumbled against the dollar on growing speculation that the Bank of Japan will usher in further easing measures -- a key plank of Abe’s campaign.

Abe vowed to defend Japanese ter-ritory and waters but stressed that his government will carry out a diplomacy drive to “win back” national interests.

“There are many issues concerning Japan-China relations, Japan-South Korea relations and Japan-US relations -- which is the foundation of Japan’s diplomacy,” he told the press confer-ence.

“More than anything, we must re-es-tablish trust in the Japan-US alliance,” he said, adding that he has spoken with US President Barack Obama and agreed to foster long-term relations.

Ties with the US came under strain under the previous government, which pushed for the relocation of American bases in Okinawa.

Abe also said that his cabinet would stay focused on the reconstruction of the northern region that was devas-tated by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear crisis in 2011.

“By delivering results as soon as pos-sible, I would like to earn the trust of the Japanese people and make this a stable government,” he said.

Abe achieved a resounding election victory earlier this month for his Lib-eral Democratic Party over the Demo-cratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

On Wednesday he secured 328 votes to 57 for the DPJ’s new leader Banri Kaieda, the industry minister during last year’s Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Within hours of his election, Abe, who was prime minister from 2006 to 2007, unveiled his new cabinet as he rushed to draft an extra budget.

Taro Aso, another former prime min-ister in Japan’s revolving-door politi-cal system, was tapped as both Abe’s deputy and finance minister.

The foreign minister job in the new cabinet went to Fumio Kishida, who was a state minister in charge of Oki-nawan affairs during Abe’s previous tenure.

His appointment was seen as a re-flection of Abe’s desire for progress on the relocation of US military bases in the southern island chain, and comes as Japan is embroiled in a territorial row with China.

The defence portfolio went to Itsu-nori Onodera, who served as deputy foreign minister for a year during Abe’s earlier premiership and during that of his successor Yasuo Fukuda.

Sadakazu Tanigaki, the head of the LDP when the party was in opposition after ruling Japan for most of the past six decades, became justice minister.

To know your limitations is the hall-mark of a wise person.Bhutanese Proverb

Thieves cannot steal the golden pit of education.Burmese Proverb

You must judge a man by the work of his hands.Chinese Proverb

The mouth which eats does not talk.Chinese Proverb

By never looking back at your begin-ning, you have no destination.Filipino Proverb

To control the mind is like trying to control a drunken monkey that has been bitten by a scorpion. Indian Proverb

Eat fire and your mouth burn ; live on credit and your pride will burn. Indian proverb

One does not make the wind blow but is blown by it.Japanese Proverb

Nothing is more expensive than free.Japanese Proverb

If one is desperate, one will find a way.Korean Proverb

Proof is better than words.Korean Proverb

Jual sutera beli mastuli.Malay Proverb

Panjang langkah koyak pesak seluar.Malay Proverb

The living are denied a table; the dead get a whole coffin.Mongolian Proverb

Riding an elephant to catch a grass-hopper.Thai Proverb

The unfortunate would be bitten by toothless dogs. Tibetan Proverb

Hunger finds no fault with cookery.Vietnamese Proverb

A day in prison is longer than a thou-sand years at large.Vietnamese Proverb

Abe, Japan’s seventh premier in less than seven years, replaces Yoshihiko Noda whose DPJ suffered a stinging defeat at the polls.

The party, which came to power in 2009, was seen as being punished for policy flip-flops and its clumsy han-dling of the Fukushima atomic disas-ter.

Abe won conservative support with nationalistic pronouncements on diplomacy amid the row with Beijing over a group of East China Sea islands, saying Japan would stand firm on its claim to the chain.

He has also said he would consider revising Japan’s post-war pacifist con-stitution, alarming officials in China and South Korea.

But Abe quickly toned down the campaign rhetoric and has said he

wants improved ties with China, Japan’s biggest trading partner. He called for a solution through what he described as “patient exchanges”.

China called on Abe to meet it “half-way” to try and improve relations that have been hurt by the debilitating terri-torial dispute.

South Korea has its own islands dispute with Japan. But President Lee Myung-Bak sent Abe his con-gratulations, saying the countries have engaged in “close cooperation and exchanges as close neighbors and friendly nations”.

Analysts said Abe was likely to delay drastic policy measures ahead of upper house elections next year, while the LDP’s moderate junior coalition part-ner New Komeito could also balance his right-leaning instincts.


TECH

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 3, 2012 - Adobe late Monday release a free tool kit to make it easier for developers to create Flash-based games to ride the grow-ing wave of playing on smart phones, tablets, and in Internet browsers.

Game Developers Tools made avail-able were the first tied to the Adobe’s “Creative Cloud,” providing comput-ing muscle from Adobe’s online data centers.

“For anybody who wants to develop a game that targets the Flash player it will be a lot easier,” said Diana Heland-er, group product marketing manager for Gaming Solutions at Adobe.

“For people who want to try their hand at being a game developer, this allows you to play around and target a bunch of different marketplaces,” she continued. “That really opens the door for revenue and for discovery, even if you just have a free little game you want to put out there.”

Flash-based games can be found in among the top titles at social network Facebook as well as those popular for play using personal computer brows-ers.

Adobe said it tools enable games to be crafted more efficiently to work across the sometimes challenging array of device screen sizes and operating systems.

Flash software can enable a desk-top computer version of the game be shifted to suit smart phones or tablets which are becoming increasing popular devices for play.

“Gaming companies are becoming more like media companies,” Helander said. “Gaming as a whole is definitely increasing in popularity.”

Adobe envisioned the free tools boosting the number of rich, immer-sive games available including many based on characters or franchises that have been hits on video game consoles.

Japan-based Square Enix and France-based Ubisoft are among video game industry titans working with Flash tools, according to Helander.

Yahoo! buys online video chat startup OnTheAir

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 4, 2012 (AFP) - Yahoo! said Tuesday it had acquired a small startup specializing in broadcast-ing video chats or interviews to online audiences.

Financial terms of the deal to buy OnTheAir were not disclosed but Yahoo! said the five members of the young company would join the Inter-net veteran’s mobile technology team.

“Hiring the most talented mobile product thinkers and engineers is a big priority for us moving forward,” Yahoo! senior vice president of emerg-ing products and technology Adam Cahan said in an email response to an AFP inquiry.

“We can’t wait to work with (the OnTheAir team) to create the best pos-sible mobile experience for our users.”

San Francisco-based OnTheAir launched in March with an application that lets people host online talk shows with the twist that hosts can bring

audience members “onstage” in the form of split-screen chats broadcast for all to see.

Yahoo! snapping up OnTheAir cre-ated the potential for the Sunnyvale, California firm to field a challenge to the popular Hangouts group video chat feature at Google’s online social network or enhance mobile gadget services.

OnTheAir announced at its website that Yahoo! had bought the company.

“While we haven’t yet attained our dream of building a widespread daily use product, we are just as commit-ted to it,” the OnTheAir team said in a message on its website.

“And this is why we’re so excited to be joining Yahoo!...everybody there is committed to making mobile prod-ucts the backbone for the world’s daily habits.”

Adobe fans mobile gadget game flames

SongPop tops Facebook game chart for 2012

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 5, 2012 - Music quiz game SongPop was the top new-comer to the Facebook play scene this year, according to rankings revealed on Wednesday by the world’s leading social network.

Mobile gadget games Dragon City and Bike Race were second and third, respectively, on a Facebook list of the best-received games launched this year based on engagement and rating “stars” awarded by players.

The majority of popular new Face-book games came from outside the United States, with San Francisco-

based Zynga having the most titles from inside the country that made it onto the list.

“It was the most international year for social games,” California-based Facebook said in a blog post.

Finishing out the top ten most popular new games at Facebook this year were Subway Surfers, Angry Birds Friends, FarmVille 2, Scramble with Friends, Clash of Clans, Marvel: Avengers Alliance, and Draw Some-thing.

Google, Microsoft launch charity effortsSAN FRANCISCO, Dec 4, 2012 (AFP)

- Google and Microsoft each unveiled new charitable initiatives Tuesday, in separate efforts which channel millions of dollars to innovators tackling social ills.

Google launched its Global Impact Awards program with a first round of funding allocating a total of $23 mil-lion to seven organizations “changing the world.”

“Technology has dramatically improved our lives, from the speed at which we get things done to how we connect with others,” Google director of giving Jacquelline Fuller said in a blog post announcing the awards.

“Yet innovations in medicine, busi-ness and communications have far outpaced tech-enabled advances in the nonprofit sector.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft held a Social Innovation Summit at which it an-nounced the winners of $3 million in “Imagine Cup” grants to students with promising projects for the global good.

“The Imagine Cup Grants will help students evolve a great idea for ad-dressing a societal issue into a real-world business,” said Dan’l Lewin, corporate vice president of Strategic and Emerging Business Development at Microsoft.

“These students have developed incredible approaches that show great potential for positive local impact.”

A $100,000 grand prize Imagine Cup grant went to a team from Germany that devised a way to reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions by letting each driver know the best route to their destination.

January HoroscopeDragon (2012 2000 1988 1976 1964 1952 1940 1928 1916 1904)Recently when you took certain amazing opportunities to the next stage, you had no idea that things would move so swiftly or go so far. But you are in the midst of a period of intense and hugely profitable change anyway. So explore absolutely everything, knowing that in time, you can back out of what no longer appeals. However, you are likely to decide that most things are worth treasuring. By the middle of the month, you will be thrilled to learn that good fortune is about to be yours, but before that, certain changes may shake things up.

Snake (2001 1989 1977 1965 1953 1941 1929 1917 1905)In this period, you could be forced hastily to alter both existing financial arrangements and future plans. These may be the result of others’ sudden decisions or the actions of a seemingly capricious nature. No doubt, worrying as events seem, they are forcing you to break up patterns as restrictive as they have been reassuring. Perhaps what is next is unclear. Trust your intuition and it is saying something wonderful is approaching and before you know it, it is true.

Horse (2002 1990 1978 1966 1954 1942 1930 1918 1906) Having carefully observed and in many situations, reorganized elements of your life, you are feeling justifiably virtuous. This could make this month’s dramas all the more surprising. Each involves commitments, some consider-able, others minor, some from the past, and others more recent. But this is not just about putting things right. Each is encouraging you to examine your state of health and mind, when you have organized these elements you will realize how much things have advanced.

Sheep (2003 1991 1979 1967 1955 1943 1931 1919 1907)Certain scheme improvements are unfair or just plain unrealistic, of that you are convinced. Enchantingly those around you are struggling with similar situations. With them, the source of difficulties is clear, it is their incompe-tence to recognize the promise these dramatic events hold. It is actually the same for you. Perhaps the only way you will distinguish that unfair situations you are facing are designed to break unhelpful habits or eradicate restrictive beliefs is by examining similar situations from the past.

Monkey (2004 1992 1980 1968 1956 1944 1932 1920 1908)Having invested substantial time in clarifying issues, many minor, you have finally managed to work out future plans; so sudden changes are not welcome. As events triggered unfold, you will realize things cannot and should not remain as they are. This insight shifts you into inquisitive mode and suddenly instead of battling those changes; you feel the excitement in exploring options that previously you simply had not realized that they actually existed.

Rooster (2005 1993 1981 1969 1957 1945 1933 1921 1909)Being told that this month is all about practical financial matters and vari-ous obligations may not excite you. However what you learn and deal with now could clear up problems from the past and lead to welcome, if entirely unexpected breakthroughs - even in seemingly immovable situations. Waste no time on argument and you should move swiftly as those thrilling opportu-nities could vanish as quickly as they appear.

Dog (2006 1994 1982 1970 1958 1946 1934 1922 1910)Life does not simply come to a standstill while you reflect on things in prepa-ration for medical treatments or check-ups. Still it is worth putting off any decisions that are not pressing. Urgent as some may seem, the fresh percep-tion on your life and priorities this brings, means you will conduct a restruc-turing anyway. The more you do promptly, the fewer burdens you will need to face at a later stage. More importantly, try to adopt a positive attitude towards life ahead.

Pig (2007 1995 1983 1971 1959 1947 1935 1923 1911)Those around you have plenty to say about certain developments, plans or family inheritance. Listen and while you will hear all their views, you may not get much done immediately. Worse, should you differ in any way; the support you have counted on may not be forthcoming. Hence, if you wanted to make progress in certain important projects, start socializing with others outside the party. Bearing in mind, you may need to restrict the conversation to light gossip and keep your plans strictly to yourself.

Rat (2008 1996 1984 1972 1960 1948 1936 1924 1912)In this period, it is unlikely to satisfy one’s craving for money in this present society. Majority of things involve money or a financial commitment, making life stressful at times. Obviously without adequate money, it would be a near impossible to survive, but it does not mean money is the answer to all things in life. Striking a balance in having a moderate life style and sufficient to live a reasonably comfortable life would be ideal. More importantly one should at least try to refrain from having excessive love of money that could destroy one’s soul or reputation by having a guilty conscience as a consequence of acquiring more wealth at the expense of the destitute and needy.

Ox (2009 1997 1985 1973 1961 1949 1937 1925 1913)You may try various methods - praying hard, hoping for good fortune or a miracle to happen to resolve certain urgent issues. Having a hope or target to aim for is practically normal behavior but do not become too obsessed with certain superstitious beliefs without exploring alternative approaches. Some-times, one may be forced to engage in taking drastic measures when other means fail to materialize. However one should not give up if certain attempts failed to produce the answer. Keep on trying again and review the approach if necessary. The road ahead may be tough and challenging momentarily.

Tiger (2010 1998 1986 1974 1962 1950 1938 1926 1914)One should enjoy a normal bill of health during this period. However, those that are on the move often need to pay attention to appropriate diet patterns and beverage consumption. Remember to consume wisely in order to avoid food poisoning or indigestion. Drink plenty of plain water and eating fresh fruits will certainly help in the long term. Watch out for those who previously suffered joints or knee pain. Recurrence of the injury is likely to happen due to weather changes, stress from work or lack of sleep.

Rabbit (2011 1999 1987 1975 1963 1951 1939 1927 1915 1903)Recent unexpected frank conversations ultimately cleared the air about nu-merous troublesome issues that you are feeling inclined to be more open than usual. This is considered good timing, simply because now, in the run-up to the changes triggered by other’s reaction, the more you discuss with and learn from, the better you become. But do not even think of making plans ahead until you have learned the true picture behind the turmoil.


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