Georgia Asian Times Vol 9 No 19

www.gasiantimes.comOctober15-31,2012Vol9.No19Covering The Multicultural Asian American Community in Georgia

Political standoff has US on path to ‘fiscal cliff’

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

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GAT Calendar of Events(For latest & updated events, visit www.gasiantimes.com)

GAT welcome submission of announcement pertaining to community related events. Please email event, date, venue, and time to [email protected].

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Georgia Asian Times October 15-31, 2012 Page 3

8th Atlanta Asian Film FestivalDate: Oct 5-20, 2012Tickets: $8 per admissionVenues: Emory University, GSU-Cinefest For more info: www.atlaff.org

CBAA Fall Business ExpoDate: Saturday Oct 20Time: 10:00 am -4:00 pmVenue: Doraville Arena3037 Pleasant Valley Drive, DoravilleFor more info: [email protected]

2012 Asian American College FairOpen to PublicDate: Saturday Oct 20Time: 10:00 am - 3:00 pmVenue: Korean Church Atlanta, 3205 Pleasant Hill Road, Duluth, GA 30096For more info: HB Cho, 678-780-6713

NAAAP’s Chopstix For CharityDate: Saturday Oct 20Time: 7:00 pmVenue: Andrews Entertainment Dis-trictTickets: $55 non members, $45 NAAAP membersFor more info: www.naaaptlanta.org/chopstix.aspx

“Leadership Transition and the Future of China”Professor Joseph Fewsmith, Boston UniversityDate: Tuesday, October 23, 2012Time: 4:00 pm – 5:30pmVenue: Troy Moore Library, 9th Floor, General Classroom Building, Georgia State UniversityFor more info: Kim Reinmann, [email protected]

Page 4 October 15-31, 2012 Georgia Asian Times

METRO ASIAN NEWS

Alpharetta, Oct 19, 2012 -- Two Indian American men were severely burned after their Ferrari crashed and caught fire in north Fulton County Friday morning.

Eighteen-year-old Akshay Panduch-erry was driving east on Webb Bridge Road in Alpharetta shortly before 4 a.m. when the car left the road, careened into the woods and crashed, according to Alpharetta Department of Public Safety spokesman George Gordon.

Panducherry and his passenger, 21-year-old Harshavardhan Patlolla, managed to escape the burning car, but suffered second- and third-de-gree burns, Gordon said. They were airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital in serious condition.

The Ferrari car was a gift from Panducherry’s father last week.

Gordon said that, per standard pro-cedure, investigators will try to deter-mine whether speeding was involved in the crash.

2 young Indian Americans crashes Ferrari in early morning wreck

The National Association of Realtors has officially appointed Mr Tim Hur as NAR’s President’s Liaison to South Korea.

“I am humbled by the appointment, hope to continue building bridges, and bridging the gap between the different communities, which is further accom-plished by being a President’s Liaison and being a voice for the different com-munities,” said Hur who is the current Vice President of Asian Real Estate As-sociation of American-Greater Atlanta Chapter.

Tim Hur was honored as one of GAT’s 25 Most Influential Asian Amer-icans in Georgia Award for 2012.

The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, “The Voice for Real Es-tate,” is America’s largest trade associ

ation, representing 1 million members, including NAR’s institutes, societies and councils, involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

Korean Executive Appointed National Association of Realtors Liaison to South Korea

Chopstix for Charity Benefiting Pan Asian Community ServicesAtlanta, Oct15, 2012 -- This year’s

annual NAAAP’s Chopstix For Charity is scheduled for Saturday, October 20 at Andrews Entertainment District.

NAAAP Atlanta’s Chopstix for Charity connects corporations, small businesses and individuals to the lo-cal Asian Pacific Islander community through annual fundraising and grant making.

Chopstix for Charity actively sup-ports small, non-profit organizations that provide social services, education or promotes cultural awareness for the Atlanta Asian Pacific Islander com-munity. CFC raises funds through its annual charitable event and distributes 100% of corporate donations to mon-etary grants.

Tickets are priced at $55 for non members and $45 for NAAAP Atlanta members.

For more information, visit www.naaapatlanta.org/chopstix.aspx


NATION

Political standoff has US on path to ‘fiscal cliff’

WASHINGTON, Oct 19, 2012 (AFP) - As the US candidates battle it out in the final weeks of the campaign another showdown looms, with the world’s largest economy coasting to-wards a potentially disastrous “fiscal cliff.”

If President Barack Obama’s Demo-crats and Republicans in Congress cannot strike a deal by December 31, then the already sluggish economy will be hit hard by sharp cuts in government spending and a surge in taxes.

It’s a prospect that has businesses holding back investments and hiring and global bodies like the Internation-al Monetary Fund issuing warnings.

And yet Congress is not even dis-cussing a way out, and Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney rarely mention the cliff on the campaign trail.

“Going over the fiscal cliff would reduce the deficit quickly, but would damage the economy in the process,” said Gary Thayer of Wells Fargo Advi-sors.

“Neither party is willing to make a deal before the election results are clear.”

Without a deal, the government will have to cut some $109 billion in spending next year which, along with the tax increase, will remove some $500 billion from the economy, ac-cording to the Congressional Budget Office.

The spending cuts will be split be-tween defense and non-defense parts of the budget. Government contrac-tors will lose business and tens of thousands of civil servants could be furloughed.

The CBO says the austerity could shrink the economy 0.5 percent next year and push unemployment back up to 9.1 percent, from the current 7.8 percent.

The impact would hit the global economy, slowing growth in devel-oped and developing countries alike, according to the IMF.

“The US is in danger over time of losing its status as a reserve currency if we don’t start getting our fiscal house in order,” said Steve Bell, a for-mer Senate budget committee staffer now with the Bipartisan Policy Center.

“If we don’t come to some substan-tial agreement over the next say 12

months, you’re going to see a lot of people start to lose confidence in us both economically and militarily.”

No action likely before the elections

The cliff is no accident: it was designed by the very politicians who want to avoid it, part of a deal in August 2011 to persuade Republicans to stop blocking the increase in the country’s borrowing ceiling.

The two sides came up with was a poison pill: if they could not agree on a more moderate plan to address the country’s gaping deficit and enormous debt, they would have to automati-cally implement a 10-year plan to radically slash $1.2 trillion in spend-ing beginning in 2013.

Both sides hoped to agree on a more palatable plan, but with the November 6 presidential and congressional elec-tions in sight, Republicans bristled at the idea of tax hikes and Democrats resisted major spending cuts.

Now, unless they can reach a deal, a package of tax cuts renewed and expanded in 2010 to boost the weak economy will expire, adding some $2,000 to the tax bill of the average

US family, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Congress can still rewrite the laws before the end of the year, and a group of eight senators from both parties has held quiet discussions to lay the groundwork for a post-election deal.

But the two sides remain deeply divided.

Obama is refusing to accept any compromise that does not increase taxes for the wealthy, and Republi-cans reject tax hikes.

Analysts say much depends on how November’s vote comes out. The winners will not take office until late January.

If the Republicans capture the White House and both houses in Congress, they could be in no mood to negotiate with Democrats in the “lame duck” period.

In that case, the economy could head over the precipice on January 2.


BUSINESS

JAKARTA, Oct 15, 2012 (AFP) - Southeast Asia’s largest budget airline AirAsia has scrapped plans to acquire Indonesian carrier Batavia Air be-cause the move was too risky, its chief executive said Monday.

“In our minds, the timing was perhaps not appropriate as it would have induced too many risks,” AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said in a statement, repeating his carrier’s “ag-gressive focus” in Indonesia and plans to list in the country.

Last week a source familiar with the deal said the Malaysian tycoon wanted to raise up to $550 million by listing shares in the long-haul arm and Indonesian unit of AirAsia as well as in his insurance firm.

AirAsia cited the time it would take to integrate the two airlines, includ-ing re-branding and merging working cultures, as a reason for scrapping the deal.

AirAsia announced the $80 million

purchase plan in July to increase its presence in the region and specifically Indonesia, which has seen a surge in passenger numbers over recent years.

The carrier has moved its base from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to Jakarta to get closer to Indonesia’s burgeon-ing aviation market, which potentially caters to nearly 240 million people across 17,000 islands.

The budget carrier wants to triple its fleet in the five years from 2013 to meet passenger demand.

Indonesia’s domestic airlines car-ried more than 60 million passengers last year, and the Indonesia Air Carri-ers Association predicts a 52 percent increase in passenger numbers by 2015.

Despite dropping its interest in its Indonesian rival, AirAsia has pro-posed working more closely with Batavia on areas including ground handling and a pilot training scheme.

AirAsia scuttles ‘risky’ plan to buy Indonesian carrier

Mongolia’s white-hot growth slows on China woes

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia, Oct 10, 2012 (AFP) - Mongolia’s white-hot economic growth has cooled this year as the ripple effects of the global economic downturn -- and especially slowing Chinese growth -- start to hit home.

Resource-rich Mongolia defied the global economic gloom to notch stunning 17.3 percent GDP growth in 2011 on soaring coal shipments to its energy-hungry giant neighbor and a surge in foreign investment in its minerals sector.

But growth eased to 13.2 percent in the first half of this year, and while that is still among the world’s highest rates, questions are being asked about its heavy dependence on coal exports to China, where economic growth is slowing.

Mongolian coal exports have leapt in recent years on voracious Chinese demand, and grew 27.5 percent in 2011 to 21.3 million tonnes, according to government figures, nearly all of it going across its southern frontier to China.

But China’s usually turbo-charged growth rates have slowed significantly this year, sapping coal demand, contributing to a 10-15 percent decline in Mongolian coal prices this year and trimming the country’s coal export projections.

“We are now hoping that we can equal last year’s export numbers, but it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to beat those figures,” said Damjin Damba, president of the Mongolian National Mining Association.

Ninety-two percent of the country’s total exports go to China, according to Mongo-lian government data, and nearly all of that consists of coal.

But economic growth in China slowed to 7.6 percent in this year’s second quarter, the weakest performance in three years.

David Paull, managing director of Aus-tralia-based Aspire Mining, said Mongolia has been squeezed by seasonal weakness, softer Chinese demand and a pending lead-ership change in Beijing.

Some analysts have said the coming leadership transition is delaying expected Chinese economic stimulus moves.

“So there is a grouping of events that are compounding the issue,” Paull said.

Domestic issues also have chilled the in-vestment surge, including the parliament’s recent adoption of a foreign investment law that tightens approval requirements for foreign companies seeking to do business in “strategic” sectors such as minerals.

In the run-up to a Mongolian election in June, campaign calls for the nationalization of natural resources created further uncer-tainty that hurt sentiment.

Meanwhile, in late June, SouthGobi Energy Resources (SGR) announced it had suspended its operations at Ovoot Tolgoi, one of the premier coal producers in the country.

SGR’s former CEO Alexander Molyneux said operations were halted due to a licence suspension by the government and failure to give other permits.

SouthGobi had been the target of a takeover by China’s biggest aluminium producer Chalco, raising speculation that the government had moved to prevent Chinese control of Ovoot Tolgoi.

Landlocked Mongolia is sandwiched between Russia and China, and its proxim-ity to the fast-growing Chinese economy has been a huge plus when coal markets are bullish.

But the slowdown is stoking discussion over how to spur development of other industries such as wool production and tourism in order to diversify.

“We are talking a lot about what kind of industry can be a better option to min-ing if we want to diversify our economy. Whether it is tourism or manufacturing, we want ‘mining boom’ to be changed to ‘mind boom’,” said Oyungerel Tsedevdambaa, Mongolia’s tourism minister.

There are plans for a $10-billion in-dustrial park in the city of Saishand and the government is considering building a $3-billion rail network to Russia that could open access for Mongolian goods to ports in Russia’s Far East, and on to overseas markets.

Ramping up shipments of copper -- of which Mongolia also has significant deposits -- is seen as another possibil-ity.

Mongolia exported 575,900 tons of copper concentrate in 2011, 97 percent of which went to China, and growing Chinese copper needs are being viewed as a potential lucrative future market.

This is especially so with the multi-billion dollar Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine due to begin operations later this year and likely to push copper exports up.

Coal can be susceptible to seasonal and other cyclical swings, while cop-per demand typically remains steady, said Eric Zurrin, director of ResCap, a boutique investment firm based in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator.

“Coal is cyclical but copper has a long-term stabilizing effect,” he said.


BUSINESS

Tech to drive US holiday spending: surveyWASHINGTON, Oct 16, 2012 (AFP)

- New high-tech devices will get US consumers to open their wallets for the upcoming holiday season, driv-ing retail spending higher, a survey showed Tuesday.

The Consumer Electronics Associa-tion found overall holiday spending is expected to increase 11 percent this year while spending on consumer electronics gifts also likely will in-crease.

“Consumers are feeling more confident in the overall direction of the economy this holiday season compared to last year and, as a result, will spend more on gifts, including electronics,” said CEA chief economist Shawn DuBravac.

On average, consumers plan to spend $1,634 overall this holiday, up 11 percent from last year, the survey found.

Consumers plan to allocate $842 from their overall budget to gifts, up nine percent from 2011, and $252 of that will be for consumer electronics.

Mobile connected devices are the most wanted gifts this season, led by tablet computers, the association said.

Tablets are the most wanted gift on both adults’ overall holiday wish list and their gadget wish list.

The survey suggested smartphones likely will be the most popular device given as a gift this year, followed by tablets, notebook or laptop computers and DVD or Blu-ray players.

One in four consumers will give a gift card for digital music purchases, one in five for electronics book pur-chases, 16 percent for app purchases and 15 percent for online gaming purchases.

St. Regis loses Singapore tussle over brand nameSINGAPORE, Oct 16, 2012 (AFP)

- A Singapore court has upheld the right of an Australian-owned hotel to use the Park Regis brand in the city state, throwing out a ban sought by the St. Regis chain, court documents showed on Tuesday.

St. Regis, a luxury brand under the US-based Starwood group of hotels and resorts, had applied to Singapore’s Registrar of Trade Marks to stop Park Regis from getting its trademark in the city.

But the Park Regis’s owner, the StayWell Hospitality Group of Austra-lia, took the case to the High Court, which ruled on Monday that there was little chance that consumers would confuse one brand with the other.

“The ‘Park Regis’ mark, although similar to the ‘St. Regis’ mark, is not likely to be confused with the ‘St. Regis’ brand, particularly when taking into account the likely customers of both,” judge Judith Prakash said in a written judgment.

“There is also no likelihood of damage to the ‘St. Regis’ brand from the use of the ‘Park Regis’ mark and brand.”

St. Regis, located in the upscale Orchard Road area, styles itself as a six-star hotel while Park Regis is a four-star establishment located close to the Chinatown district.

And while the St. Regis has room rates ranging from Sg$440 to Sg$3,000 ($360 to $2,455) a night, the Park Regis offers rooms for as little as Sg$179 a night, according to their respective websites.

Besides Singapore, Park Regis has properties in Dubai and several Aus-tralian cities.

The lawyer acting for St Regis declined to comment Tuesday on whether the US hotel chain would ap-peal the decision.

Citigroup CEO Pandit quits, shocking Wall StreetNEW YORK, Oct 16, 2012 (AFP) -

Citigroup shocked Wall Street Tuesday with news of the immediate resigna-tion of chief executive Vikram Pandit and his top aide a day after the num-ber-three US bank posted quarterly earnings.

Citi’s board unanimously elected Michael Corbat, head of the Europe, Middle East and Africa division, to suc-ceed Pandit as CEO and fill his seat on the board, the bank said.

Pandit’s abrupt departure sparked speculation about the possible reasons -- a fight over compensation, the bank’s quarterly earnings report Monday, or the 90 percent fall in Citi’s share value under Pandit, while other banks’ shares have largely recovered since the financial crisis.

Michael O’Neill, chairman of Citi’s board, rejected the speculation in a conference call after the markets closed.

“Vikram chose to submit his res-ignation and the board accepted it. Contrary to speculation, no strategic, regulatory or operating issue precipi-tated the resignation,” he said.

“Nor is there another shoe to drop. And certainly, there is no issue of con-duct or ethics. Vikram is a person of impeccable integrity.”

Asked whether pay was an issue, O’Neill said: “Categorically no.”

Pandit had foregone a salary in 2009-2010 when Citi was in the red; share-

holders in April voted against a pro-posed 2011 $15 million pay package.

The New York-based Citi, the third-largest US bank with $1.9 trillion in assets, has lagged bigger rivals JPM-organ Chase and Bank of America in recovering from the 2008 Wall Street crash under Pandit’s watch.

Also in focus was Pandit’s handling of the bank’s sale of its stake in brokerage Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (MSSB), which led to a large write down in the third quarter.

Pandit, who joined Citi in December 2007 and steered it through the crisis, said the bank has emerged as a strong institution.

“Given the progress we have made

in the last few years, I have concluded that now is the right time for someone else to take the helm at Citigroup,” he said in a statement.

In an internal memo to employees, Pandit said: “After five extraordinary years, I have decided to step down as CEO of Citi... There is nothing better than our third-quarter earnings an-nouncement to demonstrate definitive-ly that we have turned this company around.”

He called Corbat the “right person” to succeed him, citing his 29-year record of achievement and leadership at the company.

Corbat said Citigroup’s fundamentals were solid and the bank was on the right path.


TECH

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 15, 2012 (AFP) - Microsoft announced Monday it was launching a new music service which offers free streaming for com-puters and tablets with the Windows operating system to be launched this month.

The Xbox Music service will allow users to stream custom-created playl-ists for free, along with music sub-scriptions and downloads, which will be managed in the Internet cloud to enable access on tablets, PCs, phones and television.

Microsoft said the new service will be “on par with iTunes,” the lead-ing music service from Apple, with a global catalog of more than 30 million songs.

But the service also will have some of the features of music services like Spotify and the Internet radio opera-tor Pandora, along with the music store offerings of Apple and Amazon.

It will begin rolling out around the world this week on Xbox 360 and later this month on Windows PCs and tablets and on mobile phones, with some free services and others which are paid.

Subscriptions will cost $9.99 in the United States and 9.99 euros in Europe, according to Microsoft.

“The launch of Xbox Music is a milestone in simplifying digital music on every type of device and on a global scale,” said Don Mattrick, president of interactive entertainment at Micro-soft.

“We’re breaking down the walls that fracture your music experiences today to ensure that music is better and integrated across the screens that you care about most -- your tablet, PC, phone and TV.”

The move comes more than a year after Microsoft pulled the plug on its Zune digital media player, its would-be rival to Apple’s iPod.

Microsoft began producing the Zune in 2006 but it never really threatened the global dominance of the iPod from rival Apple.

However some analysts said the new service might fare better.

“Because of Microsoft’s size and what appears to be a new-found ingenuity, perhaps born of a need to reinvent the company or watch it drop to the second tier of tech firms, it has made a series of huge gambles. Xbox Music is one of those,” said Douglas McIntyre at 24/7 Wall Street.

“And Xbox Music may be a winner, just because the Microsoft distribu-tion network is so very big.”

McIntyre noted that Microsoft can leverage its “tens of millions” of cus-tomers with Xbox consoles for the ser-vice as well as the massive customer base of PC owners.

“This is an extraordinary platform for any service, particularly if the service is free,” he said.

The move comes as Microsoft prepares to launch its Windows 8 operating system on October 26 along with its new tablet computer, dubbed Surface.

Microsoft is also making an aggres-sive push into mobile phones with its Windows Phone 8 system that will be available on smartphones made by Nokia, HTC and others.

Microsoft launches new music service

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 15, 2012 (AFP) - Offering a new way to read the news on a mobile device, an app launched Monday delivers content in “flash card” segments in an effort to optimize new formats.

“Rather than trying to shoehorn existing content into a new environment, we’ve cre-ated the first truly mobile-first news experi-ence,” said a blog post from the creators of the Circa app for iPhone and iPad.

“Circa brings comprehensive yet to-the-point news updates delivered in an engross-ing mobile experience.”

Circa was co-founded by South Korean entrepreneur Ben Huh, creator of the humoristic Cheezburger Network, and software developer Arsenio Santos.

Instead of articles, Circa presents the news with flash card-like segments of facts, statistics, quotes, pictures or maps.

“Each story on Circa has the same details you’d find in traditional articles, but broken down into individual chunks of informa-tion that are much easier to consume,” the blog posting said. “It’s the facts, without the fluff.”

Circa said it had hired “a team of excel-lent journalists from around the world” to produce stories “and easily keep them up to date as new details emerge, providing great coverage around the clock.”

App cuts up news into digestible bytes


FEATURE

Life after death? Neurosurgeon says he’s been there

WASHINGTON, Oct 14, 2012 (AFP) - Eben Alexander’s quick trip to heaven started with a headache.

It was November 2008 and a rare bacterial meningitis was fast on its way to shutting down the University of Virginia neurosurgeon’s neocortex -- the part of the brain that deals with sensory perception and conscious thought.

“For seven days, I lay in a deep coma,” he recalled. Yet at the same time, Alexander “journeyed to another, larger dimension of the universe, a dimension I’d never dreamed existed.”

There he found “big, puffy, pink-white” clouds against a “deep, black-blue sky” and “flocks of transparent, shimmering beings... quite simply different from anything I have known on this planet.”

It turns out Alexander was not alone.

His traveling partner in the afterlife was a young woman with high cheek-bones, deep blue eyes and “golden brown tresses” who, amid “millions” of butterflies, spoke to him “without using any words.”

“You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever,” she told the doctor, a father of two with movie star looks. “You have nothing to fear. There is nothing you can do wrong.”

Alexander recounts his story, and seeks to explain it, in “Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife,” to be published in the United States on October 23.

His New York publisher failed to respond to interview requests, but

an excerpt from “Proof of Heaven” in Newsweek magazine has stirred the enduring debate about life after death.

Inevitably, skeptics wonder if Alexander, who teaches at Harvard Medical School, is going out on a paranormal limb.

“It sounds like he had nothing more than an intense lucid dream,” wrote one reader on Newsweek’s website. “A personal anecdote is not evidence or proof, as moving as it may be,” added another.

The sarcastic New York blog Gawker challenged its readers to spot the dif-ference, if any, between Alexander’s portrayal of paradise with published accounts of LSD trips.

But others stood firmly by Alexan-der, who has previously spoken of his near-death experience on science TV programs and in a lengthy interview last year with Skeptico.com, a science and spirituality blog.

“If there is evidence and proof of an afterlife, this is probably as good as it gets,” Catholic Online, a Web-based Roman Catholic news service, wrote approvingly.

By one estimate, three percent of Americans -- more than nine million -- have undergone a near-death experi-ence. Some have written up their sto-ries on the website of the Near Death Experience Research Foundation.

“There are tens of thousands of near-death experiences every year and many of them are very similar to Alexan-der’s,” said Paul Perry, co-author of several best-selling books on the topic.

“These experiences might be a glimpse into our next miraculous and exciting adventure,” he told AFP in an email. “Unfortunately, there is little meaningful research taking place in this field right now.”

Dean Mobbs, a psychologist at Columbia University in New York who studies neurobiology and fear in humans, did not dismiss Alexander’s experience -- but he questioned how it came about.

“I think there’s no paranormal com-ponent to it,” said Mobbs, co-author of a paper in the journal Trends in Cogni-tive Sciences identifying near-death experiences as “the manifestation of normal brain functions gone awry.”

“I believe our brains can concoct vivid experiences particularly in situa-tions of confusion and trauma,” he said in an interview. “The brain is trying to reinterpret the world and what’s going on.”

Mobbs cited research in which, for instance, Swiss neuroscientist Olaf Blanke has artificially induced an out-of-body experience by stimulating the point in the brain where the right

temporal and parietal lobes meet.

He also recalled how the body can unleash “a massive dose of opioids” in the face of extreme danger. Opioids generate feelings of euphoria like those described by near-death survivors.

Mobbs also noted that many people who claim to have undergone a near-death experience were never, in fact, near death -- while the majority of those who have died briefly before resuscitation do not recall going any-where.

In his Newsweek excerpt, Alexan-der framed his experience in religious terms.

One of the few places he has had no trouble getting his story across is church, where “the colors of the stained-glass windows recalled the luminous beauty of the landscapes I’d seen in the world above,” he wrote.

“The plain fact is that the material-ist picture of the body and brain as the producers, rather than the vehicles, of human consciousness is doomed.”


STYLE

NEW YORK, Oct 16, 2012 (AFP) - French fashion house Yves Saint Laurent drew a line Tuesday under its legal battle with Parisian footwear designer Christian Louboutin and his iconic red-soled shoes.

In a statement, it said it was “tak-ing steps to close the book” on the trademark dispute by asking the US District Court in New York to dismiss its outstanding counterclaims against Louboutin.

“Yves Saint Laurent has decided to end what was left of the litigation and refocus its energies on its busi-ness and its creative designs,” said the company, a unit of France’s PPR luxury goods conglomerate.

Louboutin is famous in high-fashion circles not only for dizzying high-heel pumps, but also for their bright red lacquer soles that make them instant-ly recognizable.

When Yves Saint Laurent came out with a so-called “monochromatic shoe” that was entirely red from the leather uppers to the outer sole, Louboutin went to court, arguing that red soles were his trademark.

In a September 5 ruling, the US Court of Appeals agreed up to a point, saying red soles were “entitled to trademark protection” -- so long as the rest of the shoe was another color, such as black or beige.

Shoes created entirely in one color, like the Yves Saint Laurent model at the heart of the dispute, were allowed, the court said.

“The Court of Appeals’ ruling makes clear that the monochromatic shoes that were challenged in the lawsuit do not infringe any of Louboutin’s trade-mark rights,” said Yves Saint Laurent in its statement.

It also “guarantees that Yves Saint Laurent can continue to make mono-chromatic shoes in a wide variety of colors, including red.”

Ironically, an all-red Louboutin studded patent leather pump was named Monday as the sexiest shoe of 2012, based on the results of an online poll by Footwear News and the Saks Fifth Avenue department store.

Louboutin has marketed shoes with

YSL draws line under Louboutin red-sole shoe feud

red soles since 1992. He registered the look as a trademark in the United States in 2008.

His footwear sells about 240,000 pairs each year in the United States alone, with revenues of about $135 million.

A pair typically costs between $700

and $1000, but can sell for far more, with the Lady Peep Geek Embroi-dered Pump listed at $1,695 at the Neiman Marcus department store.

On its online store Tuesday, Yves Saint Laurent had no shoes in colors other than black, white or gold lame.

French luxury firm Longchamp eyes China expansion

Hong Kong, Oct 17, 2012 (AFP) - French luxury handbag maker Long-champ is eyeing a huge expansion in China despite the country’s economic slowdown, its chief executive said as the firm opened a new store in Hong Kong Wednesday.

The 64-year-old family-owned brand, famous for its colored fold-up nylon and leather totes, said it was optimistic about the Asian market, es-pecially China, as European economies -- its main markets -- remain “unfavor-able”.

“We have no intentions to slow down our expansion plans, especially in Asia,” chief executive Jean Cassegrain, a grandson of the founder, told AFP.

He said he had no concerns about China, adding: “The purchasing power of Chinese consumers continue to increase and it is not going to change” even as the Asian powerhouse’s economy slowed.

The 400-square-metre (4,300-square-feet) outlet is Longchamp’s second mega store in Hong Kong and is located in Kowloon, one of the city’s busiest shopping districts where main-land Chinese tourists flock to splurge on luxury goods.

Cassegrain said Longchamp is look-ing to expand its current presence of seven stores in mainland China

-- including Beijing and Shanghai -- to about 40 to 50 stores, although he could not specify a timeline.

“The challenge is to pick the right locations,” he said, adding that Long-champ has appointed popular Chinese actress Gao Yuanyuan as its ambas-sador to boost the brand’s profile in the region.

China’s economy expanded 7.6 per-cent in the second quarter of this year, its worst performance in three years, and disappointing data since then has led to fears that third-quarter growth may have weakened further.

Third-quarter data is due out on Thursday.

Longchamp saw turnover of 390 mil-lion euros ($507 million) last year, up 22 percent from a year earlier.

China is set to become the world’s second biggest market for luxury goods after the United States by 2017, over-taking France, Britain, Italy and Japan, consumer research group Euromonitor said in a report this month.

Luxury-good sales could top $302 billion worldwide this year, up 4.0 percent from 2011, driven by demand in emerging economies, according to the report.


FEATURE

Star elephant courts controversy in Philippine zoo

MANILA, Oct 17, 2012 (AFP) - An elderly elephant named Mali is the star at Manila’s zoo but also the focus of a campaign alleging animal cruelty that has united the country’s powerful bishops, global pop stars and a Nobel laureate.

Mali, who is 38, spends her days picking peanuts from children’s hands and being squirted with water in a concrete-floored enclosure that animal rights groups say is far too small for any elephant to enjoy living in.

They also say that, after being shipped from Sri Lanka when she was three years old, Mali is suffering pro-found loneliness after living her entire adult life without another elephant.

“She is definitely unwell. As much as her physical suffering... there is also psychological suffering,” said Rochelle Rigodon, campaign manager for Manila-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA began campaigning for Mali to be removed from the zoo seven years ago, and its efforts to have the elephant spend the rest of her life at a sanctuary in Thailand have brought together a strikingly diverse group of people.

British pop star Morrissey, 2003 No-bel laureate in literature J.M. Coetzee and famous animal welfare campaigner Jane Goodall have all written letters to the Philippine government asking for Mali to be transferred.

“Mali is cruelly denied stimulation, room to explore... (and) is in danger of

going insane,” Morrissey wrote in a let-ter to President Benigno Aquino when he performed in Manila in May.

Archbishop Jose Palma, president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, has also written a letter calling for Mali to be shifted to Thailand.

He has formed an unlikely union with local fashion models and actress-es, such as Isabel Roces and Chin-Chin Gutierrez, who have posted messages expressing concern about Mali’s plight to their masses of Twitter followers.

Their campaign has had some suc-cess, with Aquino ordering the Bureau of Animal Industry in May to evalu-ate if Mali should be transferred to Thailand. So far, no decision has been announced.

Animal rights activists say the prob-lems at the zoo are not limited to Mali.

“Old cages made of wire”

The zoo, owned by the City of Manila and built in 1959, is a far cry from its glory days in the early 1960s, when it boasted a huge menagerie of lions, tigers, bears, leopards, giraffes, chim-panzees and bison.

Many of these animals have suc-cumbed to old age, and there are not enough funds to replace them.

Many of the animals that do remain reside in half-century-old cages made of wire and bars, with the zoo operat-

ing on a budget of $1.4 million a year, small for its size. It holds 717 animals from 102 species.

Anna Cabrera, executive-director of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society accused the zoo’s veterinarians and ad-ministrators of “gross incompetence”.

“It (the zoo) stinks... they don’t have the expertise for the animals in the zoo,” she said.

However chief veterinarian Donald Manalastas insisted Mali and the other animals were treated well.

“We could do better but their (the animals’) care is never compromised,” Manalastas said.

He pointed to the advanced ages of Mali and another 38-year-old star of the zoo, Berta the hippopotamus, as proof the animals were being looked after.

“If we were not giving them the right food, the proper care, they would not survive. We must be doing something right,” he said.

Manalastas also talked enthusiasti-cally about the zoo’s success in breed-ing the Philippine freshwater crocodile, or Crocodylus Mindorensis, which is critically endangered.

From an original four, these reptiles reproduced rapidly until there were 20 last year, according to Manalastas. He said they were able to trade eight to another zoo overseas for a camel that will hopefully arrive next year.

And the zoo undoubtedly remains a popular attraction, with 950,000 visitors a year, many of whom come from poor communities in and around Manila.

The Philippines has a dire poverty problem, with roughly one quarter of the population of 100 million people living on a dollar a day or less.

The entrance fee for the zoo is set deliberately low at 40 pesos (95 cents) for adults and 20 pesos for children to give the poorer citizens of Manila the opportunity to see wildlife and have a fun day out.

“This place is a social service, not a profit-oriented organization,” said Ma-nila City’s parks and recreations chief, Deogracias Manimbo.

“It’s an alternative place for less-privileged people. It is designed for the poor of Manila.”

Amid the uproar over Mali, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim has rejected calls to relocate the elephant, and his stance is popular among the visitors.

“Manila Zoo would not be complete without an elephant,” office worker Rowena Castro said as she pointed to her four-year-old son watching the enormous animal being hosed down by a keeper.

“That is the main reason he came: to see the elephant.”


LIFESTYLE

Taiwan showgirls strip for the dead

Taoyuan, Taiwan, Oct 9, 2012 (AFP) - Dressed in mini skirts barely cover-ing their hips, the two girls took to the neon-lit stage and moved vigorously to the loud pumping pop music. Their job: to appease the wandering spirits.

As the temple facade in the back-ground changed color from the fire-works lighting up the Taiwanese night sky, the show climaxed with pole-dancing and striptease in front of an audience consisting of men, women and children.

“This is hard work but I need to make a living,” said 18 year-old En En, out of breath after stripping for the crowd during the recent religious festival.

En En had just earned Tw$3,000 ($100) for her act, which began on stage, but ended as she mingled with the audience, letting men touch her for tips.

Folk religion in Taiwan is a unique mixture of the spiritual and the earthly, and one of its most remark-able manifestations is the practice of hiring showgirls to perform at festi-vals, weddings, and even funerals.

The girls work on “electronic flower

cars” -- specially designed trucks equipped with light and sound equip-ment that can become a stage, allow-ing them to travel to performances often held in smaller cities and rural areas.

“The groups attract crowds to our events and they perform for the gods and the spirits to seek blessings,” said Chen Chung-hsien, an official at Wu Fu Temple, a Taoist landmark in north Taiwan’s Taoyuan county.

“They have become part of our reli-gion and folk culture.”

At 26, Chiang Pei-ying is already a veteran performer with nearly 20 years of experience, travelling across Taiwan with her father and two sisters for their family business to entertain audiences -- both alive and dead.

Chiang made her debut when she was in kindergarten because she liked singing and dancing on stage and has become a celebrity performer with her sisters, charging up to Tw$80,000 for a 20-minute show.

She said she enjoys her line of work, even if she has to deal with some odd requests from customers such as walking around coffins and singing for

the deceased at funerals.

“I’ve watched this since I was little so it’s nothing peculiar for me. Perform-ing for the dead is just like performing for the living people,” she said.

“They liked to sing when they were alive and their relatives thought they would have liked to have some-body sing for them in the end. For me, I get good tips and I hope I am accumulat-ing good karma too.”

“Hot and noisy”Other performers, however, make

much less money and tend to be more discreet about their job, especially those who still do striptease despite risking arrest.

Stripping nude is rarely seen in public now because it is a criminal offense, but partial stripping is still performed at festivals, private parties and funerals, people in the business say.

“Some people like going to hostess clubs, so when they pass away their relatives arrange striptease to reflect their interests while they were alive,” said Chiang Wan-yuan, Pei-ying’s father and a 30-year veteran in the business.

It is difficult to imagine a similar show going on outside a European village church, and some local critics have dismissed the practice, which emerged in the 1970s, as shocking and vulgar.

Others, however, see it as a natural extension of a traditional folk culture lacking in the sharp separation of sex

and religion often seen in other parts of the world.

Marc Moskowitz, an anthropologist at the University of South Carolina, said the practice evolved out of the special Chinese concept of “hot and noisy”, which brims with positive con-notations.

“In traditional Chinese and contem-porary Taiwanese culture this signifies that for an event to be fun or note-worthy it must be full of noise and crowds,” said Moskowitz, who shot a documentary “Dancing for the Dead” in 2011.

He added most people who watched his work appeared to enjoy it and rec-ognize this practice as an “interesting and unique cultural phenomenon,” which to his knowledge is only found in Taiwan.

“As I watched these performances I came to appreciate the idea of cele-brating someone’s life to help assuage the feelings of grief,” he said.


SPORTS

Red Bull set for marketing history with supersonic jump

VIENNA, Oct 14, 2012 (AFP) - Felix Baumgartner, set to leap from the edge of space on Sunday, is no strang-er to breaking records. But neither is the firm bankrolling and sponsoring his audacious jump: energy drink maker and marketing trailblazer Red Bull.

The Austrian company not only invented a whole new sector in the beverage industry, becoming in less than 30 years a global corporate titan with more than four billion euros ($5 billion) in annual revenues.

It has also trodden its own unortho-dox path in marketing, re-writing the rule book on how to sell a prod-uct, focusing not on taste but on the drink’s energy-giving properties while projecting an edgy, high-adrenaline image.

Baumgartner’s spectacular leap from 23 miles (37 kilometres) above New Mexico, which will see him plummet back to Earth at the speed of sound, watched live by millions of people on the edge of their seats around the planet, is the crowning glory of this strategy.

It will be his second attempt at the feat, after the initial scheduled jump was postponed due to high winds on Monday,

“This is taking it to a whole new lev-el,” Jonas Feliciano, beverage industry analyst at Euromonitor International, told AFP. “It has turned a PR event into a news event.”

Very few other companies, one no-table exception being Apple, manage to do this, Feliciano said.

The Austrian daredevil is basi-cally “a flying can of Red Bull,” said Christoph Boesenkopf from Austrian advertising agency Wirz.

Red Bull the drink was born when Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian toothpaste marketing executive, stum-bled during a trip to Asia in the early 1980s across a beverage popular with the locals known as Krating Daeng, Thai for water buffalo, that cured his jet lag.

Partnering with Thai businessman Chaleo Yoovidhya, who died this year, the pair decided to make it fizzy, can it and sell it beyond Asia under the Red Bull brand.

From the beginning Red Bull’s strategy was different.

This was the first drink where in the marketing, no importance was put on the flavour -- one early review famously said that “no other new product has ever failed this convinc-ingly” -- but instead on its effect.

Urban myths and health concerns about Red Bull abounded, meanwhile, making regulatory approval in many countries a long process. It was even banned in several countries including France for a while.

It was said for example that one of its main ingredients, taurine, came from bulls’ testicles. There were whis-pers too that it was akin to a legal am-phetamine, with nicknames including “speed in a can” and “liquid cocaine”.

But such talk served only to raise the drink’s profile and increase its no-toriety among the young, its main tar-get market, helping Red Bull achieve the holy grail: becoming “cool.”

The company also eschewed just putting adverts in newspapers and magazines, and as well as merely sponsoring sports teams, it owns them, such as the football club New York Red Bulls and a highly successful Formula 1 team.

It has also organized “extreme”

sports events such as hair-raising aircraft racing, something called “Crashed Ice” involving downhill urban ice-skating and the “Flugtag”, where members of the public pilot outlandish, homemade contraptions off piers into water.

Overdose?

But Red Bull Stratos, as the project surrounding Baumgartner is known, is something else entirely.

His jump, which will see him lifted to the edge of space beneath a enor-mous balloon before stepping into the void in a specially made suit for 15-20 minutes of freefall before parachuting the rest of the way, has been five years in the making. Supporting him is a 100-strong team of experts.

Other events and teams that Red Bull bankrolls very rarely make the front page of newspapers. On Sun-day though, more than 40 television networks in 50 countries will carry the live feed and over 130 digital partners will stream it live on the Internet.

But such an enormous volume of coverage also means that for Red Bull, if something goes wrong, the backlash could be huge, said media psycholo-gist Peter Vitouch from the University of Vienna.

Three Red Bull athletes have died to date -- Canadian extreme skier Shane McConkey, Swiss BASE jumper Ueli Gegenschatz and American skydiver Eli Thompson, all in 2009.

“If there was an accident, the company could find itself accused of behaving irresponsibly, of financing this just for publicity and of driving someone to their death. That would be an absolute disaster,” Vitouch said.

But after an initial backlash, Red Bull would survive in the long run -- and maybe even benefit, Feliciano of Euromonitor said.

“It would be a tragedy. But as morbid as it sounds, the press would just increase further. Bad press is still press.”

“But I would assume that if this was something with a ridiculously high fatality rate, you would not see Red Bull’s name attached to it.”


SPORTS

YEONGAM, South Korea, Oct 12, 2012 (AFP) - The promoter of the Ko-rean Grand Prix has warned it would be a “huge” mistake to abandon the fledgling race, despite suffering heavy financial losses and struggling to at-tract spectators.

Professor Park Won-Hwa, drafted in last year to save the grand prix, told AFP in an interview that he had in-tensive discussions with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone to seal a revised contract that will run to 2016.

“Mr Ecclestone thinks that it is important to have F1 in Korea as the country is a fast-growing country and benefits from a booming economy and fast-growing economy,” said Park.

“It would be a huge strategic mis-take to withdraw from this part of the world. The future for the F1 is im-portant and not only the day-to-day running.”

The race lost $50 million in the first year, Park, 62, said in an interview ahead of the third edition of the grand prix on Sunday.

“We had to renegotiate with Mr Ecclestone and brought a few ideas and persuaded him that Korea can-not continue the event with such a big financial loss.

“The event has to be sustainable for the benefit of both parties. I showed to Mr Ecclestone all the statistics. It took a long time, and in the end Mr Ecclestone agreed to make another contract.”

Organizers had to give away free tickets at the last minute for the inau-gural race in 2010 to fill the stands, although they did not do that last year and have reduced prices this time in a bid to pull in the crowds.

Formula One: Dumping Korea would be ‘mistake’

LONDON, Oct 14, 2012 (AFP) - Manchester United midfielder Tom Cleverley admits his experience at the Olympics played a key role in his rise to prominence with England.

Cleverley got his first taste of inter-national action as a member of the Great Britain squad at the London Games earlier this year and now he has been fast-tracked into Roy Hodgson’s England team.

After being deprived of his England debut last season due to injuries at inconvienent times, Cleverley gave a good account of himself at the Olym-pics.

Hodgson was suitably impressed and rewarded Cleverley with his maiden England appearance in the friendly win over Italy in August.

He has since played in all three of England’s World Cup qualifiers this season and should feature in the cru-cial trip to Poland on Tuesday.

“The Olympics were very impor-tant for me. It was perfect for me to get some games and play competitive matches on a big stage,” Cleverley said on Sunday.

“Roy Hodgson was at a couple of the games, I was in good form and I have managed to carry that on into the season.

“I am really proud to have started all four games so far. I am always happy

to represent my country, but I have a bit more hard work and a few more games ahead of me before I become established.

“There are plenty of top class mid-fielders in the Premier League.”

Hodgson was especially impressed with the way Cleverley linked up with Old Trafford team-mates Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck to good ef-fect against San Marino on Friday.

And the United connection could form a crucial part of Hodgson’s side for years to come.

Hodgson has since declared that Rooney, who gave a mature display as stand-in captain against San Marino, is England’s captain of the future.

And having benefited from working with Rooney for both club and coun-try, Cleverley would have no problem if his United team-mate inherited the armband on a full-time basis.

“Wayne has all the attributes to be a good captain,” Cleverley said. “He is a winner. You could tell that before the game because he was quite vocal in the dressing room.

“I am not the manager but I would certainly be happy playing under a captain like Wayne Rooney. He is a fantastic player and a good leader.”

Cleverley thriving after Olympic experience

SYDNEY, Oct 9, 2012 (AFP) - The best-selling wrinkle erasing drug Botox will be used in an Australian study to treat hay fever, researchers said Tues-day after it showed promise in provid-ing relief in early trials.

Philip Bardin, a professor at the Monash Medical Centre which is linked to Melbourne’s Monash University, said Botox was already widely used in medicine to reduce spasms in muscles following strokes and in treating cere-bral palsy.

“This is very new way to use an old medication,” he said.

Under the trial, a Botox gel will be applied to the nose to hopefully give hay fever sufferers relief from sneezing,

itchy eyes and runny noses for up to three months.

“Part of why this is possible is that the Botox molecule has been re-engi-neered to be able to penetrate through the skin but also through the lining of the nose,” Bardin told AFP.

“That’s really the crucial develop-ment that has taken place. So conse-quently it is going to be possible in the future to extend its use from being mostly a cosmetic product... to become possibly even more useful.”

In treating hay fever, the botulinum toxin will affect the nerves in the nose and potentially block some of the chemicals released by the nerve end-ings which play a large role in causing

symptoms, he said.

Seventy people will be recruited for the study following a preliminary trial that suggested the drug provided relief.

Botox, which makes muscles relax, is a purified form of a nerve poison produced by a bacteria that causes a disease which paralyses muscles and can be fatal.

It was first used to treat disorders of the eye muscle -- uncontrollable blink-ing and misaligned eyes.

Its cosmetic use took off in the 1990s after a Canadian ophthalmologist noticed her patients were losing their frown lines after using the medication.

HEALTH

CHICAGO, Oct 15, 2012 (AFP) - US health officials identified two new drugs Monday which may have in-fected patients with meningitis as they investigate a widening outbreak tied to tainted products from a Massachu-setts pharmacy.

The Food and Drug Administra-tion (FDA) urged doctors to contact patients who received drugs produced by the firm to warn them they are at risk of developing the slow-moving but potentially deadly infection.

“At this point in FDA’s investiga-tion, the sterility of any injectable drugs.. and cardioplegic solutions” produced by the firm are “of sig-nificant concern,” the FDA said in a statement.

The New England Compound-ing Center (NECC) recalled all of its products on October 6 after dozens of people were infected with meningitis following treatment with its steroid injections.

Health officials in 23 states sought out the nearly 14,000 people who received the potentially tainted doses in recent months to warn them of the danger.

They have identified 205 cases of meningitis -- and 15 deaths -- so far and the numbers have been rising daily.

A long incubation period has com-plicated efforts -- one patient did not develop symptoms until 42 days after receiving a tainted injection.

The FDA did not say how many more people are at risk now that two additional drugs have also been linked to meningitis.

Two transplant patients who re-ceived a solution produced by NECC to induce cardiac muscle paralysis during open heart surgery have sub-sequently developed the rare fungal meningitis, the FDA said.

Another patient who received a different kind of steroid injection has also developed the infection which inflames the protective membranes of the brain and spine.

The FDA cautioned that it has “not confirmed that these three infections were, in fact, caused by an NECC product.”

“Investigation of these patients is ongoing; and there may be other ex-planations for their Aspergillus infec-tion,” the FDA said in a statement.

The outbreak has led to calls for tighter regulation of the loosely con-trolled pharmaceutical compounding industry.

Critics said drug manufacturers have found a way to sidestep costly and strict oversight by classifying themselves as pharmacies, which are given freer rein to mix drug com-pounds for patients.

US officials find new drugs tied to meningitis outbreak

Australians trial Botox to treat hay fever


Calls for more US oversight after taint-ed drug outbreak

CHICAGO, Oct 10, 2012 (AFP) - A deadly meningitis outbreak in the United States blamed on a tainted drug has triggered outrage and calls for tighter regulation of the loosely controlled pharmaceutical com-pounding industry.

At least a dozen people have died and the number of fungal meningitis cases rose to 138 Wednesday after a contaminated drug was shipped to clinics and hospitals in 23 states.

Investigators say as many as 13,000 people may have received contaminated doses of the steroid, which is injected into the spine to treat back pain.

Critics said drug manufacturers have found a way to sidestep costly and strict oversight by classifying themselves as phar-macies, which are given freer rein to mix drug compounds for patients.

“People are just playing Russian roulette when they use one of these compounded drugs,” said Sheldon Bradshaw, a Wash-ington lawyer who was chief counsel for the Food and Drug Administration from 2005 to 2007.

“They don’t have to follow good manu-facturing practices which, if followed, guarantee that a product isn’t going to be contaminated. They don’t have to spend hundreds of millions on clinical trials to show their drugs are safe,” he said.

Problems could be far more widespread than feared because, unlike manufacturers of FDA-approved drugs, pharmacies are not required to report adverse reactions or injuries.

And many doctors don’t realize the drugs they are prescribing are not produced at facilities that have received the FDA’s seal of approval.

“Our loss and that of others should be a wake-up call to our country,” George Cary told reporters after a memorial for his wife Lillian, 67, in Michigan Tuesday.

“The apparent lack of suitable inspec-tions should not have happened.”

Several lawmakers have already an-nounced plans to introduce legislation that would strengthen oversight and others are asking the FDA for more im-mediate action.


Misc Asia

TOKYO, Oct 14, 2012 (AFP) - A “peeping Tom” who used a pen-shaped camera to take an up skirt shot of a cabin attendant during a domestic flight in Japan has avoided charges after prosecutors failed to decide which prefecture the plane was flying over at the time, reports said.

The 34-year-old man extended his hand with the micro-camera while seated and took the picture of the flight attendant, the Asahi daily said on its website on Sunday.

He was arrested by police and admit-ted what he had done, saying he was “aroused by uniforms,” the report added.

The man was on a Japan Airlines flight from Takamatsu in the southwest of the country to Tokyo last month, according to an earlier report by Kyodo News.

The police tentatively determined the photo was taken over the western prefecture of Hyogo based on witness accounts and their analysis of flight data, it said.

But prosecutors judged they were unable to rule out the photo may have taken when the plane was over neigh-boring prefectures, Kyodo added.

“Peeping Tom” offenses typically fall under prefecture-level law to prevent public nuisances and their applications require prosecutors to state exact loca-tions of the crime.

‘Peeping Tom’ on Japan flight avoids charges

Pilot rapped for landing at wrong Indonesian airportJAKARTA, Oct 15, 2012 (AFP) - A

foreign pilot has been suspended from flying after landing an Indonesian passenger jet at the wrong airport in a “serious” breach of safety, a transport ministry spokesman said on Monday.

The Sriwijaya Air plane, carrying 96 passengers and six crew, was meant to land at Minangkabau International airport in the city of Padang, but instead descended to the Tabing air force base some 12 kilometers (seven miles) away.

“This incident was very serious and very dangerous for passenger safety as (the plane) landed at a wrong airport,” ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said, adding that a probe by the avia-tion safety watchdog is underway.

The foreign pilot of the jet, which left Medan in North Sumatra province for the short flight to Padang on Sat-urday, has been suspended from duty, he added, without revealing the pilot’s nationality.

“For the time being we won’t allow him to fly and he is expected to give an explanation to the aviation safety department today,” he said.

Air traffic officials at Minangkabau airport are also under investigation for their role in the blunder, he added.

Indonesia has a checkered aviation safety record, with several deadly crashes over recent years across the massive archipelago where air travel is essential to reach outlying areas.

Researcher links chocolate eating to Nobel prizesWASHINGTON, Oct 11, 2012 (AFP) -

The more chocolate people in a country eat, the more Nobel prize winners the country produces per capita, according to a note published Thursday in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.

Flavonoids, antioxidants found in cocoa, green tea, red wine and some fruits, appear “to be effective in slow-ing down or even reversing the reduc-tions in cognitive performance that occur with aging,” wrote Columbia University professor Franz Messerli.

“Since chocolate consumption could hypothetically improve cognitive function not only in individuals but also in whole populations, I wondered whether there would be a correlation between a country’s level of chocolate consumption and its population’s cog-nitive function,” Messerli wrote.

The results were surprising: accord-ing to Messerli, there was “a close, significant linear correlation between chocolate consumption per capita and the number of Nobel laureates per 10 million persons in a total of 23 coun-tries.”

Chocolate comes from the cocoa bean, which ancient Aztecs and Mayas drank as a beverage. Spanish conquis-tadors introduced cocoa to Europe in the 16th century, and the Swiss per-fected modern chocolate bars in the 19th century.

Not surprisingly, Switzerland “was the top performer in terms of both the number of Nobel laureates and choco-late consumption,” wrote Messerli, who said he obtained figures on choco-late consumption from manufacturers.

The United States, France and Germany are in the middle of the list, while China, Japan and Brazil are at the bottom.

Sweden, which consumes 6.4 kilos of chocolate per capita per year, was an exception. Based on this rate of consumption “we would predict that Sweden should have produced a total of about 14 Nobel laureates, yet we observe 32.”

So either the Stockholm-based Nobel Committee “has some inher-ent patriotic bias when assessing the candidates for these awards” or Swedes “are particularly sensitive to chocolate, and even minuscule amounts greatly enhance their cognition.”

Messerli however provides a caveat: “Obviously, these findings are hypoth-esis-generating only and will have to

be tested in a prospective, randomized trial.”

Misc AsiaGeorgia Asian Times October 15-31, 2012 Page 17

HANOI, Oct 8, 2012 (AFP) - Viet-namese authorities have banned Com-munist Party members in the capital Hanoi from organizing lavish wedding parties, following a public backlash over extravagant nuptials.

The number of guests is limited to 600 for both families and expensive venues such as five-star hotels should be avoided, according to a notice on the Hanoi city’s official website seen on Monday.

Lavish weddings organized by party members have “caused anger among the public and badly hurt the personal prestige of party members”, it said.

Vietnam’s authoritarian government, which has launched an anti-corrup-tion campaign in recent months, is struggling to contain growing public discontent over a weak economy and a string of scandals involving high-level officials.

Opulent wedding parties are com-mon in Vietnam, with the guest list usually stretching to about 1,000 people. Some party members ques-tioned whether the authorities would be able to enforce the new rules.

“Vietnamese authorities are very good at proposing laws but whether the laws are applied and strictly obeyed is a different story,” said a 43-year-old party member in Hanoi who did not want to be named.

Hanoi communists face ban on ritzy weddings

Bollywood’s glittering star couple set to wed: familyMUMBAI, Oct 15, 2012 (AFP) - Two

of Bollywood’s biggest stars, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, are set to tie the knot on Tuesday in India’s celebrity wedding of the year, a rela-tive said.

Actor Khan, 42, will marry actress Kapoor, 32, at the grand Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai in a union that has long been the subject of fren-zied media speculation in the movie-mad country.

“The wedding is taking place tomor-row and then we will have a reception in Delhi later on. It is a very joyous moment for our family,” said the bride’s uncle, actor Rishi Kapoor.

The Bollywood couple, India’s an-swer to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, have been dating for four years and appeared together in this year’s spy flick “Agent Vinod”.

They both come from illustrious families with established links to the movie business.

Kapoor, whose hits include “3 Idiots” (2009) and “Jab We Met” (When We Met, 2007), hails from Bollywood’s foremost acting dynasty, begun by her great-grandfather Prith-viraj.

Her grandfather Raj Kapoor was a cinematic legend while his brothers and a number of relatives have be-come well-known names in the indus-try. The bride’s mother also appeared in films in the 1960s and 70s.

Khan became the new Nawab (Mus-lim prince) of the former princely state of Pataudi last year after the death of his famous cricketing father Mansur Ali Khan, better known as “Tiger Pataudi”.

His mother Sharmila Tagore is an award-winning actress and his sister Soha is also in the business.

Khan, who starred in 2001’s “Dil Chahta Hai” (The Heart Desires) and “Hum Tum” (You and Me, 2004), has two children with his previous wife Amrita Singh. They were divorced in 2004.

Local media reported that a private pre-wedding “sangeet” party was held on Sunday at Kapoor’s Mumbai resi-dence. She wore an ornate traditional orange dress with a golden blouse, while Khan dressed in white.

HANOI, Oct 15, 2012 (AFP) - Pri-mary schoolchildren in part of south-ern Vietnam were given a day off on Monday after a number of crocodiles escaped from a farm and were seen roaming around residential areas, reports said.

The reptiles were prowling around densely-populated neighborhoods af-ter breaking free, according to Thanh Nien newspaper, which said the Kim Dong school had closed “to ensure safety for teachers and children”.

Nearly 60 of the animals had been rounded up, Le Van Hai, said the head of the Forest Ranger Department of

Ca Mau province, but it was unclear how many others remained at large.

“The wall of the crocodile farm col-lapsed because of rain erosion, letting them escape,” Hai said of the incident on Friday at Dinh Binh town.

The Thanh Nien report said the farm had around 580 reptiles before the wall collapsed. It was not clear how many escaped.

Crocodile escape gives Vietnam school kids day off


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