Georgia Asian Times Vol 9 No 7

Covering The Multicultural Asian American Community in Georgia www.gasiantimes.comApril1-15,2013Vol10No7

Spring is Here!

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

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Georgia Asian Times April 1-15, 2013 Page 3

“Ai Weiwei - Never Sorry”Film screening and Q&A with film Director Alison Klayman.Date: Monday, April 8, 2013Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pmVenue: Plaza Theater, 1049 Ponce De Leon Ave. Atlanta GA 30306For more info: 404-727-3150

GSU Asian Studies Center Presents: “Asia and Globalization: Present at the Creation”Nayan Chanda, Yale Center for the Study of GlobalizationDate: Friday, April 12, 2013 Time: 2:30-4pm Venue: Classroom South Room 608-GSUFor more info: Kim Reinmann, [email protected]

6th Annual Kollaboration Atlanta ShowcaseDate: Saturday April 13, 2013Time: 8:00 pmVenue: Center StageTickets: www.kollaborationAtlanta.org

Symposium on Asia-USA Partnership Opportunities (SAUPO)Date: Friday, April 19, 2013Venue: St. Regis Hotel, AtlantaFor more info: visit www.ken-nesaw.edu/saupo

Indonesia Friendly Golf TournamentOrganized by Consulate General IndonesiaDate: Sunday April 21, 2013Tee Time: 1:00 pmVenue: Hamilton Mill Golf Club - Canongate Golf Club

Good Shepherd Services Atlanta20th Anniversary CelebrationDate: April 27, 2013Time: 3:00pm -5:00pmVenue: Good Shepherd Center2426 Shallowford Ter., Chamblee, GA 30341

APAC 28th Annual Unity Gala & Scholarship Award BanquetDate: Saturday, May 4, 2013Time: 6:30 pmVenue: Atlanta Marriott Gwinnett PlaceFor more info: 770-722-8486

USPAACC-SE Annual Business MeetingDate: Wednesday May 8, 2013Time: 8:00 am - 1:00 pmVenue: Turner Broadcasting Sys-tem Inc.101 Marietta Street NW, Centennial Tower, 20th Floor,Connector A&B, Atlanta GA 30303For more info: www.uspaacc-se.com

“Discovering the FIlipino American Experience”Date: May 18, 2013Time: 9:00 am - 4:00 pmVenue: National Archives Atlanta, 5780 Jonesboro Rd. Morrow, GA 30260For more info: www.filamexpere-ince.com

18th Annual Savannah Asian FestivalDate: Saturday, June 22, 2013Time: 11:00 am - 5:00 pmVenue: Savannah Civic Center MLK ArenaFor more info: www.savannahga.gov

Page 4 April 1-15, 2013 Georgia Asian Times

METRO ASIAN NEWS

Georgian owner traced after diving camera drifts to TaiwanTAIPEI, March 25, 2013 (AFP) - A

Taiwanese airline said Monday it has traced the American owner of a diving camera, which was lost in Hawaii in 2007 and was found last month on a Taiwan beach more than 6,000 miles (9,600 km) away.

Flag carrier China Airlines said the owner of the Canon camera, identi-fied as Lindsay Crumbley Scallan from Georgia, would be offered a free round-trip ticket to Taiwan to collect it.

The memory card with photos of Scallan’s Hawaii visit remained intact inside the barnacle-encrusted camera.

“Ms Scallan is welcome to visit Taiwan so that she can take home the invaluable memories of her trip to Hawaii,” said Lee Wen-yi, an official of the airline.

Scallan lost the waterproof camera in August 2007 during a diving trip in Maui. It was found by Douglas Cheng, a China Airlines manager, while he was strolling along a beach at Taitung on Taiwan’s east coast on February 13.

The memory card allowed Cheng to identify where the camera had been lost.

China Airlines’ staff in Honolulu launched a search for the owner, at-tracting media attention.

The airline said a friend of Scallan’s in Hawaii informed her Monday that the camera had been found on the other side of the Pacific.Indonesia’s Emerging Middle Class

An Opportunity for U.S. ExportAtlanta, March 27, 2013 — Indonesia

has consistently reached an average 6.5% GDP growth for the past three years and registered itself as an emerg-ing economy behind China. In addi-tion, Indonesia has a young population with over 50 percent of its 240 million population under the age of thirty. These vital statistics are shared at the Indonesian Business and Investment Forum organized by the Consulate General of Indonesia, Houston.

The half-day forum provided an overview and glimpse of economic opportunities for Georgia and U.S. businesses in the country. Mr. Kwanza Hall, Atlanta’s City Council representa-tive (District 2), provided the opening remark on behalf of the Mayor’s office.

“We look forward to a productive partnership with Atlanta companies as the city has many innovative com-panies and its strategic transportation hub,” said Al Busyra Basnur, Consul General of Indonesia in his welcoming remark.

Indonesia has transformed itself from the financial crisis in the 1998 and the democratic reform in the past decade.

“We have registered a consistent GDP growth behind China and ahead of India in the past few years. We are on path to reach the same growth level for this year,” said Dr. Luky Alfirman, Director of Macroeconomic Policy, Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia, who flew in from Jakarta for his presentation.

Participants of the forum were briefed on trade opportunities to the country by Dandy Satria Iswara, Indo-nesian Trade Promotion Office in Los Angeles and Reza Pahlevi Chairul, In-donesian Trade Promotion in Chicago. They encourage Atlanta businesses to attend and to meet with its counterpart at the Indonesian Trade Expo which is scheduled for October 16-20, 2013 in Jakarta.

“The forum is informative and we’re looking forward to sending a large delegation of Georgia small businesses to visit Jakarta in October,” said Stacey Key, Executive Director of Georgia’s Minority Supplier Development Coun-cil (GMSDC).

Participants were also briefed on the challenges and practical advise on

doing business in Indonesia in a panel discussion.

“Try to stay for at least a week and get connected with the locals. It is im-portant to understand the local culture and ways of business,” said Wayne For-rest, President of Indonesia-American Chamber of Commerce, based in New York.

“It is safe to travel to Indonesia. I have travelled regularly by myself and have no problems doing business with the suppliers,” said Angela Bourhill, an entrepreneur who imports herbs and spices from the country.

Participants were also advised to use good judgments while traveling and to avoid being scared by western main-stream media on terrorism threats.

“Indonesia is on the right track on its democracy and economic develop-ment. Over 85 percent of the popula-tion have indicated that the country’s is moving towards the right direction,” said Dr. Dino Patti Djalal, Indonesian Ambassador to U.S., who provided the keynote remark at the luncheon.

Georgia Asian Times is a partner and organizer of the forum with the Con-sulate General of Indonesia-Houston.


FILMS

Western indie filmmakers look EastHONG KONG, April 2, 2013 (AFP) -

A growing band of European filmmak-ers are realizing their cinematic ambi-tions in the East, lured by a healthy box-office, investment prospects and the potential for more eye-catching stories.

Leading the pack is Welsh-director Gareth Evans, whose Indonesia-shot action flick “The Raid” picked up $15 million in global takings last year on a budget of around $1 million. Evans is now filming a sequel.

“The growing size of the Asian market is obviously a source of motiva-tion,” said French producer Christophe Bruncher, who heads the annual “Ties that Bind” program at festivals in South Korea’s Busan and Udine in Italy that bring together producers and film-makers from Asia and Europe.

“But Asia is seen first as an incred-ible reserve of good stories and unique pictures.”

The region’s box office hit an esti-mated $10.4 billion in takings in 2012, up 15 percent on-year, compared to roughly 6.0 percent growth in the North American market, which col-lected $10.8 billion.

Oscar-nominated for his short film “Cashback” in 2006, British director Sean Ellis headed to Asia to produce a thriller he calls his “love letter to the City of Manila”.

“Metro Manila” explores big city life through the story of an armed guard and won the Audience Award at the influential Sundance Film Festival in Utah in January. It opens in Britain in September.

“Most of my research was done in the Philippines before we started principle photography,” Ellis said.

“I took every little gift of detail I was given. I wanted the film to be authen-tic. I didn’t want people saying ‘What does this white kid think he knows

about the streets of Manila?’

“I wanted to live it, process it and then tell a story about it.”

Ellis says that while the opportuni-ties for filmmakers are expanding along with an increasingly global mar-ket, the art of securing financing and distribution remains a very challenging process.

Breaking records

Last year international box office receipts hit a record US$23.9 billion according to the Motion Picture As-sociation of America, and only five of the year’s top 20 pictures grossed more in North America than they did from international markets.

While Hollywood blockbusters still dominate the Asian box office, the past year has seen a string of domestically-produced hits shine across the region.

In China, local films continue to break box-office records.

The domestically-produced “In China Painted Skin: Resurrection” took $113.2 million, “Lost in Thailand” $202.6 million and “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons” has so far collected $195.2 million.

The takings of “Journey to The West” eclipsed those of many international hits including “Skyfall” (US$60 mil-lion) and Cloud Atlas ($26 million).

China’s box office has recently seen average yearly increases of more than 30 percent per year and in 2012 topped US$2.69 billion. Even Hong Kong rose 12 per cent to pass the US$200 million mark.

With this in mind the city’s an-nual film festival last month included the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), which has joined forces with the Paris-based Ateliers du Ci-néma Européen (ACE) Co-production Labs group.

The plan is to develop and promote projects that allow European and Asian filmmakers to share their skills in an effort to get their films made and reach audiences in both markets.

“We are looking at talent, to develop great films for the European audience with a specific Chinese touch,” explains Ronan Girre, ACE’s chief executive.

“Nevertheless, we still work on the development of a specific audience in China, particularly fans of European culture and brands. Given the small level of our budgets, this ‘niche’ audi-ence would already be very profitable.”

While it is unclear exactly how many Euro-Asian productions are currently underway, the ACE programme in Hong Kong is working on 16, compris-ing five from the EU, one from New Zealand, and 10 from the Chinese lan-guage market -- incorporating China, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Big in Japan

Japan’s box office also had a record 2012 with takings of US$2.15 billion, a rise of 7.7 per cent year-on-year ac-cording to industry figures.

Critics have built a buzz around Ja-pan-based Welshman John Williams’ production “Sado Tempest” since its limited release in Tokyo last month.

The film - a reworking of Shake-speare’s “The Tempest” which sees a rock band imprisoned on Japan’s Sado Island -- is a co-production between filmmakers from Hong-Kong, Britain, Japan and South Africa.

“It looks complex but we did it in a simple and efficient way, with low legal costs. We went from inception to screen in just over three years,” Wil-liams said.

“There are more and more foreign directors working in Japan now. The industry is opening up here and this is very positive. What we still lack in Japan and what would really make a difference is government or regional government support for development. This is what hampers many producers here.”

Daniel Kim, who heads the Asian Film Market event that hosts the “Ties That Bind” programme in Busan each October, believes that as the region’s market expands, more international filmmakers will look to take their chances.

“The population of Asia is about five times larger than Europe. It’s time for Asia and Europe to learn more about each other’s culture, film industry and make a firm network.”

“Lost in Thailand” China’s surprising blockbuster in 2012


Intellectual Property

India’s top court backs generics in key drug patent ruling

NEW DELHI, April 1, 2013 (AFP) - India’s Supreme Court rejected Mon-day a patent bid by Swiss drug giant Novartis in a landmark ruling activ-ists say will allow continued supply of cheap generic drugs and save lives in poorer nations.

Novartis fought a seven-year legal battle to gain patent protection for an updated version of its blockbuster leu-kaemia drug Glivec, arguing the com-pound was a significant improvement because it is more easily absorbed by the body.

But in a judgement that went to the heart of patent law in a country known as the “pharmacy to the world”, the top court said the compound “did not satisfy the test of novelty or inventive-ness” required by Indian legislation.

India’s law restricts pharmaceutical companies from seeking fresh pat-ents for making minor modifications -- an industry practice known as “ever greening” -- and the ruling enables generic drug makers to continue copy-ing Glivec.

Leena Menghaney, a lawyer with medical charity Medecins Sans Fron-tieres (MSF), said Monday’s ruling was “a big relief” that would save lives in India and elsewhere in the developing world and set a legal precedent.

“Breakthrough, innovative medi-cines will still get patents in India but the judgement means drug companies cannot keep seeking patents for small changes to one drug,” such as introduc-ing pediatric dosages, she told a news conference.

The legal case was the highest-profile of several being pursued by multina-tionals in the vast Indian market, set to touch $74 billion in sales by 2020 from $11 billion in 2011 according to a study by financial services firm PwC.

Global drug makers say India’s powerhouse generics industry and strict patent filtering reduce commer-cial incentives to produce cutting-edge medicines.

Novartis, which reported a net profit of $9.6 billion in 2012 on sales of $56.7 billion, condemned the judgement, saying it “discourages innovative drug discovery essential to advancing medi-cal science”.

“The ecosystem in India to encourage investment is not there. We have been boxed in from all sides,” Novartis India managing director Ranjit Shahani said in Mumbai. He said the company would continue to invest “cautiously” in India.

Shares of Novartis India, the local unit of the Basel-headquartered group, slid nearly seven percent before par-ing losses to end down 1.81 percent at 587.95 rupees.

Mark Elliot, executive vice president of the US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center, also criticized the ruling as damaging prospects for “future innovation”.

But shares of Indian generics giant Cipla gained 1.2 percent to 384.30 ru-pees and its chairman, Yusuf Hamied, who revolutionized AIDS treatment over a decade ago by supplying cut-price drugs to the world’s poor, praised the ruling.

It “prevents use of frivolous patents to deny access to medicines” and “is a victory for patients both in India and around the world,” Hamied said.

The Supreme Court upheld the view of India’s Intellectual Property Ap-pellate Board, which refused to grant Novartis protection in 2009.

Lawyer Anand Grover, representing cancer patients in the case, said he was “ecstatic”, adding the ruling will “go a

long way in providing afford-able medicine for the poor”.

India’s huge generic drug industry has been a major sup-plier of vastly cheaper copycat medicines to treat diseases such as cancer, TB and AIDS for those who cannot afford expensive branded versions across the developing world.

The copycat drugs sector grew because India did not issue drug patents until 2005 when it began complying with World Trade Organization rules.

Just two other nations, Argentina and the Philippines, have similar legislation but their laws are not as strict at filtering patents, Grover told reporters.

“Only 25 percent of patents in the West are awarded for breakthrough drugs. This judgement should encour-age companies to look for genuine innovations” rather than claiming ever longer patent protection on older drugs, MSF’s Menghaney said.

The ruling might only be a “breather” as patient rights campaigners fear a new India-European Union free trade deal expected soon could contain intellectual property clauses seeking to restrict generic drug makers, she said.

“But today we are celebrating,” she added.


BUSINESS

Airbus-Boeing battle shifts to Indonesia

JAKARTA, March 24, 2013 (AFP) - A new rivalry between the world’s biggest plane makers is heating up in Indone-sia after a record deal for Airbus in a market with huge potential that until now has been a “fortress” for Boeing.

The European company in the past consistently lost contracts to its US rival in Southeast Asia’s top economy, but budget carrier Lion Air’s 18.4-bil-lion-euro ($23.8 billion) order last week for 234 medium-haul Airbus jets may be a game-changer in the feud for market share.

“This is a major deal for Airbus be-cause, generally, Indonesia has been a fortress for Boeing,” said Ravi Mada-varam, an aerospace analyst for Frost & Sullivan in Kuala Lumpur.

“I think the moment Airbus comes into the picture, more and more low-cost carriers will want an Airbus A320. Then it becomes challenging for Boeing to catch up.”

Lion Air’s A320 deal with Airbus announced in Paris on Monday was the most valuable commercial order booked in history. The second-biggest was also made by Lion Air in 2011, in a $22.4 billion order for 230 Boeing jets.

The two plane makers have a duo-poly over the large-airliner market and competition between them is fierce, with each regularly accusing the other of anti-competitive behavior.

Boeing last year overtook Airbus as the world’s biggest plane maker in terms of aircraft delivered for the first time in 10 years.

“Lion Air was in fact one of the few airlines in the region that had never ordered an aircraft from Airbus. But we never gave up,” Jean-Francois La-val, executive vice president of sales for Airbus Asia, told AFP.

“We have not exactly been absent from Indonesia. The new order from Lion Air will significantly increase our presence in the important Indonesian market.”

But Boeing says the Airbus deal has not ruffled its feathers as it works to deliver more than 300 jets ordered from Lion Air and its offshoot carriers.

“Lion Air has ambitious growth plans and no one airplane manufacturer can meet its needs,” said Boeing spokes-man Ken Morton.

While slow growth in Western economies is hitting the aviation indus-try, Asian countries are booming with an emerging middle class keen to take to the air.

“There are three billion people in Asia, there are 300 million people in America. America has about three times more planes right now than Asia,” Tony Fernandes, founder and CEO of Malaysia-based AirAsia, Asia’s biggest budget carrier, said recently in an interview with Bloomberg Televi-sion.

Indonesians are increasingly relying on air travel to link the archipelago of 17,000-odd islands, with up to 900 new planes set to be delivered to Indo-nesia in the next decade, according to the government.

The potential is massive -- only six percent of Indonesians have travelled by air, according to officials, in a nation of 240 million people that has consis-tently clocked annual economic growth above six percent.

By 2021, some 180 million passen-gers are expected to fly domestically in Indonesia, triple the 2011 number, according to the CAPA Centre for Avia-tion.

But in their rush to meet that latent

Cash-strapped India eases debt rules to woo foreigners

NEW DELHI, March 23, 2013 (AFP) - India’s cash-strapped government Saturday loosened debt market rules to draw more foreign investment to finance a record current account deficit as it promised a “next generation” of economic reforms.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced a significant simplification of rules for placements by foreign insti-tutional investors in government and corporate debt to lure more overseas funds.

He also said a “next generation” of reforms to further pry open the still heavily regulated economy and return it to high growth was in the works.

But he warned fallout from the eurozone crisis was hitting invest-

ment in Asia’s third-largest economy even as attracting more foreign funds has become an urgent priority for the government to fund a bloated current account deficit.

The current account deficit -- the gap between inflow and outflow of foreign currency -- widened to a record $22.3 billion, or 5.4 percent of gross domestic product, in the financial quarter ended September as imports outstripped exports.

The new rules unveiled by Chid-ambaram will allow foreign investors to invest up to $25 billion in long-term government bonds, an increase from $15 billion, and the sum could be hiked, depending on government financing needs.

demand, airlines risk buying too many new planes, CAPA chief analyst Bren-dan Sobie said.

“In some markets you’ll see over-ca-pacity,” he said, warning that carriers will find it hard to turn a profit.

Lion Air, Indonesia’s biggest private carrier, has ordered more than 460 planes in just 16 months, a dramatic expansion that has raised doubts about how it will find the financing, pilots and landing slots.

The airline is banned from the Eu-ropean Union and United States over safety concerns. But it says it plans to broaden its regional horizons, and observers think it wants to take on AirAsia.

It now operates 92 planes -- all Boe-ings except for one older McDonnell Douglas -- to 72 destinations, mostly in Indonesia. The furthest it flies is to Saudi Arabia, a route packed with domestic workers and construction laborers.

In a rare interview with The Star in Malaysia in late 2012, Lion Air’s rags-to-riches founder Rusdi Kirana said that Indonesians in the middle-income bracket were already flying to neigh-boring Singapore and Malaysia.

“This group will later think of Hong Kong or even Canton (Guangzhou, in southern China). And when they have more money they will want to travel to Japan, Korea, north China or Austra-lia,” he said.


BUSINESSContinue From Page 7The investment cap by foreigners in

corporate bonds will remain $51 billion but rules that stifled foreign inflows will be streamlined, he said.

There will just be two investment “baskets” -- one for government securi-ties and one for all corporate bonds, he told an economic editors’ conference.

India has been traditionally hesitant to allow widespread foreign access to its debt markets to avoid excess reli-ance on overseas investors.

But the high current account deficit has prompted it to rethink regulations as it seeks to avert threat of a down-grade by global credit ratings agencies.

“The current account deficit can be financed only through foreign inflows,” Chidambaram told the conference.

He added the government had “trav-elled a considerable distance on the road” to putting its financial house in

order and reducing regulation suffocat-ing economic activity.

Last year, the Congress-led govern-ment initiated a string of liberalization measures to open up sectors such as retail, insurance and aviation to foreign investors in a bid to jumpstart growth before it faces voters in 2014.

It has also partially deregulated fuel prices to lower a huge subsidy bill.

But economists say further liberal-ization is needed to spur the economy -- projected to expand by 5.0 percent this fiscal year to March 31, the weak-est pace in a decade.

“We are steadily and surely working on the next generation of reforms,” Chidambaram said.

BRICS bank to complement, not compete with ADB: India

TOKYO, April 1, 2013 (AFP) - The mooted BRICS bank of emerging pow-ers is intended to complement, rather than compete with Western-dominated institutions on the world stage, the Indian Finance Minister said Monday.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram also said India supports Japan’s nomination of a senior finance minis-try official for the top job at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), as Tokyo looks to keep hold of a role it has held for almost 50 years.

The BRICS bank is seen as a way of challenging the rules set by existing institutions like the World Bank, coun-tering Europe’s economic crisis and ad-dressing the $4.5 trillion in infrastruc-ture spending the BRICS are estimated to need over the next five years.

“The BRICS bank will not be a com-petitor for the World Bank or the ADB. It will complement the World Bank or the ADB,” Chidambaram told a news conference in Tokyo during a two-day visit to Japan.

“Why do we need the bank? Be-cause, the funds that are now avail-able through the existing multilateral institutions are insufficient. The World Bank, the ADB, provide funds but (they are) insufficient,” he said.

“These countries have large savings... So we want to mobilize our savings as well as take capital to other member countries in order that we can lend more,” Chidambaram said, referring to Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa.

“There are governance problems... reforms of the IMF and the World Bank have been considerably delayed because of governance issues,” he said, adding plans to boost capital in these institutions have yet to be realized.

The comments came after leaders from the BRICS group of emerging powers held talks last week in the South African port city of Durban to finalize the plan.

South Korea slashes 2013 growth forecast to 2.3%SEOUL, March 28, 2013 (AFP)

- South Korean on Thursday slashed its economic growth forecast for this year to 2.3 percent, citing a continued slump in export markets and a weak Japanese yen.

The new target was sharply down from a December estimate of 3.0 percent and below the central bank’s revised forecast of 2.8 percent.

“It’s difficult to expect a meaning-ful pick-up in exports this year due to a slow recovery in global demand and the yen’s weakness,” the Ministry of Strategy and Finance in a statement.

“Conditions are also weak for domes-tic consumption and corporate invest-ment to improve in the near future.”

The ministry said the government would come up with a stimulus pack-age, including a supplementary budget, to fund growth measures, including efforts to boost the property market.

The additional spending will likely be funded by issuing new government debt, which may further delay the finance ministry’s ambition of a fiscal surplus by next year.

The government has already given up on returning the fiscal balance to a surplus this year, settling for a budget deficit equivalent to 0.3 percent of gross domestic product.

Analysts said they expected the spending package would be between

10 trillion won ($9.0 billion) and 15 trillion won, and aimed at creating jobs and supporting low-income earners.

The central Bank of Korea confirmed Tuesday that the economy grew just 2.0 percent last year -- the slowest rate for three years -- on weak export growth and consumer demand.

South Korea’s exporters have been hurt by the falling yen, which has weakened in recent months as the new government in Tokyo embarks on an aggressive monetary easing policy it says is aimed at kickstarting inflation.

Finance Minister Hyun Oh-Seok said last week a policy mix aimed at reviv-ing the economy could also include monetary steps, sparking speculation

that the central bank may lower inter-est rates in the near future.

Earlier this month, the bank kept its rate unchanged at 2.75 percent for a fifth consecutive month.

The last time South Korea adopted a supplementary budget was in 2009 when it drew up 28.4 trillion won in additional spending in a bid to tide over the global financial crisis.


LIFESTYLE

PHUKET, Thailand, March 29, 2013 (AFP) - In a sweltering training camp on a tropical Thai island, sweaty tourists wear-ing oversized gloves and baggy shorts slam their fists, knees, elbows and feet into a row of heavy bags.

Welcome to the latest craze in extreme fitness -- Muay Thai boxing.

With worries growing about the world’s bulging waistlines, many foreigners are flocking to Thailand to spend their holidays not on the beach, but following a punishing regime of training in Muay Thai and other martial arts.

Some are going to even more extreme lengths, quitting their jobs to spend weeks or months training in an effort to win their long battles with obesity or hone their skills in the hope of becoming professional fighters.

Jordan Henderson, 26, left behind his London lifestyle of long work days, parties and overeating after the doctors warned him that he faced looming heart problems due to his weight of nearly 184 kilograms.

After one month at a training camp in Phuket off Thailand’s southern Andaman Coast, he had already shed about 20 kilos.

“You’re in an environment where it’s hot all the time, surrounded by people do-ing fitness,” he said after an early morning workout.

“It’s about taking yourself out of the box that you live in and just focusing on one thing, and that’s to train and lose weight.”

The first few days were far from easy.

“It was horrible -- the heat and the training, the aches you get and the dra-matic diet change,” Henderson said.

“I’ve gone from eating whatever I liked to grilled chicken, steamed vegetables and brown rice -- hungry for weeks,” Hender-son added.

But despite the grueling regime, he never considered packing his bags and leaving early.

“The Art of Eight Limbs’

Thailand is home to a flourishing Muay Thai training industry welcoming thou-sands of guests every year, thanks in part to the popularity of mixed martial arts (MMA) which combines striking and grap-pling techniques.

“Mixed martial arts is the fastest grow-ing sport in the world and Muay Thai is an integral part of that,” said Will Elliot, director of Tiger Muay Thai, one of more than a dozen such training camps in Phuket.

“It’s definitely extreme to travel halfway across the world,” said Elliot, whose camp welcomes hundreds of guests each month paying up to about $100 per week for group training.

“But we’re in the tropics. It’s hot. We’re in Thailand, the birthplace of Muay Thai, so it’s about immersion,” he said.

Muay Thai, Thailand’s national sport, is known as the “Art of Eight Limbs” because it combines punches, kicks, elbows and knee strikes.

Tourists fight the flab at Thai boxing camps

Anyone thinking about signing up should be prepared for the challenge.

“It’s very physically intensive. At the end of a workout you’re going to be ex-hausted. So if you can maintain that twice a day in combination with a diet, your fitness is going to increase rapidly,” Elliot said.

It worked for James Mason, 29, a former used car salesman from Britain who weighed 200 kilos when he arrived in Thailand a year and a half ago, but has since lost more than 100 kilos.

“The doctor told me that if I didn’t do something drastic to change my life in five years’ time I would be dead,” he said.

“When I first got here I couldn’t walk 200 metres without my back hurting. I had to sit down and take a breath. I’d be dripping with sweat because of the heat and the humidity.”

Three months into his training in Thailand he caught a flesh-eating bacteria and required three operations, narrowly avoiding having his leg amputated.

But he recovered and returned to his re-gime, and recently completed a 560-mile charity bike ride from Phuket to Bangkok.

“You’re meant to duck!”

At the Tiger camp, about 20 students from countries including Australia, Brit-ain, Egypt and Russia sweated their way through a recent beginners’ class under the close watch of muscular former Thai professionals.

“One, two, duck, body punch,” shouted one of the instructors as the students, of varying levels of fitness, practiced their moves.

After warm-up exercises involving jog-ging, stretching, star jumps and shadow boxing, the students paired up to spar, punching the air within a whisker of their opponents’ ears.

“You’re meant to duck!” one girl re-minded her friend after a near miss.

The main goal of most of the trainees is not to become a boxing champion but to lose weight, said instructor Phirop Chuai-kaitum, better known as Ajarn (Master) Dang.

“They run for a long time, stretching, punching in the air for a long time -- that makes it easy to lose weight,” he said.

“But we don’t make it hard because they will get hurt. We do it slowly but non-stop for two-and-a-half hours. They only have a three-minute break.”

There is no slacking off, even for royalty.

“There was one guy who was a prince from Dubai,” Phirop said.

“He came for the beginner class. I hit him with a stick and he told me that he was from a royal family. Whether you’re a construction worker or member of a royal family, when you come for boxing training you are all equal.”

As the session neared an end, sweat dripped from the students’ foreheads and they grimaced with pain. And the knock-out blow -- 100 push-ups to finish, for those with the energy left.

“It does hurt. You’re sore everywhere. Sometimes it’s tough to walk,” Henderson said. “You’re dripping in sweat but once you get back, have a shower, a swim in the pool -- you can’t buy that feeling.”


FOCUS

Climate change rewrites world wine list

BORDEAUX, March 28, 2013 (AFP) - It’s circa 2050 and shoppers are stopping off at Ikea to buy fine wine made in Sweden.

A Nordic fantasy? Not according to climate experts who say the Earth’s warming phase is already driving a wave of change through the world of wine.

As new frontiers for grape grow-ing open up, the viability of some traditional production areas is under threat from scorching temperatures and prolonged droughts.

And in between the two extremes, some long-established styles are be-ing transformed. Some whites once renowned for being light and crisp are getting fatter and more floral while medium-bodied reds are morphing into heavyweight bruisers.

“Some people are alarmists, I prefer to be an optimist,” says Fernando Zamora, oenology researcher and professor at Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain.

“I have no doubt that we will still have vineyards in traditional regions, but we have to think of new strategies. And we will also have new zones for vineyards. That’s for sure.

“Already in Germany they are mak-ing fine red wine where it used to be very difficult. And in Denmark, now they’ve started making wine.”

Climatologists working with the wine industry around the planet predict temperatures will rise by one to two degrees Celsius from now until 2050, a trend that is expected to be accom-panied by an increase in the incidence of extreme weather events.

“Can any region continue to grow the exact same varieties and make the exact same style of wines? If what we know today is correct, that is highly

unlikely,” said Gregory Jones, oenol-ogy professor at Southern Oregon University.

New vineyard projects in north-ern Europe will be risky given the increased unpredictability of the weather and the potential for one cold snap to destroy an entire crop.

So it may be that the biggest change will come in the range of wines pro-duced in areas that, until recently, have struggled to ripen some variet-ies.

Tasmania, parts of New Zealand, southern Chile, Ontario and other parts of Canada, England and the Mo-sel and Rhine areas in Germany are among the regions that could benefit.

“You can look anywhere in the world where there are relatively cool climate regions that today are much more suitable than they were 30, 40, 50 years ago, because the climates were too cold then. People couldn’t ripen fruit,” added Jones.

Like Zamora, Jones forms part of an international committee for the agri-culture and forestry climate change programme (ACCAF) run by France’s research institute INRA.

They are tasked with formulating strategies for helping everything from the plant to legislators cope with cli-mate change.

While wine grapes might not be necessary to feed the Earth’s popula-tion, the grape vine is more sensitive to climate than plants like rice, corn and soyabeans, which could provide valuable insight for essential future food supplies.

Vitis vinifera, the plant that gives us fine wine grape varieties, is a prolific wanderer that has a fine-tuned sense of the right place to take root and grow perfect grapes.

Problems abound but solu-tions are out there

Water stress, temperature change, inopportune downpours and frosts are just a few of the variables that have profound effects on the balance of sugar and acidity, the ripeness of tannins, and the palette of aromas.

“In Alsace (northeastern France), climate change is already a problem, because it’s changing the aromatic profile, the balance of sugar and acidity. If the consumers accept the changes, it’s not a problem. If they don’t, it is,” said Jean-Marc Touzard, a co-coordinator of ACCAF.

Producers of Beaujolais meanwhile see warmer weather improving the quality of their product in a region where winemakers have sometimes had to add sugar to bolster alcohol levels in their quaffable reds.

“In 2003 (when France suffered a severe summer heatwave), our wines tasted more like Cote du Rhone,” said Jean Bourjade of the growers group Inter Beaujolais.

“Beaujolais has seen that they can make better wine in a warmer climate, so there is a benefit. But is there a limit to that benefit? Does it go on forever?” said Jones.

“For ten years, they’ll be happy. Then

they’ll have problems,” predicted Touzard.

The Languedoc region around the Mediterranean already faces these problems. Hotter, dryer weather is making the area’s already-robust wines more full-bodied and more alcoholic, at the expense, some say, of finesse.

But all is far from lost.

“In the Languedoc, the growers have already begun adapting -- planting at a higher altitude and on different soils,” said Touzard.

Another solution is to change the grape varieties legally allowed un-der Europe’s strict appellation laws, sourcing the indigenous varieties from hot weather climes like Sicily, Greece, Spain and Portugal.

Researchers also say that once these grapes have been genetically decoded, they could be used for plant breeding.

Portugal alone has between 100 to 150 indigenous varieties that we know virtually nothing about, according to Jones.

“Some of the more southern, really warm places that have genetic mate-rial could be a real hotbed for dealing with heat tolerance in the future, “said Jones.


EVENTSIndonesia Business & Investment Forum Mar 27, 2013

Kwanza Hall, Atlanta City Council representative (District 2) welcoms the participants of the forum.

Dr. Luky Alfirman , Director of Macroeconomics Policy, Ministry of Finance of Indonesia, delivers the keynote presentation at the forum.

H.E. Dr Dino Patti Djalal, Indonesia’s Ambas-sador to the U.S. delivers the keynote speech during the lunch program.

Hon. Al Busyra Basnur, Consul General of In-donesia-Houston, welcome the participants and co-sponsors of the event.

Wayne Forrest, President of Indonesia American Chamber of Commerce, sharing his tips on doing business in Indonesia.

Angela Bourhill, an entrepreneur sharing her experience with the audience.


LIFESTYLE

TOKYO, March 28, 2013 (AFP) - Visitors to Google Maps can now roam virtually through the overgrown streets of an abandoned town where time has stood still since a tsunami crippled Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant two years ago.

The Internet giant’s mapping site is offering views of the deserted streets of Namie, half of which sits within the 12-mile no-go zone around the nuclear plant, wrecked when the 2011 tsunami crashed into Japan.

With cooling systems knocked out by the wall of water, three reactors melted down, spewing radioactive particles into the air, soil and sea and forcing Namie’s entire population of 21,000 to flee.

The entrance ban will be lifted for a small part of the town from Monday next week, allowing residents to visit for a short time, but the vast major-ity remains highly contaminated and is expected to be uninhabitable for years.

“The world is moving on to the future after the disaster... but time has stopped in the town of Namie,” said mayor Tamotsu Baba, writing on a blog for Google Japan Thursday.

“I hope these street views will show the people of future generations what the great earthquake and nuclear disaster brought,” he said.

“We need many years and many people’s cooperation to rise again from the nuclear crisis. We will never give up on getting back our home-town,” he said.

The natural disasters killed nearly

19,000 people, including those whose bodies are yet to be recovered.

Some parts of the town were swamped by the waves of March 11. Houses and other buildings damaged by the water can be clearly seen as site visitors click through the panoramic displays.

Along the coastline, the occasional boat lies in an untended field, dumped there by the waves that spread heavy oils and silt over rice paddies, where they also left the now rotted bodies of marine life.

But many of the buildings in the town are intact, tinged only by the invisible menace of radiation and abandoned when the sudden order to evacuate came two years ago.

Plant pots, their contents long dead or run wild, stand neatly outside some houses. Barber shops and hairdress-ers still display their welcome signs, offering haircuts to customers who may never return.

The images come from a heavily polluted part of the town, where resi-dents are not allowed to venture, said a town officia.

“The town requested special ap-proval for the Google crew to enter the zone,” the official said. “The crew wore protective gear and stayed inside the car while shooting.”

Mayor Baba, who asked Google to come into his town, said he wanted the world to see what it looked like and wanted those who had been forced out to be able to virtually visit the places they grew up.

Google reveals views of Japan’s nuclear ghost town

“Even two years after the disaster, we cannot walk into Namie freely,” the mayor said. “Many people from the town say they want to see what state their hometown is in now.

“I am sure many people around the world will want to see the tragedy a nuclear accident can bring.”

Tens of thousands of people in the area were forced from their homes by the nuclear catastrophe, the worst the planet has seen since the 1986 disas-ter at Chernobyl.

No one is officially recorded as having died as a direct result of the radiation, but scientists warn some areas may remain contaminated for decades, while those most heavily pol-luted could be uninhabitable forever.

The Street View function can be ac-cessed through the map, which can be found here: http://goo.gl/VbxDY


SPORTS

Baseball: Jaded Taiwan fans regain faith for season-opener

TAIPEI, March 24, 2013 (AFP) - Taiwan’s professional baseball season has got off to a good start, with more than 17,000 attending the opening game in another sign that fans are re-gaining faith in the scandal-hit sport.

A sell-out 17,693 people packed the Taoyuan baseball stadium in the north Saturday as the Lamigo Mon-keys met the Uni-President Lions in the Chinese Professional Baseball League.

It was the highest attendance figure for a season-opener since 2004.

“This is the best opening game I have ever played,” Lin Chih-sheng, the Lamigo slugger who was chosen as MVP for his three-for-four including a two-run homer, told the China Times.

Analysts said fans regained their fervor while rallying behind the national team in the World Baseball Classic this month, when Taiwan progressed into the second round for their best-ever showing in the contest.

The players returned to a heroes’ welcome and were honored by Presi-dent Ma Ying-jeou.

Lin voiced hope the support would continue. “I hope the fans will rally behind us not just in the opening game, but in the second and the re-maining games.”

Many disillusioned baseball sup-porters boycotted stadiums in recent years following a series of gambling scandals implicating coaches and players.

Attendance plummeted to an aver-age of 2,432 in the four-team league last year, compared to a peak of 7,000 in the late 1990s.

In the latest scandal Lu Wen-sheng -- the respected head coach of Uni-President Lions -- and his wife were investigated for having “unintention-ally” leaked confidential information about the team to a ring of illegal gamblers last year.

He was forced to resign as head coach but was not charged.

In mid-2011 six former players in the professional baseball league and a politician were jailed for up to seven years following a match-fixing scan-dal.

All betting on domestic sports is banned in Taiwan. There is a govern-ment-organized sports lottery but it is exclusively for games abroad, such as American baseball or European football.

Formula One: ‘I f***ed up,’ admits contrite VettelSEPANG, Malaysia, March 24, 2013

(AFP) - Sebastian Vettel held nothing back in a groveling apology for unfairly overtaking Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber to win the Malaysian Grand Prix Sunday, bluntly admitting: “I f***ed up.”

The frank statement, during a tense press conference featuring both driv-ers, did little to appease the emotional Webber, who led into the closing stages and had been told by his team that he could cruise to victory with Vettel second.

Instead, Vettel ignored team orders and plunged past his team-mate with a risky overtaking manoeuver, snatching his 27th grand prix and denying Web-ber his 10th.

“I cannot say much more than I did a mistake, I’m not proud I did it. If I had the chance to do it again I would do it differently,” Vettel said.

He added: “When I came back I saw the team’s reaction and I had a short word with Mark, it hit me quite hard that, language, I f***ed up.”

However Vettel, Formula One’s youngest ever three-time world cham-pion at 25, stopped short of pledging that he would make amends by hand-ing a victory to Webber if given the chance.

For Webber, who has played second fiddle to Vettel as the 25-year-old Ger-man won the last three world champi-onships, his team-mate’s behavior was galling after orders were issued over the team radio.

“The team rang up and said the pres-sure is off now, you need to look after the tires until the end, basically don’t fight each other. I turned the engine down... Emotions obviously are prob-ably not the best at the moment,” said Webber.

Formula One teams often issue orders to their drivers to desist from

competing with each other in order to avoid mishaps once both teammates are well placed.

Team principal Christian Horner said the team would discuss the “frus-trating” incident.

“Sebastian decided to take things into his own hands today and race Mark, thankfully making a clean pass and switching the order to the flag,” he said.

“Formula One is both a team and an individual sport and sometimes there is a conflict between a driver’s desire and a team’s interest. What happened today is something that shouldn’t have happened,” he added.

Webber said that while he was per-sonally in favor of allowing teammates to compete, Vettel’s decision to disobey orders could now prove difficult for the team in the future with trust now shot to bits between the two drivers.

“I’m a huge sports fan. I think we want to see people give their best until the end. It’s extremely unusual to have both cars at the end of a race together,” Webber said.

“Obviously now is a difficult situation for the future but it’s part of Formula One.” He added: “We are professionals and we did the job today. But it’s not an easy situation for the team and it’s always spoken about, always has been and always will be.”

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who finished third, was also contrite after team principal Ross Brawn told a frus-trated Nico Rosberg not to overtake his illustrious new stablemate in the closing stages.

“I don’t feel spectacular to be here. I think Nico deserved to be where I am now,” Hamilton said. “But obviously the team thought that with the position of the championship perhaps it was logical to stay in the positions we were in.


SPORTS

TOKYO, March 26, 2013 (AFP) - Organisers of Tokyo’s bid for the 2020 Olympics said Tuesday public support for their campaign had risen to 77 percent as IOC inspectors continued a fact-finding tour of three candidate cities.

The support rate was up four points from January, the Tokyo bid com-mittee said, citing its own telephone surveys. The rate started at 58 percent in July last year.

A team from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) evaluation commission visited Tokyo from March 4-7 to scrutinise the bid and inspect existing and planned facilities for the Games.

The team was due to end its four-day visit to Istanbul on Wednesday after a similar trip to Madrid last week.

The IOC inspection tour “enhanced public understanding of our bid ac-tivities and led to a rise in the support rate”, a statement said.

According to recent surveys by the IOC itself, public support was 70 per-cent for Tokyo, 76 percent for Madrid and 83 percent for Istanbul.

Tepid public support was seen as a

reason for Tokyo’s failure to secure the the 2016 summer Games won by Rio de Janeiro.

The 100-plus IOC members will vote to choose the 2020 host city in Buenos Aires on September 7 after studying a technical report by the commission on the three bids.

In another publicity blitz timed to coincide with the IOC team’s visit to Istanbul, the Tokyo bid committee said US sprint and long jump legend Carl Lewis has endorsed the Japanese city’s bid.

“It’s always wonderful to be back in Japan and I wish them the best of luck because I think they will put on a tremendous Games,” the nine-time Olympic and eight-time world gold medallist said on Monday, according to a statement from the committee.

“I will be at the 2020 Games wher-ever it is, and I hope it’s here.”

Olympics: Tokyo 2020 bid boosted by record support

Matsuzaka re-signs with IndiansCLEVELAND, Ohio, March 26, 2013

(AFP) - Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka has re-signed with Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians and will begin the season with their top developmental club, the Indians an-nounced on Tuesday.

The Indians released Matsuzaka ear-lier this month, avoiding a $100,000 bonus payment to the 32-year-old right-hander as a result, but will now be able to recall him to the main roster quickly.

Matsuzaka, an 18-game winner with the Boston Red Sox in 2008 who has struggled with arm issues in recent seasons, was edged for the final spot in

Cleveland’s pitching rotation despite a 2.25 earned run average over eight in-nings in pre-season exhibition games.

Matsuzaka, Most Valuable Player in Japan’s triumphant runs at the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classics, spent six seasons with Boston, helping the Red Sox win a 2007 World Series title.

Matsuzaka is 50-37 with a 4.52 earned-run average in Major League Baseball after going 108-60 with a 2.95 earned-run average from 1999-2006 in Japan.

The Indians open the season next Tuesday at Toronto.

Rio to have 250 more hotels by 2016Rio de Janeiro, March 26, 2013

(AFP) - Rio will have an additional 250 hotels with a total of 20,000 rooms by 2016 when it hosts the summer Olym-pics, the president of the city’s hotels industry association said Tuesday.

“For the 2016 Olympics, we need an extra 12,000 rooms in Rio,” ABIH-RJ President Alfredo Lopes told a press conference.

Thanks to tax incentives provided by City Hall, the sector “has invested $1.5 billion in construction of new hotels,” he noted. “We’ll jump from 30,000 rooms today to 50,000 in 2016.”

For next year’s football World Cup, he said occupation of all hotels was already 74 percent guaranteed.

Lopes said the industry has set up a watchdog group to prevent price goug-ing and to ensure that prices are in line with services offered.

But he rejected any government role in fixing prices.

He said the role of government was to promote Rio, the gateway for Brazilian tourism, by ensuring greater security, notably with police control of major slums once under the sway of narcotraffickers.

PARIS, March 24, 2013 (AFP) - Disease experts called Sunday for decisive leader-ship and more research funding to fend off the “very real” risk of an untreatable strain of tuberculosis (TB) emerging as more and more people develop resistance to existing drugs.

In a series of papers in the Lancet medi-cal journal to mark World TB Day on Sun-day, they warned that health systems risked being overwhelmed by increasing numbers of drug-resistant TB patients.

Already, more than 30 percent of newly-diagnosed patients in parts of eastern Europe and central Asia have multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB, a form of the disease which does not respond to the two most potent drugs -- isoniazid and rifampin.

There were believed to be about 630,000

MDR cases out of some 12 million TB cases in 2011.

Extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB, thus far reported in 84 countries, does not respond to an even wider range of drugs.

“The widespread emergence of XDR tuberculosis could lead to virtually untreat-able tuberculosis,” wrote the authors of one study, led by Alimuddin Zumla, director of the Centre for Infectious Diseases and International Health at University College London Medical School.

“With ease of international travel and increased rates of MDR tuberculosis... the threat and range of the spread of untreat-able tuberculosis is very real,” they said.

TB was declared a global health emer-gency by the World Health Organisation

(WHO) 20 years ago, but remains a leading cause of death by an infectious disease.

On its website, the UN agency says at least $1.6 billion (1.2 billion euros) is needed annually to prevent the spread of the disease.

For their part, the study authors urged “a radical change in political and scientific thinking”.

“The global economic crisis and reduced investments in health services threaten national tuberculosis programmes and the gains made in global tuberculosis control,” they wrote.

“The world needs to acknowledge the serious threat of drug-resistant tuberculosis before it overwhelms health systems.”

HEALTH

PARIS, March 24, 2013 (AFP) - Scientists said Sunday they had found mutations in 26 genes that may cause oesophageal cancer, a breakthrough they hope will lead to new drugs for the deadly and increasingly frequent disease.

A team of experts in the United States unravelled the genetic code of tumour cells from 149 patients, which they compared to healthy cells to identify a mutation signature for oesophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC).

This type of cancer of the oesopha-gus or gullet, the muscular tube that moves food from the mouth to the stomach, has a five-year survival rate of only about 15-20 percent.

EAC often originates from a disease called Barrett’s oesophagus, which in turn is caused by chronic acid reflux.

Incidence of the cancer has in-creased by 600 percent over the last 30 years -- particularly in Western countries, according to the study.

Oesophageal cancer kills about 15,000 people in the United States alone every year -- and a total 400,000 worldwide.

Now, the biggest genetic analysis yet of this type of cancer has revealed common mutations that may be spe-cifically targeted by new drugs.

“Finding the mutations helps us understand what makes the cancer tick,” study co-author Adam Bass of the Harvard Medical School told AFP.

“It can also help us find new thera-pies.”

Cancer develops when a human cell’s DNA is mutated so that its nor-mal function is disrupted and it starts growing and spreading out of control.

There are different causes, includ-ing obesity, smoking, exposure to the sun’s UV rays or environmental pollution.

Mutations of different genes have been implicated in different cancers, but there are also vast differences even among people with the same form of the disease.

“We looked at which genes were mutated more frequently than would be expected by chance,” said Bass.

“Doing so, we found 26 genes that may be contributing to this cancer type.”

Genes are segments of DNA that carry the instruction manuals for cells.

The team found a frequent repeti-tion of one particular type of muta-tion, suggesting it may be caused by some sort of exposure -- perhaps linked to acid reflux disease.

“Why this is especially interesting is that the rates of oesophageal adeno-carcinoma have risen greatly in the last several decades,” said Bass.

“We suspect that there may be some factor in the reflux which is causing this specific type of DNA damage.

“If this is so and we can pin down what type of specific factor is respon-sible for these mutations, we may be able to develop new approaches to prevent these cancers or at least to diagnose them at an earlier point.”

Scientists unravel genetic code of oesophageal cancer


Scientists pinpoint gene coding errors for cancer

PARIS, March 27, 2013 (AFP) - The biggest-ever trawl of the human genome for cancer-causing DNA errors has netted more than 80 tiny mutations, a finding that could help people at high risk, researchers said Wednesday.

The results, which double the number of known genetic alterations linked to breast, ovarian and prostate cancer, were unveiled in a dozen scientific papers published in journals in Europe and the United States.

The three hormone-related cancers are diagnosed in over 2.5 million people every year and kill one in three patients, said a Nature press statement.

Teams from more than 100 research institutes in Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States said the work should in the future help doctors to calculate an individ-ual’s cancer risk long before any symptoms emerge.

People with high-susceptibility muta-tions could be counselled against lifestyle choices that further increase their risk, given regular screening and drug treat-ment, or even preventative surgery.

“We have examined 200,000 areas of the genome in 250,000 individuals. There is no (other) study of cancer of this size,” Per Hall, coordinator of the Collaborative On-cological Gene-environment Study (COGS), told AFP of the research.

The studies compared the DNA of more than 100,000 patients with breast, ovar-ian and prostate cancer to that of an equal number of healthy individuals. Most were of European ancestry.

DNA, the blueprint for life, comprises four basic chemicals called A (adenine) C (cytosine), T (thymine) and G (guanine) strung together in different combinations along a double helix.

Researchers noted where the A, C, T, G combinations of cancer patients differed significantly from those of healthy people.

They were looking for a tiny “spelling mistake” in the code, called a single nucleo-tide polymorphism or SNP that can cause problems in gene function.

Experts warn of untreatable TB risk


Misc Asia

TAIPEI, March 21, 2013 (AFP) - A Taiwanese fugitive who knew no Eng-lish has been arrested because police were curious about the word “Wanted” printed on his T-shirt, officers said Thursday.

The man, identified only by his sur-name Wu and wanted on drug abuse charges, was arrested last week at Huwei, a town in the southern country of Yunlin, said a police spokesman.

A patrolling police officer who had passed an elementary-level nationwide

English proficiency test approached Wu because of his T-shirt, the spokes-man said.

Further questioning of Wu and a check on his status on the police com-puter system led to the arrest.

Wu told police the T-shirt was a gift from his son and he would not have worn it if he had known what “Wanted” meant.

Taiwanese fugitive nabbed because of ‘Wanted’ T-shirt

Cherry trees reach full bloom in TokyoTOKYO, March 22, 2013 (AFP)

- Tokyo’s cherry trees were in stunning full bloom on Friday, Japan’s weather agency said, marking the second earli-est blossoming in the capital on record.

The national weather service used Tokyo’s central Yasukuni Shrine as a barometer to judge the peak of the sea-son, which sees a riot of white and deli-cate pinks exploding in parks, temple grounds, schools and on streets.

The spectacle signals the coming of spring and is marked by sometimes-raucous gatherings of friends, family or colleagues picnicking under the trees. Events can go on for many hours and often involve alcohol.

“High temperatures in early March are definitely one of the major factors behind the early full bloom in Tokyo,” an agency official said.

On Saturday, Japan’s weather agency, which has monitored cherry blossom since 1953, announced the official start of cherry blossom season in Tokyo. The earliest full blooming on record occurred in 2002.

Japanese culture prizes the perfect but delicate blossom, whose transience -- they only last a week -- is a reminder of the fragility of life.

‘Richest’ China village sends off chief in high styleHuaxi, China, March 22, 2013 (AFP)

- Residents of China’s “richest vil-lage” bid farewell Friday to the man who made Huaxi a socialist paradise, with a 20-vehicle funeral procession transporting his coffin and a helicopter flying overhead.

Wu Renbao, retired Communist Party chief of the village, died on Mon-day of cancer aged 84.

At a memorial ceremony, hundreds of mourners wearing black armbands bowed their heads in silence beneath a huge photograph of him, surrounded by wreaths made of paper flowers sent by China’s top leaders.

“He will be in our hearts forever,” one villager said, with tears in her eyes.

Huaxi is a model story for Chinese propaganda, showing how a once rural village could get rich under economic reforms launched three decades ago, but stay true to socialist ideals by shar-ing the wealth.

Wu was in charge for more than 40 years, and turned farmers into mil-lionaires by setting up 12 corporations ranging from textiles to steel.

Now the village’s 2,000 registered residents live in villas and drive luxury cars bought with profits from the col-lectively-owned companies.

But some are more equal than others and tens of thousands of other people

who now live in Huaxi do not enjoy the same benefits, while a magazine has claimed the Wu family controls more than 90 percent of the village’s assets.

The late leader’s fourth son Wu Xie’en, who took over as village party chief in a dynastic succession in 2003, vowed to carry on his legacy, saying at the ceremony he would “truly turn Huaxi into a unique, special Shangri-La”.

Thousands of mourners filed through Wu’s home -- a two-story, white-paint-ed cement building -- to pay their re-spects, where he lay in a plain wooden coffin, draped in a red Communist flag with only his head visible.

The Wu house is a marked con-trast to the ostentatiousness of much of Huaxi, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, which in 2011 unveiled one of China’s tallest buildings, a $470 mil-lion, 74-story hotel, 328 metres (1,080 feet) high.

A gleaming near-life-size statue of an ox stands inside, supposedly made of solid gold.

A black Mercedes-Benz and busloads of mourners accompanied the body in a white hearse to cremation, some throwing paper “ghost money” out of the windows, a tradition meant to impart wealth to the deceased in the afterlife.

But China’s new leadership has

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

If heat is applied to iron long enough it will melt; if cold is applied to water long enough it will freeze.Bhutanese Proverb

Tend cows and buffalos with author-ity; tend kindness with patience.Cambodian Proverb

One mouse dropping ruins the whole pot of rice porridge.Chinese Proverb

The arrogant army will lose the battle for sure.Chinese Proverb

He who sows the wind, reaps a ty-phoon.Filipino Proverb

The garbage you throw away will return to you. Filipino Proverb

Potter always eat out of a broken plate.Indian Proverb

The jasmine flowers in the backyard do not have any fragrance. Indian Proverb

Be a bee, living in a flowery garden, not a fly, living in heaps of garbage.Indonesian Proverb

Eager for the rain to fall, water al-ready stored is thrown away. Indonesian Proverb

Luck exists in the leftovers. Japanese Proverb

Spilt water will not return to the tray. Japanese Proverb

Coming words will be beautiful if gone words were beautiful. Korean Proverb

Since you happen to put your hand in a container full of pickles, might as well dip your whole arm in the container. Malay Proverb

History is a signpost for the future.Pakistani Proverb

Tell your daughter and teach your daughter-in-law.Pakistani Proverb

Pound the hot sauce and pour it away in the river.Thai Proverb

Ride an elephant to catch a grasshop-per. Thai Proverb

No sweet without sweat.Vietnamese Proverb

Life is a temporary stop, death is the journey home.Vietnamese Proverb

World ninjas gather in Japan for women’s meetTOKYO, March 22, 2013 (AFP) -

More than 200 ninjas from around the world gathered at a Tokyo gymnasium Friday to kick off a special two-day training seminar, especially designed for women.

The disciples of Grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi, the founder of the Bujinkan school, gathered from more than 17 countries at the Tokyo Budo-kan martial arts gymnasium to sharpen their self-defense skills.

Gone are the days when the Japanese historical masked agents carried out espionage acts against opposing war-lords, they said.

Mondern-day ninjas are ordinary people with normal jobs who practice self-defense skills, or “ninjutsu”, stress-ing use of balance and space to bring opponents to submission.

The historical image of a ninja may attract many people, but they soon find the importance of the culture and phi-losophy behind it, said Sheila Haddad, an American instructor who helped organize the event.

“It’s appealing to women because it does not rely on power and strength,” she said, adding that many disciples are involved in law enforcement or the military in their countries.

Ninjutsu techniques as well as the ninja philosophy can be applied to real combat settings, said Doreen Montes-claros, 25, a soldier in the New Zealand army.

“Military martial arts as well as other (forms of martial arts) are very rigid and all about strength and all about being fitter and being stronger... over-whelming your opponents,” she said.

But ninja ways are more relaxed, she said.

“Being surrounded by male col-leagues, I find that it adds new dimen-sions to the way I approach battle scenarios. I come into it with an overall picture, as opposed to being stuck in the moment and relying on aggres-sion,” she said.

“It helps me realize the greatest weapon that I have. That’s my mind and being able to see all the factors that make up situations.”

Jinichi Kawakami, the 21st head of the Ban clan, a different line of ninjas that can trace its history back some 500 years, is considered by some to be the last living ninja and has said that “ninjas proper” no longer exist.

Philippines says ‘no’ to short copsMANILA, April 1, 2013 (AFP) - Short

people hoping to join the long arm of the law in the Philippines will be left disap-pointed after President Benigno Aquino vetoed a bill removing height requirements for police on Monday.

Parliament had passed a bill repeal-ing minimum height requirements for the police, fire service and jail guards, but the president felt that some jobs required people of a certain stature, his spokeswom-an Abigail Valte said.

“If you need to rescue someone from a burning house... or secure detainees, then

you would need certain physical attributes. That is the nature of these jobs and it is not discrimination,” she told reporters.

Aquino’s the minimum height of five feet, four inches for men and five feet, two inches for women applying for these jobs, would still apply, Valte said.

She said the police and other agencies already granted height requirement waivers for certain applicants so short people still could get in if they have special qualifica-tions.


TECH

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2013 (AFP) - Amid much speculation on the future of the “smartwatch,” the consen-sus is growing: the time is right.

In recent weeks, reports have sur-faced about plans for smartwatches from tech giants Apple, Samsung and Google, with launches possible later this year.

“I think we have reached a tipping point,” said Avi Greengart, analyst on consumer devices at the research firm Current Analysis.

Greengart said 2013 may be the year for the smartwatch because “the com-ponents have gotten small enough and cheap enough” and a large number of consumers now have smartphones that can connect to a wearable device.

The idea of the connected watch has been around for at least a decade: Mi-crosoft had one in 2003. And some de-vices are already on the market includ-ing from Sony, the crowdfunded maker Pebble and Italian-based firm i’m.

Up to now, smartwatches have been able to connect to phones wirelessly to give users signals about new messages, and allow some limited Web access.

But analysts say once they gain trac-tion, app developers can come up with new functions, possibly drawing on health and fitness monitoring devices now in use.

The likely entry of new heavyweight players like Apple “can catalyze the market,” Greengart said, while noting that any new device has to prove its utility to consumers.

“This is a market that needs to be created.”

Even though Apple has maintained its customary silence on the subject, that has not stopped speculation on the

Internet, including a likely design of a curved glass “iWatch.”

ABI Research predicts that smart-watches and other wearable computing devices will “explode in popularity over the next year” and grow to 485 million annual device shipments by 2018.

“The furor about wearable technolo-gies, particularly smart watches and smart glasses is unsurprising,” said ABI analyst Josh Flood.

“Apple’s curved glass-based watch could prove to be a revelation in the wearable technologies market. The major question is whether the digital time piece will act as a complimentary device to the company’s iPhone smart-phones or as a standalone product with other functionalities like health or activity tracking capabilities.”

Citi analyst Oliver Chen said the smartwatch segment, which now includes devices from Fossil and Movado, could easily evolve into a $6 billion annual business with “higher than average” profit margins.

“A successful smartwatch likely needs to create a completely new market and not compete on fashion or luxury brand prestige,” Chen said.

Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps noted that “the body is the next frontier for personal comput-ing,” and that “it seems like only a matter of time before Apple enters the market directly.”

Epps said that this market could grow because “consumers love their smartphones, and there is some appeal in having an additional touchpoint,” which could allow a user to check mes-sages or use other smartphone apps from the wrist.

But she noted that there are several other potential types of competing

Time is ripe for smart watches, analysts say

wearable computing devices, includ-ing Google Glass and other “smart” eyeglasses.

“I’m not convinced the smartwatch is the killer form factor,” said Epps.

Danielle Levitas, analyst at the research firm IDC, said there is an op-portunity for smartwatches and other wearable devices because consumers want to be connected without pulling out a phone, which might be impolite in some situations.

“It’s less rude to glance at your wrist than to take your phone from your back pocket,” she said.

But it will take some time for the market to sort out what consumers want.

“You could have a device with all the smarts embedded, or a device with lower costs that connects to a smart-phone,” Levitas said.

Pricing of a fully autonomous watch could be $300 or more, she noted, plus data charges, but a smartphone-linked device may cost as little as $100.

Levitas said manufacturers will have to find the right size of display -- large enough to be useful without being cumbersome.

“It’s going to be harder for women than men,” she said.

“If it’s big enough to be useful, it may look totally dorky. This may only ap-peal to certain segments.”

April HoroscopeSnake (2013 2001 1989 1977 1965 1953 1941 1929 1917 1905)While there has been progress with certain financial plans, things are not going nearly as well as you would hope. Frustrating as this is, these delays or hiccups are spurring you to explore even minor problems, which you would normally overlook. Once you do, you will discover they need personal atten-tion and understanding before those plans progress to the next stage. Hence nurturing fundamental sequence of actions could ultimately lead to positive responses.

Horse (2002 1990 1978 1966 1954 1942 1930 1918 1906) Because you find it annoying when others make unrealistic demands, you bend over backwards to avoid doing the same. Yet now you should; what you are planning requires that everybody involved is aware of their responsibil-ity and fulfils it. And that means you must make explicit demands. A trouble shared is a problem solved. While certain issues are resolved, others remain unsettled and a few are still causing tension. By mid-month, unexpected changes will have altered the situation.

Sheep (2003 1991 1979 1967 1955 1943 1931 1919 1907)The time has come to shed certain elements of the past. At one point these arrangements or even alliances with certain individuals were linked to excite-ment and promise, but times have changed and so have your needs. You have been trying to explain to others what you expect of them. While you will take a tough stance about what you think is appropriate, you and your world are in the midst of a period of transformation. Suddenly much of what you now regard as urgent will become unimportant. Letting these go will be far easier than you may anticipate.

Monkey (2004 1992 1980 1968 1956 1944 1932 1920 1908)You have a talent for finding clever ways around difficult situations and indi-viduals. Yet what you are facing now threatens to defeat you when you lower your guard or are caught by surprise. Annoying as this is, do not focus merely on overcoming it swiftly. The time you invest in discovering why it happened will prove more useful in the future. Even though having established the roots of the situation does not necessarily mean that you have found the antidote. The next approach in dealing with them requires more than mere diplomacy and promises.

Rooster (2005 1993 1981 1969 1957 1945 1933 1921 1909)While you dislike basing decisions entirely on your instincts, you have done so in the past when running out of options. Fortunately, you later discovered facts that justified those actions. Now, once again, events are perhaps forc-ing you to trust your intuition. Overcome your doubts, act swiftly and your choices will prove brilliant. Wait for the facts you crave and not only are they unlikely to appear, but that golden opportunity may well have vanished in a flash of lighting.

Dog (2006 1994 1982 1970 1958 1946 1934 1922 1910)When you make plans or promises, your commitment is firm. Unshakeable as your intentions may be, however destiny seems to have a few surprises in mind for you. Worrying as this month’s sudden changes appear initially, rather than figuring out ways to avoid them, do some exploring and perhaps go beyond what you would normally have done. It might feel strange to begin with, but what you learn could just convince you they are a very good idea.

Pig (2007 1995 1983 1971 1959 1947 1935 1923 1911)Sometimes conflicts are best diplomatically ignored. Unlikely as it may seem, those currently confronting you hold the promise of pivotal insights. Knowing that, muster your courage and insist they be discussed in detail. You will soon recognize what you will get for your efforts. In fact, by the months close those disagreements should be resolved and better yet, you will also have sorted out plans for the year ahead. This is merely the beginning of the year’s career or business development.

Rat (2008 1996 1984 1972 1960 1948 1936 1924 1912)It is time to draw a line between what works in your life and what does not. Some financial arrangements are no longer feasible or worthwhile. Question-ing these encourages you to consider changes and explore alternative options, which you may have rejected without providing due consideration. With several decisions to make, you are urged to organize arrangements so you can make changes as circumstances and your own priorities shift. This should enable you to eliminate problems and better yet, allow for exciting improve-ments.

Ox (2009 1997 1985 1973 1961 1949 1937 1925 1913)You do think that balancing life’s obligations and its joys would be easy, but as you should have realized recently, it is far more complicated than you would expect. This is in part because of changes taking place in several elements of your life and career, which means this is not about organizing things once and being done with it, but about tweaking that balance as changes continue to unfold. Challenging as this might be at first, once you get the knack, you tend to enjoy it.

Tiger (2010 1998 1986 1974 1962 1950 1938 1926 1914)Tempting, as it is to go along with those closest needs, you know you will regret it. Their desires may seem simple but they are far more complicated than you realize. If you feel you really must agree, at least talk things over in detail. You may be able to reduce the complication before it gets out of hand. Honesty is the ideal medicine even though the truth may sometimes be unpleasant to swallow. Consider having a long lasting relationship rather than a temporary one.

Rabbit (2011 1999 1987 1975 1963 1951 1939 1927 1915 1903)No matter how carefully you have investigated the historical financial facts, it is still worth listening to what others may have to say, even if it is contrary to what you have learned. This is a period of intense and often unexpected change. Take time to compare your notes. What you learn could be amazingly informative and interesting too. It may even widen your horizon about more ways to invest your monies or make your money work harder. Obviously do not forget the potential risks attached.

Dragon (2012 2000 1988 1976 1964 1952 1940 1928 1916 1904)It is rare that you allow something or somebody to get you so worked up, you insisted on having the final word. This is not the real problem for you rather could say more than you mean. Worse, once you have, you will start worrying about upsetting others feelings giving you a guilty conscience. You need not be concerned since they too are forthright in nature and understand what you meant. There is no easy way at times when dealing with human nature. As long as your conscience is clear, that means you can sleep soundly during the night.


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Georgia Asian Times Vol 9 No 7

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