H
O
L
I
D
A
Y
Toyota probes possible power steering problems
Ethnic life at Enshi brings back a bygone era
China’s figure skating ‘Godfather’ vows to push for more results
Page 4
Page 10
Page 12
Š 2010 China Daily All Rights Reserved
w w w.c h i n a d a i l y.co m .c n
T H E VOL . 30
No.
N A T I O N A L
E N G L I S H
L A N G U A G E
9298
N E W S P A P E R
T H U R S DAY F E B R UA RY 1 8 , 2 0 1 0
RMB ÂĽ1.5
Holdings of US Treasury debt slashed China sold $34b in bonds in Dec; Japan becomes biggest foreign holder By Li Jing
Best seat in the house
With the Earth’s horizon and the darkness of space serving as a background, a portion of the International Space Station appears in this image provided by NASA, which was taken by a crew member on the International Space Station. The space shuttle Endeavour docked there last week. • Story, Page 6
AP
Dalai Lama meeting to be held as scheduled Barack Obama will meet with the Dalai Lama today as scheduled despite China’s firm and repeated opposition, according to media in the United States. The meeting will be in the White House Map Room instead of the Oval Office, while the US president is unlikely to make a public appearance with the Dalai Lama, reported Associated Press. Despite the choice of location, however, any state leader who meets with the Dalai Lama in private or public risks damaging relations with China, said Pang Zhongying, an international relations expert with the Beijing-based Renmin University of China. A joint appearance by Obama and the Dalai Lama before the media could worsen China-US ties and further complicate US
How would the US government react if China supported a leader of a Hawaiian sovereignty movement? FRED TENG A member of the National Committee on China-US Relations
efforts to secure Chinese help on major international issues, including nuclear programs in Iran and the Korean Peninsula. Bilateral relations were hurt last month when the Obama administration approved a $6.4billion arms sale to Taiwan. Obama should focus more
on important issues like trade and climate change instead of harming China relations by meeting the Dalai Lama, Fred Teng, a member of the National Committee on China-US Relations, said on Tuesday. “Obama will be instigating a potentially destructive downward spiral in relations�, Teng wrote in a recent article published on the Huffi ngton Post, a US-based news website. Tibet was part of China long before Hawaii became a US state, Teng wrote, pointing out that US Congress had passed the Apology Resolution, a law that apologized for the government’s role in supporting the 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Splitting, Page 2
The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and four other ships dock for a port call in Hong Kong yesterday. AP
US carrier docks in HK amid row A US aircraft carrier sailed into Hong Kong yesterday amid heightened tension between Washington and Beijing over arms sales to Taiwan and President Barack Obama’s plan to meet the Dalai Lama. The port call by the USS Nimitz, one of the world’s largest warships, came as a surprise to many military observers only weeks after China said it would suspend military and security contacts with the US over Washington’s $6.4-billion arms package to the island.
Port call, Page 2
Great Scot! Sadie the Scottie steals the show NEW YORK: A peppy Scottish terrier known as Sadie was crowned the United States’ top dog late on Tuesday, winning Best in Show at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club (WKC) championship. Sadie, a jet-black 4-year-old formally known as Ch Roundtown Mercedes of Maryscot, displayed the ideal combination of breeding standards and confidence, beating 2,500 entrants at the 134-year-old dog show. “She’s the total package,� marveled Elliot Weiss, of Eagle, Idaho, who judged the Best in Show round before a cheering, capacity crowd at Madison Square Garden. “This is the complete dog. That’s what you want a Scottie to look like,� said Weiss. Sadie was the dog to beat. She went into the competition
Sadie, a Scottish terrier, meets the media after winning Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club championship at Madison Square Garden in New York on Tuesday. AP
as a favorite of both oddsmakers and experts, in sharp contrast to the upsets of recent years which have included a charismatic, baying beagle and an aging, plodding Sus
sex Spaniel, both of which were little-known but clear crowd favorites. The loudest cheers on Tuesday were for a sleek doberman pinscher and a French bulldog
whose mugging won the crowd over. The final round of judging was disrupted when two female protesters strode out to the winner’s circle and held up signs, including one reading “Mutts rule�, a reference to the “Dogs rule� ad campaign that has run throughout the competition. The protesters were apparently opposed to the purebreed dog culture and events like the WKC show that promote it. They were quickly removed by security as the audience booed. Sadie made history by joining scores of other terriers as the most successful group in WKC history, said David Frei, co-host of the live cable television coverage of the annual show. Terriers have won nearly half the events throughout the
club’s history. Sadie also made last year’s Best in Show round. The WKC was her 112th Best in Show and the eighth WKC victory for a Scottie. This year’s competition saw 2,500 entrants representing 173 breeds and varieties. Other breeds vying for the big prize on Tuesday were a toy poodle, a puli, a whippet and a brittany. For the next week or so, Sadie will bask in the kind of limelight traditionally reserved for more established one-named celebrities like Madonna, Cher or Usher, with a round of television appearances as the nation’s newest media darling. Handler Gabriel Rangel said Sadie was “a very happy dog�. “She always enjoys herself. Nobody ever tells her ‘no’.�
Reuters &1
China drastically slashed its holdings of United States government debt last December, allowing Japan to retake its place as the largest foreign holder of US Treasury bonds. China sold more than $34 billion in short- and long-term bonds, leaving its total holdings at $755.4 billion, according to US Treasury data released on Tuesday. The country sold about $45 billion in US Treasuries in the last five months, Alan Ruskin, chief international strategist for RBS Securities Inc, said in a research note. He said it was a “long enough period to hint strongly at a trend�. Liu Yuhui, an economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said now is a good time to cut holdings of US Treasuries as recent European debt concerns have driven up the US dollar. “China has chosen the right strategy in slashing its huge holdings of US government debt as the greenback rebounds,� said Liu, adding that there is no sign of change to the long-term weakness of the US dollar. Massive US deficit spending and near-zero interest rates would also further erode the value of US bonds, said Cao Honghui, director of fi nancial market research at CASS. The White House released a budget plan on Feb 1 that predicted the deficit for this year would total a record $1.56 trillion, surpassing last year’s $1.4 trillion, which re-ignited China’s concern about its dollar assets. As one of the US’ biggest creditors, China has sought to diversify its portfolio of foreign exchange reserves over the past year as the share of US dollar-dominated assets is too large. Premier Wen Jiabao said in March last year he was “worried� about the Treasury holdings and wanted assurances his country’s US investments were safe, while Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, proposed a new global currency to reduce reliance on the US dollar. The net sales of US Trea-
Festival joy for resettled residents This year’s Spring Festival has been extra special for some residents who were relocated from their native Chongqing because of the Three Gorges Dam project. Page 3
Egyptian king loses shine It appears Egypt’s beloved boy king was not so golden after all. Research shows King Tutankhamun was actually a hobbled, weak teenager with a cleft palate and clubfoot, in contrast to the popular culture depiction of a robust, exotically handsome young pharaoh. Page 6 ,661
China has chosen the right strategy in slashing its huge holdings of US government debt as the greenback rebounds. LIU YUHUI An economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
suries in past months by China might carry a subtle economic and political message to the US, according to Eswar Prasad, a trade policy professor at Cornell University and former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division. “Chinese leaders are deploying their reserves to try and pressure the US to stop haranguing China about its currency and trade policies, and to back off from interference in its domestic issues,� he was quoted by AFP as saying. However, Nicholas Lardy, a China expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said he believes the dramatic cut in US Treasuries is purely a market move. The China-US relationship was still relatively smooth last December so the political implications should not be over-emphasized, he told Xinhua News Agency. The foreign holdings of US Treasury securities fell by $53 billion in December, surpassing the previous record drop of $44.5 billion in April last year. While China cut its holdings of the US long-term securities, Japan and Britain increased their stakes. Japan boosted its holdings of US Treasuries by $11.5 billion to $768.8 billion in December, outpacing China’s $755.4 billion in the same month. Britain also increased its holdings to $302.5 billion from $277.6 billion. Brazil boosted its holdings to $160.6 billion from $157.1 billion. Xinhua, AFP contributed to the story
In this issue: News ....................................2 Nation ..................................3 Business Intl ........................4 International ................... 5, 6 Life ................................. 7-10 Sports ........................... 11,12
HOTLINES NEWS
(86-10) 6491-8366 SUBSCRIPTION
(86-10) 6491-8763 ADVERTISEMENT
(86-10) 6491-8631
H
2
O
L
I
D
A
NEWS
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2010
Y CHINA DAILY
Graduating into a tight job market
INBRIEF YUNNAN Three die in forest fire Three workers died while fighting forest fires in Yunnan province on Tuesday, the local government said yesterday. The three men were among 300 people fighting a forest fire that broke out on Mt Wugong in Binchuan county, at 12:30 pm on Tuesday, according to the county government. The forest fire, which engulfed 50 hectares of forest amid high winds, was extinguished at 3:40 am yesterday.
Employment pressure for degree holders to peak in June By Wang Yan
Employment pressure for university graduates will peak in June, when 6.3 million people graduate from the nation’s universities and colleges. The latest data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security suggests that the number of university graduates in 2010 will be 190,000 more than last year. High employment pressure is expected in the alreadytight job markets around the country, the ministry has warned. In 2000, there were 1.07 million college graduates. Since then, the number has jumped almost six-fold due to the college enrollment expansion plan, which came into effect in 1999. One aim of the expansion plan was to reach a 15 percent enrollment rate of higher education amongst school-age
youths by 2010, Ji’nan Daily reported yesterday. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said it aimed to achieve a 70 percent employment rate for college graduates later this year. Employment rates have struggled to keep up with the increasing number of graduates, resulting in a growing number of unemployed graduates over the years. Data from the Ministry of Education shows the employment rates for fresh college graduates have been floating around 70 percent over the past three years, which is close to the 70 percent rate in 2001. However, there is evidence to suggest a decline in the rocketing number of graduates. About 80,000 high school graduates in Shandong province abandoned preparations for the college entrance
TAIWAN
Graduates hoping for a bright future attend a job fair on Jan 16 in Shenyang, Liaoning province.
exam last year, local media reported. One reason was that students from rural areas were worried about their job prospects after graduation, the report said. Beijing also saw a decline in the number of students registering for the college entrance exam for three years in
the sharp fall in registration for the college entrance examination. Other reasons included affluent urban residents sending their children abroad for f urther education, as well as vocational schools attracting students who found tuition fees too expensive for higher education.
a row, the Beijing education examinations authority said in January. This year, 81,000 high school students have registered to take the exam. The number was 101,293 in 2009 and about 116,293 in 2008. The falling birth rate was cited as the main reason for
Yi Runqian
A recent survey showed that Chinese urban residents place more importance on salaries and benefits in job hunting, compared to last year. In contrast, concerns over job pressures and the working environment have lowered, according to the report, which said the fi nancial crisis was responsible for the changes.
Clinic is a medical first for expatriats in Liaoning By Wu Yong and Liu Ce
SHENYANG: The fi rst international medical clinic has opened in Liaoning, offering medical services in several languages to about 20,000 foreigners based in t he province. The center is in Shengjing Hospital in Shenyang and staf fed by about 90 doctors and nurses. It of fers var ious medical services including gynecol-
BMW, European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) and the Association of Koreans in Shenyang,” said Zhang. Stephen B. Wick man, Consul General of the US Consulate in Shenyang, said: “The opening of the center symbolizes that Liaoning is becoming more and more open and international, which will attract more global talent to the province.” German expatriate Sven Kunath, who has been living
ogy, surgery and paediatrics. Zhang Chengpu, vice-president of Shengjing Hospital. He said the clinic, which has just officially opened, began accepting its fi rst clients about three months ago. “Besides English, our center can provide service in German, Japanese, Spanish and Korean,” Zhang said. “The center has now signed agreements on the provision of medical service with many foreign companies and organizations in Liaoning, such as
medical service. “The medical center looks ver y reliable and professional. Doctors can speak to you in English. The nurses can even speak German,” Kunath said. Wu Qiong, a 38-year-old doctor who returned to China in September 2009 after working in Germany, said the clinic had so far been popular with foreigners. “In the three-month soft opening period, I have seen about 70 foreign patients,”
in Shenyang for four years, said he had found it frustrating that he did not have access to a doctor who could speak German or English. “There’s no hospital offering international medical services for expatriates and I can’t speak Chinese, so when I’m sick, I have to fly to Beijing or even Germany to see doctors,” he said. He said he went to t he clinic about one month ago for a stomachache. He was pleased with the standard of
WEATHER
www.tq121.com.cn
HIGH/LOW TEMPERATURES, IN DEGREES CELSIUS AND DEGREES FAHRENHEIT, AND EXPECTED CONDITIONS.
SUNNY
> DALAI LAMA, From Page 1
Today Fri
O
Sh 18/3
64/37
S
O
12/6
53/42
Sh
R
8/-2
46/28
R
O
Dali
16/8
60/46
Fuzhou
11/5
51/41
Guiyang
2/-2
35/28
10/3
9/7 14/7
RAIN
DUST
XI’AN Today Fri
SNOW
QINGDAO
9/-4 10/-2
Today Fri
4/-4 6/-1
OVERCAST
STORM
DALIAN Today Fri
SHOWER
THUNDER
CHANGCHUN
-1/-7 3/-5
Today Fri
FOG
HARBIN
-8/-19 -6/-16
Today Fri
-8/-18 -9/-20
-7/-17 -5/-15
CHENGDU
50/37
46/37
CLOUDY
URUMQI Today Fri
THURSDAY FRIDAY C F %26WCS% CS CS 8/3
DRIZZLE
CHONGQING
Sh.................Shower S......................Sunny Sn.....................Snow St.....................Storm T.......Thunderstorms
Changsha
FTA study on East Asia South Korea plans to launch a joint research project with China and Japan on the feasibility of a Free Trade Agreement among the three Northeast Asian countries, South Korea’s foreign ministry said yesterday. According to a report issued by the ministry, the country will kick off a joint study with the other countries, with the participation of government officials, scholars and business representatives. The country will also continue to push for settling separate bilateral trade agreements with China and Japan, said the ministry’s report. Xinhua
Splitting activities rapped
February 18-19
TRAVELER’S FORECAST
%25WDAT%
BEIJING
%WEATHER D-D%
Central Meteorological Observatory
C.....................Cloudy D.....................Drizzle Du......................Dust F...........................Fog O.................Overcast R.........................Rain
Wu said. “Most of the patients suffered from gastrointestinal disease and other common ailments. We have operated on two patients with appendicitis.” Olaf Kastner, CEO of BMW Group China, said: “Shengjing Hospital has excellent medical skills, advanced equipment as well as staff who speak foreign languages fluently. That’s the reason we choose Shengjing as our medical service center.”
More births needed A Taiwan official has urged local residents to procreate amid fears the Year of the Tiger may bring fewer births on the island, which already has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. Historically, birth rates have dropped during the Year of the Tiger, as the Chinese believe Tiger babies could be vicious and harm their relatives. “Education Ministry” official Yang Chang-yu challenged the belief that it is inauspicious to have babies in Tiger years, noting that many successful people were Tiger babies. People should try to have babies during this Year of the Tiger, Yang was quoted as saying by the mass-market China Times newspaper yesterday.
Today Fri
9/2 11/3
BEIJING Today Fri
4/-8 6/-6
LHASA Today Fri
13/-2 11/-5
SHANGHAI 7/0 9/-1
Today Fri
GUILIN
10/-1
50/30 C
12/-1
53/30
S
Hohhot
-1/-14
30/6
S
2/-12
35/10
S
Hefei
7/-4
44/24
C
10/-3
50/26
S
Jinan
6/-5
42/23 S
9/-1
48/30
S
Kashi
-1/-13
30/8
C
2/-14
35/6
S
Lanzhou
4/-8
39/17
S
7/-6
44/21
S
Lijiang
13/6
55/42
Sh 15/4
59/39
C
Nanjing
6/-4
42/24
C
9/-3
48/26
S
Nanning
13/6
55/42
O
14/7
57/44
O
Nanchang
8/2
46/35
C
11/3
51/37
C
Ningbo
7/0
44/32 C
10/-2
50/28
S
Shijiazhuang 7/-5
44/23 S
9/-3
48/26
S
Amsterdam
4/0
39/32
41/35
C
New Delhi
23/12
73/53 S
23/8
73/46
S
Suzhou
5/-2
41/28
C
8/-1
46/30
S
Bangkok
34/26
93/78 C
33/26
91/78
C
New York
6/-2
42/28 S
3/-2
37/28
C
Shenzhen
9/6
48/42
D
11/7
51/44
D
Berlin
3/-2
37/28
O
2/-1
35/30
O
Paris
8/0
46/32 D
6/1
42/33
C
Sanya
25/20
77/68
D
26/20
78/68
O
Brussels
6/1
42/33 D
5/2
41/35
C
Rome
16/10
60/50 D
15/10
59/50
O
Shenyang
-3/-18
26/-1
C
-1/-14
30/6
S
Buenos Aires 27/20
80/68 C
30/23
86/73
S
San Francisco 18/10
64/50 S
13/9
55/48
C
Shantou
11/7
51/44
D
12/8
53/46
D
Cairo
31/19
87/66
S
30/17
86/62
S
Sao Paulo
26/20
78/68 D
27/20
80/68
C
Taiyuan
3/-11
37/12
S
6/-9
42/15
S
Cape Town
24/14
75/57
S
29/17
84/62
S
Seoul
3/-6
37/21 Sn
6/-4
42/24
C
Tianjin
4/-8
39/17
S
6/-6
42/21
S
Geneva
8/2
46/35 R
4/1
39/33
C
Singapore
32/25
89/77 C
32/25
89/77 T
8/4 13/5
>CARRIER, From Page 1
KUNMING Today Fri
13/5 18/5
GUANGZHOU 9/5 10/6
Today Fri
HAIKOU Today Fri
WUHAN
12/10 12/9
Today Fri
MACAO Today Fri
9/-2 11/-1
Sn 5/2
10/6 11/7
HONG KONG Today Fri
XIAMEN
12/9 13/10
Today Fri
TAIPEI Today Fri
12/7 12/8
13/8 13/8
Xigaze
8/-13
46/8
C
10/-15 50/5
S
Helsinki
-5/-13
23/8
-8/-12 17/10
C
Stockholm
-3/-7
26/19 C
-1/-5
30/23
C
Xining
3/-15
37/5
C
7/-15
44/5
S
Karachi
28/10
82/50 S
29/15
84/59
S
Sydney
25/19
77/66 C
26/20
78/68
C
Yantai
2/-5
35/23
O
5/-2
41/28
S
London
6/1
42/33 C
4/0
39/32
D
Teheran
21/11
69/51 Sh
23/11
73/51
D
Yichang
11/0
51/32
S
13/2
55/35
C
Madrid
9/3
48/37 D
9/4
48/39
C
Tokyo
8/1
46/33 Sh
10/3
50/37
C
Yinchuan
-1/-14
30/6
S
1/-11
33/12
S
Mexico City
17/8
62/46 R
21/7
69/44
C
Vancouver
10/-1
50/30 C
10/1
50/33
C
Zhengzhou
8/-4
46/24
S
11/-3
51/26
S
Moscow
-9/-17
15/1
C
-5/-11
23/12
C
Vienna
5/1
41/33 O
5/1
41/33
C
Zhuhai
8/5
46/41
D
9/6
48/42
D
Nairobi
27/16
80/60 C
26/16
78/60
C
Washington
5/-3
41/26 S
4/-3
39/26
C
O
zhong, China’s ambassador to the US, yesterday called on the US to seek dialogue, rather than confrontation, in dealing with relations with China. “To strive to be a partner is better than to be an opponent,” he said at a farewell reception before he leaves office. Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said the US would shrug off opposition to Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama. He insisted the relationship between the US and China is “mature enough” to find common ground on issues of mutual interest despite disagreements on other topics. China Daily, Xinhua and AP
Port call ‘reflects China’s sincerity’
Hangzhou
Today Fri
“However, Hawaii is still a solid part of US sovereignty. How would the US government react if China supported a leader of a Hawaiian sovereignty movement?” he wrote. Ma Zhaoxu, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, last week urged the US to fully understand the sensitivity of issues related to Tibet, honor its commitment to recognizing Tibet as part of China and oppose “Tibet independence”. The US should not offer the Dalai Lama a venue to engage in anti-China, splitting activities, said Ma. In Washington, Zhou Wen-
“Hong Kong is a vibrant city and a favorite port of call for our sailors. We look forward to an enjoyable stay here,” John Miller, commander of the carrier, said in a statement. More than 5,000 sailors from the carrier and its four accompanying ships will be sent ashore for sightseeing and community services projects during the four-day visit, the statement said. The port call was not a recent idea, according to sources familiar with the situation, which means that China approved the plan before the US announced its arms sale to Taiwan in January. Even so, many military analysts were surprised because China could have cancelled the visit at the last minute. Pang Zhongying, an expert on international studies with Beijingbased Renmin University of China, said that the approval of the port call is “a strong signal” sent by China to the US of its sincerity in developing bilateral relations. Xu Guangyu, a retired People’s Liberation Army (PLA) major general, told the South China Morning Post it was unlikely that Beijing would have approved the visit unless two countries had
made compromises. Hong Kong-based military attaches said they would watch the USS Nimitz visit closely to see whether Beijing sent PLA officers to functions on board the ship. Typically US naval brass host parties aboard during port calls in honor of their host nation. “Technically a routine ship visit is not really a military exchange ... but all the rest of the activities surrounding it could be seen that way,” one Asian military attache told SCMP. “It will be a good way of detecting how serious China is really pushing this.” Phone calls made by China Daily to PLA garrison troops in Hong Kong went unanswered yesterday. While US warships have long made periodic port calls to Hong Kong, Beijing has denied entry to US warships into Hong Kong at politically sensitive moments. In 2007, the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk was denied entry to Hong Kong as it neared the city’s waters. China suspended military-tomilitary exchanges in 2007 after President George W. Bush’s administration announced an arms sale to Taiwan.
AFP - China Daily
H
O
CHINA DAILY
L
I
D
NATION
A
Y THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2010
3
Festival joy for resettled couple Immigrant family faced sharp learning curve in starting new life By Nie Ligao
TAI’AN, Shandong: It has not been easy for He Gonghua and Deng Shiju since 2002 when they moved across the country because of the Three Gorges Dam project in their native Chongqing. Yet this year’s Spring Festival has been one of their most special. “It’s the first Spring Festival with my eldest son’s new wife,” said He. “My youngest son, a college senior, has also found an internship as an engineer.” The double celebration, coming at a time of year when family is most important in Chinese culture, is in stark contrast to their arrival in Yangliu, a small town near Tai’an, and the early struggles they experienced in adapting to their new home. The family was one of six to move from southwest China to the country’s prosperous east coast in August 2002. They
were each allocated houses built by the local government and He’s family received 2,700 sq m of farmland. “It took us two days and one night to travel with all of our belongings thousand of miles to the settlement in Shandong,” said He. The immigrants found it hard to integrate. Locals spoke a different dialect, while the families had to plant unfamiliar crops like wheat, corn and peanut due to the different climate. “I cried day and night. I was homesick and worried about the future. We had no skills other than growing crops,” said Deng. Months later, the farmland allocated to He and two other families was expropriated for a school construction project and each received 1,000 yuan ($140) a year as compensation. “We asked the local government for help and got nothing. A new official in the town cared
We will move back and live with our eldest son when we get too old, but right now we need to keep working here in Shandong to make money for our children. DENG SHIJU A farmer relocated for the Three Gorges Dam project
little about us,” said Deng. A spokesperson for the local government was unavailable for comment. As well as land compensation, each immigrant also gets 600 yuan a year for 30 years from the output of the Three Gorges hydropower project, said He. But with a sick father to care for and two sons to put through school, the subsidies were not enough to support his family at the time.
“We couldn’t live on the compensation. The local government promised to find me a job, but it was nothing but lip service. I had to stand on my own two feet,” he said. Since 2003, He has worked as a migrant laborer, a tricycle taxi rider and a butcher. It was also hard to start a business, especially for a couple in their 50s and in an unfamiliar place. “Local people had no confidence in us because of our immigrant identity and dialect. Banks wouldn’t provide loans to us because they feared we would run away with the money and never come back,” he said. Other immigrants have faced the same problem. He’s cousin, He Gongshu, a doctor, wanted to enlarge his clinic, but was unable to raise enough money. “We meet all the conditions, but we can’t get loans like local people,” the doctor said. Most migrants rely on friends and relatives for help, added He Gonghua. The He family now runs a
business selling pork products and its success has helped them to better integrate into the local community. “I have no problem understanding the local dialect now and the pork business brings in more than 10,000 yuan a year,” said He, whose wife added that their neighbors provided lots of help. But He and Deng still miss their hometown in Chongqing. “Sometimes I dream I am still there,” said Deng. Even though they talk with loved ones on the telephone, the couple rarely returns due to the long distance and travel costs. “I couldn’t even return for my father’s funeral,” said Deng as tears streamed down. Both of He’s children are back in their native southwest China. His eldest son has bought an apartment in Chongqing, while his youngest works in neighboring Yunnan province. “We will move back and live with our eldest son when we get too old, but right now we need to keep working here in Shandong to make money for our children,” said Deng.
Chongqing natives He Gonghua and Deng Shiju stand in the courtyard of their home in Tai’an, Shandong province, before Spring Festival on Feb 12. Nie Ligao
Providers warned in porn crackdown By Jin Zhu
New greetings
French President Nicolas Sarkozy joins in greeting the Chinese New Year on Tuesday at the first Spring Festival reception for the Chinese at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Xinhua
Offensive material transmitted via mobile phones will be the main target of a crackdown on Internet porn, it was announced yesterday, as authorities unveiled tougher measures to clean up the telecommunications industry. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in a statement on its official website that it will introduce tougher measures to fight illegal mobile phone and Internet content providers as it has become much easier for them to evade supervision
by the relevant authorities. The country’s three mobile carriers — China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom — have been required to examine the quality of their business partners, according to the document. Internet service providers should regularly check the content of websites, cut off irregular websites and put them on a blacklist, the MIIT document said. As pornographic content usually exists as a result of subcontracting out servers, the MITT has asked operators to provide effective remediation measures to
streamline the problem. Owners of pornographic web sites have been able to evade authorities through technical tactics, such as frequently switching domain names and IP addresses, according to a report on PC World’s online edition Tuesday. Counter-tactics used by authorities include a blacklist to prevent pornographic web sites from reappearing online and the design of content-filtering technology to help network operators block obscene content. All of the measures aim to “protect the healthy growth of the next generation and clean the social environment,”
the MIIT statement said. The Ministry of Culture said in a recent notice that it plans to draft a regulation on the management of mobile entertainment this year, which will also focus on cleaning up mobile porn. The country issued third generation mobile network licenses to its three mobile carriers last year. Due to a lack of efficiency in monitoring the new technology, the illegal pornography industry has increasingly shifted its focus to mobile phones because of the faster download speed on pictures and videos.
H
4
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2010
INBRIEF ING reduces loss ING Groep NV, one of Europe’s largest banking and insurance groups, reduced its losses to 712 million euros ($980 million) for the fourth quarter yesterday, reflecting a mixed operating performance and a big charge related to an earlier bailout. ING’s net loss was less than the 3.71 billion euros the company lost in the same period a year ago at the height of the financial crisis. This quarter’s figures included a one-time payment to the Dutch state of 930 million euros. That was demanded by the EU Commission’s competition authority after it ruled a bailout package given to ING by the Netherlands was too generous. Gold demand picks up Demand for gold has seen a slight recovery in jewelry and industrial markets, an industry trade group said yesterday. Jewelry, the biggest market for gold, had the smallest decline of the year in the fourth quarter, down 8 percent, as stronger demand in India and China offset weaker markets in Western countries, the World Gold Council said. It was an indication some consumers are adjusting to higher prices, the council said. Gold jumped 38 percent in the quarter to an average of $1,099.63 an ounce. UK unemployment rises UK unemployment unexpectedly jumped in January to the highest level since Tony Blair led the ruling Labour Party to power almost 13 years ago as the recession destroyed work at businesses from carmakers to banks. Claims for jobless benefits rose by 23,500 from the previous month to 1.64 million, the highest since April 1997, the Office for National Statistics said yesterday in London. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 27 economists was for a drop of 10,000. Westfield back in black Westfield Group, the world’s largest owner of shopping centers by market value, returned to profit in the second half after earnings from its Australian malls increased and asset prices stabilized. Net income rose to A$250 million ($225.5 million) in the six months ended Dec 31, from a loss of A$3.48 billion a year ago. The Sydney-based company reported a full-year loss of A$458 million, largely due to property writedowns in the first half. AP-Bloomberg News
O
L
I
D
A
Y
BUSINESSINTERNATIONAL
CHINA DAILY
Stocks get shot in arm from upbeat corporate earnings LONDON: World stocks rose yesterday on upbeat corporate earnings reports and as worries about Greece’s debt crisis eased. Kraft Foods Inc and apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch reported earnings that beat expectations on Tuesday, while drugmaker Merck & Co and UK banking giant Barclays also reported soaring profits. France’s BNP Paribas, the eurozone’s largest bank, posted its fourth straight quarterly profit . That helped drive Britain’s
FTSE 100 benchmark index up 0.7 percent to 5,278.14 and Germany’s DAX 0.8 percent higher to 5,637.88. France’s CAC-40 rose 1.2 percent to 3,714.15. Asian indexes also rose, although Chinese markets, except Hong Kong, were closed for the Lunar New Year holiday, while Wall Street was expected to edge up on the open. Dow industrials futures were up 28 points at 10,269.00 and Standard & Poor’s 500 futures were up 5 points at 1,098.20.
Signs of growth in the US, the world’s largest economy, also helped sentiment, driving Wall Street higher overnight after a manufacturing index rose. Eyes will turn to other US data, including housing starts, jobless claims and inflation, as well as minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting. The minutes will be scrutinized for signs that the central bank is getting to ready to undo its stimulus measures and eventually raise interest rates.
Looming over markets, however, remained Greece’s debt crisis and the danger of contagion to other vulnerable countries in the region. Those fears eased somewhat, helping the euro stabilize. After promising support but providing no details of a bailout, the EU gave Greece a month to show results in its austerity plan to cut budget spending. It also wants details by tomorrow on its use of swaps to manage the size of its debt in past years.
Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average jumped 272.58 points, or 2.7 percent, at 10,306.83 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 265.32, or 1.3 percent, to 20,534.01. South Korea’s Kospi gained 26.38, or 1.7 percent, to 1,627.43 while Singapore added 1.3 percent and India 1.3 percent. Australia’s benchmark advanced 2.1 percent. Oil prices extended gains above $77 a barrel amid expectations a growing US
economy will fuel increased crude demand. Benchmark crude for March delivery was up 28 cents at $77.29 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.88 to settle at $77.01 on Tuesday. The dollar rose to 90.57 yen from 90.14 yen and the euro fell to $1.3743 from $1.3764 after rallying on Tuesday. AP
Steering may drive Toyota toward further model recall Concerns mount over Corolla as Toyoda snubs Washington hearing TOKYO: Toyota is looking into possible power steering problems with the hot-selling Corolla subcompact while its president said yesterday he won’t be attending the US Congressional hearing on the automaker’s safety lapses. “I trust that our officials in the US will amply answer the questions,” Toyota Motor Corp President Akio Toyoda told reporters. “We are sending the best people to the hearing, and I hope to back up the efforts from headquarters.” He said Yoshi Inaba, who heads Toyota Motor Corp’s US unit, was more familiar with the US situation and was the best man to deal with the hearing. Toyoda said he was still making plans to go to the US, but dates weren’t set. But in an alarming disclosure of a possible widening of Toyota’s recall crisis, the Toyota executive in charge of quality controls, Shinichi Sasaki, said Toyota was taking seriously the complaints about problems in power-steering in the Corolla, the world’s bestselling car. He said the company is investigating what might be wrong. There have been fewer than 100 complaints, he said. Toyota has recalled 8.5 million vehicles globally during the past four months because of problems with sticking gas pedals, floor mats trapping accelerators and faulty brake programming. The US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is holding a hearing on Feb 24 on Toyota’s gas pedal
problems. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has scheduled one the next day. Inaba, Toyota Motor North America chief executive, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and David Strickland of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are expected to testify at both meetings. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has scheduled a March 2 hearing. Sasaki said drivers may perceive a strange feeling as though they were losing control over the steering, but it was unclear whether the problem was with the shifts in braking systems or a problem with the tires. Speaking at Toyota’s Tokyo office, he said the company was considering a recall, and was ready to come up with any needed fi xes as soon as possible. The number of possibly affected vehicles is unclear, he said. Toyoda reiterated his promise to put customers fi rst in beefing up quality controls at the world’s No 1 automaker. He promised a brake-override system in all future models worldwide that will add a safety measure against acceleration problems that are behind the recent massive recalls. The system is a mechanism that overrides the accelerator if the gas and brake pedals are pressed at the same time. “We are not covering up anything, and we are not running away from anything,” Toyoda said. AP
A customer uses an ATM at a BNP Paribas branch in Paris. The bank has gained 95 percent in Paris trading in the last 12 months, compared with a 57 percent advance in the Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index. Bloomberg News
BNP Paribas profit beats estimates PARIS: BNP Paribas SA, France’s largest bank, recorded its fourth straight quarterly profit, helped by the acquisition of Fortis and after setting aside less money for bad loans. Net income in the fourth quarter reached 1.37 billion euros ($1.89 billion) from a 1.37 billion-euro net loss a year earlier, the Paris-based bank said. That beat the 1.06 billion-euro estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. BNP Paribas, like Germany’s Deutsche Bank AG and New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc, posted a rebound in profit last year after emerging from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Led by Chief Executive Officer Baudouin Prot, the French bank became the largest by deposits in the euro region with the 10.4 billion-euro purchase of Fortis’ banking units in Belgium and Luxembourg last year. “You’re getting a pretty stable earnings basis and you’ve got synergies” from the Fortis
takeover, Simon Maughan, a London-based analyst at MF Global Securities Ltd who has a “buy” rating on the stock, said before the earnings announcement. “There is a safe but predictable story there.” BNP Paribas has gained 95 percent in Paris trading in the last 12 months, compared with a 57 percent advance in the 52company Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index. Provisions
The lender set aside 1.9 billion euros in provisions for doubtful loans in the fourth quarter, a 26 percent decline from a year earlier. That beat analysts’ estimates for 2.3 billion euros. Pretax earnings at BNP Paribas’ corporate- and investment-banking unit amounted to 834 million euros in the quarter. That compares with 1.24 billion euros in the previous three months and a record 2.07 billion-euro pretax loss in
the year-earlier period, triggered by market swings after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. “They’re more or less in line with investment-banking peers,” said Jaap Meijer, a London-based analyst at Evolution Securities Ltd who has a “buy” rating on the shares. Revenue at the investmentbanking unit was 2.21 billion euros in the fourth quarter, a 25 percent decline from the prior three months. Bad-loan provisions at the investment bank were at 282 million euros, 51 percent less than the third quarter and 78 percent less than the year-earlier period. BNP Paribas in 2009 set aside about 28 percent of investmentbanking revenue to compensate employees at the unit, it said. That’s down from about 40 percent in previous years and excludes exceptional taxes in the UK and France. Barclays Plc, where Chief Executive Officer John Varley and Presi-
dent Robert Diamond declined bonuses for a second year, set aside 38 percent of last year’s revenue in remuneration for staff at the investment bank. Pretax profit at BNP Paribas’ investment-solutions unit, which includes asset management, private banking and insurance, rose 41 percent to 297 million euros in the quarter from a year earlier. BNP Paribas earned 5.8 billion euros last year, a 93 percent increase compared with 2008. New York’s JPMorgan & Chase Co doubled earnings in 2009 to $11.7 billion, while profit at Goldman Sachs rose by more than five times to $13.4 billion. Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank had net income of 5 billion euros. The Fortis assets contributed 708 million euros to BNP Paribas’ annual profit. The Fortis contribution to the lender’s fourth-quarter net income was 170 million euros. Bloomberg News
Buffett cuts holdings in major firms OMAHA, Nebraska: Billionaire Warren Buffett’s company reduced its holdings in Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp during the last three months of 2009, according to documents filed yesterday (Beijing time). Berkshire Hathaway Inc disclosed those moves and several other changes to its roughly $58 billion US stock portfolio in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing offers a snapshot of the Omaha-based company’s holdings as of Dec 31. Berkshire added to its stakes in Iron Mountain Inc, Becton Dickinson & Co, Republic Services Inc and Wells Fargo. But the filing also said Berkshire has received permission from the SEC to omit some information to protect its trading strategy, so the document offers an incomplete picture. Berkshire regularly asks the Securities and Exchange Commission for the ability not to immediately disclose its holdings when it is making significant investment changes. Berkshire says the information could hurt its trading strategy because
Warren Buffett
the market likes to follow what Buffett’s company does. Berkshire officials did not respond to a request for comment, but they also don’t typically comment on their stock holdings beyond what the company is legally required to disclose. After buying more than 8 million shares of Johnson & Johnson during the first half of 2009, Berkshire sold off 9.8 million shares in the fourth quarter. So Berkshire held 27.1 million shares of the New Jerseybased drug and medical products maker at the end of the year. Berkshire sold off 8.8 million shares of consumer products giant Proctor & Gamble during the
fourth quarter, leaving Buffett’s company with 87.5 million shares. Berkshire also sharply reduced its holdings in oil producers ConocoPhillips and Exxon. Berkshire held 37.7 million shares of ConocoPhillips on Dec 31 after selling 19.7 million shares. The smaller Exxon stake Berkshire first revealed last fall was cut from 1.3 million shares to 421,800 shares at year end. Berkshire more than doubled its stake in Iron Mountain to 7 million shares of the Bostonbased data- and document-storage company. Berkshire increased its stake in New Jersey-based Becton
Dickinson to 1.5 million shares. Previously, Berkshire held 1.2 million shares of the maker of medical devices. Berkshire’s investment in Phoenix-based waste hauler Republic Services grew to 8.3 million shares at year end from 3.6 million at the end of September. Berkshire said in a separate filing that it held 342.2 million Wells Fargo shares, giving it control of 6.7 percent of the bank. That’s up from the 312.4 million Wells Fargo shares Berkshire held a year ago. The filings do not differentiate between investments Berkshire makes, investments any of nearly 80 subsidiaries make, or investments Buffett himself makes. In addition to its investments, Berkshire owns clothing, furniture, jewelry and corporate jet firms, but its insurance and utility businesses typically account for more than half of the company’s revenue. AP To comment or alert us to a story, e-mail business@chinadaily.com.cn
H CHINA DAILY
O
L
I
D
A
INTERNATIONAL
Y THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2010
Gunmen wound 7 peacekeepers in Darfur UN police get helicopters this week after two-year delay KHARTOUM: Unidentified gunmen opened fi re on Pakistani peacekeepers in Sudan’s Darfur region on Tuesday, injuring seven, two of them seriously, in the latest in a string of attacks on the force, officials said. The attackers ambushed an armed UNAMID police patrol near Nyala, capital of South Darfur, escaping with two police vehicles. “Two of the seven were critically wounded ... This is very serious. We are a peacekeeping mission but we do not have a comprehensive peace to keep,” UNAMID spokesman Noureddine Mezni told Reuters. The injured men came from Pakistan. Mezni said one of the critically injured men was evacuated to Khartoum, while the other was too seriously
Relatives and students carry the body of Darfuri student activist Mohamed Musa in Khartoum on Monday after he was killed in weekend violence. Reuters
injured to move from hospital in Nyala, where the other five were also being treated. The attack followed reports of a resurgence of fighting in Sudan’s violent west that
has forced thousands to flee, according to the UN/African Union UNAMID peacekeeping force. The ambush came just hours after the peacekeepers
took delivery of their fi rst five military helicopters, ending a wait of more than two years for air support in Darfur. Military commanders and activ ists have repeatedly
called on Western powers to provide UNAMID with tactical helicopters since 2008. Senior UN officials said they struggled to fi nd any because so many helicopters had gone to other confl ict zones, including Afghanistan. Sudan’s neighbor Ethiopia became the first country to respond to the call by sending five MI-35 helicopters together with pilots and support staff to Nyala, UNAMID said. “This will make a huge difference ... Only one country has been able to help us. An African country has supported us ... We still need more, at least 18 in total,” Mezni told Reuters. A total of 22 UNAMID soldiers and police have died in ambushes, carjackings and other violent incidents since they took over from a beleaguered African Union force at the beginning of 2008. Law and order has collapsed in Darfur since the confl ict flared in 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Sudan’s government, accusing it of neglecting the region. A rab militias fought
back, unleashing a wave of violence. Bandits have stolen hundreds of vehicles from peacekeepers and aid groups, dismantling them for spare parts inside Darfur or driving them across the border for sale in Chad and further afield, UNAMID’s police chief Michael Fryer told Reuters last week. Rival factions of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army clashed in Darfur’s central Jabel Marra area earlier this month, insurgents and government officials told Reuters, while Sudan’s army attacked at least two rebel positions, UN officials and insurgents said. Sudan’s army denied attacking rebels. UNAMID released a statement calling for restraint after the clashes which had “left many dead and caused thousands to flee” but did not say who was fighting. Estimates of Darfur’s total death count range from 10,000 according to Khartoum to 300,000 according to the United Nations. Reuters
Obama to sign order for fiscal commission today WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will sign an executive order today setting up a bipartisan commission to propose ways to tackle the ballooning US deficit, a senior administration official said yesterday. Obama will name Erskine Bowles, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, and former Republican Senator Alan Simpson to serve as co-chairs of the body, the official said. Obama, a Democrat, has said he would establish the commission to study options on spending and taxes after lawmakers failed to create a congressional panel on the issue. The deficit, which the White House forecasts will hit a record $1.56 trillion in the fiscal year that ends on Sept 30, has become a political hot potato ahead of elections in November that could change the balance of power in Congress. Leading Republicans initially supported the idea of a congressional panel but backed off over fears it could give bipartisan cover to potential efforts to raise taxes. Democrats, with majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, accused the Re-
publicans of playing politics. Obama, fighting an economic crisis and two wars he inherited from his Republican predecessor George W. Bush, said he would order the commission established on his own. As White House chief of staff from 1996-1998, Bowles “brokered the last significant bipartisan budget agreement, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, with the Republican leadership in Congress – helping to generate the first balanced budget in nearly 30 years,” the official said. Simpson was a senator from Wyoming from 1979-1997. “During his career in the Senate, Simpson was often a strong voice for fiscal balance — for example, voting in favor (of) the bipartisan 1990 deficit-reduction agreement,” the official said. Stimulus success touted
Yesterday, the White Hous said Obama’s $787 billion stimulus prevented another Great Depression while creating or preserving 2 million jobs. The White House report — signed by Vice President Joe Biden, who oversees how stimu-
from Canada in 2005. He was convicted in February 2007 of 14 counts of inciting hatred for years of anti-Semitic activities, including contributing to a website devoted to denying the Holocaust — a crime in Germany. Prosecutors were able to bring charges in Germany because the website was accessible in the country. Zundel, who has also lived in Tennessee, and his supporters had argued he was exercising
UKRAINE Court to hear vote challenge A Ukrainian court says it has suspended the results of this month’s presidential election, pending review of an appeal filed by the declared loser. The results showed Viktor Yanukovych winning on Feb 7 by 3.5 percentage points. The court is to rule on the appeal from Yanukovych’s rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, by next Thursday, which parliament has set as inauguration day for the new president. Tymoshenko has refused to concede and is now pressing to prove her claims of election fraud in court.
UNITED KINGDOM Man held in ‘mercy’ death British police say they have arrested a TV reporter on suspicion of murder after he claimed to have smothered his dying lover in an act of mercy. Ray Gosling said this week in a BBC TV program that he killed the man, who had AIDS, to end his suffering. The 70-year-old journalist did not say where or when the incident took place. He said he believed he had made the right decision and had no regrets.
Seer’s killer convicted A California jury found a North Carolina woman guilty on Tuesday of murdering a Vietnamese fortuneteller and her college-age daughter after the mind reader told her to get over a lost lover. The Superior Court jury deliberated for about a day before convicting Tanya Nelson, 45, of masterminding the murders of fortuneteller Ha “Jade” Smith, 52, and Anita Vo, 23, five years ago. Nelson, who also uses the name Phuong Thao Nguyen and used to live in Orange County, was also convicted of robbery for stealing Smith’s expensive jewelry and assuming her identity after the killings to buy $3,000 in clothing and plane tickets for a family vacation.
lus money is spent — stressed the depth of the crisis confronting Obama when he took office 13 months ago. But it also highlighted Obama’s challenge of trying to cut a 9.7 percent jobless rate that has fueled voter discontent. The report said the package of stimulus spending and tax cuts “clearly halted an economic freefall.” Obama spoke yesterday about the economy to mark the anniversary of his signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Opposition Republicans, as they have been doing for months, hammered the White House for what they called a “poorly conceived and badly executed” stimulus plan. “Self-congratulatory ‘stimulus’ spin from this administration is hopelessly out of touch with reality and has about as much as credibility as prior claims that unemployment wouldn’t exceed 8 percent or that jobs would be created ‘immediately’,” John Boehner, Republican leader in the House of Representatives, said in a statement.
PAKISTAN Army: Taliban leader held Pakistan yesterday confirmed for the first time that it has the Afghan Taliban’s No 2 leader in custody, and officials said he was providing useful intelligence that was being shared with the United States. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was arrested earlier this month in a joint operation by CIA and Pakistani security forces in the southern port city of Karachi, an army spokesman confirmed yesterday.
Reuters
HAITI
In the Philippines, new hope for endangered birds
his right to free speech. Zundel is a German citizen so can go wherever he wants in the country following his release, Grossmann said, adding that he has relatives in the Stuttgart area. Grossmann said it was his understanding, however, that Zundel is banned by the United States and Canada from returning to those countries. AP
Sarkozy arrives for visit French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in earthquake-hit Haiti yesterday to support international relief efforts there in the first visit by a French head of state to the former French Caribbean colony. Besides visiting a French field hospital in the wrecked capital Port-au-Prince, Sarkozy will be looking to turn the page with his visit on a long history of troubled French relations with Haiti, which won independence in 1804 after a bloody revolt by black slaves against their white masters.
Newly-hatched Hyacinth Macaws, an endangered species, rest inside their incubator at the Birds International Avicultural Park, Breeding and Research Center in Quezon City, Metro Manila, yesterday. Around 2,000 to 3,000 parrots of various species are bred every year inside the facility, which aims to protect them from illegal poaching and forest destruction. Right: A Hyacinth Macaw perches on the head of a caretaker at the park. Reuters
CAMBODIA
Asia’s poor may rise by 21 million on crisis squeeze
Government officials hand out money donated by worshippers for the poor during the celebration of the Lunar New Year in Jakarta this week. AP
ACROSSTHE WORLD
UNITED STATES
Convicted Holocaust denier to be released soon in Germany BERLIN: Far-right activist Ernst Zundel will soon be released from prison after serving his five-year sentence for denying the Holocaust, a German prosecutor said yesterday. Mannheim prosecutor Andreas Grossmann said Zundel, 70, will be released on March 1 after receiving credit for time served ahead of his 2007 trial. Zundel, author of The Hitler We Loved and Why, was deported
5
MANILA: The global economic downturn could push 21 million people in the AsiaPacific region into extreme povert y, a UN-led study showed yesterday, urging governments to add social protection measures in their stimulus programs. “There’s been too much focus on just economic growth, and not enough on how that growth is being distributed and what are the other parts of society that need to be developed like health insurance, pension, social pro tection systems,” said Ajay Chhibber, the regional director for the United Nations
Development Program. The study by the UNDP and the Asian Development Bank is aimed at assessing progress in achieving targets set under the 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) prog ram such as pover t y eradication and greater access to education. The global economic and fi nancial crisis could trap an additional 17 million people on incomes of less than $1.25 a day in 2009 and another 4 million in 2010, according to the report. “Most stimulus measures have focused on areas other than social expenditures,”
said Ursula Schaefer-Preuss, vice president at ADB. “If we are to address the human impacts of the economic slowdown and achieve the MDGs, then social spending needs to be stepped up substantially.” Only 20 percent of the unemployed and underemployed in Asia have access to unemployment benefits and only 30 percent of the elderly receive pensions, according to the report. Asia, even with governments facing widening budget deficits, can afford to spend on achieving the development goals with the region’s total
foreign reserves at an estimated $4 trillion, said Noeleen Heyzer, UN undersecretary general. “We have the resources in Asia to be able to put in place such systems for our people and they shouldn’t have to rely on friends and family whenever somebody falls sick or there’s a natural disaster,” said Chhibber. Other goals under MDG include fighting HIV/AIDS and other diseases, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and promoting gender equality.
Tokyo aids mine-clearing Japan yesterday provided a package of mine-clearing equipment to the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority to support its work. The equipment is worth $5.5 million and includes 588 mine detectors, 44 deep-search detectors, spare parts for mine clearance machines and a mobile repair and maintenance workshop. In the past 17 years, Cambodia has cleared 520 square kilometers of land, found and destroyed 2.7 million mines and unexploded ordnance, the government says, but estimates suggested there remains 670 square kilometers of land that needs to be cleared.
Reuters
AP-Reuters-Xinhua
6
H THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2010
O
L
I
D
A
INTERNATIONAL
Y CHINA DAILY
Tut’s ills won’t kill fascination: Historians Egypt’s boy king ‘one sick kid’ — but now very human CAIRO/CHICAGO: It turns out Egypt’s beloved boy-king wasn’t so golden after all. But will research showing King Tutankhamun was actually a hobbled, weak teen with a cleft palate and club foot kill enthusiasm for a mummy that has fascinated the world for nearly a century? Not likely, historians say, even though the revelations hardly fit the popular culture depiction of a robust, exotically handsome young pharaoh. “This is one sick kid,” Egyptologist Emily Teeter, assistant curator at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, said after learning of the research. It shows that, based on DNA tests and CT scans, Tut had a genetic bone disease and malaria, which combined with a severe broken leg could have been what killed him about 3,300 years ago at age 19. The results appear in yesterday’s Journal of the American Medical Association. They cast doubt on popular theories about what how he died, even though falling off a chariot or being murdered by a sneaky palace foe fit the royal image better than a raging infection. The findings stem from the most rigorous research yet on a mummy that has fascinated the world ever since his largely intact, treasure-filled tomb was found nearly 90 years ago. But historians say the new evidence will likely only intensify public interest in King Tut
because it brings the boy ruler down to Earth. “It makes him all the more human and all the more fascinating,” said Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan. Tut has long been big business. The 1970s Tut exhibit drew millions of visitors to US museums, and a popular revival including artifacts from his tomb and others’ has been traveling around the United States for the past several years and is currently at San Francisco’s DeYoung Museum. Egypt’s economy depends a great deal on tourism, which brings in around $10 billion a year in revenues. The King Tut exhibit at Cairo’s Egyptian Museum is one of the crown jewels of the country’s ancient past and features a stunning array of treasures including Tut’s most iconic relic — the golden funeral mask. Another tourist destination is Tut’s tomb tucked into the desert hills of Luxor’s Valley of the Kings. In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered it and the trove of fabulous gold and precious stones inside, propelling the once-forgotten pharaoh into global stardom. Hundreds of tourists come daily to the tomb to see Tut’s mummy, which has been on display there since 2007. Though historically Tut was a minor king, the grander image “is embedded in our psyche” and the new revelations won’t change that, said James Phillips, a curator at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. “Reality is reality, but it’s not going to change his place in the folk heroism of popular culture,’’ Phillips said. “The way he was found, what was found in his grave — even
though he was a minor king, it has excited the imagination of people since 1922.” The new research led by Egypt’s top archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, bolsters previous theories that Tut’s father was likely the Pharaoh Akhenaten, and that Tut’s mother was Akhenaten’s sister. That incestuous lineage would explain some of his ailments, including the bone disease that runs in families and is more likely to be passed down if two first-degree relatives marry and have children. But it also only bolsters the intrigue.
In ancient Egypt, it wasn’t really considered incest. Pharaohs were thought of as deities, so it makes sense that the only prospective mates who’d pass muster would be other deities, Markel said. While the research might dent the myth, it won’t change the most tangible part of Tut’s image — all the intact relics that were found in his tomb. “He’s far more famous for what he owned and what he wore than what he actually did,” Markel said.
Above: Women look at one of the coffins of King Tutankhamun in Cairo this week. Below: A CT scan shows part of the mummy’s skull, which helped medical researchers study his health. AP
AP
Yoko revives Plastic Ono Band with Clapton as guest
Ninja Warrior Zhu Zhu Pets are catching attention at the American International Toy Fair this week in New York. Cepia LLC has developed two new "Kung Zhu" lines for boys: Ninja Warriors and military themed Special Forces. AP
Zhu Zhu Pets look to refresh last year’s hit toy NEW YORK: Can arming toy hamsters keep the Zhu Zhu Pets phenomenon alive? The toy hamsters, which flew off shelves last Christmas and won the “toy of the year” award at the toy fair in New York, will get a facelift this summer and come back as “Kung Zhu” battle hamsters to woo young boys. Zhu Zhu Pets, made by upstart Cepia, featured on many a must-have list last holiday season and sold for up to $100 on sites like Amazon.com and eBay.com due to overwhelming demand at their $8 list price.
On Tuesday, St. Louis, Missouri-based Cepia unveiled the Ninja Warriors and militarythemed Special Forces lines — cuddly hamsters that change sounds and attain a new life when they enter the “Tablet of Zhu” or a special training ground. The armored hamsters, sporting names like “Stonewall” and “Drayko,” are priced at $9.99. Children can also buy accessories like a combat bridge, a missile attack tower, a wheel of fire and armored tanks. Cepia is also adding a “rock
star” line featuring long-haired hamsters and a line of bunnies, raccoons, skunks and hedgehogs called the “Zhu Zhu Wild Bunch.” So will the robotic hamster still find takers? While pent-up demand and the affordable price tag might help sales, many wonder if they will stay popular for long. “When it is hard to get, it is that treasure hunt. It fuels a frenzy,” Reyne Rice, trend specialist for the Toy Industry Association, said in an interview on Tuesday.
“A lot of people still couldn’t get them. They want them more. They want to add to their collection,” Rice said. She expects strong demand at least till spring, but said the craze might wane if it is available in abundance. The “Kung Zhu” battle hamsters will be on store shelves of Toys “R” Us, Wal-Mart, Target and other retailers in June. The new hamsters are priced at $9.99, with accessories up to $24.99. Reuters
NEW YORK: Yoko Ono re- guest artists including Scissor vived the Plastic Ono Sisters, Justin Bond, Band for a concert on and Kim Gordon and Tuesday night that Thurston Moore of was part tribute, part Sonic Youth, all playvanity project and all ing Ono songs. irresistible fun. Midler sang Yes, The show belonged I’m Your Angel, a as much to her son light-hearted number Sean Lennon, 34, as Ono said she wrote for Lennon when he to Ono, 76. Looking Sean Lennon was growing anxand sounding like his famous father, Sean Lennon ious about turning 40. Lennon pulled together an all-star was shot dead by a deranged lineup that included Eric fan outside his New York City Clapton, Paul Simon and Bette apartment two months after turning 40 in 1980. Midler as special guests. Other artists dipped Plastic Ono Band was the name of the conceptual su- into Lennon’s repertoire. Gene pergroup that recorded John Ween’s version of Lennon’s Lennon’s Give Peace a Chance in love song Oh Yoko was touch1969 and one Ono had not used ing, with Sean Lennon playing along. artistically since the 1970s. Simon and his son Harper The succession of stars led to the inevitable sing-along Simon — a childhood friend of of that anthem for the encore Sean Lennon’s — played a guiat the Brooklyn Academy of tar duet, providing an acoustic warm-up to Clapton’s blazing Music. Clapton played with fellow lead guitar on Yer Blues from rockers Klaus Voormann and the Beatles’ White Album, on Jim Keltner — all members of which Clapton played as a session guitarist. the original Plastic Ono Band. Clapton, Voormann and Ono held the stage for the first act, building up from an Keltner energized the hall a cappella opening number without speaking a word, to a standard rock lineup to a setting up the emotional seven-piece backing band that farewell sing-along of Give found its stride with funk-in- Peace a Chance, which many audience members were still spired rhythms. The second act, though dis- humming as they made their jointed at times and largely way to the exit. unrehearsed, gave the adorReuters ing audience what it wanted:
Pew report highlights emerging generation gap in US DALLAS: Thought America’s “generation gap” had narrowed? Think again. According to a new report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, the gap on some issues has widened into a chasm, notably on issues related to gay rights and tolerance. “Young people are more accepting of homosexuality and evolution than older people. They are also more comfortable with having a bigger government, and they are less concerned about Hollywood threatening their values,” said the report, which was released yesterday. The report also found “Millennials” (aged 18-29) were far more likely than their elders from “Generation X” and the “Baby Boom” to be unaffiliated with a specific faith. Generation X was born between 1965 and 1980, Baby Boomers from 1946 to 1964. It draws on recent Pew surveys to paint a portrait of emerging generation gaps among Millennials and other demographics. It uses older surveys by Gallup and others to compare the views of age groups at different times in recent history. For example, the report said that Pew’s massive 2007 US Religious Landscape Survey found young adults to be almost twice as likely to say homosexuality should be accepted by society as those 65 and older, 63 percent versus 35 percent. Overall in the 30-plus age group only 47 percent said homosexuality should be accepted. The report also said surveys showed that less than a third of Millennial adults saw Hollywood as a threat to their moral values compared to 44 percent of those 30 and over. Divergent demographic views are also found on the issue of evolution, which almost all biologists accept as an explanation for the diversity of life. But there is widespread skepticism in America about this especially among evangelical Christians, many of whom believe God created all living things in their current form. The report said 55 percent of Millennials — a figure that many scientists would still find alarmingly low — believe that evolution is the best explanation for human life compared to 47 percent in older age groups. It said this pattern was seen across a range of faith traditions. It found one-in-four American Millennials unaffiliated with any specific faith, compared to 20 percent of Generation Xers at a comparable point in their lives (the late 1990s). Only 13 percent of Baby Boomers were religiously “unaffiliated” in the late 1970s when they were roughly the age Millennials are now. But in other ways American Millennials are not so different in their religious beliefs. “The number of young adults who say they pray every day rivals the portion of young people who said the same in prior decades,” the report said. “This suggests that some of the religious differences ... result in part from people’s tendency to place greater emphasis on religion as they age.” Reuters
Astronauts celebrate new ‘window on the world’ CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: In a highly anticipated grand finale to their mission, astronauts opened the shutters on the International Space Station’s new observation deck Wednesday and were humbled by “absolutely spectacular” views of Earth from inside the elaborate atrium of windows. The $27 million lookout opened each of its seven eyes one window at a time as the crews of the station and shuttle Endeavour carried out their third and final spacewalk. It was the moment everyone had been waiting for: The round central window — the largest ever flown in space — was the first exposed as astronauts inside cranked open the shutter as they sailed 350 kilometers above the South Pacific.
“As expected, the view through window seven is absolutely spectacular,” space station commander Jeffrey Williams said. “When we have the others around it open, it will give us a view of the entire globe. Absolutely incredible.” Mission Control set the night’s mood by beaming up a recording of Jimmy Buffett’s Window on the World. It was a satisfying conclusion to this construction mission for the 11 astronauts. Though Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken completed a multitude of other chores during Tuesday night’s spacewalk, including opening valves on an ammonia coolant line they previously installed on Tranquility, a new room that the astronauts connected to the space station last Friday.
Mission Control wanted the shutters opened while the spacewalkers were still floating outside so the two men could intercede if something jammed. Behnken and Patrick stayed a safe 10 feet or more from the windows while the shutters were raised. The last thing NASA wanted was to have one of them inadvertently kick a window or bang it with a tool bag. The observation deck is part of Tranquility, a more than $380 million addition. Space shuttle Endeavour delivered the European compartments last week. The Italian-built dome — 1.5 meters tall and nearly 3 meters in diameter — is designed to offer sweeping 360-degree views of the home planet and
outer space, as well as the space station itself. It’s not just for the crew’s viewing pleasure; a robotic work station will be installed early today, providing direct views for astronauts when they operate the station’s big mechanical arm. Six trapezoid-shaped windows encircle the dome. In the middle is the circular window. During normal operations, the space station crew will be able to keep the round window unshuttered most of the time, along with a couple others. But the windows facing along the direction the outpost is orbiting will need to be closed, except during robotic operations, to protect the fused silica glass against micrometeorite strikes. Each window has four panes. The shutters swung open
when the spacewalkers were back inside. The nearly sixhour excursion ended a little early because of the risk of elevated carbon dioxide levels in Behnken’s suit; he was fine, but flight controllers did not want to take any chances. Endeavour and its crew of six will depart the space station on Friday and return to Earth on Sunday. The next shuttle visit has been delayed. Discovery had been scheduled to blast off in mid-March with spare parts and science experiments, but the unusually cold weather stalled preparations. The launch is now targeted for April 5. Only four more shuttle flights remain. AP
H
O
CHINA DAILY
L
I
D
LIFEIMAGE
A
Y THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2010
7
Photos by Ma Bo
The Tiange Peking Opera Troupe actor Wang Hongbo.
Life’s an opera stage By Ma Bo
I set out on a journey in Wenzhou, a city in Zhejiang province, last April after a friend told me stories about the folk opera troupes there. It took me sometime before I found Tiange Peking Opera Troupe. I spent several days with them, capturing their lives in video. The troupe had some 40 people who came from across the country. The youngest actor was 12, and the oldest about 60. They led a wandering life, performing wherever they could earn money. They all took quilts along with them when they traveled, because they often had to sleep outdoors. On the fi rst night I too was told to pick up a quilt but it was too short to cover me and there was no pillow. The next day I used two bricks as a pillow. In the troupe were several couples. The troupe’s owner Yang Chunlan, about 50, lived together with her former husband and his current wife. I first met Yang behind the stage curtain. She was holding a girl in her arms. I thought the girl was her granddaughter, but later discovered it was the daughter of her ex-husband and his new wife. Yang was a popular actress when she was young, but when she failed to produce any child even after several years of marriage, her husband married another woman. Fourteen years later, however, the two met again. He
persuaded her to move in with him and his new wife. Another interesting character was a 27-year-old actress Digu, who ran away from home to follow a troupe at 13. She performed with several troupes, until she met and fell in love with a 60-year-old. Her lover played old male characters in the troupe. He was a good-looking man who had worked in various folk troupes for 30 years. Whenever he called his young wife, in a loving tone, it felt like a scene from an opera. There are about 400 such folk troupes in southeastern Zhejiang province. China has more than 300 local operas, many of which are still appreciated thanks to these folk troupes.
Wang Hongbo putting on his make-up.
Stage boots are aired outside of the arena.
An actor has a quick meal during a short break.
A troupe member’s daughter spending a few moments with Mom during a break.
Three actresses of the troupe await their turn on stage.
Yang Chunlan (left) discusses the performance with several of her actors.
H
8
2
3
4
5
6
14
Across 1 New wing 6 Home of the Bonneville Salt Flats 10 Where “La Dolce Vita” was filmed 14 A-number-one 15 McGwire’s friendly homerun rival 16 “Paradise Lost” character 17 User of barley malt 19 Stick in the mud 20 Sharing properties 21 Envelope marking 23 Straight from hell 25 Neighbor of a Thai 26 Rush week participant 30 Emphatic boast of responsibility 35 Fireside chat
medium 37 Turf group 38 Slo-___ fuse 39 Start of a count … or the letter frequencies in 17-, 30-, 46and 64-Across 43 Nascar sponsor 44 Satyr’s feeling 45 “Amazing” debunker of the paranormal 46 One way to be armed 50 Clairol products 51 Marvel Comics villain with an eyeball-like helmet 52 Largest bird in the Americas 54 Count, as points 58 Go nuts 63 ___ Jannings, Best Actor of 1928 64 “And away go troubles …” company
Yesterday’s solution
A M E B A
L O G A N
C A K E D
I N O R D E L U R A F T W O O
E M S A D V A N C E P L A C N O P T T H E S B O A E N M O E Y L A U S E D I I R T I L O V E L L Y Q I D R U E R R I D Y S P
G E E
S A T S U O P R Z E N O N N D E E V H E H E R A S N S C D E S Y A
A G O R A
W O M E N S E L R I I B N R S U A R H A L L
I N N Y E S O P I N E
S H A G S
D E E R E
A R D E N
7
8
10
21
28
29
35
43
L
33
42
49
N
G
U
A
G
E
•
T
I
P
S
56
ᠧᎹྍ G~ J|QJ PkL
Young woman, usually from the countryside, working in the city
50
52
53
57
58
59
60
61
62
՟˖䖭ᰃϔ䚼ডᠧᎹྍ⏅ഇᎹ⫳⌏ⱘᕅ⠛DŽ This is a film reflecting the life of young working women in Shenzhen.
63
64
66
67
68
69
70
71
65
ᠧ咥 G~ KwL
Cracking down on the activities of underworld gangs
Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate
Down 1 Police dept. notices 2 Crowd in Cologne? 3 Carpe ___ 4 Katz of “Dallas” 5 Title holder 6 Net handle 7 Glider’s need 8 Between ports 9 Unbending 10 Musketeer’s need 11 Cartoon canine 12 Phoenix landing site, 2008
A
45 48
51
66 “___ speak” 67 Thick serving 68 They’re par for the course 69 Apply spin to 70 A-number-one 71 Miller’s need
CHINA DAILY
՟˖ҎӀᇍᰮⱘ⛁ᚙᏆϡڣҢࠡ䙷М催ˈ↩コབҞৃ䗝ᢽⱘစФ⌏ ࡼ㡖ⳂњDŽ People’s enthusiasm for the Spring Festival Gala is no longer as high as before. Today, there are many more entertainment activities and programs, after all.
34
38
41
Y
Better Chinese
32
37
47
55
13
25
44
46
A
ᰮ FK}Q Z~Q
CCTV Spring Festival Gala
31
36 40
12
22
24 30
39
11
19
23
54
9
18
27
D
16
20
26
I
LIFEFUN
15
17
I N A W E
L
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2010
1
S I T O N
O
13 Iowa home of the Cyclones 18 Raga player Shankar 22 What a skull and crossbones signifies 24 Zippo, e.g. 26 “Punkin” cover 27 Wound up costing 28 Masterful 29 Small songbird 31 Patriotic org. since 1890 32 Key shade 33 Throw off 34 Biographer ___ Kearns Goodwin 36 Hogwarts roost 40 Cause for a reprimand from a teacher
՟˖ᏖᬓᑰᡞĀᠧ咥āЎ䖥ᳳⱘЏ㽕ᎹDŽ The city government considers cracking down on the criminal activities of underworld gangs as a major task recently.
41 China’s Lao___ 42 Streaking, once 47 Like a jack-o’lantern 48 Hurts like heck 49 Pick up, in a way 53 “You’re ___ friends” 54 Hardy heroine 55 Wildly 56 “Less filling” brand 57 Pullover shirt 59 Robin Hood’s beneficiaries, with “the” 60 Abruzzi bell town 61 Treasure chest treasure 62 At one time, at one time 65 Draw upon
Peanuts
China Daily with contributions from Popular Chinese Expressions, Sinolingua Press
Better English ⫳⇨ᯊᐌ⫼㸼䖒 I can’t take you any more! ៥ݡгফϡњԴʽ I hate you! ៥䅼ॠԴʽ You are out of your mind. Դ㛥ᄤ᳝↯⮙ʽ Drop dead. এ⅏৻ʽ You’re away too far. Դ䖛ߚњDŽ Don’t give me your shit. ߿䎳៥㚵ᡃDŽ I could kill you! ៥ᆄњԴʽ You’re nothing to me. Դᇍ៥ҔМ䛑ϡᰃDŽ Get off my back. ᇥ䎳៥㔫DŽ Give me a break. 佊њ៥৻DŽ I’m about to explode! ៥㚎䛑ᖿ㽕⇨⚌њʽ I wish I had never met you. ៥ⳳৢᙨ䖭䕜ᄤ䘛ࠄԴʽ I’ll never forgive you! ៥∌䖰䛑ϡӮ佊ᘩԴʽ You’re just a good for nothing bum! Դϔ᮴ᰃ໘ʽ
To learn more expressions, please log on to http://language. chinadaily.com.cn
Fminus
Dilbert
HOROSCOPE By Bernice Bede Osol
Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 19) Be on your toes for developments that could add to your resources. If you can analyze conditions perceptively and accurately, your gains could be substantial. Aquarius (Jan 20-Feb 19) It’s natural to use your magnetism and charisma in ways that will prove the most effective for you. In doing so, you will attract the right people for all the right reasons. Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20) If you need a favor, go to friends who are both kind and compassionate. They will bend over backward to accommodate your wishes. Aries (Mar 21-Apr 19) One of your greatest assets is a natural ability to deal with large groups, whether they are of a social or business nature. Something good could come from this talent. Taurus (Apr 20-May 20) Don’t limit yourself to achieving merely one goal because you’re quite capable of handling several large projects — and you will do them all well. Pile it on while you can handle a load. Gemini (May 21-Jun 20) Because of your natural finesse in handling touchy situations, even your criticisms are likely to sound like compliments. This will work in your favor when dealing with a touchy individual.
Drabble
Cancer (Jun 21-Jul 22) Advantageous changes are in the works because they are likely to put you in a position of achieving an elusive personal objective. Leo (Jul 23-Aug 22)
BRIDGE
are breaking 3-2 or an opponent has the singleton jack, there will be no problem. But what if an opponent has jack-fourth of clubs? Then the suit can be played for no losers as long as you work out which opponent has the length. Always leave the key suit as late as possible. First cash your nine winners in the other three suits. Since you are keeping your eyes and abacus open, you learn that West began with two spades, two hearts and five diamonds. That leaves room for exactly four clubs. (Or count East and see that he has five spades, five hearts and two diamonds, so only one club.) The way home is clear: Cash dummy’s club ace, play a club to your king, and finesse through West on the third round. If your thoughts were in shape, your partner’s mind will be full of joy.
The Buddha Siddhartha Gautama claimed, “We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” We have looked at counting losers, winners and points. The hardest counting deals to get right are those in which you must work out the shapes of the unseen hands. This requires tracking three suits and using that information to work out the fourth suit — as in this deal. You are in seven no-trump. After West leads the diamond 10, what would you do? North bid a contract he expected you to claim at trick one. However, the mirror distribution leaves some work to be done. You should see 12 top tricks: three spades, three hearts, three diamonds and three clubs. Of course, if the clubs
KAKURO 14
38
13 13
4
20
7 30
5
27
11
14 16
27 8 7
10 6
29
12 14
16 15
13
22 6 27 11
Yesterday’s solution
28 13 13
10
Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate
Virgo (Aug 23-Sept 22) A kind word or deed can cure what ails a fellow worker and put him or her in a good frame of mind. This person could put a new spin on a task that will make your work easier in the process.
A Kakuro consists of a playing area of filled and empty cells similar to a crossword puzzle. Some black cells contain a diagonal slash from top left to bottom right with numbers in them, called “the clues”. A number in the top right corner relates to an “across” clue and one in the bottom left a “down” clue. The object of a Kakuro is to insert digits from 1-9 into the white cells to total the clue associated with it. However no digit can be duplicated in an entry.
15 22
15
Don’t waste time with intermediaries who can’t do a thing for you. Instead, go right to the person in charge because he or she has the power to resolve an important matter.
By Phillip Alder
13
6 8 4 3 4 1 5 1 3 2 4 9 7 8 6 3 4 2 6 1 7 5 1 3 6 2 5 3 9 1 4 1 7 8 3 2 3 1 9
9 8 6 4 7
8 9 4 9 6 7 8 5 8 1 6 2 4 1 9 8 3 8 7 4 2 1
Libra (Sept 23-Oct 23) Spending time with a friend who takes life too seriously won’t pose any problems for you. On the contrary, you’re likely to make this person aware of all the good things to be grateful for. Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22) Find time and ways to express your creative or inventive ideas. Your imagination isn’t running amuck; it wants to work in ways that can make your life easier. Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21) You’ve heard that actions speak louder than words. That’s exactly what you can expect, so be a doer who gets everyone to say nice things about you.
H CHINA DAILY
O
L
I
D
LIFEPULSE
A
Y THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2010
9
Liaoning Ballet en avant The company is celebrating its 30th birthday and continues to open up Chinese ballet to the rest of the world. Chitralekha Basu reports
Top: Liaoning Ballet is reviving Swan Lake this year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its founding.
W
hen Liaoning Ballet was formed in 1980, with around 20-odd dancers culled mostly from Shenyang Conservatory of Music, there were just three pairs of dancing shoes among them. The company has made strides since then. Now, on the threshold of its 30th anniversary, Liaoning Ballet is more of a platform for global cultural exchanges. The company has traveled across half the world with its repertoire. Its 65 professional actors, chosen with a fine-toothed comb from among hundreds of hopefuls, do more than 60 shows a year. The star dancers, Lu Meng and Jiao Yang, have brought back trophies from prestigious international contests in Varna, Bulgaria, and Nagoya, Japan. Acclaimed ballet exponents from the United States, Germany and France have touched base to direct productions for the company. The ballet school run by the company since 1994 is China’s largest. Of the 540 students on its rolls, there are, almost always, around 15 from Japan or South Korea. What makes Liaoning Ballet, stashed away in an ordinary eightstory building, located off the historic site, Zhao Mound (Beiling Park), such a point of cultural convergence? “The teachers here are excellent. They are so easy-going, and so are the dancers,” says Misaki Rita, a Japanese dance teacher associated with Toyama Prefectural Artistic and Cultural Association, who has been bringing a class of her students here every year since 2006. “I would like to have my students trained here again and again, for here’s where they receive the kind of professional training that would be hard to find in Japan.” French classical ballet exponent, James Amar, who has been creative
director with the company for the last seven years, praises Liaoning Ballet’s openness and adaptability. “They don’t just make collaborations. They are eager to take features from other cultures and retain them,” he says. “I am very happy in artistic and personal terms,” says Brigida Pereira Neves, the only European ballerina, who has been dancing with the company for the last year and a half. She is glad about the company’s willingness to internationalize, to seek out world-class professionals, like James Amar, whose creative input in productions like Giselle have made Chinese audiences wake up to the ballet’s Gothic charm. The mood is upbeat in the dance studio. Dance instructor and vicehead of the company, Qu Zijiao, is showing one of the ballerinas how to stretch her torso and maneuver her fingertips, emulating the delicate twitch of a swan’s wings as it swims across the water. Star dancer Jiao Yang, as Prince Siegfried, supports the ballerina, playing Odette, on his right palm. She puts up her left leg, toe pointing skywards, now in a straight vertical line with her right, before they freeze the composition. They are rehearsing Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, which the company debuted in 1980. A new production is being readied for a couple of performances in Japan and will feature in the long list of ballets to be performed as part of its 30th birthday celebration, which kicked off in May last year. Adaptations of Cervantes’ Don Quixote and the Disney animation Mulan are also on the bill. A collage of scenes from almost all the productions staged in the last 30 years will be the high point of the show. A conference to discuss the future of ballet in China will be held. “This is our chance to promote ballet in Liaoning,” says director
Dancers perform a scene from Liaoning Ballet’s award-winning production Moon Reflecting in the Erquan Pond. File photos
Wang Xunyi, who has been with the company for 30 years. An exponent of Chinese-style ballet, he has directed several shows, including classic numbers — Nutcracker Suite, Sleeping Beauty, La Corsaire, Raymonda, Neapolitan — taking them around the world. “There is a Chinese adage which
says one becomes independent only after reaching 30. So will Liaoning ballet,” he smiles. “The history of Chinese ballet is only 50 years old, but we are catching up very fast.” Liaoning Ballet, he says, made a departure from classical ballet by staging Moon Reflecting in the Erquan Pond, based on a traditional Chinese
erhu (two-stringed fiddle) music piece. The production swept almost all the major national awards in dance and drama in 2005-6, including the Gold at the Sixth Chinese Drama Festival. In 2002, The Last Emperor, on the life of the final Chinese emperor Pu Yi, staged in collaboration with the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany, won the Lotus prize at the Fourth National Dance Competition. Lu Meng earned the best dancer’s trophy. Other stars in the company include Zheng Yu, who won the gold at Liaoning Peach and Plum Cup Dance Competition in 2003, while Liu Shuang got the top spot at Liaoning Teenage Dance Competition in 1991. Zhao Yuan won gold at the Seoul International Ballet Competition in 2006. The company’s biggest achievement, Wang says, is in developing its training school, now the biggest of its kind in China. About 95 percent of the dancers who eventually sign up with the company are spotted early on by the directors, to be nurtured and guided in the right direction. “The school has given us some of the country’s finest performers, like Lu Meng and Jiao Yang. Their presence gives Liaoning Ballet a solid foundation which now has a large repertoire of classical European and Russian, Chinese and modern ballets. “Liaoning Ballet has really opened up the ballet scene in China,” he adds. “It’s very important to seek out quality professionals from outside China and invite them to work for us, both as creative directors and instructors. Like they do with the Chinese football team, we too get foreign coaches to train our performers and we are showing the results.” Liaoning Ballet is evolving on the fast track.
She is still a swan, 30 years on By Chitralekha Basu
Qu Zijiao has danced with Liaoning Ballet for 30 years.
Chitralekha Basu
Qu Zijiao played the female lead Odette in the maiden production of Liaoning Ballet in 1980. A fresh graduate of the Shenyang Conservatory of Music, initially she didn’t quite know what to make of the gamut of emotions of a princess by night and swan by day. She had to give expression to the agony of living under the spell of the evil sorcerer Rothbart who turned her and her maids-in-waiting into a flock of swans. Then there was the ecstasy of meeting her prince charming, Siegfried, who took her to dizzying romantic heights. Finally there was the overwhelming grief of being separated from him by the evil designs of the villain. The fourth act, in which Odette dies in her lover’s embrace as the two are swallowed by the waves, was particularly difficult to emote. “I just emulated the examples set by predeces-
sors, read up on the ballet, watched filmed versions. I had an ear for music, which helped,” says Qu. Thirty years later she is still playing Odette, behind the scenes, showing the new generation of swans how to float and flutter with grace and perfect poise. Qu is the chief dancing supervisor and the new Swan Lake by Liaoning Ballet is shaping up under her hawk-eyed tutelage. Now the vice-head of the institution, Qu was an integral part of the dancers’ team in Liaoning Ballet until 1996. She danced without a break, making a small concession for a few weeks when her son was born in 1990. “We had a Russian instructor who would put us through a rigorous regimen. My toes would bleed after a while,” she remembers, grateful for the pains that helped her perfect her skills. “I grew with the company,” she says, recalling a moment of trial. She broke a bone in her hip while practicing for an international ballet competition in France in 1988. “I slapped some balm on and went on stage.” When they announced she had won the
competition, “I couldn’t believe my ears.” Nowadays, nothing gives her more pleasure than to see her students walk up to the stage to collect top prizes at international events. “I have seen them grow in front of my eyes, and it’s a great feeling to see them win recognition.” The growth of Liaoning Ballet amazes her, too. “When we started out nobody knew of us, and today academics want to research the evolution of the company.” She attributes its success to the steady flow of seasoned professionals from the US, France and Russia, who work as both teachers and also provide creative input. After 30 years with the company the dance studio at Shenyang’s Xihe street feels more like home. Her son, who will go to Beijing Normal University this year to train as a designer, would often complain that she did not have much time for him when he was growing up. “He’s right,” says Qu. “I’ve given my all to ballet.”
H
10
O
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2010
L
I
D
A
LIFETRAVEL
Y CHINA DAILY
Left: An actor dresses up like an ancient Tusi chieftain of the Tujia people in Enshi prefecture, Hubei province. Right: Some 60 km from Enshi is Mufu Canyon, that plunges more than 1,500 m. Photos by Li Feng
Back to a bygone era Travel back in time to a little known prefecture in Hubei province, which is home to the Tujia minority. Li Feng reports
E
nshi is a little known prefecture in southwestern Hubei province, bordered by the Yangtze River to the north and Hunan province to the south. Even people elsewhere in Hubei seldom visit the place. Its residents live a simple, insular life, surrounded by mountains that have kept Enshi off the national rail network. Taking shape during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), Enshi city is built on slow-rising slopes, and is defined by zigzagging lanes and four grand gates. My exploration begins on a street outside the southern gate. Along the old street, houses with stone door-frames, brick carvings, blue-tile roofs and high walls, vie for my attention. Although the front gates are small, the houses are actually spacious inside, with some having as many as seven courtyards. Many families run various small businesses in the lanes branching out of the main street. At a rice noodle restaurant, Old Yang in his late 60s is puffing on a pipe made from bamboo root. He says his ancestors moved here from Jingzhou,
Above: Tangya Tusi Palace has some ancient buildings with distinctive features. Below: Enshi residents love a special kind of poker.
a city in southern Hubei province some 380 km from Enshi. They’ve been living here for five generations. Like other restaurants here, Yang has placed a stove outside his eatery, where the local snack “ge ge” is steaming in round bamboo containers. The delicacy is a mixture of hot pepper and pork, beef, mutton or other meat. Another popular dish is the “he zha” hotpot. Each small hotpot has peanut powder, minced pork and bean dregs as the basic seasoning. Customers can choose between slices of pork, mutton or beef to put into the spicy soup. An enticing aroma leads me to a stove outside another restaurant. The owner hands me a small pancake, stuffed with the most mouth-watering meat I’ve ever had. At a noodle shop next door, three women put down their shoulder poles and sit at a small table. They laugh and chat over some simple but appetizing noodles. The owner’s ginger-colored cat lies coiled in a nearby chair, fast asleep. Across a narrow path between two houses, I find myself on the verge of a cliff, facing the Lianzhu (“Connected Beads”) Pagoda atop the densely wooded Wufeng (“Five Peaks”) Mountain. The crystal clear Qingjiang River runs by at the foot of the cliff. After wandering among the lanes, I finally find myself at the giant southern gate tower. Although time has eroded its grandeur, the solid structure still looks majestic, towering over nearby houses. Some elderly people sit on stools inside the stone path, leading from the city gate. The stone slabs are smooth and shiny, witness to the number of people who have walked on them. I find a narrow staircase leading to the city wall, lined by wild flowers. Surprisingly, several families have settled in the tower above the gate. In ancient times, this was where generals commanded their troops to fend off enemies. However, inside the gate, the old city center has been given a makeover. The old houses have been replaced by concrete and cement structures that look no different from those in other small cities across the country.
Pengjiazhai village
TRAVELTIPS Enshi can be reached by air from Wuhan, Yichang and Chongqing. The bus ride from Yichang, Hubei province, takes 2.5 hours along a highway completed at the end of last year. There are many hotels in Enshi. The Qingjiang Hotel on Dongfeng Street charges 180 yuan ($26) a night for a standard room. The night bazaar at Wuyangba is the best place to meet local people and pick up some interesting souvenirs. You can take a bus from Enshi to Xuan’en county and then Shadaogou town, where Pengjiazhai village is located. The home stay inn at the bridge charges 10-15 yuan per person for a night’s stay and a Tujia meal costs less than 20 yuan per person. Mufu Canyon is located at Mufu town, a roughly 2-hour drive from Enshi. The entrance fee is 120 yuan. It takes more than 4 hours to complete the basic route. Well-prepared backpackers can find many places to explore. One can easily find buses from Enshi to Xianfeng county and then Jianshan township, where the Tangya Tusi Palace charges 20 yuan as entrance fee. Longquan Shanzhuang and other hotels are clean and reasonable.
Trends Traveler
Enshi prefecture is the hometown of the Miao and Tujia minorities. My trip to Xuan’en county gives me a glimpse of the Tujia people, who settled in western Jiangxi and Hubei provinces some 2,000 years ago. Pengjiazhai (Peng’s Village) is an ancient Tujia village built on mountain slopes, facing the river. A chained bridge links the village to the outside world. I spend a night at a cottage on stilts near the bridge. My host, surnamed Peng, says he used to live in the village, like the others. A few years ago, when the local government began to promote tourism, he and his wife took the chance to build a house across the river and launched the only home-stay inn serving Tujia cuisine in the area. Peng says both his daughters have moved to the Xuan’en county after their marriage, but their grandsons visit them occasionally. “Come and taste the bacon,” calls Peng’s wife, slicing the freshly boiled meat. It is truly unique. She soon covers the table with towel gourd, bean sprout and tomato, which she had just plucked. The delicate egg
custard is made from eggs laid by chickens raised at home. Before I realize it, I have finished two big bowls of rice. After the lavish meal, I walk across the bridge and fields, and into the village. Pengjiazhai is often praised as the most beautiful village of the Tujia people. The praise is well deserved. All the houses on stilts have intricate wood carvings of red lacquer. The upturned eaves match perfectly the black tiled roof and white ridges. As I wander in the village, a granny looks up from the lily bulb she is cleaning and smiles at me. Although her wooden house has no paint, the crimson colored couplet from the previous Spring Festival still looks bright on the front gate. She invites me in and brings out tea with fried sunflower seeds. She says some houses on stilts in the village have three floors, with the pigs, chicken and firewood housed at the ground level, people living in the middle and grain stored on the topmost floor. I am surprised to find her living room on the second floor decorated with wallpaper and fancy lighting. She says her children, who are working in Zhejiang province, didn’t like their old house and insisted on decorating the room like those in the cities. After saying goodbye to her, I wander around and find more grannies peeling lily bulbs. Two years ago, the local government promoted lily farming in the area, and the flowers have now become a major source of income. Villagers here have a long tradition of growing flowers. Canna, jasmine, balsamine and other flowers add much charm to the quiet village.
Mufu Canyon Some 60 km from Enshi is Mufu Canyon, that plunges more than 1,500 m. Our bus follows a road winding down into the valley amid a thickening fog. Suddenly, a giant rocky cliff that seems to pop out of the sky appears, as if about to crash into our tiny bus. The driver heads toward the cliff without slowing down. I heave a sigh of relief when I realize we are squeezing through a narrow crevice into the canyon. It is even more precarious inside the valley. We walk gingerly on a planked road built along the waist of the cliff. I feel like a helpless leaf about to fall into the dazzling abyss. Looking up, I realize the vertical precipice offers no place for me to grab should I trip and fall. Finally, we reach the Talang (“Standing on the Waves”) Pavilion, perched on one of numerous peaks. The planked road looks like a thin black line. Mountains dot the horizon, with villages scattered among them. There are many smaller valleys inside the canyon. Having no roads, they are ideal for the audacious explorer.
A farmer collects some vegetables from her farm to prepare for a meal.
Tusi’s palace Located an hour’s drive from Enshi, the ruins of Tangya Tusi Palace rest on the banks of Tangya River. I get off the bus and follow the river. Half an hour later, I find a stone stele carved with the name of the palace. A piece of cardboard dangling on a tree shows the keeper’s phone number. I call. Soon, a thin old man with a long silvery beard walks slowly down the mountain path, wearing a pointed straw hat and leaning on a bamboo stick. Chen Zhaonan, 79, has been guarding the ruins since 1981. Tusi, or chieftain of the Tujia people, used to rule the area like an emperor. The rule of Tan Ding, a 12th generation Tusi who fought bravely for Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), marked the peak of Tusi rule in the area. The roads here are broad and smooth, with stone slabs. Chen says there were once 48 streets and 48 wells here, serving some 30,000 people in 4,800 families. But all that is left of it now is a village
thriving on rice paddies, tea farms and bamboo groves. Hitting the stone slabs with his stick, Chen says the roads used to be more than 7 m wide. But villagers have been removing the stones to build their own houses. Most people who still live here are descendants of those who lived under the Tusi. Chen claims his family was related to the Tusi chieftain. Eighteen generations ago, his ancestor married a daughter of the chieftain. “This used to be our family’s residence,” he says, pointing at a stone threshold half buried in the fields. Climbing deeper into the mountains, I find Tan Guo’an, a descendant of the ancient Tusi. Most members of the Tan family have moved to Guizhou province; only he stayed behind, to guard the tomb of Tan Ding and his wife. Night descends quickly in the mountains. Our minivan speeds through the forest of giant firs, as I leave behind the once glorious Tusi kingdom. Stories were first published in Trends Traveler magazine
H
O
L
I
D
A
Y
SPORTS
CHINA DAILY
11
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2010
Fergie ‘relieved’ United survived early scares The ‘Red Devil’ hit back from 0-1 behind to beat AC Milan 3-2 in CL last 16 1st leg ROME, Italy: Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was a relieved man after his team survived a torrid opening to beat AC Milan 3-2 at San Siro and put themselves in the driving seat in this Champions League last 16 first leg clash. Ronaldinho gave Milan a third minute lead and Clarence Seedorf kept the second round tie alive ahead of the second leg in Manchester with a close range finish five minutes from time. But a lucky Paul Scholes goal and a brace from the brilliant Wayne Rooney gave United their first ever win away to Milan. “I think we could have lost a few goals tonight, the first 20 minutes was a bad period for us, losing a goal the way we did (from a deflection),” admitted Fergie. “It was a very unlucky goal to lose and for 20 minutes we lost our composure and it took us a long time to get going but once we got going I think we played well. “I think the goal (from Scholes) helped us, we got it at a good time and from that moment on I think our game improved. Goals do change games and I think it changed the game today.” Fergie heaped praise on Rooney and said he can be considered alongside the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka now that he has added goal-scoring to his repertoire, notching up 26 for the season now. “Wayne Rooney in the second half carried on the form he has shown recently, he’s been in devastating form and they just couldn’t handle him in the second half. I thought he was marvellous,” added Ferguson. “Particularly in the last two months we have seen development in his game and confidence has a lot to do with that. “His basic ability is as good as any of those players, what he’s got to do is improve his goalscoring, which he’s now doing and if he continues that trend then he’s got to be regarded alongside any player.” Ferguson also expressed his satisfaction with young Brazilian right-back Rafael, who he picked ahead of Gary Neville and who had
coped quite well in trying to control an on-fire Ronaldinho. “Ronaldinho has always had great talent, I think his game dropped away for a year or so but he’s looking back to his best. “He’s a handful for a young player like Rafael to deal with but we’ve invested a great future we’re not going to stop the rewards of that because he’s playing AC Milan. “He has to learn that you play against Ronaldinhos in the real world and he has to develop his game. “He made some mistakes tonight but he won’t make them next season because the boy’s an outstanding talent.” Milan coach Leonardo was understandably disappointed with the result from a match his team bossed for the first 45 minutes without turning that superiority into goals. But he insisted the tie is not over. “Manchester United got the maximum reward from what they did in the game while we got the miniumum from what we did,” he moaned. “It was a great performance and we can still have much hope because we didn’t deserve this. “We had the perfect approach, the right spirit but unfortunately didn’t score. If we had managed to convert the chances we created we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about this. “The first half was a perfect game, we did very well but didn’t capitalise on what we deserved. “The first goal from Manchester came from the only moment they could push in attack because our left back (Luca) Antonini was off the pitch at this time, it was a very lucky goal and this changed the history of the game. “The only moment Man United did well and pushed in attack was the 15 minutes when they scored their two goals. “It was very hard to manage that moment but even in this situation we scored a goal and lost 3-2 so everything is open and I think a result like 2-0 (at Old Trafford) is not impossible, there is everything to play for.”
SCOREBOARD WINTER OLYMPICS Men’s curling VANCOUVER: Olympic Games men’s curling results on Tuesday (played, won lost): Great Britain 4 Sweden 6 Norway 6 Canada 7 United States 5 Germany 7 Switzerland 6 Denmark 5 Canada 9 Germany 4 China 5 France 6 United States 5 Norway 6 P W L Canada 2 2 0 France 1 1 0 Sweden 1 1 0 Switzerland 1 1 0 Germany 2 1 1 Norway 2 1 1 China 1 0 1 Denmark 1 0 1 Great Britain 1 0 1 United States 2 0 2 Women’s curling USA 7 Japan 9 Denmark 5 Sweden 6 Germany 9 Russia 5 Canada 5 Switzerland 4
Women’s 10 km biathlon pursuit (penalty loops in brackets): 1. Magdalena Neuner (GER) 30:16.0 (2) 2. Anastasia Kuzmina (SVK) at 12.3 (2) 3. Marie Laure Brunet (FRA) 28.3 (0) 4. Anna Carin Olofsson-Zidek (SWE) 39.4 (1) 5. Tora Berger (NOR) 51.2 (0) 6. Anna Boulygina (RUS) 52.1 (1) 7. Olga Zaitseva (RUS) 1:04.3 (2) 8. Ann Kristin Aafedt Flatland (NOR) 1:17.3 (1) 9. Teja Gregorin (SLO) 1:22.6 (2) 10. Andrea Henkel (GER) 1:24.5 (3) Women’s snowboarding cross 1. Maelle Ricker (Canada) 2. Deborah Anthonioz (France) 3. Olivia Nobs (Switzerland) 4. Helene Olafsen (Norway)
Women’s ice hockey Preliminary round Group B USA 13 Russia 0 Finland 2 China 1 P W L United States 2 2 0 Finland 2 2 0 China 2 0 2 Russia 2 0 2
Gf 25 7 2 1
Men’s ice hockey Preliminary round Group A USA 3 Switzerland 1 Canada 8 Norway 0 P W Canada 1 1 United States 1 1 Switzerland 1 0 Norway 1 0
Gf 8 3 1 0
L 0 0 1 1
Men’s 12.5km biathlon pursuit (penalty loops in brackets): 1. Bjorn Ferry (SWE) 33:38.4 (1) 2. Christoph Sumann (AUT) at 16.5 (2) 3. Vincent Jay (FRA) 28.2 (2) 4. Simon Eder (AUT) 31.0 (3) 5. Michael Greis (GER) 51.2 (1) 6. Ivan Tcherezov (RUS) 51.2 (2) 7. Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (NOR) 51.4 (2) 8. Emil Hegle Svendsen (NOR) 52.0 (4) 9. Klemen Bauer (SLO) 55.4 (5) 10. Serguei Sednev (UKR) 1:11.6 (0)
Ga 1 2 14 18
Ga 0 1 3 8
Pts 6 6 0 0
Pts 3 3 0 0
Women’s luge 1. Tatjana Hufner (GER) 2:46.524 (41.760 + 41.481 + 41.666 + 41.617) 2. Nina Reithmayer (AUT) 2:47.014 (41.728 + 41.563 + 41.884 + 41.839) 3. Natalie Geisenberger (GER) 2:47.101 (41.743 + 41.657 + 41.800 + 41.901) 4. Tatiana Ivanova (RUS) 2:47.181 (41.816 + 41.601 + 41.914 + 41.850) 5. Anke Wischnewski (GER) 2:47.253 (41.785 + 41.685 + 41.894 + 41.889) 6. Alexandra Rodionova (RUS) 2:47.456 (41.828 + 41.731 + 41.984 + 41.913) Figure skating men’s short program 1. Evgeni Plushenko (RUS) 90.85 pts 2. Evan Lysacek (USA) 90.30 3. Daisuke Takahashi (JPN) 90.25 4. Nobunari Oda (JPN) 84.85 5. Stephane Lambiel (SUI) 84.63 6. Johnny Weir (USA) 82.10 7. Patrick Chan (CAN) 81.12 8. Takahiko Kozuka (JPN) 79.59 9. Michal Brezina (CZE) 78.80 10. Denis Ten (KAZ) 76.24 Women’s Speed Skating 500m 1. Lee Sang-Hwa (KOR) 76.09 (38.249 + 37.850) 2. Jenny Wolf (GER) 76.14 (38.307 + 37.838) 3. Wang Beixing (CHN) 76.63 (38.487 + 38.144) 4. Margot Boer (NED) 76.87 (38.511 + 38.365) 5. Sayuri Yoshii (JPN) 76.99 (38.566 + 38.432) 6. Heather Richardson (USA) 77.17 (38.698 + 38.477) 7. Zhang Shuang (CHN) 77.33 (38.530 + 38.807) 8. Jing Peiyu (CHN) 77.45 (38.686 + 38.771)
NBA NEW YORK: NBA results on Tuesday (home team in CAPS) New Jersey 103 CHARLOTTE 94 Miami 105 PHILADELPHIA 78 DETROIT 108 Minnesota 85 CHICAGO 118 NY Knicks 85 Phoenix 109 MEMPHIS 95 OKLAHOMA CITY 99 Dallas 86 Utah 104 HOUSTON 95 PORTLAND 109 LA Clippers 87 Boston 95 SACRAMENTO 92 LA LAKERS 104 Golden State 94 SOCCER Champions League PARIS: Results from Champions League last 16 first leg matches played on Tuesday: At Lyon, France Lyon (FRA) 1 (Makoun 47) Real Madrid (ESP) 0 At Milan, Italy AC Milan 2 (Ronaldinho 3, Seedorf 85) Manchester United (ENG) 3 (Scholes 36, Rooney 66, 74) English Premier League LONDON: English Premier League result on Tuesday: Stoke 1 (Whelan 72) Manchester City 1 (Barry 85) English Championship Blackpool 2 Middlesbrough 0 Bristol City 1 Leicester 1 Cardiff 1 West Brom 1 Derby 5 Preston 3 Nottingham Forest 1 Sheffield Utd 0 Peterborough 3 Ipswich 1 Plymouth 1 Swansea 1 Scunthorpe 2 Barnsley 1 Sheffield Wednesday 0 Doncaster 2 Postponed (waterlogged pitch) QPR v Watford Scottish Cup GLASGOW: Scottish Cup result on Tuesday: 5th rd replay Aberdeen 0 Raith 1 (Tade 58) Europa League LONDON: Europa League result on Tuesday: 3rd rd 1st leg Everton 2 (Pienaar 35, Distin 49) Sporting Lisbon 1 (Veloso 87-pen) TENNIS ATP/WTA Memphis MEMPHIS, Tennessee: Results from the third day of the ATP/WTA tournaments here on Tuesday (x denotes seeding): Men’s 1st rd Ivo Karlovic (CRO) bt Benjamin Becker (GER) 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/4); Evgeny Korolev (KAZ) bt
AFP
NBA BRIEFS Return of Iverson of no use PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania: Dwyane Wade scored 24 points to lift Miami to a 105-78 victory over Philadelphia on Tuesday that spoiled Allen Iverson’s return for the 76ers. Jermaine O’Neal added 20 points for the Heat, who won their third straight. Udonis Haslem scored 13 and Michael Beasley chipped in 12. “These are the wins everybody loves. Everybody’s happy,” Wade said. “It was a good game for us. It started yesterday in practice where we really focused on what we needed to do.” In the teams’ first game since the All-Star break, Philadelphia welcomed back Iverson. He had missed five games as well as Sunday’s All-Star game to help care for his ill daughter, Messiah. Karl battling throat cancer DENVER, Colorado: George Karl, coach of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, has been diagnosed with neck and throat cancer but was told it is treatable. Karl, a survivor of prostate cancer, said Tuesday that treatment including radiation therapy and chemotherapy could cause him to miss games and practices. A doctor, who examined Karl on December 30, found a large lump. Karl said he had assumed it was just fatty tissue. Karl was treated for prostate cancer in 2005. His son, Coby, also is a cancer survivor.
Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney (center) celebrates with teammates after scoring against AC Milan during their Champions League match at the San Siro stadium in Milan on Tuesday. Reuters
Makoun extends Real’s Lyon misery LYON, France: Lyon ruined former striker Karim Benzema’s return to his boyhood club by beating Real Madrid 1-0 in their last 16 Champions League first leg clash here on Tuesday. The defeat will add to the woes of Real’s Chilean coach Manuel Pellegrini, who is under pressure to return European football’s most coveted trophy to the Santiago Bernabeu following the triumph of fierce rivals Barcelona in the competition last year. Defeat continued Real’s desperate record at Lyon’s ground, having failed ever to win there or even score. Lyon coach Claude Puel has been
Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER x7) 7-5, 7-5; Ernests Gulbis (LAT) bt Robert Kendrick (USA) 6-4, 6-4; Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) bt Dudi Sela (ISR) 6-2, 75; Lukas Lacko (SVK) bt Bobby Reynolds (USA) 2-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-4; Tomas Berdych (CZE x5) bt Ryan Sweeting (USA) 6-2, 6-1; Jeremy Chardy (FRA) bt Fernando Verdasco (ESP x2), 7-6 (7/4), 6-3; Lu Yen-Hsun (TPE) bt Robby Ginepri (USA) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; Michael Russell (USA) bt Wayne Odesnik (USA) 0-6, 7-5, 6-4 Women’s 1st rd: Lilia Osterloh (USA) bt Stephanie Dubois (CAN) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4; Nicole Vaidisova (CZE) bt Laura Granville (USA) 6-4, 6-2; Karolina Sprem (CRO) bt Lucie Hradecka (CZE x4) 6-4, 6-4; Elena Baltacha (GBR x8) bt Renata Voracova (CZE) 75, 6-1; Melanie Oudin (USA x2) bt Alexa Glatch (USA) 6-2, 6-2; ATP Buenos Aires BUENOS AIRES: Results from the ATP tournament here on Tuesday (x denotes seeding): 1st rd: Albert Montanes (ESP x5) bt Pablo Cuevas (URU) 6-2, 6-2; Horacio Zeballos (ARG x8) bt Gaston Gaudio (ARG) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Carlos Moya (ESP) bt Filippo Volandri (ITA) 6-2, 7-5; David Nalbandian (ARG) bt Potito Starace (ITA) 6-2, 7-6 (7/2); Marcel Granollers (ESP) bt Diego Junqueira (ARG) 6-1, 6-2; Juan Ignacio Chela (ARG) bt Richard Gasquet (FRA) 7-6 (7/3), 7-5; Igor Andreev (RUS x6) bt Fabio Fognini (ITA) 7-5, 7-6 (7/4); Santiago Ventura (ESP) bt Daniel Kollerer (AUT) 6-4, 6-2; Pablo Andujar (ESP) bt Oscar Hernandez (ESP) 6-4, 6-1; Marcos Daniel (BRA) bt Paolo Lorenzi (ITA) 6-1, 6-3; Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP x2) bt Ricardo Mello (BRA) 6-1, 6-2; WTA Colombian Open BOGOTA: Results from the second day of the WTA Colombian Open here on Tuesday (x denotes seeding): 1st rd: Gisela Dulko (ARG x1) bt Mathilde Johansson (FRA) 6-4, 6-4; Mariia Koryttseva (UKR) bt Laura Pous (ESP) 6-3, 1-6, 6-1; Khrystyna Antoniychuk (UKR) bt Carla Suarez (ESP x2) 6-1, 6-4; Pauline Parmentier (FRA) bt Corinna Dentoni (ITA) 6-3, 6-2; Mariana Duque (COL) bt Greta Arn (HUN) 2-6, 6-0, 6-3; Patricia Mayr (AUT) bt Paula Zabala (COL) 6-1, 6-3; Silvia Soler (ESP) bt Lenka Wienerova (SVK) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2; Klara Zakopalova (CZE x7) bt Lauren Albanese (USA) 4-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-1; Rossana De Los Rios (PAR) bt Masa Zec Peskiric (SLO) 6-4, 6-1; Catalina Castano (COL) bt Polona Hercog (SLO x4) 7-5, 6-2;
under pressure of late as the fans have taken the view that he is too negative in his strategy, but the former Monaco and Lille handler was sporting a beaming smile after this victory. “It was a very good performance, but I wouldn’t class it as a great achievement,” said Puel. “It’s a shame we didn’t score a second one as I thought we outplayed them in the second-half.” Pellegrini said that Real could easily overturn the deficit back in their territory. “This evening Lyon outmuscled us,” said 56-year-old Pellegrini, who gained the Real hotseat on the back of
an impressive five year spell at Spanish rivals Villarreal. “We just didn’t know how to cope. It isn’t obviously a great result for us. “We conceded a goal and failed to score one ourselves. We have to be more disciplined in the second leg and do to them as they did to us this evening. “I am certain that we can achieve that and win the tie. I don’t believe the same demons that have plagued the side in recent seasons in this competition and seen us go out in the last 16 on five successive occasions have returned.”
AFP
Clippers send Camby to Blazers PORTLAND, Oregon: The Portland Trail Blazers acquired Marcus Camby from the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for guard Steve Blake and forward Travis Outlaw, the NBA teams said on Tuesday. The Blazers are currently in eighth place in the competitive Western Conference despite a spate of injuries. Centers Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla are both out for the season, while All-Star Brandon Roy hasn’t played since January 20 with a hamstring injury. Camby gives the Blazers much needed help inside, and indicates that despite their injury woes Portland plan to make a playoff push. Along with Oden, Przybilla and Roy, forward Nicolas Batum, guard Rudy Fernandez and Outlaw have missed significant time because of injury.
Caring for disadvantaged school-age children and making donations to build the China Daily Readers Hope School Located in a poverty-stricken remote mountainous area in central Gansu Province, Dongxiang Autonomous County has a population of 266,900, of which 83.97 per cent are of Dongxiang ethnic community. Harsh natural conditions and drought have left the Dongxiang people living at the mercy of the heavens. To solve all these needs and offer caring and selfless support, China Daily is teaming up with the China Youth Development Foundation to offer the following proposal to China Daily readers: caring for disadvantaged school-age children in a poor mountainous area and make donations to build China Daily Readers Hope School. The donations will be handled by the China Youth Development Foundation, and will be managed through independent accounting and statistics. The donations will be strictly used for building a Hope School in the area -- the China Daily Readers Hope School. According to local situation, about 200,000 yuan (US$26,315) can help enlarge and furnish a school and about 300,000 yuan (US$39,500) can help build a new one. The names of donors whose personal donations are more than 1,000 yuan (US$132) and corporate donations that are more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,320) will be carved on a monument at the school to mark the contributions. China Daily will also run a special column to follow the development of the China Daily Readers Hope School and give timely reports on the loving and caring stories of the donors. Donors will receive a formal receipt for each sum of money they donate. And with the receipt, they can apply for exemption from taxation. Since the start of the China Daily Readers Hope School project in 2002, three schools - the No. 1 China Daily Readers Hope Primary School, the Nutuping Hope Primary School and the No. 2 China Daily Readers Hope Primary School - have been established and one, Yangling Township Dayang Village Project Hope School, has been expanded thanks to the donations. We, on behalf of China Daily, China Youth Development Foundation and the People’s Government of Dongxiang County, express our heartfelt thanks and respect to the readers of China Daily, who have been showing care and support for the project.
ATP Open 13 MARSEILLE, France: Results from the second day of the ATP Open 13 tournament on Tuesday (x denotes seeding): 1st rd: Andreas Seppi (ITA) bt Arnaud Clement (FRA) 7-6 (7/2), 7-5; Olivier Rochus (BEL) bt Gilles Simon (FRA) 7-5, 6-2; Josselin Ouanna (FRA) bt Denis Istomin (UZB) 6-4, 1-6, 6-3; Julien Benneteau (FRA x8) bt Stephane Bohli (SWI) 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/3); Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) bt Simone Bolelli (ITA) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4; Illya Marchenko (UKR) bt Ruben Bemelmans (BEL) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; Michael Llodra (FRA) bt Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-4 WTA Dubai Open DUBAI: Results in the two million dollar WTA Dubai Open here on Tuesday (x denotes seeding): 2nd rd Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) bt Elena Dementieva (RUS x5) bt 6-4, 1-1 retired; Venus Williams (USA x3) bt Sabine Lisicki (GER) 6-2, 6-3; Regina Kulkova (RUS) bt Stefanie Voegele (SUI) 6-3, 6-0; Shahar Peer (ISR) bt Virginie Razzano (FRA) 6-2, 6-2; Caroline Wozniacki (DEN x1) bt Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 6-2, 7-6 (7/2); Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS x2) bt Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) walkover; Jelena Jankovic (SRB x6) bt Aravane Rezai (FRA) 4-6, 6-4, 7-5; Victoria Azarenka (BLR x4) bt Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR) 4-1 rtd.; Flavia Pennetta (ITA x10) bt Andrea Petkovic (GER) 6-3, 6-3; Marion Bartoli (FRA x11) bt Alexandra Dulgheru (ROU) 6-2, 6-1; Olga Govortsova (BLR) bt Francesca Schiavone (ITA x14) 6-4, 6-4; Anna-Lena Groeneveld (GER) bt Alicia Molik (AUS) 6-4, 6-4; Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova bt Tathiana Garbin (ITA) 4-6, 6-1, 6-2; Li Na (CHN x8) bt Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (ESP) 7-6 (9-7), 2-6, 6-4; Vera Zvonareva (RUS x12) bt Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) 6-0, 6-0;
Donation Address: China Youth Development Foundation A-1 Houyuan’ensi Hutong, Jiaodaokou Nandajie, Beijing 100009, China Name of Banking Institution: Agricultural Bank of China, Beijing Jiaodaokou Branch (RMB) RMB Account Number: 11-191301040003296 Name of Banking Institution: Headquarter Office, Bank of China (Foreign Currencies)
Account Numbers: 00023608091014 (US$), 00023608091013 (HK$), 00038408091027 (JPY) Name on Account: China Youth Development Foundation Transaction Context: China Daily Readers Hope School Tel: (86-10) 84030206, 64918366 E-mail: yanshi@cydf.org.cn
H
O
L
I
D
A
Y
SPORTS
12
T H U R S DAY F E B R UA RY 1 8 , 2 0 1 0
‘Godfather’ carves history Emotional Chinese figure skating coach vows to push for more By Lei Lei
VANCOUVER, Canada: As the end result for China’s figure skating pair Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo shone on the scoreboard at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada on Monday night, one silent character clutched the couple tightly and shed tears for the historical victory. The emotional man of the moment was Yao Bin, head coach of the Chinese team and considered the “Godfather” of China’s figure skating. Yao was the nation’s first generation figure skater and personally witnessed the growth of the sport in China from its birth to full maturity. At the Vancouver Games, fellow skaters Shen and Zhao claimed China’s first-ever Olympic title for the event since the sports powerhouse entered the Winter Games 30 years ago. Their compatriots, Pang Qing and Tong Jian, added more glory with a silver, edging reigning world champion Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany into third place. The youngest Chinese pair, Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, completed China’s strong run in the event, finishing fifth. Shen and Zhao are the firstever non-European couple to top the Olympic pair podium, snapping a 12-game winning streak from Russia who had dominated the Olympic figure skating pair events for 46 years.
They also set a record high total of 216.57 points, while Pang and Tong took the best single score for free skating with 141.81. Such remarkable achievements are enough for Yao to be overjoyed, but the 52-year-old tried to remain calm. “I didn’t want to cry, but Shen’s tears affected me,” Yao told China Daily. “When the score for Pang and Tong, who skated last-but-one, came out, the team officials came to hug me and shouted, ‘the gold medal, the gold medal’. But what I thought at that time was how to guide Shen and Zhao because they would skate last. “Even when Shen hugged me after they secured the gold, all that was in my mind was that their routine was not perfect and they could still improve.” Yao has experienced all sides of the sport in China due to his 40 years of work as an athlete and a coach. He helped kick off China’s figure skating by entering the local team of Harbin, his birthplace, in 1970. Yao and his partner Luan Bo quickly became the first team to represent China at the World Figure Skating Championships. But it was not all glory. There was an embarrassing experience at their debut in the 1980 World Championships in Dortmund, Germany. They finished 15th, in last place. Yao remembers people in the audience laughing at their poor skating, but he didn’t give up.
He returned to the World Championships again in 1981 and 1982, finishing last both times. Finally, after his team was placed 15th at the 1984 Winter Olympics, Yao became determined to create a world-class team. The skates were sidelined and Yao started again, this time as a coach. His three fellow pairs of skaters quickly emerged as strong contenders on the world stage, dominated by western skaters for decades. Their highly emotional performances were fresh ideas for the western judges, who were unfamiliar with the performance routines of Asian skaters. Then in the 1990s, the three pairs snapped the Russian domination and snatched multiple world titles and Olympic medals. But despite the medals and success, Yao is more than just a coach to his stars. Besides orchestrating the training routines, Yao, who likes to read and play piano, also made the costumes for his skaters in the very beginning. He even cut their hair. “Figure skating is the only thing I have fought for throughout my whole life. Now is the time for China to shine,” Yao said. His athletes see this energy and drive as the biggest force behind the country’s figure skating success. “Everything we have achieved can be attributed to coach Yao,” Shen said. “It is Yao who lifted Chinese skaters to the top of the world,” said Xiao Tian, deputy chef-de-mission of the Chinese delegation. “He paved the way for Chinese figure skating.”
Figure skating is the only thing I have fought for throughout my whole life. Now is the time for China to shine. YAO BIN China figure skating coach
VANCOUVER, Canada: Speed skater Wang Beixing might not be satisfied with a bronze medal at the Vancouver Winter Games on Tuesday, but her Canadian coach says she is warming up for an era that will rule the ice. “She was seventh at the last Olympics and this time she was placed third — that’s a fantastic improvement,” said coach Kevin Crockett. “I think she will dominate the event for four years. When she goes to the next Olympics, she will be fine.” At the women’s 500m speedskating event on Tuesday, 24year-old Wang didn’t skate well in the first race and finished her two races in a total time of 76.63 seconds, ranking third. South Korea’s Lee Sang-hwa edged Germany’s reigning world champion Jenny Wolf out to win the gold medal.
China’s Wang Beixing competes in the Women’s 500m speedskating race at the Richmond Olympic Oval during the Winter Olympics on Tuesday. AFP
Games medal table G Germany 3 South Korea 3 Switzerland 3 United States 2 Canada 2 France 2 Sweden 2 China 1 Slovakia 1 Czech Rep 1 Netherlands 1 Austria 0 Norway 0 Italy 0 Japan 0 Australia 0 Estonia 0 Poland 0 Croatia 0 Russia 0
S 4 1 0 2 2 1 0 1 1 0 0 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 0
B 2 0 1 4 1 4 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 1
Tot 9 4 4 8 5 7 2 3 2 2 1 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1
Women’s speed skating has been considered a special event for the Chinese delegation at the Winter Olympics since China collected its fi rst ever Winter Olympic medal in 1992 — Ye Qiaobo took two silvers in 500m and 1,000m. Since that momentous occasion, however, no one has managed to top the success and snatch a gold. Four years ago at the Turin Games, veteran skater Wang Manli — world No 1 of the women’s 500m at the time — was beaten by Svetlana Zhurova of Russia and had to settle for a silver. The young Chinese skater Ren Hui grabbed the bronze. China is now pinning all its hopes on Wang, since the athlete became the four-time 500m silver medalist at the world championships and was crowned silver at the 2009 World Sprint Championships, beating top favorite Wolf. Although a gold medal didn’t come this time, the young skater is still satisfied with a
I think she will dominate the event for four years. When she goes to the next Olympics, she will be fine. KEVIN CROCKETT China’s speed skating coach
bronze at her second Winter Olympics. “This is my first time to stand on the Olympic podium and it has inspired me,” Wang said after the competition. “But at the same time, I did regret a little that I couldn’t get the gold. It has been a dream of Chinese speed skaters for generations and I will also pursue it.” When she first began skating at seven, Wang was trained in short track skills. After two years, she adapted her skills to long track skating and was chosen for the provincial team
at 15. Three years later she went to train in Canada with Crockett. “I told myself I must do well,” Wang said. A calm girl off the ice, Wang has been attributed with a lack of power in the competition. This she refutes. “I have been called ‘gentle’ and ‘quiet’ off the ice, but these words also describe me on the ice,” Wang told China Daily. “In a race I always remain focused to do my best and get the best result possible.” Her Canadian coach added that he expected to work with her in the future after their current contract expires, following the Vancouver Games. “Wang is very humble and not somebody that values material things,” said Crockett. “She is very smart and extremely professional. She does everything on the program and that’s why she is my favorite athlete. It’s really fun coaching her. I hope we can continue our success together.”
Paralympian McKeever ready for challenge VANCOUVER, Canada: Brian McKeever says he’s raring to go as he stands on the verge of becoming the first man to ski in both the Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Unlike Paralympics, where as a partially-sighted racer he can rely on brother Robin for guidance, this time he will be on his own for the men’s 50km cross country race on the final day of the Games on February 28. “I’ll just have to find some fast wheels to follow and hang on to them,” Brian McKeever said Tuesday. Asked to compare the Olympics and the Paralympics he said: “The Paralympics is just smaller.”
McKeever, 30, says obtaining a place on the podium may be a bit much to expect, though just missing a top 20 finish at the World Championships gives him ample self-belief. “I’m not going to stand up here and say I’m going to win medals because I haven’t had this experience before,” he said. “I’m not focused on the gold medal but I am focused on results. “It’s really about just taking part. It’s just another day at the office,” added the racer from Calgary, who was diagnosed with Stargaard’s disease - macular degeneration or loss of central vision - 12 years ago. Watching a video of the
course on television he has to focus his vision away from the part of the screen he wants to watch. Asked how he deals with his disability while racing McKeever explained: “If I know where the spots are (gaps between the skiers) then I can try and pick an ideal line.” On the loss of central vision, he said: “It’s a bit of a strange thing because whereas everyone would look directly at an image, I would look above it or around it. It will never go to complete blindness, it’s just a central vision loss. “There’s not a day goes by that I don’t wish I could see better but this is what has made me who I am.”
Korean cheer surprise speedskating golds SEOUL: South Korea Wednesday cheered its latest sporting heroes as Lee Sang-Hwa won gold in the women’s 500 metres speedskating — the country’s second victory in two days in the Winter Olympics event. Viewers at home and fans watching large screens in the streets exploded with joy as the 20-yearold stunned hot favourite Jenny Wolf of Germany. She clocked a combined time of 76.09sec for her two races (38.24 and 37.85), just 0.05sec ahead of Wolf. China’s Wang Beixing took the bronze in 76.63sec. Violent ‘ringleader’ arrested by police VANCOUVER: Vancouver police have arrested the alleged ringleader of the violent anti-Olympic protests which erupted at the weekend and which also saw the Games torch relay blocked. Eleven people in total have now been arrested in connection with the incidents with charges including disturbing the peace and assaulting a police officer. “On Friday February 12, police watched a person who is well known to them lead a group of criminals all dressed in black set up a barbed wire barricade. The barricade caused the torch relay to be diverted,” said a police statement. “The same person was seen on Saturday dressed in black pulling a cloth over his mouth and nose and a hood over his head. Using an air horn, the leader of the group, who has described himself publicly as an anarchist, told the others to feel free to vandalize.”
Best day set for gold hopeful Wang By Lei Lei
INBRIEF
McKeever said that by competing at the Olympics with fully able-bodied racers he was striking a blow for Paralympic racers, who have a much lower public profile. “I think we all understand that this is important. Whether or not I want to be the centre of attention is not important,” he said. “It shows that Paralympians are training at a very high level - if this brings more attention that’s great.” In his event a little chaos theory helps. “The mass starts can be a little crazy but it’s kind of organized chaos at times.” AFP
Brian McKeever
Huefner reinforces German domination WHISTLER, Canada: Tatjana Huefner reinforced Germany’s domination of the luge on Tuesday by winning the women’s singles gold as they threaten a clean sweep of all three Olympic titles. Huefner posted the fastest time of 2mins 46.524sec over the four runs while Austria’s Nina Reithmayer claimed second at 0.490sec behind with Germany’s Natalie Geisenberger third, 0.577sec off the pace. “I am delighted that it worked so well, I am overjoyed to be the Olympic gold medalist — it’s mad,” said Huefner, who won bronze four years ago in Turin. “This is exactly what I have worked for over many years. “I was nervous before all four runs, but this victory is what I have dreamed about.” Gold for anti-doping hardliner Ferry WHISTLER, Canada: Bjorn Ferry is a real hot shot with the biathlon rifle, as well a mean skier — two reasons why he won the pursuit title on Tuesday at Whistler. Any apologists for dopers hopefully gave the event a wide berth. Had they or any ‘pharmaathletes’ shown their faces they would have risked seeing the outspoken Swede turn his sights on them. Before his race, Ferry underlined his contempt for anyone taking a soft line on drug cheats and said dopers deserved the stiffest punishment. And not just the usual slap on the wrist of a ban. “If it were up to me I would dish out the death penalty in doping cases,” he said.