Covering The Multicultural Asian American Community in Georgia
www.gasiantimes.com
August 1-15, 2017
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August 1-15, 2017 Georgia Asian Times
Georgia Asian Times August 1-15, 2017
Publisher: Li Wong Account Manager: Adrian West Contributors: Andrian Putra, May Lee, Mark Ho Photographer: Ben Hioe
Tel: 678-971-9388 Advertising: gat@gasiantimes. com Editorial: info@gasiantimes.com URL: www.gasiantimes.com Mailing Address: P.O. Box 4502 Suwanee GA 30024
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Copyright Georgia Asian Times 20042017 All Rights Reserved: including those to reproduce this printing or parts thereof in any form without permission in writing from Georgia Asian Times. Established in 2004, the Georgia Asian Times is published by Asiamax Inc. All facts, opinions, and statements appearing within this publication are those of writers and editors themseleves, and are in no way to be construed as statements, positions, endorsements by Georgia Asian Times or its officers. Georgia Asian Times assumes no responsibility for damages from the use of information contained in this publication or the reply to any advertisement. The Publisher will not be liable for any error in advertising to greater extent than the cost of space occupied by the error and will only be made for a single publication date. The Publisher reserves the right to reject any ad or articles submitted for publication that may not be in good taste for a free publication.
GAT Calendar of Events GAT welcome submission of announcement pertaining to community related events. Please email event, date, venue, and time to gat@gasiantimes.com. GAT does not guarantee insertion of event announcement and has the right to deny any posting.
Wreath Laying Ceremony for 740 Seoul of the South - Food Tour Date: Aug 19, 2017 Time: 2:00 pm Venue: Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce For more info: www.exploregwinnett. org Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival-Atlanta Date: Saturday, Sept 9, 2017 Time: 7:00 am -6:00 pm Venue: Lake Lanier Olympic Kayaking Center, Gainesville, Georgia For more info: DragonBoatAtlanta.com
13th Atlanta Asian Film Festival Date: Oct13-28, 2017 Venues: Georgia State University-Dunwoody, Plaza Theatre For more info: www.ATLaff.org
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August 1-15, 2017 Georgia Asian Times
METRO ASIAN NEWS Dragon Boat Festival Celebrate Colorful Asian Culture at Lake Lanier Atlanta, Aug 8, 2017 — A colorful Hong Kong tradition will return to Georgia with the 22nd annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival set to kick off on Saturday, September 9, 2017 from 7:00 am-6:00 pm at the Olympic Kayaking Center at Lake Lanier in Gainesville.
Swire Group’s “Taipan” John Slosar shares insights to opportunities arising in HK and region Atlanta, August 5, 2017 — John Slosar, the Hong Kong Chairman of the Hong Kong-United States Business Council, Chairman of Swire Pacific Limited and Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, delivers the keynote address at a luncheon forum hosted by National Association of Chinese Americans and the Hong Kong Association of Atlanta. Swire is an anchor bottler of Coca-Cola and related products in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. He is in town visiting with Coca-Cola’s partner and Cathay Pacific’s cargo operations. Slosar discussed Hong Kong’s economic future and reflected on the past 20 years of development in the city since its return to Chinese sovereignty. “Businesses in Hong Kong will continue to witness “light touch” by the government,” said Slosar referring to Hong Kong’s special administrative government.
The oldest and most traditional dragon boat festival in Georgia, the occasion will feature activities for the whole family. The festivities will feature lions & dragon performance, multicultural dancers, traditional arts and crafts, international street foods, and raffle prizes that include four round-trip tickets to Asia provided by Delta Air Lines.
Under the new Hong Kong new Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s leadership, the administration is expected to focus on education funding, resolving affordable housing issues, developing an Information Technology and creative industry economy, according to Slosar.
With a record number of more than 70 well-trained teams and more than 500 participants competing from across the U.S., this year’s festival is notable in its scale and fierce competition.
He shared with the audience on the opportunities arising in Hong Kong resulting from the greater integration of the region via the Greater Bay Area and Lok Ma Chau Loop projects.
“This event is the best team building experience for any participating groups. Teams will learn to work together and have fun together,” said Gene Hanratty, the founder and festival organizer.
In addition, he also discussed the prospects of business opportunities arising from Beijing’s Belt and Road investment initiative.
This year’s corporate team race looks to be a good one, with 16 corporate teams joining to race for their companies. There are also collegiate, high schools, non-profits, and cancer survivor races. The festival has attracted a diverse audience of more than 8,000 attendees annually for the past 10 years.
The opening ceremony will be he lad at 12 noon to kick off the multicultural celebration. It will feature traditional lion dances, Taiko drums performers, classical Laotian dancers, Bollywood dancers, and much more. The festival is organized by the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival with support from Hong Kong Association and Lanier Canoe and Kayaking Club. The presenting sponsor of the annual event is the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York. The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival is free, open to the public, and will take place rain or shine. Parking is $10.00 per vehicle. Major sponsors of 2017 festival included Harrahs Cherokee Casinos, UPS, Delta Airlines, NACA, AT&T, Kimberley-Clark, Farmer’s Baskets, Home Depot, and Georgia Asian Times. For more information on the 2017 Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, visit www.dragonboatatlanta.com
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August 1-15, 2017 Georgia Asian Times
BUSINESS Google’s firing of memo writer strikes nerve in Silicon Valley
San Francisco, August 8, 2017 — A Silicon Valley culture war pitting liberal-leaning tech firms against a small conservative cohort took on new intensity on Tuesday after Google fired a male engineer for a memo that decried the company’s commitment to hiring women. Memo author James Damore, 28, received jeers, cheers and a couple of job offers, while the debate raged on social media and some tech firms took steps to prevent similar episodes from embroiling their companies. Damore confirmed his dismissal from Alphabet Inc’s Google on Monday, after he wrote a 10-page memo that said the company was hostile to conservative viewpoints and that women on average have more neuroticism. Many in Silicon Valley found his views, which argued that men in general may be biologically more suited to coding jobs than women, offensive and destructive. The manifesto was embraced by some, particularly on the political right, who branded him a brave truth-teller. The episode recalled past examples of the wide gulf between U.S. conservative activists and the tech sector. In 2014, Brendan Eich was forced out as Mozilla’s chief executive after his opposition to gay marriage became public. Most technology executives held the opposite view, and tech companies often gave benefits to same-sex couples well before gay marriage was legalized. “Anyone who deviates from the talking points of the liberal left is shunned, shamed and forced out,” Andrew Torba, chief executive of the
social network Gab, said in an interview.
Inc and of several venture capital firms have led to management shake-ups.
Torba, whose company is popular among conservatives, said Damore could work for him.
The U.S. Labor Department is investigating Google to see whether the firm has unlawfully paid women less than men. Google denies that it does.
WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, whose group released hacked emails that helped the campaign of Republican U.S. President Donald Trump, also offered Damore a job, writing on Twitter that “censorship is for losers.” Firing Damore was too extreme and Google should have put him through training instead, said Aaron Ginn, co-founder of the Lincoln Network, a group of libertarian-leaning tech workers and investors. “You’re going to make him a martyr. In this hyper-tribal political day we are in, I think you’d want to try to avoid making him a martyr,” Ginn said. Intense political feelings recently divided two board members of Facebook Inc, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. Last August, Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix Inc, warned investor Peter Thiel in an email that Thiel’s support for Trump showed “catastrophically bad judgment,” the newspaper reported. The outcome of that dispute is not known. Hastings and Thiel remain on Facebook’s board. Facebook declined to comment. More generally, Silicon Valley tech companies have been under mounting criticism for not doing enough to promote gender equality and stamp out sexual harassment. Claims of persistent sexual harassment in the ranks of Uber Technologies
CODES OF CONDUCT Google, which has used the motto “Don’t be evil,” received accolades from many quarters for treating Damore’s memo as a threat to its corporate culture. “What he wrote is extremely toxic to the tech community we are trying to support. He’s categorizing us in a way that makes us seem weak or incompetent,” said Adriana Gascoigne, founder of the San Francisco nonprofit Girls in Tech. Josh Reeves, chief executive at Gusto, a software company, said he expected the topic would come up at its all-staff meeting on Wednesday. Gusto’s code of conduct “specifically prohibits a memo like Damore’s,” Reeves said, if the memo would be offensive to individuals in a protected group. Damore, who could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, said in an email to Reuters on Monday that he was exploring a possible legal challenge to his dismissal. His case would likely be weak, employment lawyers said, and some lawyers said Google could have faced lawsuits if it had not acted against him. Google said it could not talk about individual employee cases.
U.S. companies have broad latitude to restrict the speech of employees in private workplaces, where First Amendment protections against government censorship do not apply. Damore’s title at Google was software engineer and he had worked at the company since December 2013, according to a profile on LinkedIn. The LinkedIn page also says Damore received a PhD in systems biology from Harvard University in 2013. Harvard said on Tuesday he completed a master’s degree in the subject, not a PhD. Industry experts note that in the early days of tech it was mostly women who held the then-unglamorous jobs of coding. But as the value of top-notch programming became clear, men came to dominate the field. Other tech companies on Tuesday were closely watching the controversy at Google unfold, and grateful they were not the ones caught in another debate over gender and diversity. “Every large organization has a James Damore - but at tech companies, they’re more liberated to share their personal views,” an executive at one major Silicon Valley firm said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Tech firms have an abundance of “smart, confident people who think they have an obligation to share their wisdom with their coworkers,” the executive said. - Reuters
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August 1-15, 2017 Georgia Asian Times
ENTERTAINMENT
Linkin Park says can never replace late singer New York, July 25, 2017 -- Linkin Park said Monday it could never replace singer Chester Bennington after his suicide as the band acknowledged that his “demons” had fed his music. After three days of shocked silence since Bennington hanged himself, the chart-topping California metal band hailed the “outpouring of love and support” and said Linkin Park’s future was uncertain. “Your absence leaves a void that can never be filled — a boisterous, funny, ambitious, creative, kind, generous voice in the room is missing,” the band said in a statement. “We’re trying to remind ourselves that the demons who took you away from us were always part of the deal. After all, it was the way you sang about those demons that made everyone fall in love with you in the first place. “You fearlessly put them on display, and in doing so, brought us together and taught us to be more human. You had the biggest heart, and managed to wear it on your sleeve.” Bennington, 41, had been open about his struggles to overcome drug and alcohol abuse and low self-image, caused in part by being molested as a child.
The Arizona-born singer brought his raw rage into Linkin Park, which blended metal with pop song structure and rapping by guitarist and songwriter Mike Shinoda. A coroner’s report confirmed that Bennington committed suicide. An employee at his Los Angeles home found him hanging by a belt Thursday morning — which would have been the birthday of his friend Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, another celebrated rock singer who recently killed himself. Linkin Park had been due to start a tour a week later. In the statement, the band said that Bennington had been speaking about future plans together. “While we don’t know what path our future may take, we know that each of our lives was made better by you. Thank you for that gift. We love you, and miss you so much,” the statement said. Linkin Park over the weekend set up a website dedicated to Bennington with tributes by fans and information for suicidal people who need help.
Next James Bond film set for November 2019, no word on 007 star Los Angeles, July 25, 2017 -- James Bond is returning to movie theaters in November 2019, producers said on Monday, but they did not say who will play Britain’s most famous fictional spy. Eon Productions and MGM studios said in a statement that the 25th Bond film will be released in US theaters on Nov. 8, 2019, with a slightly earlier release in Britain. They gave no title, casting or other details. Britain’s Daniel Craig has played Bond in the last four films, including 2012’s “Skyfall” and 2015’s “Spectre.” The 2015 film took some US$880 million at the global box office, according to film tracker His reprisal of the role for a fifth time has been the subject of much speculation after the actor said in 2015 that he would rather slash his wrists than play Bond again. Callum McDougall, the executive producer of the Bond film franchise, told Britain’s BBC Radio last year that Craig, 49, was “absolutely the first choice … We would love Daniel to return as Bond.” Meanwhile, actors such as Idris Elba, Tom Hiddleston and Tom Hardy have all been named as potential candidates to step into the fast cars and sharply tailored suits of Bond, MI6’s secret agent 007.
With its futuristic gadgets, menacing super villains and larger-than-life explosions, the Bond series is the longest-running film franchise in history, with actors such as Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan inhabiting the role of the leading man. The new film will be written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who wrote the last four movies in the franchise.
Georgia Asian Times August 1-15, 2017
EVENTS
Wreath Laying Ceremony at GA State Capitol - Aug 21, 2017
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EVENTS
August 1-15, 2017 Georgia Asian Times
John Slosar, Swire Group Chairman, keynote luncheon address Aug 5, 2017
L-R: Cesar Mitchell, President of Atlanta City Council, John Slosar, Chairman of Swire Group, Lani Wong, Chairman of NACA, Shandry Law, President of Farmer’s Basket.
L-R: John Rice-GE Capital, Cesar Mitchell, Lani Wong, John Slosar
Georgia Asian Times August 1-15, 2017
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ART
7 museum openings still to come in 2017 The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Opening: September 9 Founded in 1984 as the Santa Monica Museum of Art, ICA LA will reopen in a space designed by wHY in LA’s arts district. The inaugural exhibition “Martín Ramírez: his Life in Pictures, Another Interpretation” explores the Mexican artist’s experiences as a migrant laborer during the Great Depression. www.theicala.org Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, South Africa Opening: September 22 This major museum of contemporary art from Africa and the African diaspora is set to open at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, in a historic grain silo complex that has been reimagined by Heatherwick Studio. Spread over nine
floors, it will display works from the Zeitz Collection, founded by business entrepreneur Jochen Zeitz. www.zeitzmocaa.museum Design Society, Shenzhen, China Opening: October  This cultural space and design museum is founded in partnership with London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. The V&A will exhibit works from its collection in one of two galleries, beginning with the exhibition “Values of Design.” The main Design Society gallery will open with a show called “Minding the Digital.” designsociety.cn/en Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami Opening: December 1 ICA Miami moves into a new home
in time for Art Basel Miami Beach. Major new commissions will be displayed in the ground-floor galleries and sculpture garden, while opening exhibition “The Everywhere Studio” explores the evolution of the artist’s studio with works by 50 artists over five decades. www.icamiami.org Musée Yves Saint Laurent, Paris and Marrakech Opening: October Two museums devoted to the French couturier are set to open this fall, with the Paris opening set for October 3. In Marrakech, more than 5,000 items of clothing and 15,000 haute couture accessories will be on display, while the Paris museum promises an ever-changing display of the designer’s work. www.fondation-pb-ysl.net www.museeyslmarrakech.com/ en
Louvre Abu Dhabi Opening: 2017 The long-awaited Louvre Abu Dhabi is expected to open its doors before the end of the year, with an opening date to be announced soon. In a building designed by Jean Nouvel, it promises a large permanent collection as well as masterpieces on loan from French institutions and commissions by contemporary artists. www.louvreabudhabi.ae
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Georgia Asian Times
LIFESTYLE
Smiley faces to rolling eyes: Where do all those emojis come from?
Computer security: Beware of hackers when choosing a password To help Internet users pick passwords that haven’t already fallen into the hands of hackers, the founder of the website HaveIBeenPwned.com has published an impressive list of more than 300 million names and character strings that have been stolen in recent years in the course of hacking attacks and massive security breaches. The list can be downloaded for free. Every year, huge amounts of personal data are accumulated by computer hackers around the world.
check to see if their personal data has been pirated, by simply inputing an email address or password. If the address or password features in the list of stolen data, the site generates a list of known security failures and the user accounts concerned. This will include information on all the break-ins and other incidents of hackers gaining illegal access to website data.
Anyone may be affected by incidents of this type, as the attacks that compromised Yahoo and LinkedIn in recent years will attest.
If a password has already been used by hackers, clearly it should be changed, and users should make sure that any new password does not feature in the compromised list of 306 million character strings.
Now the website HavelBeenPwned. com is offering access to a comprehensive list of 306 million passwords that have been made public without their owners’ knowledge. In all, this amounts to a download of 5.3 gigabytes, which could prove handy when it’s time to pick a new password.
At the same time, Internet users are advised to use two-factor identification for important accounts (email, social networks, etc.) wherever possible. This involves making access to accounts conditional on the input of both a traditional password as well as a code obtained via SMS or email.
But be warned that this data may have passed through the hands of ill-intentioned people, and there is no actual proof that all the character strings have already been used, but if a password is included in the list, it’s best avoided.
Two-factor identification will also issue a warning in the event of an attempt to hack in to an account. When this happens it’s obviously time to change your password.
HaveIBeenPwned.com already offers a service that enables Internet users to
Download the list of 306 million passwords accumulated by computer hackers: haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords
Los Angeles, July 28, 2017 — Cheery Hi-5, a snobbish Poop and a conflicted Meh have starring roles in the animated “The Emoji Movie,” which imagines a world inside cellphones where emojis rebel against portraying just one emotion all their lives. Yet the dozen or so people who select and release the tiny, ubiquitous characters globally are far removed from the glitz of Hollywood, where the Sony Pictures movie, which begins its global rollout on Friday, was developed. The humans who toil in obscurity to shape and approve new emojis are part of the Unicode Consortium, a Silicon Valley-based group of computer and software corporations and individual volunteers with backgrounds in technology, encoding and linguistics. From smiley faces to thumbs up, there are now some 2,600 different emojis worldwide and, according to a July Facebook Inc report, more than 60 million a day are sent on the No. 1 social media network alone. The consortium approves about 50100 new emojis every year, not counting the different skin tones for people emoji, after a rigorous application and review process, said Mark Davis, president and co-founder of the group. The latest batch, released in June and reaching phones and other devices in coming months, include a star-struck emoji, an exploding head, a group of wizards, mermaids and a woman wearing a hijab. “We get submissions from all over the world,” Davis said in an interview. “The hijab emoji came from a Saudi Arabian young woman who is living in Germany who made a very compelling
proposal. I’m looking forward to the exploding head – I think that’s going to be very popular. “People need to make a case as to why they think their emoji is going to be frequently used, how it breaks new ground, how it is different from other emojis that have already been encoded.” Logos, brands and emojis tied to specific companies are not accepted. “We also don’t accept specific people. We did encode a cowboy but we wouldn’t encode John Wayne,” Davis said. Some concepts just do not translate as emoji. “Anything that needs a lot of detail to explain or understand is trouble. It’s also hard to make an emoji for something abstract – like good governance, or a responsible president,” Davis said. Davis said there are 2,666 emojis worldwide. The LOL emoji with tears of laughter is the most popular, according to a July Facebook survey of its 2 billion monthly users, followed by the heart eyes emoji. Italians and Spaniards favor the kissing emoji. The consortium played no part in the making of “The Emoji Movie,” Davis said, because all of its work is opensource, available to all, and no permissioning was needed. Nevertheless, he never imagined that the computer-generated punctuation marks that originated in Japan in the 1980s would become Hollywood stars. “That’s something that never really crossed our minds,” Davis said.
Georgia Asian Times August 1-15, 2017
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SPORTS
Mourinho has United squad to work his magic London, Aug 4 , 2017— Although they won two major trophies last season, a sixth-placed Premier League finish cannot be heralded as a success for a club of Manchester United’s size and pedigree. With the new season fast approaching, however, there is an air of optimism around Old Trafford with a squad now bearing the resemblance of one on which Jose Mourinho can work his magic. Mourinho identified two key positions to strengthen in the close season. Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s goals needed replacing, long term, and in Romelu Lukaku, Mourinho has a direct, channel-running hitman with a scoring record to rival the very best. Mourinho is not a possession-based coach. United strolled to Europa League glory against Ajax in May with under 31 per cent of the ball. Lukaku has the engine to make the runs for Paul Pogba to pick with his long, ranging passes on the counter, but can still act as that first line of defence to appease his cautious manager. “Some people said they (United) did not play good football, but we are not in the circus,” former United full back Patrice Evra told MUTV. “If you want to enjoy football then, yes 2008 was great and different, but people have to forget that and concentrate on this current Manchester United team.”
This United team now comes complete with Mourinho’s piece de resistance from his summer transfer activity. Whether it was Costinha at Porto — a player Mourinho described as his “assistant coach on the pitch”, or Claude Makelele at Chelsea, that holding midfielder is the one Mourinho has built his teams around. Nemanja Matic, who anchored Chelsea to Premier League glory under Mourinho in 2014-15, completed his move to United on Monday and Mourinho has his fulcrum once again. “Nemanja is a Jose Mourinho player,” Mourinho said. “He represents everything we want in a footballer.” With Victor Lindelof providing addition defensive cover, all the pieces are in place. The formation Mourinho will deploy remains unclear, but the fact he has so many options is a cause for great excitement among United fans.
Villas-Boas says China transfer largesse over Shanghai, Aug 5, 2017 — Andre Villas-Boas believes the heady days of big spending in the Chinese league are over, calling swingeing new regulations that stymied the transfer market “a big surprise”.
“But I don’t think the spending will continue as it was before.”
The Shanghai SIPG coach has the Brazilian stars Oscar and Hulk at the club after Chinese Super League (CSL) teams splashed the cash in the winter and in transfer windows before that.
But with him, Hulk and another Brazilian Elkeson firing the side to second in the CSL this season, Villas-Boas said the club had not planned “to do a lot” in the past transfer window, irrespective of the new rules.
But the Chinese Football Association (CFA) moved to limit the largesse and in the most recent summer transfer window clubs mostly signed freebies, loanees and has-beens.
In June, just as the window opened, the CFA said Chinese clubs paying more than 45 million yuan for a foreign player would need to pay a 100 per cent surcharge to a fund to develop the local game.
The most high-profile arrival was French striker Anthony Modeste to Tianjin Quanjian — who Villas-Boas and his Shanghai side face tomorrow in the CSL.
The football may not always be the most attractive, but his conservative focus has proven successful throughout Europe.
Modeste joined Tianjin on loan from Cologne in Germany with a view to a €29-million permanent move, but Villas-Boas said today: “The change of regulations implicates that the market will probably stop in China regarding this kind of (expensive) transfer.
Mourinho has the personnel to exert this style of play, and should his new arrivals produce the goods, a serious title tilt could well be on the cards. — Reuters
“We will see how it moves forward next year. For now the market is closed, (players can) only exit and when it opens (in the winter) we will see.
After a first season of transition, this is a now Mourinho team.
Attacking midfielder Oscar joined SIPG in January from Chelsea for an Asian-record €60 million.
The move was designed to discourage heavy spending on overseas players and instead see cash go on promoting Chinese players. Villas-Boas, a former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur manager, said the mid-season changes came as a nasty surprise. “What we were expecting before, in the beginning of the season (in March) was for the rules not to change. “This was the big surprise of this season.”
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August 1-15, 2017 Georgia Asian Times
SPORTS
Injured Wawrinka to miss US Open title defence
Neymar denies money was motivation for record deal Paris, Aug 4 — Neymar, the world’s most expensive footballer, said today money was never the motivating factor in his record €222 million (USD $250 million) transfer from Barcelona to Paris St Germain. The Brazilian forward told a news conference on his arrival in the French capital that he was motivated by desire for a new challenge and said he wanted to make his debut tomorrow. “I wanted a bigger challenge, and my heart made this decision and I followed my heart,” he told reporters at the Parc des Princes stadium.
Neymar denied that he had tired of playing second-fiddle to Lionel Messi at Barcelona.
Paris, Aug 4, 2017 — Reigning US Open champion Stan Wawrinka will miss his title defence to have knee surgery and will sit out the rest of the year, the world number four announced today. The three-time Grand Slam champion had already pulled out of the upcoming ATP tournaments in Montreal and Cincinnati, and joins last year’s US Open runner-up Novak Djokovic on the sidelines for the remainder of 2017.
“It’s not that I wanted to be the big star at Barcelona,” he said
“This was the only solution to make sure I will be able to compete at the top level for many more years,” Wawrinka said in a statement on Facebook.
“That’s not what I’m looking for here. I’m looking for a new challenge, new trophies, and this is what motivates me.”
“This is obviously extremely disappointing, but I’m already looking ahead and planning my recovery.
Club president Nasser al-Khelaifi, who introduced the player as “an idol for the whole world”, backed up Neymar’s assertion that he could have gone elsewhere for more money.
“I love this sport and I will work hard to get back to my top level and play many more years. I will see you all in 2018!”
PSG fans may only have to wait a few days to see if their new superstar player is worth the money.
The 32-year-old Wawrinka, like Djokovic, will be hoping the time off can help him come back revitalised after a difficult month that included a first-round exit at Wimbledon.
“If it was just about money, I could have gone somewhere else.
“I can play tomorrow (against Amiens). Why not? I’ll speak to the staff, but I really want to play. I haven’t discussed where I will play. I will play where the coach wants me to.”
On Thursday, Wawrinka admitted that the knee injury had hampered him during that shock defeat to unseeded Russian Daniil Medvedev in London.
“Being the most expensive player in the world is not a burden. I weigh 69kg. I don’t have a burden on me.”
“I only stopped playing in the last two days and I’m hungry to play football.” — Reuters
The four-set victory over Djokovic in the final at Flushing Meadows last year gave Wawrinka his third major crown,
“Money was never my motivation,” said the player who is reportedly being paid €45 million a year. “I want to be happy, and I want my family to be happy. I’m really sad to hear that people think this way.
taking him level with current world number one Andy Murray, who has been struggling with a hip injury and hasn’t played since Wimbledon. This season Wawrinka has had fluctuating fortunes, but did reach his second French Open final where he was thrashed by Rafael Nadal. He will be hoping to emulate the Spaniard and his legendary fellow Swiss Roger Federer, after both returned from lengthy absences to claim Grand Slam titles this season. Federer, who turns 36 next week, also did not play last year after Wimbledon, but has won both the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year and will be looking for a 20th major title in New York when the US Open gets underway on August 28. With Wawrinka fourth in the world rankings, one place above Djokovic, 2014 champion and sixth-ranked Marin Cilic is likely to be the fourth seed, a month after finishing runner-up at Wimbledon. However, Cilic, who has an adductor injury, is skipping the Montreal Masters next week as is Murray. Because of the lost ranking points, Wawrinka will definitely slip out of the world’s top eight by the start of next year, and could be as low as 11th.
Georgia Asian Times August 1-15, 2017
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HEALTH High-fat diet linked to lung cancer risk People who eat a lot of saturated fat – the “bad” kind of fat that’s abundant in foods like butter and beef – are more likely to develop lung cancer than individuals on low-fat diets, a recent study suggests. Compared to adults who didn’t get a lot of fat in their diets, people who ate the most total fat and saturated fat were 14% more likely to get lung malignancies, the study found. For current and former smokers, the added risk of a high fat diet was 15%. While the best way to lower the risk of lung cancer is to not smoke, “a healthy diet may also help reduce lung cancer risk,” said study co-author Danxia Yu of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. “Specifically, our findings suggest that increasing polyunsaturated fat intake while reducing saturated fat intake, especially among smokers and recent quitters, may (help prevent) not only cardiovascular disease but also lung cancer,” she said. The American Heart Association recommends the Dietary Approaches
To Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet or a Mediterranean-style diet to help prevent cardiovascular disease. Both diets emphasize cooking with vegetable oils with unsaturated fats, eating nuts, fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, whole grains, fish and poultry, and limiting red meat and added sugars and salt. “Those guidelines are the same for avoiding heart disease, stroke and diabetes, and I would say they are also exactly the same for helping with cancer prevention in general and lung cancer in particular,” said Dr. Nathan Berger, a researcher at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center who wasn’t involved in the study. “This doesn’t mean you need to throw away all the steak and butter in your freezer, but cutting back to once a week would be good for you,” Berger said in a phone interview. For the current study, researchers examined data from 10 previously published studies in the United States, Europe and Asia that looked at how dietary fat intake influences the odds of lung malignancies.
Combined, the smaller studies had more than 1.4 million participants, including 18,822 with cases of lung cancer identified during an average follow-up of more than nine years. Researchers sorted participants into five categories, from lowest to highest consumption of total and saturated fats. They also sorted participants into five groups ranging from the lowest to highest amounts of dietary unsaturated fats. Overall, people who ate the most unsaturated fats were 8 percent less likely to develop lung cancer than people who ate the least amounts, researchers report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Substituting five percent of calories from saturated fat with unsaturated fat was associated with a 16% lower risk of small cell lung cancer and 17 percent lower odds of another type of lung malignancy known as squamous cell carcinoma. One limitation of the study is that dietary information was only obtained at one point, the authors note. This
makes it impossible to track how changes in eating habits might influence the odds of cancer. They also didn’t account for two other things that may contribute to cancer – sugar and trans fats, Glen Lawrence, a biochemistry researcher at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York, said by email. Previous research has also found that unsaturated oils may increase the risk of certain cancers, added Lawrence, who wasn’t involved in the current study. It’s also possible that other bad eating habits, not fat, contribute to the increased risk of lung cancer, said Ursula Schwab of the Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition at the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio. “We need antioxidants, vitamins and minerals as well as unsaturated fatty acids,” Schwab, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “A typical Western diet has a low content of these essential nutrients and a high content of saturated fat.”
Study: Gum disease linked to higher cancer risk in women New York, Aug 2, 2017 -- Women who have a history of gum disease face a higher risk of several types of cancer, particularly tumors in the esophagus and breasts, a US study found Tuesday. “A history of periodontal disease was associated with a 14 percent higher risk of developing any cancer,” said the study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. “The strongest association was for cancer of the esophagus, which was more than three times more likely in women with periodontal disease than women.”
More research is needed to find out exactly how gum disease may promote cancer, she added.
Researchers also uncovered a “significantly higher risk” of lung cancer, gallbladder cancer, melanoma and breast cancer.
One theory is that harmful pathogens could be carried in saliva and dental plaque, or through diseased gum tissues into the blood circulation.
The study spanned 1999 to 2013, and involved more than 65,000 post-menopausal women who filled out questionnaires about their health. The women, aged 54 to 86, were followed for an average of eight years. Previous research has shown people with gum disease face a higher risk of certain cancers. This study is the first to focus on
gum disease’s link to all cancers, and in an all-female population, said senior author Jean Wactawski-Wende, dean of the School of Public Health at State University of New York at Buffalo.
“The esophagus is in close proximity to the oral cavity, and so periodontal pathogens may more easily gain access to and infect the esophageal mucosa and promote cancer risk at that site,” Wactawski-Wende said.
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August 1-15, 2017 Georgia Asian Times
Misc Asia
Indonesia jails man who grew marijuana to treat cancer-stricken wife Jakarta, Aug 2, 2017 -: An Indonesian court on Borneo island jailed a man on Wednesday for eight months after he grew medicinal marijuana to help ease the suffering of his cancer-stricken wife, who died shortly after his arrest, his lawyer said.
The sister of the convicted man, Yohana, also said the family was still weighing up whether he should appeal.
Indonesia, which has drug laws that are among the world’s strictest, has been jailing a record number of users and dealers because of what the government says is a drugs emergency facing the country.
Rights groups and legal activists condemned the verdict.
The hardline approach to drugs is broadly popular in the Southeast Asian country, but the story of Fidelis Arie Sudewarto has stirred the sympathy and outrage of rights activists. The Sanggau district court in West Kalimantan province jailed Sudewarto for eight months and fined him 1 billion rupiah ($75,000), his lawyer Marcelina Lin said by telephone from the court. The term was longer than the five months sought by the prosecution. According to his lawyer, the court had found that Sudewarto did not have a permit to use marijuana and had supplied it to another person, although he said the judge accepted that he was not a user or a dealer. Lin said his client, a father of two, had cried on hearing the verdict and was still considering whether to appeal. He is now being held in the Sanggau Correctional Institute.
“Because any decision won’t make his wife come back,” she said in a telephone text message.
“Fidelis might have committed a crime in planting those marijuana bushes but it was done in an emergency situation,” said Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch. “He did that planting for his love of his wife. He should not be jailed for loving his wife,” said Harsono. The Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) also called for all charges to be dropped. “This case should open the government’s eyes, especially those of the president whose statements about the war on drugs…have resulted in Fidelis becoming one of the victims.” President Joko Widodo recently told law enforcement officers to shoot drug traffickers to deal with the narcotics emergency in Indonesia. Widodo has also been criticised by rights groups and some foreign governments for ordering the executions of convicted drug traffickers.
Jay Park first Asian-American to sign with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Seoul, July 24, 2017 — Jay Park has signed with Jay-Z′s entertainment company, Roc Nation.
After starting off as a B-Boy in the US, Park moved to Seoul to pursue a career in the music industry.
He is also the first Asian-American to sign with Roc Nation.
In 2008, he joined K-pop group 2PM. After leaving in 2009, he began a solo career and has enjoyed a series of hits like Mommae and You Know.
On July 21, Roc Nation shared a photo on their official Instagram with the message, “ICYMI: Welcome @ JParkitrighthere to the #RocFam!” At the same time, the Seattle-born hip-hop artist announced the news on his official Instagram, calling it a win for Asian Americans and a win for “hard work and dedication,” and promised that he’s “just gettin’ started.” Roc Nation was established by Jay-Z in 2008. Other artists on its roster include Rihanna, J. Cole, DJ Khaled and Big Sean.
Meanwhile, his albums have performed well on both the Heatseekers and World Albums charts, with last year’s Everything You Wanted peaking at No. 3 on the latter. Park is also a co-founder of independent hip-hop label AOMG and produces Mnet′s Show Me the Money 6.
Georgia Asian Times August 1-15, 2017
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Misc Asia Singapore PM’s nephew says will not return home to face charges Singapore, Aug 3, 2017 - Li Shengwu, the nephew of Singapore’s prime minister, who will face contempt of court proceedings for comments he made suggesting the city-state’s courts were not independent, said on Saturday he would not be returning to Singapore.
Japan police scrutinize wreckage after blaze at world’s largest fish market Tokyo, Aug 3, 2017 - Japanese police and fire investigators sifted through the charred wreckage of parts of the world’s largest fish market, a day after fire tore through seven buildings at the popular Tokyo tourist site. The 80-year-old Tsukiji market draws tens of thousands of visitors a year to its warren of stalls laden with exotic species of fish and fresh sushi. No people were injured in the fire that broke out late on Thursday and sent gray smoke billowing over the city, but 935 square meters of shops and restaurants in seven buildings were destroyed, a Tokyo Fire Department spokesman said. “At this point we can’t say anything about the cause, it’s still under investigation,” he added. “There’s no information indicating arson, but again, it’s still too early to say.” Media reports said the fire appeared to originate in a three-storey building and that people in the area had reported smelling smoke prior to the fire’s start in Tsukiji’s “outer” market - an area packed with informal restaurants where tourists can tuck into fresh seafood plates and sushi. Most establishments in the area, which bustles with customers during
the morning and early afternoon, had already closed for the day when the fire began. The Tsukiji “inner” market, where most seafood wholesalers are located and world-famous tuna auctions are carried out at dawn, was not affected.
The office of Singapore’s attorney general said on Friday it will seek to begin contempt of court proceedings against Li, a U.S.-based academic, over Facebook posts he made on July 15. The legal move is the latest twist in a family feud over the fate of late Singapore founding father Lee Kwan Yew’s house that gripped the nation last month. In his post, Li, nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and a son of Lee’s brother, Lee Hsien Yang, described the Singapore government as “litigious” and the courts as “pliant”.
knowledging that his comments about the judiciary were baseless. It said Li had failed to meet those requirements by the stipulated deadline of 5:00 p.m. local time, Friday, which had been pushed back from July 28 at Li’s request. “As Mr Li has failed to purge the contempt and to apologize by the extended deadline, an application for leave to commence committal proceedings for contempt against him will today be filed in the High Court,” the statement said. Earlier on Friday, Li said on Facebook he had amended his original July 15 post to clarify any misunderstandings. However, he said he did not believe the post was in contempt of court.
In June, Tokyo’s governor announced a long-delayed plan to move Tsukiji from its current site on some of the city’s most prime real estate to a man-made island with contaminated soil. The outer market is not scheduled to move.
Li’s July 15 post was shared on a privacy setting that allows content to only be viewed by his Facebook friends. He said on Friday the intent of that post was to convey the “international media were restricted in their ability to report” on a recent feud between Prime Minister Lee and his siblings “due to the litigious nature” of the government.
Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike said the market’s age and vulnerability to a big earthquake meant it had to be rebuilt.
“It is not my intent to attack the Singapore judiciary or to undermine public confidence in the administration of justice,” he said.
At the fire’s peak, some 66 fire trucks and scores of firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze, their efforts hampered by narrow streets and tightly-packed buildings. The fire was brought under control around midnight and extinguish Friday morning. Among the places destroyed was a ramen noodle shop extremely popular with foreign tourists, media said. “The second floor’s a total loss, and everything on the first floor was completely soaked,” one shop owner told NHK public broadcaster. - Reuters
Li, 32, is currently a junior fellow at Harvard University and told Reuters he expected to commence an assistant professor position with the university in the fall of 2018. He said he would seek to defend himself through legal representation in Singapore but would not be returning to the country. “I have no intention of going back to Singapore. I have a happy life and a fulfilling job in the U.S.,” he said in an interview. In a statement on Friday, the attorney general’s chambers said it had previously instructed Li to remove the post and issue a letter of apology ac-
The public spat between the Lee siblings, children of Lee Kuan Yew, flared in June over the future of the family home and raised questions about governance in the city-state. Lee Hsien Yang and sister Lee Wei Ling accused their elder brother of abusing his powers, prompting the prime minister to call an extraordinary special sitting of parliament in July to “clear the air” over an issue that some people say has tarnished Singapore’s image. - Reuters
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August 1-15, 2017 Georgia Asian Times
TRAVEL
Summer in the city: Five off-thebeaten-track museums in London London, July 30, 2017 — If you’re in the UK capital this summer and are looking for alternatives to the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and Piccadilly Circus, take the opportunity to discover some of London’s smaller and lesser-known museums. You won’t need all day, but Pollock’s Toy Museum is still worth the detour into London’s Fitzrovia. All the family will enjoy the six small rooms full of dolls, puppets, bears and toys from around the world. The grandson of Marguerite Fawdry, who first started the museum initially in an attic room by Covent Garden in 1956, now runs the museum. New London Architecture A must for Londoners who want to keep up to date with what their city’s urban future looks like, the NLA is a free and fascinating place to spend a couple of hours. Highly recommended is the New London Awards 2017 exhibition (July 22 - October 4, 2017), a
selection of designs touted as the best new and proposed projects in London. Geffrye Museum Self-described at “the museum of the home,” the Geffrye Museum has a wide variety of collections, exhibitions and ongoing events. Discover London living and design trends from 1600 to the present day, and enjoy the beautiful award-winning gardens, based on the layout and content of urban middle-class gardens since the 17th century. Located a little north of the city, and away from the museum district, queuing and overcrowding is rarely a problem here. The Garden Museum Speaking of appreciating a well-kept British garden, the Garden Museum might not be enormous, but is a lovely way to spend an hour or two. Set up in 1977 in order to rescue the abandoned church of St Mary’s from demolition, now the compact but bright and airy
space pays tribute to the prolific British botanist and gardener John Tradescant (c1570 - 1638), who is buried at the site. A mustard yellow and candy pink facade make this museum, founded in 2003 by the British designer Zhandra Rhodes and designed by Ricardo Legorreta, unmissable from the front. Currently, the museum is hosting an exhibition dedicated to “The World of Anna Sui” (through October 1). Popular creative workshops and ateliers are also run from the museum.