Covering The Multicultural Asian American Community in Georgia
www.gasiantimes.com September 15-30, 2016
Gas shortage in the Southeast
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September 15-30, 2016 Georgia Asian Times
Georgia Asian Times September 15-30, 2016
Publisher: Li Wong Account Manager: Adrian West Contributors: Andrian Putra, May Lee, Mark Ho Photographer: Ben Hioe
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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.
Mid Autumn Moon Festival Organized by Community Based Participatory Partnership Date: Sept 17, 2016 Time: 5:00 pm - 10 pm Venue: 1568 Indian Trail Lilburn Road, Norcross, GA 30093 For more info: moonfest2016@gmail. com JapanFest “Cooler Japan� Date: Sat-Sun, Sept 17-18 Time: 10 am - 6 pm Venue: Infinite Energy Center, 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth Admission: $10, children under 6 free For more info: www.japanfest.org
12th Atlanta Asian Film Festival Date: Oct 7-22, 2016 Venues: KSU, GPC Dunwoody, UWG, LeFont Sandy Springs For more info: www.atlaff.org
Laotian American Society (LAS) Annual Gala Date: Saturday, Nov 5, 2016 Time: 6:00 pm - 12:00 pm Venue: The Defoor Center 1710 Defoor Avenue, NW, Atlanta GA 30318 For more info: lasga.org
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September 15-30, 2016 Georgia Asian Times
METRO ASIAN NEWS
Mai Thai Restaurant owner shot and killed in robbery Tucker, Sept 11, 2016 — The owner of My Thai Restaurant was shot and died of his injuries during a robbery. 33-year old Aromsuk Somohot, was shot by two suspect as he was walking towards his car, according to DeKalb Police spokeswoman Shiera Campbell. Somohot was shot in his arm and torso. He died later in the evening due to the injuries. The suspects got away with a night drop that Somohot was carrying, Campbell said.
The robbery took place around 9:00 pm at Tucker Station Shopping center in the 4300 block of Hugh Howell Road. DeKalb Police requested anyone with information or eyewitness to report and call
Vietnamese UGA student missing at Lake Lanier Gainesville, Sept 15, 2016 — Georgia Department of Natural Resource is actively scouring Lake Lanier for the missing 19-year old University of Georgia student since last Wednesday. Lam Dang Ma was reported missing on September 7 when he went kayaking alone at Lake Lanier. His car was found parked at Two Mile Creek Park located nearby Gainesville.
His kayak was found by DNR on Sunday at the far end of Two Mile Island chain. Friends and family are actively searching the lake since last week. They have been circulating messages on FaceBook and social media alerting the public of the missing student.
Successful JapanFest 2016 attracts record crowd Duluth, Sept 19, 2016 — Visitors of various backgrounds were attracted to JapanFest 2016 at Infinite Energy Center for two days celebration of Japanese food, cultural performances, martial arts display, vendors, and sakes. Over 20,000 visitors visited the two-days festival, said an organizer based on unofficial estimates. p1070814The theme of the festival is “Cooler Japan” where organizer succeeded in showcasing the pop-culture of animes, otakus, J-Pop, and contemporary kabukis. Famous local Japanese restaurants such as Umaido, Taka, Boba Mocha, Sunos and Sushi Yoko provided visitors a taste of Japanese and Asian cuisines.
Highlight of the festival were the Kabuki performances by a visiting Kabuki troupe from Tokyo and Matzuriza Taiko Drum group from Orlando. Vendors selling teas, kimonos, handcrafted items such as pottery, art, Japanese snacks were popular with festival festival. Young millennials were attracted to the vendor area selling anime memobilias, t-shirts, Japanese swords, video games, etc. Visitor were also able to buy and sample over 20 different type of sakes and a variety of Japanese beers especially brought in for the festival.
September 15-30, 2016
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September 15-30, 2016 Georgia Asian Times
BUSINESS
U.S. pump prices rise as Colonial fixes gasoline pipeline leak Gasoline prices in the southeastern United States kept rising on Monday as Colonial Pipeline Co continued to fix a more-than-week long disruption on a key gasoline line that has led to complaints of long waits and price gouging at the pump. The leak, which was discovered on Sept. 9, released about 6,000 to 8,000 barrels (252,000-336,000 gallons) of gasoline in Shelby County, Alabama. The partial shutdown of the damaged Line 1, which carries about 1.3 million barrels per day of gasoline from the refining hub on the Gulf Coast to the East Coast, also roiled the markets. Benchmark gasoline futures gained 9 percent in the week following the leak, although futures pared losses on Monday, falling 2 percent to $1.4318 a gallon. Retail gasoline prices in Georgia, one of the hardest hit states, jumped nearly 6 cents overnight to Monday, or more than 20 cents higher than a week ago, to $2.316 a gallon on average, according to motorists’ advocacy group AAA. Richard Parks, 32, an electrician in Atlanta, said he saw the price of regular gas jump at a Shell Station in East Atlanta to $2.69 on Monday from $2.51 on Sunday. “I didn’t think it would get worse overnight, but it just did,” Parks said while waiting in a line to refuel on Monday. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed an executive order on Monday preventing gas stations from signifi-
cantly raising their fuel prices. In North Carolina, more than 400 consumers had filed complaints to report potential gas price gouging to Cooper’s Consumer Protection Division, as of 11 a.m. ET on Monday, State Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a statement. Many states have also allowed for an extension of the maximum number of hours truck drivers are allowed to drive in order to deliver gas products to the state. Availability of fuel has varied across the region, with long lines seen throughout Atlanta, as well as in Nashville, Tennessee. Patrick Sheehan of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said over the weekend that central and eastern Tennessee have had spotty unavailability of fuel.
company is constructing a bypass that circumvents the damaged line.
“There’s a very emotional response to the headlines,” said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at ClipperData. “So you see false indicators to demand when people fill up tanks due to shortage fears and that adds another layer of complexity.”
Colonial, the largest U.S. refined products pipeline system of about 2.6 million bpd, said on Monday it gathered gasoline from Gulf Coast refiners last week to transport the fuel on its distillate line to markets throughout the affected region.
Pump prices in Alabama ticked up to $2.01 on Monday while prices in Tennessee rose nearly 3 cents to $2.13 from $2.10 on Sunday, according to the AAA.
Shippers are also increasing waterborne shipments of fuel in order to make up for lost batches on Colonial and delays, sources said.
RELIEF SUPPLIES Colonial, which has not said what caused the leak, resumed repairs on Friday after vapors delayed work and it projects a full restart by this week. The
Larry Carr, 44, an Atlanta private contractor, was filling gasoline containers and piling them into the back of his Ford Explorer van just after topping up his tank at a Mobile station in the Grant Park neighborhood where it cost $2.49 for regular self-serve.
“Normally it would cost me $40 to fill her up, but today it cost $60 and I wasn’t even near empty,” he said. Of the gasoline cans, he said: “I’m going to take some of this to a friend who ran out of gas and get her going again.”
Georgia Asian Times September 15-30, 2016
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BUSINESS ASIA
G20 promises to coordinate on economy, but little in way of concrete steps Hangzhou, September 5, 2016 — Leaders from the world’s top economies broadly agreed at a summit in China on Monday to coordinate macroeconomic policies, but few concrete proposals emerged to meet growing challenges to globalization and free trade. At the two-day gathering in the scenic Chinese city of Hangzhou, the world’s most powerful leaders also agreed to oppose protectionism, with Chinese President Xi Jinping urging major economies to drive growth through innovation, not just fiscal and monetary measures. U.S. President Barack Obama watches as Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at the opening ceremony of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China September 4, 2016. REUTERS/Mark Schiefelbein/Pool U.S. President Barack Obama watches as Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at the opening ceremony of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China September 4, 2016. REUTERS/Mark Schiefelbein/Pool “We aim to revive growth engines of international trade and investment,” Xi said in a closing statement. “We will support multilateral trade mechanisms and oppose protectionism to reverse declines in global trade.” Discussions at the meeting were distracted by North Korea test-firing three medium-range ballistic missiles in a defiant reminder of the risks to global security. North Korea has tested missiles at sensitive times in the past to draw attention to its military might. But Monday’s launch risked embarrassing its main ally Beijing, which has gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure a smooth summit meeting. Beijing said it hoped relevant parties would avoid taking any actions that would escalate tensions. The United States called the launch reckless, while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
told U.S. President Barack Obama that it was unforgivable.
place behind an anti-immigrant party in a regional election on Sunday. “I’m very unsatisfied with the outcome of the election,” Merkel told reporters in Hangzhou.
On other fronts, the United States tried but failed to finalise a deal with Russia for a ceasefire in Syria on the sidelines of the summit.
“Obviously it has something to do with the refugee question. But I nevertheless believe the decisions made were right and we have to continue to work on them.”
Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a longer-than-expected discussion about whether, and how, they could agree on a deal, a senior U.S. administration official said.
One of the few areas where there was progress was in protecting the environment.
But in talks earlier on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were unable to come to terms on a ceasefire for the second time in two weeks, although they will meet again this week. The G20 called for the formation of a global forum to take steps to address steel excess capacity and encourage adjustments, the White House said in a statement, one of the controversial issues discussed at the summit. China produces half the world’s annual output of 1.6 billion tonnes of steel and has struggled to decrease its estimated 300 million tonne overcapacity, and rising prices have given companies there an incentive to boost production for export. ISOLATIONIST TREND With the summit taking place after Britain’s vote in June to exit the European Union and before the U.S. presidential election in November, G20 leaders had been expected to mount a defense of free trade and globalization and warn against isolationism. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who supports protectionist trade policies, has pulled into an effective tie with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, erasing a substantial deficit. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party was relegated to third
China and the United States ratified the Paris agreement on cutting climate-warming emissions on the eve of the G20 summit, setting the stage for other countries to follow suit. In a communique issued several hours after the close of the summit, the G20 leaders warned that global growth was weaker than anticipated, with downside risks continuing, and repeated the acknowledgement that monetary policy alone could not create balanced growth.
It said new challenges including terrorism and immigration complicated the global economic outlook, and that the G20 agreed use all policy tools available to drive strong and sustainable growth. British Prime Minister Theresa May, attending her first G20 summit, said governments needed to “do more to ensure that working people really benefit from the opportunities created by free trade.” “This discussion goes to the heart of how we build an economy that works for everyone.” International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, speaking after the summit, also said more inclusive growth was a priority in the global economy. “We need increased growth, but it must be better balanced, more sustainable, and inclusive so as to benefit all people,” she said. It was the last time that Obama attended a G20 summit. – Reuters
Atlanta Fed downgrades U.S. third-quarter GDP view to 2.9 percent Atlanta, Sept 20, 2016 -- The U.S. economy is on track to grow at a 2.9 percent annualized rate in the third quarter, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDP Now forecast model showed on Tuesday following the latest data on consumer prices and housing starts. The latest third-quarter GDP estimate was lower than the 3.0 percent figure calculated on Sept. 15, the Atlanta Fed said on its website. The forecast of third-quarter real residential investment growth remained at -6.3 percent following the August housing starts data released earlier on Tuesday. U.S. housing starts slowed 5.8 per-
cent to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.14 million units in August, the Commerce Department said. In the meantime, the projected third-quarter real consumer spending growth edged down to 3.0 percent from 3.1 percent after last Friday’s release of the August Consumer Price Index. The Labor Department said the CPI rose 0.2 percent last month after being unchanged in July. Atlanta Fed’s GDP forecast has fallen steadily on weaker-than-expected data since its initial forecast on third-quarter U.S. growth at 3.6 percent on Aug. 3.
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September 15-30, 2016 Georgia Asian Times
BUSINESS Apple unveils iPhone 7 but some still waiting for iPhone 8 San Francisco, September 8, 2016 — Apple Inc unveiled an iPhone 7 with high-resolution cameras and no headphone jack at its annual launch event Wednesday, though the biggest surprise was the debut of a three-decade-old Nintendo game franchise, Super Mario Bros, on the smartphone. While shares of Apple barely budged, Nintendo’s U.S.-listed shares jumped 29 pct on investors’ hopes that Super Mario would be another mobile gaming hit for the Japanese company akin to the wildly popular Pokemon Go. Much of the presentation headed by Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook was devoted to technical details of photography, wireless earphones, games from Nintendo, and a new version of Apple watch – with fitness features.
Honeywell brings 800 jobs with division HQ in midtown Atlanta, September 12, 2016 — Honeywell, a Fortune 100 company specializing in technology, software development and manufacturing, will invest $19 million and create more than 800 jobs in Fulton County. Honeywell’s state-of-the-art product development center in Midtown will create leading edge software offerings based on the latest Cloud, Mobility and Analytics technology. honeywell“We are excited that Honeywell has decided to open its software development center in Fulton County, “ said Board of Commissioners Chairman John H. Eaves. “Midtown is a growing technology bubble, home not only to many technology companies but also Georgia Tech. The talent that is available is top-notch and the area is continually a leader in innovation and creativity. Honeywell’s new software development center is a win-win for
Fulton County, Atlanta, and the State of Georgia.” Honeywell’s new center will develop software and technologies for the company’s strategic business groups: Honeywell Aerospace, Honeywell Home and Building Technologies (HBT), Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions, and Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies. The new software development center will create more than 730 full-time software engineering and related jobs, while the HBT headquarters will bring approximately 100 jobs to Midtown.
The biggest iPhone technical improvements all had leaked, and Apple itself spoiled the surprise by sending out tweets of some details before Cook spoke. The company then deleted the messages. Apple has reported declines in iPhone sales for the last two quarters, which raised the stakes for the iPhone 7. Some consumers and analysts are considering waiting until 2017. “Just gonna wait on iPhone 8 cuz it’s the 10th anniversary of iPhone,” Tweeted @LewBruh near the end of the event. “Ya know they gonna do something big.” But Mike Binger, senior portfolio manager at Gradient Investments LLC in Minneapolis, said the new phone encouraged him that Apple was in good shape for a new sales cycle. “I think the iPhone 7, just from a replacement basis, will be a successful launch,” he said. The world’s best-known technology company said the iPhone 7 would have
one, zooming 12-megapixel camera. Starting at $649, it is the same price as the 6S predecessor. The larger 7 ‘Plus’ edition, starting at $769, would feature two cameras, including a telephoto lens. Apple also removed the analog headphone jack from both new models, as was widely expected. The new headphones supplied by Apple with the phone will plug into the same port as the recharging cord, making it incompatible with most wired headphones without an adaptor. Apple includes the adapter. The phones will also work with Apple’s new wireless headphones, called Air Pods, available in late October at a price of $159. The disappearance of the headphone jack “will probably annoy a certain amount of people” but they would likely get over it, Binger said. Apple described dropping the jack as an act of courage as it moved toward a wireless future with the optional Air Pods. Getting rid of the jack also increased room for stereo speakers, and Apple sharpened the technology on most features, from the camera to a pressure-sensitive home button to a boost in memory. The new phone will start shipping in major markets, including the United States and China, on Sept. 16. Bob O’Donnell of research firm TECHnalysis said Apple’s new glossy black finish could be more popular than any tech feature, reflecting the slowdown in major tech innovations for smartphones. “While the camera improvements for the iPhone 7 Plus are nice, they are incremental for most and the lack of headphone jacks could offset that for others,” he said.
Georgia Asian Times September 15-30, 2016
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LIFESTYLE
Microsoft develops AI to help cancer doctors find the right treatments San Francisco, Sept 20, 2016 — There are hundreds of new cancer drugs in development and new research published minute to minute, helping doctors treat patients with personalized combinations that target the specific building blocks of their disease. The problem is there’s too much to read and too many drug combinations for doctors to choose the best option every time. Enter a Microsoft Research machine-learning project, dubbed Hanover, that aims to ingest all the papers and help predict which drugs and which combinations are most effective, according to the company. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University’s Knight Cancer Institute are working with Hanover’s architect, Hoifung Poon, to use the system to find drug combinations effective in fighting acute myeloid leukemia, an often-fatal cancer where treatment hasn’t improved much in decades. They include Jeff Tyner, and the institute’s director, Brian Druker, best known for pioneering Gleevec, a blockbuster drug for a different type of leukemia now owned by Novartis, that’s helped double those patients’ five-year survival rate since the 1990s. Cancer is caused by genetic mutations that make cells grow and multiply out of control. Better ability to find those specific mutations has enabled new types of drugs that target the disease more precisely, raising the odds of survival. There are more than 800 medicines and vaccines in clinical trials to treat cancer, according to a 2015 report by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. At the same time, the rising speed and falling cost for sequencing genes has boosted research, the development of therapies and means more cancer patients can gain exact data on their case. “It’s exciting, but it also provides us
with the challenge of then what to do with all the data,” Knight Institute’s Tyner said. “That is where the idea of a biologist working with information scientists and computationalists is so important. The combination of all those resources is going to help make the ultimate breakthroughs for more effective, less-toxic therapies.” In a recent interview, Poon showed a slide of a melanoma patient with tumors pocking nearly every inch of his chest. In a second photo, the lesions completely cleared up after a targeted therapy. But a third showed most of the lesions returned a few weeks later after a different mutation enabled the cancer to roar back to life. A combination of targeted drugs could work here, Poon said, but how to find it? “There are already hundreds of these kinds of specifically targeted drugs, so even if you think let’s pair two drugs there are tens of thousands of options,” he said. “It’s very hard to wrestle with. You might need several drugs to lock down all of the tumor’s pathways.” Hanover, a nod to a seminal 1956 AI workshop at that city’s Dartmouth College, is part of several projects announced today by Microsoft to develop computational approaches to better cancer care and study. Other projects involve a machine-learning and computer-vision system to help radiologists understand tumor progress and an effort that could one day allow scientists to program cells to fight disease. Machine learning, where computers use data to glean insights without being explicitly programmed by humans, is increasingly aiding cancer research by parsing data in research papers, results from clinical trials, radiology reports and electronic medical records. International Business Machines Corp’s Watson Oncology system is helping doctors interpret clinical data and develop individualised treatments.
Google’s DeepMind Technologies Ltd has a medical unit and is working with the UK government health service to study whether computers can be trained to spot degenerative eye problems early enough to prevent blindness. Startup Deep 6 Analytics in Pasadena, California, mines unstructured data like health records to find candidates for clinical trials of new drugs. Flatiron Health, backed by a Google VC unit, compiles research and patient information from cancer centres into a database and uses that to make clinical trials more efficient. Poon’s Hanover wants to augment the work of so called tumor board reviews, where a number of doctors gather to discuss the best treatment option for patients. “One of the bottleneck’s right now for the tumor board is to understand all this knowledge and how can you extrapolate,” he said. “This is what people have to deal with unless we can automate that process.” Mark Craven, a professor of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has used the previous iteration of Poon’s work for research on genes potentially related to breast cancers that are resistant to the most common types of treatments, called triple-negative breast cancer.
While these kinds of machine-learning based approaches are important to new cancer care, challenges remain, according to Anil Goud, a medical director who works on things like clinical information at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. One is getting the information gleaned by machine-learning software into the hands of clinicians and into their regular workflow. And while some health insurers can be convinced to cover new and varied combinations of drugs if the research supports that, overall this is new territory for the insurance industry, Goud said. Researchers will also need to find enough patients who are appropriate candidates to make sure varied and new combined therapies work. He’s still hopeful though. “In oncology, it’s almost impossible for us to think this is doable without machine learning,” Goud said. “The amount of data to be able to sift through and understand what’s significant would have taken much, much, much longer if we hadn’t had this.” Bloomberg
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EVENTS
September 15-30, 2016 Georgia Asian Times
21st Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival-Atlanta, Sept 10, 2016, Olympic Park-Lake Lanier
Georgia Asian Times September 15-30, 2016
EVENTS
JapanFest 2016, Infinite Energy Center, Sept 17-18, 2016
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September 15-30, 2016 Georgia Asian Times
LIFESTYLE
New creative directors bring renewal to Paris Fashion Week Paris, Sept 19, 2016 — With so many changes in top designers at the helm of France’s biggest fashion houses, this season’s Paris Fashion Week will bring a breath of fresh air to the capital. A change in creative director is a transformative time for labels, bringing a feeling of revival and renewal to the spring/summer 2017 season, underscored by wider changes currently underway in the fashion world. Paris Fashion Week is unlikely to see many — if any — of the combined menswear and womenswear collections likely to be on the agenda in Milan, New York and London. The same goes for the “see now by now” concept. While fashion houses like Burberry and Tom Ford will bring their latest collections to stores straight after their runway shows, French fashion is resisting this revolution by continuing to operate on the traditional industry schedule for its upcoming round of shows.
However, the Parisian shows won’t be without their own dose of upheaval. With creative directorship changeovers at many big houses, the French capital will be firmly in the spotlight. Some of the incoming designers’ first collections for their new employers are eagerly awaited in the fashion world.
atic creative director, Alber Elbaz, almost a year ago, Lanvin is also set to enter a new era in September.
Sonia Rykiel in the spotlight The label’s Paris show, scheduled September 28, will allow Bouchra Jarrar, now heading womenswear collections, to showcase the full extent of her talent and to bring a feminine, modern touch to Lanvin’s style.
Dior, Lanvin, Saint Laurent The upcoming Dior show will be a particular focus of attention, overseen for the first time by Maria Grazia Chiuri. A former co-creative director of Valentino, the Italian fashion designer is the first woman to take the reins of Dior’s haute couture, ready-to-wear and accessories collections. The new ready-to-wear line is expected to mark a fresh start for the label, with particular emphasis on accessories, a domain in which Maria Grazia Chiuri notably excels. Since parting ways with its emblem-
on hold, with no show in store for the Paris event.
The fashion world will also have its eyes on Saint Laurent this season, again due to a recent change in creative director. The upcoming show from Anthony Vaccarello, who replaced Hedi Slimane, will be especially eagerly awaited since his predecessor’s style was so intrinsically linked with the spirit of the brand. What’s more, his arrival has brought a few changes to the Paris schedule. Not only has Saint Laurent chosen to move its show to the first day of Paris Fashion Week, September 27, but Anthony Vaccarello also announced that he was putting work for his own label
The Sonia Rykiel show is likely to be emotionally charged at this season’s Fashion Week. Scheduled October 3 — barely a month after the death of the brand’s eponymous founding designer — the show could take the form of a final homage, both in terms of its staging and the pieces in the new collection. The show could prove a fitting farewell for this French designer who revolutionized fashion, liberating women from stuffy bourgeois looks and introducing a hint of relaxed chic that characterizes French style today.
Georgia Asian Times September 15-30, 2016
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SPORTS
Nico Rosberg back on top after Singapore thriller F1 governing body to investigate Singapore’s marshal incident Singapore, Sept 19, 2016 — Formula One’s governing body is to investigate an incident that saw cars cleared to race while a marshal was still on track following a Singapore Grand Prix safety car period yesterday.
“It was very dangerous,” Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff told reporters.
The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said a report would be carried out to ensure such a situation was not repeated.
The Austrian said race control had been asked to re-start races sooner, rather than cars having to spend too long behind the safety car, and that request had been heard.
Autosport.com quoted a spokesman saying procedures were not “properly executed” by the clerk of the course and team of officials. The marshal was helping remove track debris after the safety car was deployed at the end of the first lap following Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg’s crash into the pitwall at the start. The cars were released again at the start of lap three but, despite race control confirming three times with the clerk of the course that the track was clear of people and material, a marshal was still out there. Pictures showed him sprinting to the side of the circuit as the field, led by the Mercedes’ race winner Nico Rosberg, bore down on him.
“I’m really happy it ended up with nobody being hurt.”
Rosberg said the incident had been “pretty hairy”. “I think just as we didn’t expect the re-start, he didn’t either because the re-start was somehow pretty abrupt. Luckily he got out of the way just about in time so it was OK.” It was the second year in a row that concern had been raised by someone on the track. Last year, a lone intruder ambled across the floodlit track midway through the race and then strolled by the metal fences as cars came past. A 27-year-old British national was later sentenced to six weeks in jail for breaching the security fences. — Reuters
Singapore, Sept 18, 2016 — Germany’s Nico Rosberg celebrated his 200th Formula One race by retaking the championship lead from Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton after a pole to flag win in Singapore today. After a chaotic start that brought out a safety car on the opening lap, Rosberg stayed clear of Red Bull’s latecharging Australian Daniel Ricciardo at the floodlit Marina Bay Street Circuit. Triple world champion Hamilton completed the podium in third place. The German’s third victory in a row, and 22nd of his career, lifted Rosberg on to 273 points, eight clear of Hamilton, with six rounds remaining and Ricciardo a distant third on 179 in the title race. Rosberg’s win was his eighth of the season and first in Singapore, a grand prix that has only been won by world champions until now. The German had started two points behind Hamilton and, despite leading comfortably halfway through the race, crossed the line just 0.488 seconds ahead of Ricciardo after having to complete the last 28 laps on the same soft tyres. Red Bull opted for a bold tyre strategy to put pressure on Rosberg late on and Ricciardo was closing at roughly three seconds a lap in the closing stages but ran out of road before the chequered flag.
Hamilton had his own private battle with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen behind the leading duo, the Briton losing third place to the Finn after a mistake on lap 34 but reclaiming the position with a timely pit stop to hold on to the finish. Last year’s race winner Sebastian Vettel drove brilliantly from last place on the starting grid to claim fifth place in the other Ferrari, the German coming home ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso in a McLaren. The safety car was deployed immediately after the start when Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India, eighth on the grid, suffered a heavy crash after making contact with Carlos Sainz’s Toro Rosso. Rosberg got away cleanly to lead from Ricciardo, with Hamilton in third and Raikkonen behind him after Verstappen suffered a woeful start to slip back to eighth from fourth on the grid. The race restarted and Rosberg would have been startled to see a marshal at the end of the start-finish straight picking up debris, the man just managing to get off the circuit before the Mercedes reached him. There were no more safety cars, throughout a 61-lap race that has yet to be completed without one, but the different tyre strategies of the leading cars made for a tactical and exciting race on a circuit that offers very few overtaking opportunities. — Reuters
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September 15-30, 2016 Georgia Asian Times
SPORTS
Mourinho ready to go to work after Watford 3-1 humiliation London, Sept 19, 2016 — Jose Mourinho says Manchester United’s humiliation at Watford underlines how much work needs to be done to transform his spluttering side into title contenders. Mourinho’s men crashed to their third successive defeat yesterday as Watford’s shock 3-1 victory condemned United and their manager to an historically bad day.
not perfect, with lots of players who are not end products and can make their own mistakes. “My doubt was how they could cope when the negative moment arrived. Some individuals feel the pressure too much. “I know what is in my hands, the improvement of the team and individuals. I have to try to stop defensive mistakes.
It was the first time United had lost to Watford in 30 years and the first occasion Mourinho had been beaten in three consecutive matches since 2002 when he was in charge at Porto.
“I knew I had a task. It is tactical but also mental. We have to improve no doubt.”
After defeats against bitter rivals Manchester City in the Premier League and then Feyenoord in the Europa League, all talk of a United renaissance has evaporated within the space of eight days.
After falling behind to Etienne Capoue’s first half opener, United equalized through Marcus Rashford and looked the more likely winners until defensive errors allowed Juan Camilo Zuniga to fire Watford ahead in the 83rd minute.
But Mourinho insists he was already aware of United’s flaws during the three-match winning run that started his Old Trafford reign. Specifically, he is concerned about the fragile way his players respond to adversity and the defense’s habit of making careless mistakes when they don’t adhere to his instructions. “We started the season very well with the Community Shield and three victories in a row in the Premier League, the best start that a new manager has had at Manchester United I think,” Mourinho said. “But was I thinking that my team was ready, perfect, unbeatable? Not at all. “I was completely aware that we were
Crucial mistakes
Troy Deeney’s stoppage-time penalty rubbed salted into United’s wounds, but it was United left-back Luke Shaw’s failure to stop Watford’s second that most frustrated Mourinho. “Their second goal is a mistake that goes against our plan and our training, because our intention was for their wing-backs to be pressed and not let them progress. “And what happened was the guy gets the ball 20-25 metres away from our box and instead of being pressed, we give him the space to progress. “(Nordin) Amrabat receives the ball and our left-back (Shaw) is 25 metres from him instead of five.
“But even at 25 you have to jump and go and press, but no, we wait. It’s something that doesn’t become perfect in a couple of weeks. So we have to improve, no doubt, individually and collectively.”
Watford boss Walter Mazzarri could have been forgiven for reveling in Mourinho’s problems after the pair clashed when they were managers in Serie A.
Mourinho was unable to confirm if French winger Anthony Martial suffered a concussion in a first half collision with Watford’s Daryl Janmaat.
But the Italian was happier that the impressive performance proved his methods can work in the Premier League.
Martial eventually came off holding his head after losing possession just before Watford’s first half and Mourinho criticized referee Michael Oliver for failing to give a free-kick.
“I’m pleased for my players. Most of all I’m happy because this will give us confidence. It means my work is having an impact,” he said.
“You don’t ask me about that if you think that nothing happened,” Mourinho said. “The referee’s crucial mistakes are not in my control, there is nothing I can do about that.”
“We were better than them and deserved the points. We prepared the game very well. We studied them all week.”
Georgia Asian Times September 15-30, 2016
Page 15
HEALTH Zika could live in eyes, spread through tears The Zika virus can live in eyes, researchers said Tuesday, after conducting experiments on mice that may explain why some patients develop ocular disease and in some cases become blind. The study, published in the journal Cell Reports, studied the effects of Zika virus infection in the eyes of fetal, newborn and adult mice. “Our study suggests that the eye could be a reservoir for Zika virus,” said Michael Diamond, a professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who is one of the study’s senior authors. “We need to consider whether people with Zika have infectious virus in their eyes and how long it actually persists,” he added, noting that patients could spread the infection through their tears.
The researchers are planning to expand their study to include humans infected with Zika virus. Zika causes only mild symptoms such as fever and a rash for most people but pregnant women who catch it can give birth to babies with microcephaly, a deformation marked by abnormally small brains and heads. One third of babies infected with Zika in utero have eye disease such as inflammation of the optic nerve, retinal damage or blindness, the researchers said. In adults, Zika can cause conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye, and in some rare cases uveitis, a condition in which part of the eye wall becomes inflamed. It can lead to permanent vision loss.
In conducting the study, researchers infected mice under the skin, similar to the way a human would be infected by a mosquito. They found live Zika virus in the rodents’ eyes seven days later.
“Even though we didn’t find live virus in mouse tears, that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be infectious in humans,” said lead author Jonathan Miner, who teaches medicine at Washington University.
Infection in the eyes means it’s possible people can become infected with Zika simply through touching contaminated tears.
“There could be a window of time when tears are highly infectious and people are coming in contact with it and able to spread it.”
It’s still not clear how the Zika virus makes its way to the eyes. One possibility is that it crosses “the blood-retina barrier that separates the eye from the bloodstream, traveling along the optic nerve that connects the brain and the eye,” researchers said in a statement. Researchers found genetic material from Zika in the tears of infected mice 28 days after infection — though not the virus itself.
Exercise may offset health risks of drinking Heavy drinkers who exercise are less likely to die from alcohol-related diseases than those who don’t, a study suggested Thursday, although its authors were cautious about the implications of their data. Researchers used British population data between 1994 and 2006, comparing health outcomes with self-reported alcohol intake and exercise levels of more than 36,000 people.
in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Previous research has linked high alcohol intake to a heightened risk of death from heart disease, stroke and some types of cancer. Of the study respondents, 14.6 percent reported not drinking, while 13.3 percent exceeded the British recommended weekly maximum of 14 units for women and 21 for men.
Alcohol use categories ranged from “never drunk” to “harmful”, while exercise included everything from light gardening or walking to vigorous sport.
A unit is the equivalent of about a glass of wine, a small beer, or a shot of hard liquor.
The data showed that “the association between alcohol intake and mortality risk was moderated by PA (physical activity),” the team reported
About one in four respondents said they did no physical activity at all, while a similar percentage were highly active.
The team did say that their study could not draw any firm conclusions about cause and effect — whether exercise actively lowers the risks associated with alcohol. But the results “provide an additional argument for the role of PA as a means to promote the health of the population even in the presence of other less healthy behaviors,” they wrote. Experts not involved in the study pointed out that the apparent link may be caused by unrelated factors. “It is important to consider alternative explanations for the findings,” Matt Field of the University of Liverpool told the Science Media Centre in London.
“For example, people who are already ill may be less active than those who are healthy.” Kevin McConway of The Open University, said differences in diet of people who exercise and those who do not may also be a factor, rather than the level of activity itself.
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September 15-30, 2016 Georgia Asian Times
Misc Asia
Southeast Asian haze crisis killed over 100,000, according to latest study Jakarta, Sept 19, 2016 — A smog outbreak in Southeast Asia last year may have caused over 100,000 premature deaths, according to a new study released Monday that triggered calls for action to tackle the “killer haze”. Researchers from Harvard and Columbia universities in the US estimated there were more than 90,000 early deaths in Indonesia in areas closest to haze-belching fires, and several thousand more in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia. The new estimate, reached using a complex analytical model, is far higher than the previous official death toll given by authorities of just 19 deaths in Indonesia. “If nothing changes, this killer haze will carry on taking a terrible toll, year after year,” said Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaign Yuyun Indradi. “Failure to act immediately to stem the loss of life would be a crime.” A spokesman for Indonesia’s environment ministry did not immediately have any comment. Indonesian authorities have previously insisted they are stepping up
haze-fighting efforts, through such actions as banning the granting of new land for palm oil plantations and establishing an agency to restore devastated peatlands.
They estimated there were 91,600 deaths in Indonesia, 6,500 in Malaysia and 2,200 in Singapore. Infants at risk
The haze is an annual problem caused by fires set in forest and on carbon-rich peatland in Indonesia to quickly and cheaply clear land for palm oil and pulpwood plantations. The blazes occur mainly on Indonesia’s western Sumatra island and the Indonesian part of Borneo, with monsoon winds typically blowing the haze over Singapore and Malaysia. But last year’s fires were among the worst in memory and cloaked large parts of the region in choking smog for weeks, causing huge numbers to fall ill and sending diplomatic tensions soaring. The new study to be published in journal Environmental Research Letters, which combined satellite data with models of health impacts from smoke exposure and readings from pollution monitoring stations, estimated that 100,300 had died prematurely due to last year’s fires across the three countries.
The study found an increase in the number of fires in peatland and in timber concessions in 2015, compared to the last haze outbreak considered major, in 2006, and that the number of fires in palm oil plantations fell.
Greenpeace hailed a “groundbreaking” study they said for the first time gave a detailed breakdown of deaths from last year’s fires, but cautioned that the figure was a “conservative estimate”.
Shannon Koplitz, a Harvard scientist who worked on the study, said she also hoped the model they had developed could help those involved with tackling the annual blazes make quick decisions “as extreme haze events are unfolding”.
It only looked at health impacts on adults and the effect of dangerous fine-particulate matter, known as PM 2.5. It did not examine the effect on youngsters or of the other toxins produced by the blazes.
Last year’s haze outbreak was the worst since 1997 due to a strong El Nino weather system, which created tinder-dry conditions in Indonesia and made peatland and forests more vulnerable to going up in flames.
In reality, infants are some of the most at risk from the haze, said Nursyam Ibrahim, from the West Kalimantan province branch of the Indonesian Medical Association on Borneo. “We are the doctors who care for the vulnerable groups exposed to toxic smoke in every medical centre, and we know how awful it is to see the disease symptoms experienced by babies and children in our care,” said Ibrahim.
Georgia Asian Times September 15-30, 2016
Page 17
Misc Asia Gay pride: China activists fight ‘conversion therapy’
Poll finds four-in-10 Japanese are virgins Tokyo, Sept 19, 2016 — More than 40 per cent of young Japanese single adults are virgins, a government survey has shown, and almost three-quarters of men are not in any kind of relationship.
18-19 year olds said they were virgins; a study carried out that year in Europe by condom maker Durex found virginity rates among those aged 15-20 were much lower.
Chongqing, Sept 19, 2016 — Telling his wife he was gay was never going to be easy. But Yu Hu never thought it would see him committed to a mental hospital and fed a cocktail of drugs to “cure” him.
new guidelines decreeing: “No television drama shall show abnormal sexual relationships and behaviours, such as incest, same-sex relationships, sexual perversion, sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual violence, and so on.”
Yu’s wife readily agreed to a divorce, but his own family were nowhere near as tolerant.
Many Chinese are their parents’ only children as a result of the country’s often brutally enforced family planning policies, so parental expectations of marriage and grandchildren tend to exacerbate pressures on gay men and lesbians.
They arranged for medical personnel to seize him, throw him into a van and strap him to a hospital bed. For 19 days, he was given a mix of unidentified medications, with staff threatening to beat him if he refused to take them, all in the name of “curing” him of his orientation.
The poll reveals the extent of sexlessness in a country where policymakers worry about low birthrates and the knock-on effect of an aging society.
For example, fewer than 20 per cent of young Germans had not had sex by the time they hit 20, while even in socially conservative Turkey, the figure was only 37 per cent.
The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research quizzed more than 5,000 singletons aged 18 to 34 about their lives between the sheets.
Japan’s apparently low libido sits at odds with the impression many visitors have about the country’s attitude to sex.
Now Yu is suing his captors, the latest in a series of legal battles aimed at banning supposed “gay conversion therapies.”
It found that 42 per cent of men and 44 per cent of women had never had sex.
Images of impossibly busty — and frequently underdressed — young women are common in the ubiquitous manga comics and on billboards.
“They must be brought to justice, being gay is not a crime, but what they did to me is,” Yu said. “This isn’t only happening to me, and this must stop.”
Prostitution is readily visible in even smaller cities and the country produces voluminous amounts of often eyebrow-raising pornography.
Yu still has nightmares about the episode last October. His demands are simple: An apology from the hospital and an acknowledgement homosexuality is not a disease to be cured.
The survey, carried out in June 2015, showed the number of people who remained chaste in Japan was increasing over time. A similar poll conducted in 2005 found only a third of young singletons had always been celibate — out of preference or otherwise. The 2015 survey also found that seven-in-10 men were not in a relationship, while nearly six-in-ten women were going to bed alone. Directly comparable international statistics are difficult to come by, but Japanese people across the board appear to have less sex than those in other developed countries. In a 2010 survey by the same government body, 68 per cent of Japanese
Futoshi Ishii, who heads the body that carried out the sex survey said the root of the issue seemed to be the gulf between how people imagine life should be and how it actually turns out.
The 32-year-old was only released when his boyfriend and LGBT activists contacted police in Henan province.
The case is due to be heard on Wednesday. We try to educate doctors
“They want to tie the knot eventually,” he told the Japan Times. “But they tend to put it off as they have gaps between their ideals and the reality,”
Homosexuality is legal in China, but was only taken off the list of psychiatric disorders in 2001.
“That’s why people marry later or stay single for life.” Ishii said.
While Chinese attitudes to homosexuality have become more accepting in recent years, especially in larger cities, discrimination is still rife. Government censors banned gay characters on television in March, with
Some enter into “cooperation marriages” with a knowing partner in order to satisfy their family’s demands. People who undergo conversion treatments — either voluntarily or after submitting to family pressure — spend about 20,000 yuan on average, according to the Beijing LGBT Centre, although some see their costs spiral upwards as doctors encourage more sessions. In Chongqing, fees are about 4,000 yuan for a course — almost as much as the city’s average monthly salary — which can include solitary confinement and even chemical castration. But authorities are more interested in policing activists than clinics, said campaigner Sha Sheng, whose group has helped hundreds of gay men and lesbians after they found themselves in debt and trapped in Chongqing facilities. “Even though a court has said this is wrong, it’s hard to fight against gay conversion therapy when the police are constantly shutting down our activities,” said Sha. Other activists are trying to convert the medical providers. “We try to educate doctors, introduce them to homosexual people and show them it’s not an affliction to be gay,” said Joelle Yao, an activist at the Beijing LGBT Centre.
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September 15-30, 2016 Georgia Asian Times
TRAVEL
Transport links are being developed to cater for the influx, including a motorway opening next year, and a highspeed rail line from the capital Lhasa, expected to open in 2021. Another high-speed rail line to Chengdu, capital of neighboring Sichuan province, home to more than 80 million people, should be completed in 2022.
China promotes Tibetan tourism while critics fear impact
Nyingchi(China), Sept 18, 2016 — China has unveiled a sparkling new hotel as part of its drive to get tens of millions more tourists to visit Tibet, even as critics say the push is slowly eroding the local culture.
With a presidential suite that costs US$1,000 a night and views over the snow-capped mountains of the Himalayas, the luxury Artel hotel is a potent symbol of Chinese plans for the autonomous territory. Tourism officials are hoping to see visitor numbers increase by nearly 50 per cent in the next four years, said Wang Songping, deputy director of the Tibet Tourism Development Commission. “Tibet attracted four million Chinese tourists in 2005. We hope we’ll get 24 million this year and 35 million by 2020,” he said. Critics say the influx will lead to more of China’s dominant Han ethnic group settling in Tibet and eroding native Tibetan ways of life, and argue the majority of economic benefits of mass tourism will not go to locals. Official figures say that Tibetans currently make up 90 per cent of the
local population, but groups opposed to Chinese rule say the real figure is significantly lower.
Beijing says it “peacefully liberated” Tibet in 1951 and insists it has brought development to a previously backward region where serfs were exploited. But many Tibetans accuse Beijing of repressing their religion, diluting their culture and exploiting natural resources to benefit the Han at the expense of locals and the environment. Switzerland of the East The 103-room Artel opened in mid-August in Lulang, a picturesque village situated at 3,700 metres in a southeastern forested area in the autonomous region of Tibet. It is part of a tourist complex built in an old part of town previously occupied mostly by government buildings and restaurants, that now boasts its own shopping street, a lake and an arts centre. Nicknamed the “Switzerland of the East”, the village is seen by authorities as a flagship project for its ambitious plans for Tibet’s tourist sector.
Wang said the number of Chinese tourists, who currently make up 95 per cent of visitors to Tibet, has increased by an average of 20 per cent each year since the 2006 opening of the first railway linking Tibet to the rest of China. But while outside visitors can boost the local economy, mass tourism has down sides, said Tibet expert Francoise Robin. “Cultural performances shown to visitors are either favorable reinterpretations of Chinese history or Chinese versions of songs or dances,” she said. “Tibetans themselves end up picking up these distorted versions.” And while some Tibetans were developing responsible tourism initiatives and eco-tourism, such businesses could often not be developed on a large scale, she said. Last in line to benefit The influx of tourists is expected to bring in billions of dollars but many are concerned that not everyone will benefit from the windfall. “Travel agents and other people who work in the tourism industry are mostly Han Chinese”, said Robin. “The Tibetans... are among the last in line to benefit.” At the Artel hotel, Baima Cicuo, a 17-year-old local trainee who works as a housekeeper, said she was happy in her job — at least in front of her boss.
“Before, I depended on my farmer parents. But now I earn 1,000 yuan a month and I learn a lot of things,” she said in fluent Mandarin. The hotel, owned by Poly, a Chinese state-owned group, has invested 280 million yuan in the project, says commercial director Ray Peng. It currently has 40 employees, 15 of whom are Tibetan. Its guests are likely to be overwhelmingly Chinese. Less than five per cent of visitors to Tibet are foreign tourists, who need to obtain an “entry letter” as well as a Chinese visa when traveling to the region, where they must join an authorized tour group. Despite the widespread perception that the restrictions are meant to stop the outside world from learning too much about the tensions between ethnic Tibetans and Han, officials insist that is not the case. “These restrictions are in place because we can’t yet provide world class services for tourists”, said Bianba Zhaxi, deputy governor of Tibet. “We will be open to tourists from across the world in a few years,” he added. But Acharya Yeshi Phuntsok, deputy speaker of Tibet’s parliament in exile, said the restrictions serve to hide the truth about Tibet from the outside world. “If foreign tourists and media are able to travel freely in Tibet, without organized tours, and can collect the views of people, then I think tourism can have a good impact. “Otherwise, nobody will speak and share the problems of the Tibetan people.”