Voice of Asia Epaper April 5, 2019 by VoiceOf Asia

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India's Modi takes election fight to battleground state India's general elections will run from April 11 to May 19 in the largest democratic exercise of its kind ever held.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to supporters during a campaign rally in Siliguri on April 3, 2019. (Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images)

Holi: Festival of Colors celebrated at Chinmaya Prabha

Supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and GJMM (Bimal Gurung wing) cheer at a campaign rally held by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the national elections in Siliguri on April 3, 2019. (Image Credit: AFP)

OLKATA, India | AFP | Wednesday 4/3/2019 - Prime Minister Narendra Modi staged a massive rally in India's east on Wednesday, stepping up the battle with a local rival who could frustrate his party's return to power. Modi addressed tens of thousands of supporters in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, as its leader Mamata Banerjee, a powerful Modi enemy, campaigned against the prime minister elsewhere in the state. Voting in India's massive election --

the biggest in history, with 900 million eligible voters -- begins in a week and West Bengal is a key battleground for Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The ruling party has campaigned hard against Banerjee, fearing she could lead a possible alliance of India's disparate regional parties against the BJP and dent its re-election prospects. "I haven't seen a massive turnout like this before in West Bengal. I bow to your love and affection," Modi told a sea of supporters in Kolkata.

"Your vote will help us reach new heights of development in 2019. The BJP will overthrow (Banerjee's) misrule in the state." The fiery West Bengal leader took on the prime minister at a counter-rally, declaring: "I am not Modi. I don't tell lies." Her profile has grown considerably since her party took most of the state's 42 parliamentary seats in 2014, and

Children played “Gokul” or “Go-Cool” Krishna games during the celebrations. (Photo by Rajesh Thatte)

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n the State of the Union Address in February, President Trump proclaimed that “Legal immigrants enrich our nation and strengthen our society in countless ways. I want people to come into our country in the largest numbers ever.” His words were based on the reality that high-skilled immigration to the United States has been, for a long time, a fundamental driver of wealth and job creation. Yet as our new research shows, the administration needs to get out of its own way for this to take place. Politicians of all stripes are always looking for ways to grow the economy, strengthen the labor market and increase the United States’ competitive advantage on the world stage. As the annual H1-B visa application process kicks off in the coming days, we should remember that it can enable just that type of economic boost. The H-1B visa program, created by Congress in 1990, has played a fundamental role in driving innovation and business growth in the United States for almost 30 years. The work-focused visa allows U.S. companies to hire high-skilled, foreign-born workers, predominantly in the IT and tech industries.

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

Trump only hurts America by stifling high-skilled immigration Research shows that for every temporary high-skilled foreign worker hired by a U.S. firm, 5 to 7.5 new domestic jobs are created in that firm’s industry, and a 1-percent increase in foreign STEM workers leads to a 7- to 8-percent increase in native workers’ wages.

innovation-fueling outcome.

A second program, for F-1 student visas, also helps attract the best and brightest global talent to the United States. In 2018, 1,094,792 international students studied at U.S. colleges and universities, representing roughly 1 in 20 college students. They contributed $39 billion to and supported more than 455,000 jobs in the U.S. economy during the 2017– 2018 academic year.

There has been a dramatic increase in denials for H1-B visas, with approval rates falling from 87 percent in 2016 to 59 percent in 2017. Increased scrutiny for H1-B applications, in the form of “requests for evidence” (RFEs), jumped from 17.3 percent to 68.9 percent between 2017’s first and fourth quarters.

But despite the obvious benefits and apparently widespread support for more high-skilled immigration, a notable barrier remains: The Trump administration is sending mixed signals to foreign workers and students.

This appears to be having a negative effect on the number of high-skilled workers applying. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received 190,098 H-1B visa applications in fiscal year 2018, a 4-percent drop from 2017 when 199,000 applications were filed. That is also a sharp decline from the peak in 2016 when the government received 236,000 applications.

International students make up 81 percent of full-time U.S. grad students in electrical engineering and 79 percent in computer science. A 2010 study found that every percentage-point increase in college graduate immigrants as a share of the U.S. population correlates with a 9- to 18-percent uptick in patents per capita — a tremendous,

As for F1 visas, the number

of new international students attending American colleges and universities in the 2017-18 academic year dropped for the second straight year, to about 271,000. That’s down from about 291,000 in the 2016-17 academic year and 301,000 in 2015-16. Immigration policy experts and college administrators attribute the decline to the administration’s drive to restrict immigration and an overall sense of a U.S. political climate that is hostile to immigrants and foreigners. Policymakers should instead look to the immigration advances of America’s neighbors north of the border. In recent years, Canada has been liberalizing its high-skilled immigration visa system. Its 172,500 annual skilled-work visas are more than double the number issued in the United States, at a rate per capita that is almost 18 times higher than that of the United States. In order to avoid stifling the great innovations and financial investment enjoyed by Continued on page 3

Lok Sabha Election: Greatest Dance of Democracy in the world by Bhamy V. Shenoy

ny election in India is a festive and exciting time for the poor, the middle class and the rich -for the poor to earn easy money. for the middle class to pontificate and rationalize why no good will come out of voting and for the rich to get maximum value by supporting the right candidates. Despite these obvious drawbacks, it is a miracle that the largest democracy in the world has managed to elect some good candidates from a set of mostly undeserving, corrupt and incompetent politicians to lead India all these years. In 1977, Indian voters punished the Congress Party for the emergency. In 1980 they brought back the Congress since the opposition could not give a stable government. In 2014 against all predictions, Indian voters gave a majority to BJP after suffering from corrupt rule of UPA- I and II. The current general election is often mentioned as the most important one. We have heard such things before also. However this time some argue that there is greater compulsion to vote wisely since the future of India depends on the outcome of the election. Is it really true? After the loss of NDA last December in three major states and as a result of different political parties making plans to form coalitions with the single objective of defeating NDA, it looked as though Modi did not have any chance of becoming the PM again. However after a mini Mahagathbandan in UP, there has not been any successful effort to form a coalition at the national level. Some polls taken during the middle of March have shown that the NDA may succeed in securing enough seats to form the next government. In Indian context where caste, religion, money and muscle power, regional affinity, dynasty oriented politics, celebrity status, etc often seem to decide the election results polls have not been reliable. Many political “pundits” have written erudite articles discussing why NDA may not come to power. Demonetization and GST are the two factors often mentioned to support their argument. In recent months failure to create new jobs by NDA is another factor highlighted in the media. Love jihad, mob lynching and cow vigilantism are the factors which have been discussed regularly since Modi came to power to point out the glaring failures of BJP. According to an analysis by home ministry, there has been 28% rise in communal incidents under NDA watch. As a result of sustained attack there has been erosion in the autonomy of the institutions like education, courts and investigating agency and even RBI. On the other hand, NDA

supporters have not been successful in highlighting several good things the government has done. Without a doubt, Swatch Bharath though has not been a great success, has made millions aware of the need to keep our cities and towns clean. Need to keep our environment clean is definitely on the national agenda now. Open defecation has come down with the construction of millions of toilets. Thanks to the direct benefit of subsidies, corruption in residential LPG has been more or less completely eliminated. But for Rafale deal controversy, we have not heard of any other mega corrupt deals unlike in the case of UPA.

better under NDA. Thanks to a new law to deal with bankruptcy, banks are able to improve their financial position considerably. Of course non performing assets of banks are still precarious. But this was mostly because of the corrupt banking practices under UPA. With much fanfare, Rahul Gandhi, the President of Congress Party has announced minimum income plan and assured an annual payment of Rs. 72000 to each poor family benefiting 50 million families. Will this help UPA?

In the energy sector though much needs to be done, NDA has done much better job than the UPA. NDA had set an ambitious target of 1.75 lakh MW of renewables by 2020 which looked impossible to meet. However based on the performance so far, India may achieve it in good measures. Though millions in rural areas still do not have electricity connection, electricity has reached all villages. Thanks to Ujwala scheme LPG coverage has increased from 45% to 90% in five years under NDA helping the poor. NDA has been able to tame inflation (consumer price index was 5% during NDA versus 8.1% during UPA rule) much better than UPA and also the management of fiscal deficit is

If we compare the overall contribution of NDA against UPA in India’s economic sector, NDA will score higher. However it is in the treatment of minority where NDA has failed miserably. They should have controlled cow vigilantism and mob lynching better and not given any scope for criticism. On the other hand, opposition has not been all that lily white. They have also been guilty in exploiting communal issues to create their vote banks. Just about every political party with the exception of communist and Aam Admi have tried to develop vote banks based on caste and communalism. Just to give two illustrative examples. Despite the well known corrupt practices of Mayawati and Deve Gowda family, both leaders have been successful in creating vote banks of dalits and vokkaligas

to gain political influence purely based on caste consideration. The surgical strike by the government to destroy the training ground in Balakot after a terrorist attack in Pulwama has certainly helped NDA. India’s successful conduct of anti-missile test and joining the four member league global powers may also marginally help NDA. If the election Commissions does not object to the release of the biopic on Modi on April 5, it will definitely help NDA. How will voters decide which is the critical factor for India’s national interest while casting their votes? Is it a need for stable government as the voters realized in 1980 or is it other important factors like inclusion, pluralism, secularism, freedom, equality and tolerance as argued by most thinkers and writers? If all the pluses and negatives of NDA are weighed against the opposition, voters are likely to elect Modi though with less majority to give a stable government. Let me hasten to state that my prediction is not any more reliable than revealed by the recent poll surveys. It is my hope that voters will send a strong message to all the political parties to uphold India’s civilizational values of “simple living and high thinking” and the constitutional mandate of secularism. Then the time of election will be truly the dance of democracy to celebrate.

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Holi: Festival of Colors celebrated at Chinmaya Prabha by Ruchi Verma and Jaya Chitale

specially crafted to convert the whole temple courtyard into Gokul-Vrindavan, the childhood home of Lord Krishna. Children found the “Gokul” or “Go-Cool”- namely the “naughty little Krishna” games - absolutely enjoyable and funny. It was an experience also that revolved around bonding with their mothers. "Bruj ki Lathmaar,”again a tradition during Holi, where the better halves got a chance to ‘beat’ their spouses with laathis or clubs (kindly redesigned with soft, spongy pool noodles) was surely delightful. "Going to River Yamuna" and "Balance the Water Pots," walking with water (balloons) in a container on their heads followed. Every child and adult alike wanted to

oli celebration at Chinmaya Mission Houston on Sunday, March 24th, gave joy to adults and was immense fun to children. Over 700 members participated with amazing zeal making it a truly memorable day. Rain or shine, the event was to go on as planned. Volunteers were seen working enthusiatically in the courtyard of the Saumyakasi Sivalaya temple since that morning. The volunteers of the food team started to cook the festive lunch early in the day. The courtyard was decorated with beautiful strings of colorful pennants. The Holi fire was set in the middle of the courtyard. The sound system amped up the joyous mood. Piles of vibrant colors were set up to be distributed to all participants. As if to reward all devotees, the gods too seemed to shower their love gifting all with a beautiful day – the perfect weather for all to sing, dance, and play with colors to their hearts' desire!

Holi revelers apply color power on each other as part of the celebration. (Photos by Rajesh Thatte)

A flash mob dance set to rocking songs got the whole crowd moving. This set the mood for the “Gokul” games,

by the United States thanks to high-skill immigration, policymakers should raise the cap allocation of 65,000 to 115,000 under a system that would more closely align supply with demand. The upper-limit cap — which includes those with master’s degrees — should be upped from 85,000 to 195,000, where it was from 2001 to 2003 under the American Competitiveness

Acharya Gaurang Nanavaty prepares to light the fire during the Holi puja.

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Rituals Performed: Sreemantham, Punyahavachanam, Namakaranam, Annaprashanam, Vidyarambham, Choulam, Upanayanam, Wedding, Sathya narayana puja, and all kind of Homas (Havans) and more. I can drive to your place. More than 30 years of experience as Priest in major temples including Sri Meenakshi Temple Pearland, TX. Can speak 5 languages (Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, and English)

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The day ended with a splash, of course! Colors filled the air as they got thrown and smeared in this happy celebration of the advent of spring. With beaming smiles on colored faces, and with warmed hearts, all families drove back to their homes looking forward to next year when they can do this all over again! For more information about Chinmaya Mission Houston, Sri Saumyakasi Sivalaya and its activities visit www. chinmayahouston.org, www. saumyakasi.org or call temple 281 568 1690 or Jay Deshmukh 832 541 0059 or Bharati Sutaria 281-933-0233.

America hurt by stifling high-skilled immigration... Continued from page 2

At 1.00 PM, all participants gathered in the courtyard. The celebration started with the Holi puja. The Holi fire was lit by Acharya Gaurang Nanavaty. Worship was then followed with food. The blue skies and soft spring-green lawns called for picnicking on freshly made traditional delights – tasty chole-bhature, sweet jalebi, and crispy bhel.

participate in these games.

in the 21st (AC21).

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These reforms would ensure that the United States continues to be the global leader for international talent, business growth and entrepreneurial innovation. Daniel Griswold is a senior research fellow with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and codirector of its Trade and Immigration Project.

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Odissi Mahotsav 2019: A celebration of Dance and Music starting Bansuri/Flute lessons in Houston. Guru Das is the first bansuri teacher of academy. Odissi Program started with traditional Mangalacharan – Ganesh Vandana. It’s a dance item salutation to mother earth, the Lord Ganesha, audience, and teacher. Series of performances, such as Pushpanjalee (an ode to Lord Shiva), Mohana Pallavi (pure dance), Nava Durga (an Abhinaya – dance drama), and Konark Shree (a dance describing use of musical instruments in temples of India) were performed by students of Academy. Students of Odissi Dance Company performed group dances, Nagendra & Mokhya. The star

Above: One of the spectacular dances at the Mahotsav. Below: Odissi dancers pose. (Photos courtesy Mrs. Swagatika Nayak)

by Anuranjita Nayak, MD

OUSTON Odissi Academy of Houston celebrated “Odissi Mahotsav” on Sunday afternoon at Houston Durgabari Society Auditorium. It was an exclusive Odissi Dance & Music festival. Odissi is one of the oldest dances originating from temples of eastern part of the India, modern Odisha state. Odissi is one of the fastest growing and most popular form of Indian Classical dance in today's time.

attraction of the day was the duet called “Khamaj Pallavi” by Odissi Academy concluded the event superbly. Two hours of non-stop, awe inspiring show was enjoyed by more than 350 guests. Entire program was directed and coordinated by academy’s Guru Mr. Prashanta Kumar Behera. Savory Odia and Bengali cuisine served for lunch. Learn more about Odissi Academy at www.OdissiAcademy.com, and to see performance videos, please visit Odissi Academy channel on YouTube, www.youtube.com/c/ odissiacademy.

8th Ram Charit Manthan: A Seminar on Ramayana

ouston will witness its 8th annual Ram Charit Manthan on 7th April 2019 Sunday. Ram Charit Manthan is a scholarly seminar on Ramayana and Lord Rama. The Manthan will begin at 3 p.m. at Shri Govindaji Gaudiaya Math temple located at 16628 Kieth Harrow Blvd, Houston, TX 77084, phone: (832) 464-4686 (www.sggm. org).

Odissi Academy of Houston, a Texas not-for-profit organization, promotes Odissi teaching & performing in North America. Uniqueness of this academy, it invites talented, practicing, and experienced Odissi gurus (teachers) from Bhubaneswar, India (the epicenter of Odissi Performing Arts), and uses their expertise in coaching local young artists. The crisp spring morning started with bansuri (bamboo flute) recital by Guru Parshuram Das, supported by Shri Govind Shetty. A befitting introduction to the academy

The theme of 2019 Manthan is: Ramayana in Gita. Invited speakers from the Houston community will make presentations on how teachings of Gita are embedded in Ramayana. There are many instances in Ramayana where Lord Ram teaches Lakshman, Bharat, Vibhishan, Kagbhushundi and many others like Lord Krishna teaches Arjun in Gita. The speakers of 2019 event are: Shri Vikas Buddhiraja, Shri Atul Gupta, Smt. Saraswati Mallik, Shri TD Tewari, Shri Ram M. Mallik, Shri Abhai Tripathi, Smt. Usha Mehra, and Dr. Omprakash Gupta.

The seminar will enrich your life with new leanings from these great scriptures. The event will follow up with prasad at the temple. All are invited to participate. For more information, please write to Om Gupta om@ramacharit.org or call 713-471-7822. Please visit www. ramacharit.org/manthan2019 for more information.

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Hanmi Appoints Bonita I. Lee as its Chief Executive Officer

OS ANGELES, April 03, 2019 ( G L O B E NEWSWIRE) -- Hanmi Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: HAFC) (“Hanmi”), the holding company for Hanmi Bank (the “Bank”), today announced that Bonita I. Lee has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer effective May 3, 2019, and as a director of the Company and the Bank effective immediately. Ms. Lee succeeds C. G. Kum who is retiring from Hanmi, as previously announced. With more than 30 years of experience in the Bonita I. Lee banking industry, Ms. Lee respected leader in the Korean joined Hanmi as Chief Operating Officer in 2013 and American banking industry. I was promoted to President in believe that as CEO, Bonnie 2018. During her tenure with will expand upon Hanmi’s Hanmi, the Bank’s total assets distinguished 37-year history have nearly doubled. Her deep of serving our community, understanding of the Bank’s while strengthening the Bank’s business and strong record position in the markets it of success positions her for a serves.” smooth transition to the CEO Mr. Rho concluded, “On role, and allows Hanmi to behalf of my fellow board execute its strategic initiatives. members, I would also “I congratulate Bonnie on her like to extend our deepest appointment as Hanmi’s next gratitude to C. G. Kum for President and Chief Executive his service to Hanmi. C. G. Officer,” said Hanmi’s led the Bank during one of Chairman, Joseph K. Rho. “The our most transformational Board recognizes Bonnie’s periods. We wish him all the integral role in Hanmi’s best in his retirement from the success over the last six years Bank.” Prior to joining Hanmi and has the utmost confidence and Hanmi Bank in August in her abilities. We anticipate a 2013, Ms. Lee was Senior seamless transition as Bonnie Executive Vice President takes on her new leadership and Chief Operating Officer role at Hanmi, building on of BBCN Bank and BBCN her deep connections with Bancorp, Inc., where she was Hanmi’s customers and named Acting President and employees. She is a seasoned Chief Operating Officer from executive and a highly February 2013 to April 2013

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IACCGH feature Houston entrepreneurs at its “Women Mean Business” Lecture Series

and led an Executive Council carrying out the duties of the Chief Executive Officer during a management transition period at BBCN Bank. Prior to this, Ms. Lee served as director and Regional President of the Western Region for Shinhan Bank America from September 2008 to March 2009. Prior to joining Shinhan Bank America, she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer at Nara Bank from April 2005 to September 2008, and as a Member of the Office of the President from March 2006 to September 2008. Ms. Lee also served Nara Bank as Senior Vice President and Chief Credit Officer from November 2003 to April 2005. Ms. Lee is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Chicago. About Hanmi Corporation

Speakers Arpita Bhandari and Gabriella Rowe (rt) at the IACCGH "Women Mean Business" Series event . Photos credit: Biyani Photography

OUSTON - The Indo American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston held its inaugural Women Mean Business Series event of 2019 featuring Keynote Speakers

Gabriella Rowe & Arpita Bhandari on February 27th at Double Tree Hilton- Greenway Plaza. Executive Director Jagdip Ahluwalia, thanked sponsors

SHELL, for their generous support to both the Women Mean Business and the Distinguished Lecture Series. He highlighted the growth of Continued on Page 6

Financial

Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Hanmi Financial Corporation owns Hanmi Bank, which serves multi-ethnic communities through its network of 35 fullservice branches and 9 loan production offices in California, Texas, Illinois, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Washington and Georgia. Hanmi Bank specializes in real estate, commercial, SBA and trade finance lending to small and middle market businesses. Additional information is available at www.hanmi.com.

IACCGH Presdient Swapan Dhairyawan with the speakers, guests and directors of IACCGH.

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IACCGH ... “Women Mean Business” lecture series

Participants at the IACCGH Women Mean Business series. Photo Credit: Biyani Photography Arpita Bhandari, co-founder of the BioUrja Group, spoke about leadership and how she strived to realize her personal potential. A successful businesswoman, who initially immigrated to Louisiana in early 1990’s, in teenage years performed odd jobs to make ends meet, to starting day-care centers and owning convenience stores, She relayed a fascinating journey that saw the struggles of a young, ambitious but determined couple starting their lives out together to finally launching an energy commodity trading company with her husband, which now is among the largest privately held groups in the Houston area. Arpita stressed the importance of balance between work and home, and staying focused on goals, approaching success one step at a time Mrs. Bhandari is also extremely active in supporting various philanthropic causes.

Continued from Page 5 the chamber, stating that the chamber’s diverse inclusivity is due to a good mix of business leaders and members from the local community. President Swapan Dhairyawan, welcomed the gathering and the speakers for the night. He highlighted the 20 years of progress of the chamber, mentioning the upcoming 20th Anniversary Gala to be held on June 15th of this year. He also thanked our resource partners with whom the chamber works closely to collaborate for events benefiting the community. Past President and Program Chair Joya Shukla introduced the Keynote Speakers and encouraged the audience to share the “pearls of wisdom” that they will receive. She stressed on the importance of networking and highlighted how the chamber through such events is helping people especially women of various streams connect and know each other.

Journey she went through in her professional career. “To foster creativity and innovation using technology” is how she rose to become one of the few Women CEO’s of a large Tech Acceleration company in Houston. She spoke about her challenging journey growing up and how those challenges helped share her. Prior to Station Houston, Gaby was an education executive, investment banker and management consultant in New York for more than 25 years. Her deep love for Houston, is one of her motivators to excel in her work, focusing “on the future of work”. Gaby also motivated the women in the audience to rely on the multi-faceted strengths within them to excel and succeed. The event concluded with an engaging Q& A session followed by Shell Representative Ana Kopf delivering the Thank you address and giving a token of appreciation to the speakers. For future events visit www. iaccgh.com

Gabriella Rowe, CEO of Station Houston, the city’s largest hub for startup technology, spoke about the

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FASHION & STYLE

VOICE OF ASIA 7

HCC Students Fuse Fashion and Fine Arts for its Fifth Annual Runway Show

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

Mary Quant: queen of the mini-skirt revisited

Quant created short dresses and skirts with simple shapes and strong colours that she described as "arrogant, aggressive and sexy" Quant created short dresses and skirts with simple shapes and strong colours that she described as "arrogant, aggressive and sexy." (Photo: AFP)

ONDON | AFP | 4/3/2019 Mary Quant, the subject of a major retrospective opening at London's Victoria & Albert Museum this week, was the fashion queen of Britain's Swinging Sixties.

Models on the runway. Photo credit: HCC Fashion Fusion 2018. (Flickr: Photos)

OUSTON (April 3, 2019) -Impressionism is leaving its mark on 24 fashion design students from Houston Community College (HCC). As finalists in this year's "Fashion Fusion" runway event, they were inspired by the exhibition "Vincent Van Gogh: His Life in Art" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH). The fifth annual partnership between HCC and MFAH will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at the museum, 1001 Bissonnet.

The 85-year-old has gone down in history for popularising the mini-skirt and for making women's clothes fun and affordable. Whether she actually invented the iconic fashion item has been the subject of a long and bitter dispute with late French designer Andre Courreges, among others. But her role in turning thigh-

Known almost as much for her iconic bob hairstyle as for her designs, the petite Quant, shown here in 2004, also created hot pants, the skinny rib sweater and waterproof mascara (AFP Photo/ Pierre Verdy)

“We are all so excited to be working on this again,” says Suzette Brimmer, interim chair of HCC’s Consumer Arts & Sciences Center of Excellence. “Besides the fabulous event itself, which draws between 800 and 1500 people, some of the collection will be toured, with MFAH launching it.” She adds that, from there, the designs will be moved to retail venues and Houston area libraries. More than 100 HCC students and alumni entered the competition, with 24 being selected to show at “Fashion Fusion.” Having worked for months to create one-of-akind designs to showcase their creativity in couture, designer finalists—who have also been guided by HCC’s Vi Hua—will fit models to walk a special catwalk in the grand entrance of MFAH. Of the finalists, two winners

Model on runway: HCC Fashion Fusion Runway Show 2018. will be chosen in four categories, as well as an Audience Choice Winner. Brimmer says winners receive scholarships to the

Glassell School of Art. Tickets for the event are available at mfah.org/ fashionfusion.

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Quant explored geometric designs, polka dots and contrasting colours, and played with new fabrics, including PVC and stretch fabrics, to achieve a modern and playful look. (AFP Photo/Adrian Dennis) skimming super-short hemlines into an international trend has not been disputed. Known almost as much for her iconic bob hairstyle as for her designs, the petite Quant also created hot pants, the skinny rib sweater and waterproof mascara. Her personality and style made her "probably the most famous fashion designer that has come out of this country," according to V&A fashion curator Jenny Lister. "She was in the right place at the right time and that was part of her success." -

- 'Arrogant, aggressive, sexy'

Born on February 11, 1934, in London, Quant studied at the capital's Goldsmiths college of art where she met her future husband and business partner, Alexander Plunket Greene. Together, they opened their first boutique, Bazaar, in 1955 in the Chelsea district, which would become the beating heart of Swinging London. Bazaar sold clothes and accessories, and its basement restaurant became a meeting point for young people and artists. The whole Chelsea district was soon attracting celebrities such as Brigitte

Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

customers would say, 'shorter, shorter'."

Telling The Guardian in 1967 that "Good taste is death, vulgarity is life," Quant raised the hemline well above the knee, creating short dresses and skirts with simple shapes and strong colours that she described as "arrogant, aggressive and sexy".

- Reaching the US, Japan -

She explored geometric designs, polka dots and contrasting colours, and played with new fabrics, including PVC and stretch fabrics, to achieve a modern and playful look. Her models were showcased in extravagant and provocative window displays overlooking the King's Road, which became a mini-skirt catwalk and drew American photographers keen to document Swinging London. "City gents in bowler hats beat on our shop window with their umbrellas shouting 'immoral!' and 'disgusting!' at the sight of our mini-skirts over the tights, but customers poured in to buy," she recalled in her 1966 book "Quant by Quant". The designer is also widely quoted as saying that "it was the girls on the King’s Road who invented the mini... I wore them very short and the

The era's most high-profile model, Twiggy, popularised the mini-skirt abroad, and with business booming, Quant opened a second shop in London in 1957. She entered the American market in the early 1960s, collaborating with department store JC Penney. She also created the cheaper Ginger Group line and launched into cosmetics, all her designs featuring a trademark daisy. Quant was "jolting England out a conventional attitude towards clothes," the Sunday Times said in choosing her for its 1963 International Fashion Award. She turned her sights on the Japanese market in the 1970s, visiting the country several times to open stores. She sold her make-up company to a Japanese group in 2000, staying on as consultant. - Outspoken on sexuality Quant also scandalised British society with her frank views on sex, making headlines when she famously said she had shaved her pubic hair into the shape of a heart and dyed it green.

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TAXES & PERSONAL FINANCE

VOICE OF ASIA 8

About 8 million individuals who received a tax refund last year may owe this time

House committee passes bill to upgrade 401(k) plans amid ‘retirement income crisis’ by Ylan Mui

by Lorie Konish

ASHINGTON, April 1, 2019 - The most comprehensive changes to private retirement plans in more than a decade are gaining momentum in Congress.

ith Tax Day around the corner, more people are able to answer the question: Will I get a refund or do I owe? The big takeaway: You could be surprised at how the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act affects your bottom line.

A key House committee on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill intended to increase the flexibility of 401(k) plans and improve access to the accounts, particularly for small businesses and their employees.

ln fact, almost one-third of taxpayers who must pay up to the IRS this year received a refund last year, a new survey from personal finance website NerdWallet found. One in 5 individuals owe additional money to cover their tax bill this year, the survey found. And 32 percent of those people received a refund last year. NerdWallet estimates that 7.9 million people who received refunds last year could owe this year. Those who do have to pay $2,119 on average. But there is good news for people who are getting refunds: They may be higher than you expected. The average refund is $2,697, NerdWallet found. That’s significantly higher than the $1,861 on average that individuals said they expected to get back in a separate poll in December. About 60 percent of individuals who have prepared or filed their taxes will get a refund this year, according to NerdWallet. Those who stand to get the biggest refund: millennials, who will get back $3,013 on average. In contrast, Gen Xers

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can expect to receive $2,944 and baby boomers should see $1,943. One more reason to cheer: The government shutdown apparently has had no lingering effects on how quickly returns are being processed. Of the individuals who have filed their returns, 41 percent received their money in two weeks or less. That should dissuade people from taking out so-called tax refund anticipation loans, which can come with unfavorable rates, according to Andrea Coombes, tax specialist at NerdWallet. Tax refunds “If you just stick with the normal process and wait for your refund from the IRS, you’re likely to get it pretty quickly,” Coombes said. Those who had the longest wait for their checks: parents of children under 18. That is because the IRS did not start processing refunds for those who claimed the earned income tax

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

credit or additional child tax credit until Feb. 27. While the tax law changes are prompting individuals to approach their taxes differently, there is one area where they are falling short. Just 17 percent of those surveyed said they plan to revisit their tax withholdings after this year’s return. “Getting a surprise tax bill is never fun,” Coombes said. “One of our key takeaways from this is to be sure to adjust your withholdings so you don’t get a tax bill next year.” That also applies if you’re getting a refund this year. That sum could instead be coming to you over the course of the year. A $3,000 refund, for example, could add up to $250 more per month in your bank account, according to NerdWallet’s calculations, after you adjust your withholdings. Many individuals overlook those changes to the W-4 form, which Coombes called the

The proposal, known as the Secure Act, was backed by the top Democrat and Republican on the tax-writing Ways and Means committee. The bill includes: A host of provisions aimed at encouraging small businesses to provide private retirement benefits to their workers. It allows them to band together to offer 401(k)s and creates

“control tower to your finances.” “It’s fun to get a refund,” Coombes said. “A lot of people like that windfall. “But it’s really money you could have been using to set aside for savings, to pay down debt, all last year.” NerdWallet’s online survey was conducted by The Harris Poll between Feb. 27 and March 1. It included 2,031 individuals ages 18 and up. - CNBC

a new tax credit of up to $500 for companies that set up plans with automatic enrollment. Businesses with long-term, part-time workers must also allow them to become eligible for retirement benefits. Several measures that would affect other types of savings are included in the bill. It repeals the maximum age for IRA contributions and raises the age for required mandatory distributions from 70½ to 72. It also expands the use of 529 plans, from only college-related expenses to include home schools and student loans. “Americans currently face a retirement income crisis, with too many people in danger of not having enough in retirement to maintain their standard of living and avoid sliding into poverty,” committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said Tuesday. The bill is one of the few proposals with a significant chance of becoming law amid a bitterly divided Congress. Elements of the bill have been debated among members for years and enjoy wide support among both industry groups and advocacy organizations. On Tuesday, Neal called the legislation “a major bipartisan accomplishment.” “The Ways and Means committee is where we find solutions and get things done for the American people,” he said. The last time Congress passed major retirement legislation was in 2006. The Pen-

sion Protection Act focused on underfunded accounts and reforms to that system. Since then, lawmakers have debated proposals to address the popularity of 401(k)s and individual savings accounts. But those efforts have stalled on their own, said Paul Richman, chief government officer at the Insured Retirement Institute, a trade group. He said the Secure Act aims to “modernize” the system. “It’s packaging them all into a comprehensive piece of legislation that would address many of these little issues that have cropped up over the years,” he said. “We think that it’s a good chance for Congress to take some positive, bipartisan action and advance this bill.” The Senate Finance committee introduced a companion bill late Monday. It is expected to pass with backing from both sides of the aisle. “There’s a lot of pent-up momentum for this, and that’s why it’s so bipartisan in nature,” said Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank. “They’re now getting to the point where there’s momentum to get it across the finish line in both the House and the Senate.” In the House, Neal said he is also working on a second retirement bill with ranking Republican Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas. He said he hopes the committee will consider that legislation before Congress goes on recess in August. - CNBC

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DIASPORA

VOICE OF ASIA 9

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

Changes to H-1B visa lottery create ‘stress’ for tech companies and employees

Another Indian national sentenced by US court in sophisticated call centre scam

by Paayal Zaveri and Aditi Roy

The Department of Justice said Mehboob Mansurali Charania took part in a sophisticated scheme organised in India, that included a network of call centres.

raj Parikh started coding when he was 8 years old. He’s been coding ever since, with his passion for computer programming bringing him to the United States, where he received a master’s in computer science from Indiana University. After a stint at a company in Boston, Parikh now works as a software engineer at PayPal.

and Immigration Services. Parikh has already been rejected from the H-1B lottery twice. If he gets a third rejection, he can still apply for an employment authorization under his green card application. But that process also takes time, money, and patience. Since his wife is a U.S. citizen, Parikh can still live in the U.S. if he doesn’t get a work visa or authorization, but he will no longer be able to

out a brief online form for each employee they want to submit for the H-1B lottery. Once the H-1B candidates are selected, employers will then fill out a full petition for approved candidates – something they have to do now for every H-1B lottery candidate regardless of whether they are chosen. The change could save companies loads of billable hours and effort filling out full petitions for each employee. However, some experts say the ease of filing under the preregistration system could be a drawback for anxious foreign nationals waiting to be selected. The tech community has been bracing for changes to the H-1B lottery ever since President Trump was elected, after assailing the system during his campaign. - CNBC

Vraj Parikh is a software engineer at PayPal. He is applying for his H-1B visa this year, his last opportunity to do so. (Photo: CNBC) “America has always been a land of opportunities for me,” Parikh says, sitting in his San Jose, California, apartment he shares with his wife.

work in the country.

Parikh is applying for an H-1B visa, which tech companies like Facebook and Microsoft rely on heavily to fill technical positions like software engineers. The application window for the lottery just opened this week, and the competition is stiff.

But Parikh might have a leg up on the competition this year. Under a change to the H-1B visa lottery this year, the Trump administration is allowing master’s candidates to apply first for the general pool of 65,000 visas. Master’s graduates who aren’t selected in that lottery will then be given a second chance for one of 20,000 visas designated for advanced degree holders. The changes mean master’s degree candidates like Parikh should have a better chance of getting picked.

For FY2018, more than 190,000 petitions were filed for 85,000 new H-1B visas, of which 20,000 slots were set aside for master’s candidates, according to U.S. Citizenship

Next year, the government will implement a new, electronic pre-registration process. Under that system, employers will fill

But while Parikh appears to be living the American Dream, the native of Gujarat, India, is fighting to work in this country.

The H-1B lottery will likely see more changes.

ASHINGTON, Apr 03, 2019 - An Indian national has been sentenced to 16 months in jail in the US for his involvement in a sophisticated call centre scheme that victimised over 340 people, resulting in over USD 200,000 in losses, in the latest crackdown on India-based call centre frauds in America. The Department of Justice said Mehboob Mansurali Charania took part in a sophisticated scheme organised in India, that included a network of call centres. Call centre operators called US residents over the telephone

Arun M. Kumar joins top US think-tank

run M Kumar, an IndianAmerican and a former Obama Administration official, has been elected as a member of a top US think-tank, the Council on Foreign Relations. Currently chairman and CEO of KPMG in India, Kumar, 66, served as a top US commercial diplomat in the Obama Administration. In his role as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the US and Foreign Commercial Service, he led the trade and investment promotion efforts for the US Government. "We take pride in Arun's

and misled the potential victims into sending money utilising a number of different confidence scams, court documents showed. Charania was convicted on January 17, after he pleaded guilty to engaging in an unlicensed money transfer business. Charania, who moved to Tucker, Georgia in 2014, was sentenced to one year, four months in prison to be followed by three years supervised release, and ordered to pay a USD 100 special assessment, and pay restitution of USD 203,958.02 to victims of the scheme, the DoJ said in a press release. "The phone scheme, Charania was a part of, used lies, intimidation, and fear to extort or outright steal from unsuspecting citizens," US Attorney Byung J 'BJay' Pak said. According to Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, J Russell George, since October 2013, more than 15,000 victims have suffered over USD 75 million in losses to the perpetrators of telephone scammers who impersonate Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees.

election as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which has been an influential voice in international relations not just in the US, but across the globe," said Bill Thomas, chairman of KPMG International. The Council aims to offer a balanced and nuanced study of foreign policy globally. - PTI

US investigation has identified 140 scammers who, have or are, facing federal criminal proceedings, the DoJ said. The scams included impersonation scams, where the callers pretended to be IRS employees and demanded payment of taxes and fees. Other scams included grant scams, where callers directed victims to pay upfront fees for fictitious grants; student

loan scams where callers threatened victims if they did not pay fictitious taxes and fees associated with student loans, and hacking scams, where callers would gain remote access to the victim's computer, lock the victim out of the computer, and deny access to the computer until the victim provided payment. If the victims agreed to pay, the call centres would have the victims send the funds to the attention of fictitious names used by Charania through wire transfers, including through MoneyGram and Western Union. Charania would also conduct hawala money transfers by transferring proceeds to bank accounts as directed by an individual in India. Charania's sentencing came a day after another Indian national was sentenced to eight years and nine months in prison for his involvement in an India-based call centre scam. Nishitkumar Patel, 31, who had pleaded guilty to the charges on January 9, has also been asked by a Florida court to pay USD 2,00,000, forfeit cash and a 2015 Land Rover that was seized in October 2018. According to court documents, Patel connived with the US-based co-conspirators and the India-based call centres to extort money from American residents by impersonating IRS officers between 2014 and 2016. The IRS is the revenue service of the United States federal government. - PTI

SOUTH ASIA

VOICE OF ASIA 10

Sri Lanka interviews 47 potential hangmen

Whatsapp targets fake messages ahead of India mega-election

EW DELHI | AFP | 4/2/2019 - WhatsApp launched a hotline Tuesday allowing Indians to flag rumours circulating ahead of the upcoming election, a major concern in a country where fake news has fuelled violence. It comes a day after WhatsApp's parent company Facebook removed hundreds of pages promoting India's ruling and opposition parties for violating rules around spam and "coordinated inauthentic behaviour" online. The spread of viral fake videos and messages on social media platforms has proved incendiary in India, where half a billion people are online but limited digital literacy has helped rumours spread like wildfire.

Earlier this week, President Maithripala Sirisena witnessed the destruction of nearly 800 kilos (1,280 pounds) of cocaine. (AFP Photo/Lakruwan Wanniarachchi)

As hundreds of millions of Indians prepare to vote this month and next, experts say

OLOMBO | AFP 4/3/2019 - Sri Lanka on Wednesday began interviewing 47 applicants for two positions as hangmen, officials said, as Amnesty International urged Colombo not to bring back capital punishment.

India's Modi takes election fight...

President Maithripala Sirisena announced in February that Sri Lanka would end a 43-year moratorium on executions this month in a Philippines-inspired war on drugs.

she remains hugely popular especially among poorer voters.

to the Lok Sabha, the country's lower house of parliament, and the BJP is desperate to make inroads in the key state of 90 million.

West Bengal sends the thirdhighest number of lawmakers

Analysts say the BJP could be targeting West Bengal for

Am official said that 47 male applicants would be interviewed on Wednesday and Thursday, after the government advertised the vacancies in February. But the successful candidates may face a delay in carrying out their new role. "Since there is no living person in Sri Lanka who has carried out an execution, we need to send the new recruits abroad for training," the official, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP, adding that Colombo was also yet to identify a country to provide training. "The rope (used for hangings) has not been used at all since it was imported (in 2015), it will have to be tested and certified." Rights group Amnesty International meanwhile said resuming hangings would not end drug-related crime and that innocent people could be executed due to flaws in Sri Lanka's criminal justice system. Sirisena has said that he was inspired by the anti-drug war in the Philippines and was keen to replicate the success of his counterpart Rodrigo Duterte. Sirisena has since deployed security forces in his battle against drugs. In a nationally televised event in Colombo, Sirisena pledged to end the spread of narcotics within two years. Restoring capital punishment is a centrepiece of his antidrugs policy. Criminals in Sri Lanka are regularly given death sentences for murder, rape and drug-related crimes but until now their punishments have been commuted to life in jail. Sri Lanka's last judicial hanging was in 1976, but an executioner was in post until his retirement in 2014. Three replacements since have quit after short stints at the unused gallows. On Monday, Sirisena witnessed the destruction of nearly 800 kilos (1,280 pounds) of cocaine seized between 2016 and 2018. In February, police seized nearly 300 kilos of heroin worth $17 million, the island's biggest haul, at a Colombo shopping mall. In 2013, police seized 260 kilos of heroin brought into the country hidden inside tractors imported from Pakistan. Sri Lanka's biggest drug haul, by weight, was in December 2016 when police seized 800 kilos of cocaine. Six months earlier, authorities discovered 301 kilos of cocaine inside a shipping container. Authorities believe the Indian Ocean island is also being used as a trafficking transit point.

Continued from Page 1

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

seats to offset potential losses in other important states. The BJP fears Banerjee could cobble together an alliance against them, as smaller parties did in Uttar Pradesh, a bellwether state

the biggest election in history will also prove an immense misinformation challenge. Less than two weeks before voting starts, WhatsApp has launched a "tipline" in partnership with an Indian startup that it says will allow voters to submit uncertain or suspicious content for verification. Pictures, video links and texts will be analysed and debunked if untrue in English and four regional languages, the company said in a statement. "This combined effort by WhatsApp and industry organisations will help contribute to the safety of the elections, by giving people means to know if the information is verified and deter people from sharing rumors that have no basis in fact," it said. It follows a major purge of Facebook accounts on Monday

often considered India's most important to win. If the BJP and Congress, the main opposition party challenging Modi, fail to get a decisive share of the 545 parliamentary seats, Banerjee could also become one of the top contenders for the prime minister's job.

by the social media giant, with hundreds of political pages spamming content supportive of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress movement taken down. Facebook said nearly 700 of these were associated with Congress, whose leader Rahul Gandhi is challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the election. The party said it was investigating the claims. Another 15 pages shut down for spamming were promoting, among other themes, the BJP and the alleged misconduct of its opponents, Facebook said. One belonged to a news organisation, MyNation, owned by BJP lawmaker Rajeev Chandrasekhar, media reports said. These pages were followed by 2.6 million users and "linked to individuals associated with an Indian IT firm, Silver Touch", Facebook said.

The Hindu nationalist party has attacked her record on law and order following a spate of election-related violence last year, and promised to crack down on Muslim immigrants in the state. Migrants have long been accused of grabbing land in West Bengal and stoking tensions with locals.

ASIA

VOICE OF ASIA 11

Ex-Nissan chief Ghosn rearrested in Tokyo: media

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

Field of dreams: Major League Baseball makes pitch for Chinese star Training is intensive with four or five hours a day from Wednesday to Friday and then matches on Saturday and Sunday mornings, followed by more practice. Games are against local universities or teams, but they sometimes travel to Japan, Taiwan, Australia or the United States. Most of the communication is in English and with all expenses paid by MLB -schooling, training, living costs -- it represents "an amazing, amazing opportunity", Chang said.

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn -- seen here on April 3, 2019, outside his lawyer's office -- is reportedly being rearrested as prosecutors look into fresh charges against him. (Photo: AFP / Kazuhiro Nogi) by Karyn Nishimura

OKYO | AFP | Wednesday 4/3/2019 - Former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn was rearrested early Thursday in Tokyo while out on bail, local media said, as prosecutors investigate a fresh charge against the auto tycoon. Authorities arrested the 65-year-old less than a month after he was dramatically freed on bail following more than 100 days in detention. Public broadcaster NHK and other media said prosecutors had entered Ghosn's temporary accommodation in central Tokyo early Thursday morning and that he left with them by car shortly afterwards. An AFP reporter outside the home saw three men in dark suits guarding the entrance to the building's car park and a police officer patrolling, as dozens of journalists gathered. Reports emerged Wednesday that prosecutors were weighing rearresting Ghosn as they investigate claims related to at least $32 million in Nissan funds transferred to a distributor in Oman.

"Our main goal is to get these guys opportunities in the US and obviously the top goal is to get them signed by pro teams," added Chang, who played for China despite being born in the United States.

separately from that of Nissan and his former right-hand man Greg Kelly. Nissan has been indicted alongside Ghosn, as they filed the shareholders' documents that allegedly mis-stated the then chairman's income. Hironaka said this would not be a fair trial as Nissan has effectively sided with the prosecutors by providing them with documents they say show further malpractice. - 'Trap', 'plot' Under Ghosn's management, Nissan recovered and formed a three-way alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi Motors that has become one of the world's top-selling auto groups. In an interview with AFP from his detention centre in January, Ghosn denounced a "trap" and a "plot" by Nissan prompted by opposition to his plans to bring the companies closer together.

US-born baseball coach Ray Chang takes charge of sessions at the MLB development centre in Nanjing. (Photo: AFP) the Milwaukee Brewers.

by Peter Stebbings

ANJING, China | AFP 4/2/2019 - A coach's voice in an unmistakably American accent rings out across a baseball field: "Attaboy, good job Wayne, nice throw!" It could easily be California or Florida, but this is a world away in Nanjing and Major League Baseball is hunting for its first star from China. If -- or more likely when -that happens, he will probably come from here. MLB has three development centres in China and in February, three youngsters from the Nanjing site were signed to

They will start in the minor leagues but hope to reach the 'big leagues' eventually. Missouri-born Ray Chang, who had stints at the San Diego Padres and Minnesota Twins as a player, is the coach playing a significant part in developing baseball in China. There are nearly 100 budding baseball players spread across the three development centres. Chang has 23 of them -- what he called "the cream of the crop" -- aged 12-18 under his wing in Nanjing, in China's east. These boys, who have taken on names such as Wayne, Sonny and Roger, have been scouted

from across the world's most populous nation, as far afield as Tibet. "We are not really looking just for baseball players, we are looking for athletes," the 35-year-old Chang said. "Baseball at that age level (when he scouts them at 11) is still growing so we are hoping to find better athletes where we can say, 'Look, here's a glove, here's a bat, let's go six years and see what happens.' "Obviously, preferably we'd like to have baseball players playing since they were five or six, but the reality is that's just not the case here in China." - 'Amazing opportunity' -

"Not everybody can have that opportunity. We've had seven the last 10 years sign professionally (since the programme began). "We've had four in the last year so it's been picking up." - Tibetan baseball star? Huadan Cairang sees his family once a year. The 17-yearold hails from the far west, highaltitude region of Tibet, where access by foreigners is tightly controlled by the authorities. Cairang -- who uses the name "Roger" -- initially played football and was a goalkeeper, but found his strapping frame better suited to baseball. Now mainly a pitcher, he has been playing for nine years, but admits that prior to that "I didn't know what baseball was at all". It was a Korean coach who spotted his potential.

According to a source familiar with the matter, some of this money is believed to have been used to buy a luxury boat for Ghosn and his family. The former high-flying executive already faces three charges of financial misconduct related to allegations he underreported his compensation and sought to transfer losses to Nissan's books.

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He has denied any wrongdoing and took to Twitter for the first time Wednesday, using a newly created account that his spokespeople confirmed was authentic, to announce plans for a press conference. "I'm getting ready to tell the truth about what's happening. Press conference on Thursday, April 11," said the tweet, sent in English and then Japanese.

On Sat., Sep. 28, 2019 The Indian American Nurses Legacy Award

- The 'Razor' Ghosn currently faces two separate charges of deferring his salary to the tune of nine billion yen ($81 million) and not revealing this in official documents to shareholders.

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The Brazil-born auto sector pioneer also faces a charge of seeking to shift personal investment losses onto Nissan's books and then using company funds to pay a Saudi associate who stumped up collateral for him. The case of Ghosn, widely credited with saving Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy, has been a rollercoaster ride of unexpected twists and turns from the moment he was first arrested at a Tokyo airport out of the blue on November 19. He has since been re-arrested on multiple occasions over a series of allegations, employed a little-used article of Japanese law to force a day in court and emerged on bail dressed in a workman's uniform and cap in a bizarre attempt to avoid the media.

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Since his release on bail on March 6, he has kept scrupulously quiet despite daily attempts by local and international media to interview him. His lawyer Junichiro Hironaka, known as the "razor" for his mental sharpness, has done the talking for him, appearing twice in front of the foreign media to plead his client's innocence. In his latest appearance on Tuesday, Hironaka announced he had filed a petition with the Tokyo District Court so that Ghosn's case would be heard

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US says poised to pump dollars into Venezuela after Maduro

ASHINGTON | AFP | 4/3/2019 - The US is prepared to pump dollars into Venezuela to fortify its economy if President Nicolas Maduro leaves, the top White House economic advisor said Wednesday, as American senators introduced legislation to authorize $400 million in humanitarian aid. Larry Kudlow told reporters that Washington is already working with banks and the International Monetary Fund on a rebuilding plan to revitalize the country's crushed economy and said that, when the time comes, "we will be moving as fast as we can." "We call it Day Two," he said at a briefing arranged by The Christian Science Monitor newspaper. "It would be a rescue plan, it would be a restructuring plan, it would be a plan to put cash into the country." Venezuela's oil economy has crumbled under a collapse of crude exports and international sanctions against Maduro, whom Washington and its allies view as illegitimate. The United States has been pressuring for Maduro to step down or be overthrown, but he has clung to power with the support of Venezuela's military. "The timeline is to get rid of Maduro. I have no idea when that is going to be," said Kudlow. Once Maduro leaves, economic assistance would be immediate, beginning with pushing the US currency in to reignite economic activity, moving it via "banks, iPhones, apps," said Kudlow, who is director of the National Economic Council. "The cash will not be bolivares, it will be dollars, at least at the beginning," he said. "There is no demand for bolivares. Dollars are the answer." - More aid for Venezuela On Capitol Hill, a bipartisan group of US senators introduced legislation to authorize $400 million in humanitarian aid to Venezuela. The funds are part of a package of measures aimed at re-establishing

democracy and supporting opposition leader Juan Guaido. Since 2017, Washington has allocated more than $195 million for humanitarian aid for Latin American nations that are taking in Venezuelan migrants and refugees. In January, the US Agency for International Development said that it could kick in an additional $20 million.

Canadian couple find lost ticket to become lastminute lottery millionaires

ONTREA | AFP | 4/3/2019 - A Quebec couple won Can$1 million ($750,000) in the lottery after finding a winning ticket that had been forgotten in a book for months, the province's LotoQuebec organization said Wednesday. Nicole Pedneault and Roger Larocque only realized last weekend that they had a winning ticket from an April 5, 2018 drawing. While looking through a book about Japan to help her grandson with a school project, Pedneault noticed something had fallen from the pages. It was a lottery ticket the couple had bought for Valentine's Day last year. "If my grandson hadn't asked me to give him some things for his presentation, I wouldn't have ever found the ticket," Pedneault said. "The first thing I did when I found the ticket in the book was go look at the deadline for claiming winnings on the Loto-Quebec website," she said. The ticket was still valid, but not for long -- only until Friday. "It's all just by chance that we found it at the last minute like that," the winner said as she claimed her check.

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

Texas bars US regulators probe reports of all clerics e-cigarette use causing seizures from execution ASHINGTON | AFP 4/3/2019 chamber to US regulators said Wednesday they bypass court are investigating reports that e-cigarettes -increasingly widespread ruling in America and elsewhere

ASHINGTON | AFP | Thursday 4/3/2019 - Texas announced Wednesday it would no longer allow clerics into its execution chambers, to bypass a Supreme Court ruling that stayed a convict's capital punishment because no Buddhist monk was available to accompany him in his last moments. The court last week granted Patrick Murphy, 57, a last-minute reprieve in the name of religious equality because, under Texas policy, Christian and Muslim clerics could be present in the room while those of other faiths could not. Murphy is one of the last members of the so called "Texas Seven," a group of escaped prisoners who killed a police officer during a high-profile crime spree in 2000. In response to the decision, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) said Wednesday it "has made a change to its execution protocol to only allow TDCJ security personnel in the execution chamber. "TDCJ chaplains will continue to be available to an offender until they are transferred to the execution chamber. The offender's approved spiritual advisor will continue to have the ability to visit the offender and be present in the witness room. "This change immediately."

effective

The court's decision on Thursday after the same bench in February refused to grant a stay of execution for Alabama inmate Domineque Ray, who asked for an imam to accompany him to his death. The refusal -- on the basis that the request was made late, was strongly criticized, including by the court's four liberal judges, one of whom wrote it was "profoundly wrong." Texas carried out 13 of the 25 executions in the United States in 2018.

-- may cause seizures. "We have reports indicating that some people who use e-cigarettes, especially youth and young adults, are experiencing seizures use of e-cigarettes -- colloquially known as vaping following their use," The -- began to take off among young Americans in the 2010s, the Food and Drug and overtook cigarette smoking in 2014. Administration (FDA) said in a statement. The FDA has reviewed "voluntary colloquially known as vaping -- began adverse event reports," finding "a to take off among young Americans total of 35 reported cases of seizures in the 2010s, and overtook cigarette following use of e-cigarettes between smoking in 2014. 2010 and early 2019," it said. The US categorizes e-cigarettes -"We believe these 35 cases warrant which deliver nicotine, often as part scientific investigation into whether of fruit or sweets-flavored vapor -there is in fact a connection." as tobacco products, a definition not The use of e-cigarettes -- shared by all countries.

Tesla to show self-driving car progress to investors

AN FRANCISCO | AFP | 4/3/2019 - Tesla announced on Wednesday that it will give investors an up-close look at its self-driving car in a bid to bolster confidence in the progress of the nascent technology. Tesla co-founder and chief executive Elon Musk and other executives will take part in presentations to investors at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters on April 19. "Tesla is making significant progress in the development of its autonomous driving software and hardware, including our FSD computer, which is currently in production and which will enable full-self driving via future over-theair software updates," the electric carmaker said in a release. The event will include test drives and is intended to provide an in-depth look at Tesla's self-driving vehicle

progress, according to the company, which declined to comment further. A race to get autonomous vehicles on roads has raised concerns that the technology might be deployed before it is ready, putting people at risk. China-based Tencent Keen Security Lab last week posted a video of its researchers tricking a self-driving Tesla into changing lanes into oncoming traffic by affixing stickers to the pavement in a controlled setting. "Tesla autopilot recognizes lanes and assists control by identifying road traffic markings," Keen said in a blog post. "Based on the research, we proved that by placing interference stickers on the road, the autopilot system will capture this information and make an abnormal judgement, which causes the vehicle to enter into the reverse lane."

VOICE OF ASIA 13

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Sugar Land, Katy, Stafford, Missouri City, Richmond, Rosenberg and Meadows Place

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Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital to celebrate National Cancer Survivors Day

UGAR LAND, April 1, 2019 — Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital is joining nearly 15.5 million American cancer survivors celebrating the 32nd Annual National Cancer Survivors Day® this year on May 31st. Also being recognized are the many family members, caregivers and health care providers whose support of cancer survivors help make the celebration possible. “A diagnosis of cancer can generate many emotions but survival is about embracing life and living each day to the fullest,” said Amy SebastianDeutsch, director of oncology services. “You will find our Cancer Survivor’s Day celebration and resource fair filled with laughter, camaraderie, hope, compassion, faith, love and music as we honor cancer survivors for their strength and courage.”

Anyone living with a personal history of cancer – starting from the moment of diagnosis – is a cancer survivor, according to the National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation®. “National Cancer Survivors Day is a great opportunity for cancer survivors, caregivers, friends and family to come together and affirm there can be quality of life after a diagnosis of cancer,” said Clive Shkedy, M.D., medical director of radiation oncology. Additionally, the foundation says that more people are surviving cancer than ever before, thanks to advances in prevention, early detection, treatment and follow-up care. Cancer, however, does come with many challenges, such as hindered access to cancer specialists and promising new treatments, inadequate or no insurance, financial hardships, employment problems and

psychological struggles. “Despite these difficulties, cancer survivors can live active, productive lives with the support of other survivors,” said Shkedy. Houston Methodist Cancer Center at Sugar Land welcomes all local cancer survivors and one guest to join us as we honor cancer survivors. Find Your Sunshine, the Cancer Survivors Day Celebration and Resource Fair will begin at 10 a.m., Friday, May 31, at the Sugar Land Marriott Town Square. News anchor, Shern-Min Chow from KHOU 11 will emcee the event and this year’s keynote motivational speaker is Conor Cunneen an author and two-time cancer survivor. Guests will also be able to have a photo taken at the photo booth, and visit our resource fair. Recognizing the impor-

Katy ISD’s Miller Tech Center’s vet assisting program to host low cost microchip event

Houston Methodist Cancer Survivor Day celebration 2018. tance of wellness, guests will be invited to participate in a fun activity prior to enjoying

brunch. Registration is required. Register online at events.

houstonmethodist.org/survivorluncheon-sl or call 281.274.7500.

Fort Bend ISD invites parent and booster groups to spring vendor fair on April 16

aty Community ‘Chip Clinic’s (KCCC) next event will be at Katy ISD Miller Career & Technology Center’s Vet Assisting Program on April 6! The students will be volunteering their time to host and help run a low cost microchip clinic at their stateof-the-art facility! Come out and see the program space, learn what services the students can offer your pets, and of course, get your pets ‘chipped!. KCCC customers paid it forward at the last event in Sugar Land, so the first 10 pets at the KISD event will be microchipped for FREE! In celebration of KCCC’s pending 501c3 status, all subsequent pets can be microchipped for only $5.00 each, (cash only) with FREE lifetime registration. Students will also be offering nail trims at the event. Please note, pets and their families do not need to live IN Katy to take advantage of this service. Pet owners MUST bring Rabies Vaccine Certificate for the safety of volunteers and guests. This offer is for personal pets only please. Cats should be in a secure carrier and it is recommended that dogs be on a no-slip leash with a securely fastened collar that they can’t pull out of (please no retractable leashes). Details: Saturday, April 6, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. Katy ISD’s Miller Tech Center’s Vet Assisting Program 1734 Katyland Dr, Katy, TX 77493-1751 Why is it so important to microchip your pets? Microchipping is a free call home for life should your pet accidentally get out and be brought to a shelter or veterinarian’s office. Collars and tags can be removed or fall off, but a microchip goes wherever your pet does! In the State of Texas, when a pet escapes its home, if brought to a shelter, after only three days it can be released for adoption (or worse). With more than 10 shelters in the Houston metropolitan region (pets don’t observe city limits or county lines!), finding a lost pet can suddenly become a full time job (posting signs, searching online, visiting shelters). Many times, the correct breed isn’t even entered into a shel-

UGAR LAND - Fort Bend ISD will host its spring vendor fair on April 16 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the Fort Bend ISD Administrative Annex (3119 Sweetwater Blvd., Sugar Land 77479). FBISD parent-teacher organizations (PTO) and as-

sociations (PTA), and school booster groups, can meet with local vendors to learn more about fundraising opportunities. There will also be an information panel sharing best practices for parent groups, including how to make smooth transitions to new officers and

Accused Corpus Christi murderer caught in Rosenberg by Alexandria Rodriguez

ter’s registration system upon intake, so making phone calls and asking if a specific breed was brought in, can’t guarantee an owner finds its pet. However, if a pet is microchipped, it will be scanned upon intake, and can often be back home within hours! Microchipping a pet provides a direct link to the owner’s contact information and expedites a joyful reunion.

mation.

What is a microchip? A microchip is a rice-sized transponder that is injected between a pet’s shoulder blades with a needle. When getting ‘chipped, most pets don’t react any differently than when they receive their yearly vaccinations. A microchip does NOT have a GPS locator in it, but as long as the account is kept up-to-date, its number will be linked to the pet owner’s contact information. Katy Community ‘Chip uses universal microchips that can be scanned by any brand of microchip scanner, and offers free, lifetime registration of the microchip through the nationwide database maintained by Found.org. The microchip account is easily accessible online, and pet owners can update their contact information as needed and even add their pet’s photo and veterinarian infor-

About Katy ‘Chip Clinic:

For more information on this event, or to see the upcoming calendar, please “like” and “follow” the group at: https:// www.facebook.com/KatyCommunityChipClinic/ Event or sponsorship questions can be directed to katycommunitychipclinic@gmail. com. Community

KCCC is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization*, and is a partner of Fort Bend Pets Alive!, an organization dedicated to delivering solutions that can make Fort Bend County a no kill community through programs such as education, adoptions, outreach, low cost spay/ neuter programs and fostering. Microchipping more pets helps them get home quicker, so they aren’t taking up the space that is SO needed to give homeless pets a chance at finding forever families. Fort Bend Pets Alive! is a 501(c)3 non-profit, for purpose organization dedicated to helping make Fort Bend County a no kill community. - KCCC News

ORT BEND - A 39-year-old man accused of the murder of 42-year-old Corpus Christi man was apprehended near Houston on March 31st. Zachary Hensley was taken into Fort Bend County Jail on

Monday, according to jail records. U.S. Marshals and authorities in Rosenburg went to a home Hensley was believed to be staying in, police said in a statement. A woman answered the door and a task force took Hensely into custody, police said.

how to improve communications between parent groups and campus administrators. This is a free event, but participants are encouraged to register. Please note, due to space limitations, only two members per organization should attend.

Hensley is accused of the murder of Tyson Franklin. Corpus Christi police found Franklin dead inside a blue Dodge pickup the morning of March 10 in the 2800 block of Robby Drive, near McKinzie Road. Authorities believe Franklin died from a gunshot wound. Police announced a warrant was issued for Hensley on March 25 on suspicion of murder. - Caller Times

VOICE OF ASIA 14

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

BOLLYWOOD - HOLLYWOOD Section 2

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Kangana Ranaut on becoming Jayalalithaa for her biopic: ‘She was the absolute opposite of me’ Kangana Ranaut reveals what made her sign the Jayalalithaa biopic and opens up on her views about the late politician.

(L) Pakistani waiter Rozi Khan posing for a photograph at Dilbar Hotel in Rawalpindi, (R) US actor Peter Dinklage. (Photo © Aamir Qureshi, Chris Delmas / AFP)

ollywood actor Kangana Ranaut is on a biopic spree. After the success of her directorial debut Manikarnika, which was based on the life of the queen of Jhansi, she has announced her own biopic and will also be seen in a film on actor-turned-politician Jayalalithaa. Speaking about the film on Jayalalithaa titled Thalaivi, Kangana has claimed her own personality is the opposite of the late chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

Kangana Ranaut along with media celebrates her 32 birthday anniversary at her residence in Mumbai. (AFP)

In a press statement, Kangana said, “She was far more docile and refined in her demeanour, more sophisticated in her choice of words and always ladylike no matter what she was going through. But if you tried to run her down, she would always bounce back. She’s risen over every controversy and adversity and I could identify with that spirit though our styles of expression were very different.” Talking about her interest in the story, Kangana told Mumbai Mirror, “They call me akka but I get mobbed more in my guru’s ashram in the US than when in Coimbatore. It’s a different world down South. Their own actors are mega stars and they hardly watch Hindi films, so apart from capital cities like Chennai or Hyderabad, I go largely unrecognised and can walk around freely.” Sources close to the actor have informed us that Kangana had sessions with K V Vijayendra Prasad on her biopic, when he said he was writing another story like Kangana’s and she should consider coming onboard for that. That was how Kangana’s journey of Jayalalithaa biopic began. The biopic on the former chief minister is a bilingual, which is titled Jaya in Hindi and Thalaivi in Tamil.

House of Khan: Pakistani finds fame as ‘Game of Thrones’ doppelganger Pakistani waiter Rozi Khan had never heard of the Game of Thrones -- or its hugely popular character Tyrion Lannister -- until his striking resemblance to the dwarf anti-hero got heads turning at home.

AHORE, Pakistan | AFP | Monday 4/1/2019 The 25-year-old so resembles actor Peter Dinklage -- who has played the witty and wily nobleman since the hit series’ first season in 2010 -- that he gets regularly stopped by strangers desperate for a picture. “I don’t mind. A lot of my pictures have been taken, that’s why I have become very famous everywhere,” he said. Not only are Khan and Dinklage’s faces strikingly similar, they are also the same height at around 135 cms (4 ft 5in).

Poster of the biopic The Iron Lady Talking about her conversation with the Manikarnika writer, Kangana said in a statement, “It presented an image of her that was contrary to the one I had in my mind, so I asked for some time to think over the film during that I read up some more on her and was blown away by what I learnt. It’s a story that needs to be told and I am happy to be telling it even though she was the absolute opposite of me.”

Netflix testing mobile-only subscription plan for $3 per month: report

Kangana also disclosed that the Jayalalithaa biopic will start with Jayalalithaa as a child, cover her journey to emerging as one of the biggest stars and end with her becoming the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for the first time. “After that it would become a more political film and mean a shift in focus and genre,” Kangana told the tabloid. Part of her preparation for the film, Kangana is taking lessons in Tamil language. She is also learning Bharatnatyam. Thalaivi will go on floors in October

Photographs of the pair have unsurprisingly made their way onto social media showing the doppelgangers side-by-side. “Wherever I go, someone says to me: ‘Sir, who is this man with you on Facebook’, I say that he is my friend. ‘He looks like you’. I tell them he is my brother. It’s not a bad thing,” said Khan. The television series has won 47 Emmys -- more than any other fictional show in history -- along with a Golden Globe for Dinklage, 49, for best supporting actor in 2012. A much anticipated final series is set

to premiere on April 17. Khan works at a small Kashmiri restaurant down a narrow line in Rawalpindi, serving customers hearty dishes such as mutton and spinach curries. Owner Malik Aslam Pervez described him as a hard-worker -- and also a drawcard for the eatery. “When he takes a day off or gets sick, people look for him and ask where did he go? They get upset. They love him. There is always a crowd here but it has boomed because of him,” he said. Born in Mansehra in northern Pakistan, Khan says he would love to meet Dinklage, describing him as a friend and brother. “I love him very much, he is my friend... he is my height so I like him a lot,” said Khan. For customers, seeing Tyrion Lannister in the flesh is also a thrill. “When I saw him, I’m happy, I feel that I met with Lannister in real [life],” said Zain Hadri, 20. “Game of Thrones” tells the story of noble families vying for control of the Iron Throne, all the while keeping one eye on the “White Walkers” leading hordes of the undead toward an invasion from the North.

Saif Ali Khan’s son Ibrahim wants to act, may follow in sister Sara’s footsteps soon

UMBAI - After Sara Ali Khan, brother Ibrahim is also eyeing Bollywood

Saif Ali Khan’s daughter Sara impressed all with her Bollywood debut last year and now it seems her brother Ibrahim may be planning an entry into Bollywood soon. Reports claim Saif Ali Khan wants to produce a film to launch his son.

Netflix is testing mobile-only subscription plan in India. (Photo © gawrav / Istock.com)

ccording to a report, Netflix has begun testing a mobileonly subscription plan in India that is being trialed for just a bit over $3 per month. Late last week, Variety spotted that Netflix is currently testing a mobileonly subscription option in India that costs users INR250, or just about $3.63, per month. As an explanation, a Netflix spokesperson told Variety that “We will be testing different [subscription] options in select countries, where members can, for example, watch Netflix on their mobile device for a lower price and subscribe in shorter increments of time.” Furthermore, the spokesperson reiterated that this subscription plan is simply a test that’s only available to select users -- this plan may never roll out globally and may not even be permanently available for the Indian market. Last November, a subscription option at a similar price point became available in Malaysia, again, as a test. At the time, Netflix confirmed that they will test this type of feature in a few other areas in the future; evidently India was on that list. Today, Netflix offers three plans to most of its markets: Basic (one stream), Standard (two streams), and Premium (four streams). A tier available for just over $3 would be less than half the price of the Basic plan. Dropping a subscription plan for

$3 would certainly make the service more accessible, especially since the company began raising its prices by as much as 18% at the start of 2019. - Relaxnews

A Deccan Chronicle report quoted a source as saying, “Saif may produce a film for Ibrahim. Unlike Sara who was always a full-on masala heroine, Ibrahim needs special nurturing and grooming to face the camera. He is shy and needs to trust the camera.” Talking about rumours of Ibrahim joining the film industry, Sara had told Hindustan Times in an interview, “I think Ibrahim definitely does want to be an actor. We talk about films and I do know that being an actor is what he dreams of. But I have also often told him that having a dream and living it are two

Michelle Williams at US Capitol to push for pay equality

Ibrahim Ali Khan wants to act, sister Sara Ali Khan had revealed in an interview last month. (File photo) different things. There is a lot of hard work because it’s not just glitz and glamour and I think he is aware of that. If he puts his heart and soul into something, he can do it. I have seen him do plays and all before and I think he has a lot of conviction and a lot of talent. But to be totally hon-

est with you, I am his sister and I will have some bias.”

cial media, and it gained traction amid the #MeToo movement against sexual

harassment.

ollywood actress Michelle Williams came to Congress Tuesday appealing for a vote on a law to close the gender pay gap, recalling how she was once paid dramatically less than a male colleague for similar work.

“If it was like this for me, a white woman in a glamorized industry, how were my sisters suffering across their profession?” Williams said. The 38-year-old actress’s appearance at the US Capitol was organized by House Democrats to mark Equal Pay Day, meant to symbolize how far into the year a woman must work to make what men earned in the previous year. “The ball’s now in the Senate court,” Williams said. “This is the next critical moment, please don’t let it pass by.”

PRO

The Williams/Wahlberg pay discrepancy made national headlines when actress Jessica Chastain revealed it on so-

Source: HT Times

- AFP

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Nominated for four Academy Awards during her career, the star of “Manchester By the Sea” and “Brokeback Mountain” learned that while she earned $1,000 in 2017 to reshoot scenes for the film “All the Money in the World,” her male costar Mark Wahlberg received $1.5 million “for the exact same amount of work.” The reshoots on the Ridley Scott film were done to remove appearances by Kevin Spacey, who had played a leading role and recently had been charged with sexual assault.

The source further told the website, “Saif left his son’s career choice up to him, just as he left it up to Sara as to what she wanted to do with her life.”

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‘Sex And The City’ follow-up series in the works from Candace Bushnell Actress and rapper Awkwafina (Photo © Valerie Macon / AFP)

Awkwafina and Ike Barinholtz to star in comic crime caper The two will also produce the project for STXfilms.

rime After Crime follows the young host of a podcast (Awkwafina) who has devoted her show to proving the innocence of a convict (Ike Barinholtz). When he breaks out of jail and turns up at her house, she agrees to help him. Dan Gurewitch and David Young will write the screenplay, while Kate Vorhoff and Catherine Hagedorn will oversee production on behalf of STXfilms. The project will be produced by Nick Stoller and Conor Welch via their Stoller Global Solutions banner, along with Awkwafina, Barinholtz and David Stassen.

Rapper and actress Awkwafina is best known for her roles in “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Ocean’s 8.” She will shortly be seen in the “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” sequel and “The Farewell.” Barinholtz played Morgan Tookers on TV comedy “The Mindy Project,” and recently made his feature directorial debut with 2018’s “The Oath,” which he starred in opposite Tiffany Haddish. He also stars in the upcoming movie “The Hunt” with Emma Roberts and Justin Hartley. - Relaxnews

Cillian Murphy linked with ‘A Quiet Place 2’ After “Peaky Blinders” and Luc Besson’s action movie “Anna,”

Television series ‘Sex and the City’ ran on HBO from 1998-2006.(Photo © AFP/Craig Blakenhorn)

he iconic comedy series about four friends in New York City is getting a followup, which will look at the lives of fiftysomethings. Paramount Television and Anonymous Content have acquired the rights to “Sex and the City” author Candace Bushnell’s soon-to-bereleased book “Is There Still Sex in the City?”. Bushnell’s new book will look at

sex, dating, and friendship in New York after 50 from all angles -marriage, divorce, children, loss and ageing.

by Bushnell to be adapted for TV, following “Sex and the City,” “Lipstick Jungle” and SATC prequel “The Carrie Diaries.”

The author will write the script for the TV pilot and serve as an executive producer on the project, along with Liza Chasin from 3dot Productions and Robyn Meisinger from Anonymous Content.

The series is not being planned as a direct sequel to hit show “Sex and the City,” which ran on HBO from 19982006 and spawned two feature films.

If picked up as a full series, the project would be the fourth book

“Is There Still Sex in the City” is out on August 6 from Grove Press. - Relaxnews

French New Wave film pioneer Agnes Varda dead at 90

ARIS | AFP | Monday 4/1/2019 - French film legend Agnes Varda, the only woman director to emerge from the New Wave scene in the 1960s, has died aged 90 after a battle with cancer, her family said on Friday. With her two-tone bowl haircut, Varda was seen as the arty, eccentric “grandmother” of French cinema and tributes poured in for the highly political artist who was revered for her originality. Varda died overnight at home “of complications from cancer. She was surrounded by her family and friends,” the family said in a statement. Varda worked right up to the end of her life, with a new autobiographical documentary premiering at the Berlin film festival just last month. She was still giving media interviews last weekend at an exhibition of her artworks. “She was so far ahead of everyone else; she was the first to make films that influenced the New Wave,” fellow French director Claude Lelouch told AFP on Friday. “She always chose the right battles.”

Irish actor Cillian Murphy, here at the Berlin Film Festival for ‘The Party,’ February 2017. (Photo © Tobias Schwarz / AFP)

illian Murphy could well co-star in alien invasion survival horror “A Quiet Place 2” opposite Emily Blunt and under the direction of the first movie’s co-star, John Krasinski. Having survived 2018 horror hit “A Quiet Place,” Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe look set to be joined by Cillian Murphy in a May 2020 sequel. Murphy has been linked to the production by The Hollywood Reporter and is to play a newcomer and potential ally for the Abbott family, should negotiations conclude successfully. John Krasinski, who co-wrote and co-starred in “A Quiet Place,”

remains in the director’s chair from one film to the next. Filming is scheduled to begin mid-2019. Murphy, who has appeared in Christopher Nolan movies “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight,” “Inception” and “Dunkirk,” returns to TV for a fifth season of British interwar gangland drama “Peaky Blinders,” due 2019 and, should previous seasons act as a guideline, debuting towards the end of the year. He’s also been attached to an animated adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s shipwreck adventure, “Kensuke’s Kingdom.” - Relaxnews

Madonna tweeted a picture of herself with Varda in Paris in December 2015, Varda’s head resting on the singer’s shoulder. “Farewell to one of my favorite filmmakers - Agnes Varda always a curious, creative, child- like spirit to the last moment. We will miss you!!” “Selma” director Ava DuVernay also tweeted a picture of herself with the French filmmaker. “Merci, Agnes. For your films. For your passion. For your light. It shines on,” she wrote. Last November, Varda won an honorary Oscar at age 89 for her documentary “Faces Places”, which saw her ditch her walking stick during the ceremony for an impromptu celebratory dance with Hollywood star Angelina Jolie. With her eyesight failing but imagination undimmed, Varda admits at one point during the film that “every new person I meet feels like my last one.”

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Agnès Varda in 1970. (Photo © AFP) Her death came just before she was to inaugurate a show of her whimsical art installations at the Chaumont-surLoire castle in the central Loire valley of France on Saturday. - Husband and wife team Varda and her late husband, director Jacques Demy, were one of the New Wave’s great double acts, with her pitching in on his masterpieces like “The Young Girls of Rochefort”, “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” and “Bay of Angels”. She made her name in 1962 with her first feature “Cleo de 5 a 7” (Cleo from 5 to 7), about a hypochondriac singer who gets increasingly worried that she has cancer while she is waiting for test results from her doctor. But it was in her documentaries and films that mixed real-life events with fiction that Varda weaved her very particular brand of gritty poetry. She won the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival and a host of other awards for her 1985 film “Vagabond”, which retraced the life of a homeless woman who was found frozen to death in a ditch. Her social conscience was also clear in the now classic documentary, “The

Gleaners & I” (2000) -- about people who comb the fields after the harvest for leftover grain and fruit, and urban gleaners who make a living from junk. It is on the BBC’s list of the best films made since the turn of the century. Varda never hid her interest in politics, making a series of documentaries in the United States and Cuba as both countries reeled from social and political revolutions, including “Black Panthers” (1968), “Hi Cubans!” (1971) and “Far From Vietnam” (1967). Born in Belgium in 1928 to a French mother and Greek father whose family had fled Turkey, Varda changed her first name from Arlette to Agnes when she turned 18 and began her career as a photographer. Her work often crossed over between cinema and art and her own personal story, like her documentary “Uncle Yanco” (1967) about San Francisco hippie artist Jean Varda -- a relative of hers. Some of her most poignant work focused on the three decades she spent with Demy until his untimely death in 1990 -- “Jacquot de Nantes” (Jacky from Nantes), “The Beaches of Agnes” and “The World of Jacques Demy”. Varda often used her own life as the framework for her art, which brought her an honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival in 2015 -- the first time a woman won the coveted award. “Her work and her life are infused with the spirit of freedom, the art of driving back boundaries, a fierce determination and a conviction that brooks no obstacles,” the Cannes festival said at the time.

Young Life

VOICE OF ASIA 16

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HCC’s first cross-disciplinary class enters Houston Art Car Parade

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

Tel: 713-774-5140

Rish Oberoi is Ekal Vidyalaya Houston’s Zonal Development Director

shley Hope, a Houston Community College (HCC) professor of studio art and art history is using cross-disciplinary teaching by having her classes enter the Houston Art Car Parade. Hope’s art car cooperative class is a one-of-akind class that is offered only at HCC. For the past six months, her classes have been working on designing their entries for the parade. The class is entering bicycles in the 2019 parade and an ambulance in 2020. While Hope has been thinking of entering the parade for quite some time, her class was not a possibility until HCC’s West Houston Institute was built. Providing the class with large spaces, technology and the tools they need to design their parade entries, the West Houston Institute is the first facility of its kind to integrate many critical components for innovation in a single space. The building features a collaboratorium, makerspace, conference center, teaching innovation academy, learning commons, IDEAS (Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship, Arts, Sciences) academy, and center for entrepreneurship. Hope’s class utilizes the makerspace, modeled after Rice University’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK), MIT’s FabLab and Houston-based TXRX. The makerspace has 3D printing, electronics, laser cutting, CNC machining and metalworking. “My STEAM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Art, Math) team is the first class to participate in makerspace and has used every corner,” says Hope. “Being the first regular class in the new makerspace, the art car team was the primary voice in assisting its development,” says Seth Moody, a student in Hope’s class. “I felt grateful to be seen fit for preparing the space for future students.” Everyone is equal in a class that is “student-led, not professor-led,” says Hope, adding that in the class, she “is a peer guiding them through the project. There is a magical camaraderie in each class because of the intimate group of five to six students.” “My introduction to the Houston Art Car Parade came from my classmate, Ricardo Rivera, in April 2018,” says Moody. “I was determined to attend the next year, but I could not have foreseen having the honor to be in the parade.”

The bicycles were provided by Free Wheels Houston, an organization that donates bikes to refugees and others who need a way to work and, or school. While there was plenty of excitement surrounding the class, the uncertainty of a guaranteed space and timeline left the other departments hesitant to join. “It was hard to get everyone together,” says Hope. “Lots of people wanted to do it; I got some people because they overheard me talking, but it took time to convince everyone that it was actually going to happen.” Once Hope convinced everyone the class was happening, the STEAM team gained another partner whose contribution will be featured in the 2019 parade. The bicycles were provided by Free Wheels Houston, an organization that donates bikes to refugees and others who need a way to work and, or school. “My most profound experience came upon lifting the ‘Ferris Wheel’ onto the bike,” says Moody. “After weeks of effort, I saw the art bike as it was designed and thought, ‘Wow! This is my bike!’” Coleman College for Health Sciences gave Hope the ambulance, but it needed some work. That is when the automotive department stepped in to make the ambulance paradeready. “This is the first time our departments have worked together on a project,” says Richard Hakemack, faculty program director of automo-

tive technology. “The experience of preparing the ambulance for an art car was different from the instructors’ perspective. They really dug into the project, and their classes were able to see the non-running ambulance come back to life.” In addition, extra electrical and accessories on the ambulance were not typical of what is typically used in the program; which Hakemack says made it an interesting learning experience for the students. It also allowed the instructors to cover additional electrical activities outside the normal curriculum and garner student interest in that area of repair. While an ambulance and a bike have their differences, the parade accepts anything on wheels, such as unicycles, lawnmowers, cars and gocarts. Although this is HCC’s first year participating in the parade, the event started in 1988 with a 40-car parade seen by 2,000 people. Today, the parade is a three-day celebration with more than 250 vehicles from 23 states, Canada and Mexico. The audience has also grown in numbers to more than 250,000 attendees. Schools started entering the parade after Rebecca Bass and Edison Middle School entered, winning major awards in 1990. “The number of school entries increases each year,” says Kat Mims, The Orange Show Foundation. Its Center for Visionary Arts has been the producer of The Houston Art Car Parade for 25 years. “Last year we had 24 school entries, says Mims. “So far, this year we have 18 entries. I expect the number of school entries to double by the end of the deadline.” While Hope and her students have not come up with a design for the ambulance yet, she does have two of her own requirements.

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“ T h e ambulance has to be well designed, by not looking thrown together, but appearing a l m o s t Hollywood like,” says Hope. The second requirement is to celebrate HCC. The class will use symbols and emblems to represent the different parts that make HCC whole and complete the art piece.

Rish Oberoi

by Manu Shah

ish Oberoi is excited about joining Ekal Vidyalaya Houston as Zonal Development Director since it involves two of his favorite things.

Making a difference and flexing his fundraising skills. As Development Director, Rish’s job involves rallying support from Corporations, strengthening donor base, coordinating with other Ekal Chapters on projects and events and tapping young professionals who want to give back. The young 27 year old has joined Ekal to promote the organization’s work of uplifting India’s rural and tribal areas through literacy and vocational skills. This “wanting to make a difference” here or in India was always important to him, Rish says, of his motivation to work with Ekal. He is highly inspired by Past President Barack Obama and like him, Rish too wanted to do something to better the world. In 2016, after graduating with a Bachelors in History and a minor in PoliSci from the University of Houston, Rish joined HISD as an Associate Teacher while working for his Teacher’s Certification. It proved to be a short stint as he soon grew disillusioned with the state’s handling of the public school system and its failure to be effective for marginalized communities. It was evident to Rish that several things were wrong in society and he believes that “it goes back to who’s running the Government.” Perturbed, he called up the office of Mark Gibson who was running for the 22nd District Congressional seat and volunteered for the election campaign. It was totally new territory for Rish and a formative learning curve for him. Gibson didn’t win but Rish got his first taste of politics and a possible career. Over the next few years, Rish worked as a Policy Aide in Speaker Straus’s office and crisscrossed Texas as Director of Operations and Travel Aide in Mike Colliers Lt. Governor campaign. However it was with Congressional candidate Sri Kulkarni that Rish truly got in the thick of campaigning and fundraising. As Kulkarni’s Finance Director, their campaign raised over $1 million in four months – a record and double the initial goal. Rish also picked up some useful skills from summers spent behind the cash counter as his father, Ricki Oberoi, owns several franchises of fast food chain Wendy’s. It was an excellent training ground for tangible lessons such as keeping “a cool head with lessthan-reasonable customers” to connecting with people. More importantly, he realized that business wasn’t his cup of tea and said as much to his parents. They were understandably taken aback at first, but were always supportive of his decision to carve out his own path. Rish plans to visit a few Ekal schools in India to see for himself how the organization runs 83,000 schools and touches the lives of two million children. He is drawn to Ekal’s concept of not only providing free schooling but also vocational training, digital competence and agricultural education to farmers. As a millennial himself, he’s partial to the Ekal on Wheels – a program that uses mobile buses fitted with computer stations to impart digital skills to children and young adults. During his me-time, Rish enjoys going for music festivals and cheering for the Houston Rockets. He’s also a major history buff and travels to Canada to see his girlfriend Alysha whenever he can.

Read more Young Life stories. Visit us online : voiceofasia.news About HCC Houston Community College (HCC) is composed of 15 Centers of Excellence and numerous satellite centers that serve the diverse communities in the Greater Houston area by preparing individuals to

live and work in an increasingly international and technological society. HCC is one of the country’s largest singly accredited, openadmission, community colleges offering associate degrees, certificates, workforce training, and lifelong learning opportunities. To learn more, visit www.hccs.edu.

VOICE OF ASIA 17

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

April is Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Month

April is Autism Awareness Month

Section 2 Tel: 713-774-5140

The great sex recession: celibate CMS seeks recommendations Americans at record high that allow Americans to The share of American adults having no sex in the past year reached an all-time high in 2018, an intimate survey revealed Friday, and many of those missing out are men in their 20s.

purchase health insurance across state lines CMS seeks recommendations that allow Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines Administration continues efforts to increase consumer choice, promote competition and drive down prices in the health insurance market The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a request for information (RFI) today that solicits recommendations on how to eliminate regulatory, operational and financial barriers to enhance issuers’ ability to sell health insurance coverage across state lines. This announcement builds on President Trump’s October 12, 2017 Executive Order, “Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition Across the United States,” which intends to provide Americans relief from rising premiums by increasing consumer choice and competition.

An analysis of new research data by The Washington Post reveals a battle of the sexes, with 18 percent of the women between the ages of 18 and 30 reporting no sex in the past year, as opposed to 28 percent of men. (© franckreporter / Istock.com)

n analysis of new research data by The Washington Post reveals a battle of the sexes, with 18 percent of the women between the ages of 18 and 30 reporting no sex in the past year -- but 28 percent of men. Male millennials are often portrayed in popular culture as the most sexually active -- or at least the most sexually eager -- and the news prompted a surprised reaction on social media. “Reasons why likely include a greater preference for video games and for porn,” tweeted US psychologist and practicing family doctor Leonard Sax, who was speaking generally about the issue before the survey’s release. “Young men tell me that the video games, and the porn, are vastly better today than they were 20 years ago.”

The largest disparity is between age groups, with only seven percent of thirtysomethings reporting a barren year in the love stakes. The figure is as impressive among frisky fortysomethings -- only nine percent said they’d struck out in 2018 -- and those aged between 50 and 59. Just 13 percent of this group say they didn’t get lucky last year. For those 60 and older, the share reporting no sex over the past year has remained steady around 50 percent. But the overall 23 percent figure -up from 19 percent two decades ago -- paints a picture of a nation growing gradually but steadily less amorous. Celibacy as a corrosive force hit the headlines recently with emergence of the “incel” online subculture of an-

gry young men unable to find sexual partners -- with the movement linked to several mass shootings in the US. But it has had its high-profile champions too: Andy Warhol, J Edgar Hoover, Isaac Newton and Joan of Arc were all said to be proud celibates. The data on America’s bedroom habits was collected for the General Social Survey conducted by the NORC research organization at the University of Chicago and analyzed by the Post. The newspaper said its analysis underscored a three-decade trend line marked by an aging population and higher numbers of unattached people. - AFP

China teacher arrested for ‘poisoning’ pupils: state media

EIJING, China | AFP | Monday 4/1/2019 - Twentythree pupils at a kindergarten in central China were taken to hospital last week after a teacher allegedly poisoned their morning porridge, state-run reported Monday. The teacher at the school in Jiaozuo city in Henan province, identified only by the surname Wang, was taken into custody after the March 27 incident, Xinhua news agency said, citing local officials. The pupils began vomiting and fainting after breakfast, the Beijing News said, citing unnamed city officials. One parent told the newspaper that he rushed to the hospital after receiving a call from the school to find doctors had already pumped his child’s stomach to prevent high levels of toxicity in his blood. One child remains in hospital with “severe” symptoms, and seven others have been held for observation, Xinhua reported. The reports did not specify the ages of those affected, but typically, kindergarten students in China are aged three to six. A preliminary investigation has revealed that sodium nitrite, which is used for curing meats but can be toxic when ingested in high amounts, caused the poisoning, Xinhua said. The incident in Jiaozuo came just before a new regulation took effect Monday, requiring school officials from kindergartens to secondary schools in China to dine with their students in canteens to prevent food safety scandals. Schools are now also required to publicly identify food sources and suppliers, and set up risk prevention and control systems, Xinhua news agency said. In March, 36 primary school students in southwest China’s Sichuan province were hospitalised after eating “mouldy food.”

The incident sparked a protest and led to the dismissal of the school principal, according to reports from the state-run Global Times newspaper. Photos of mouldy bread, discol-

oured meat pies and rotten seafood served at the Chengdu No. 7 Experimental High School, uploaded by parents, also ignited a heated online debate on Chinese social media on food safety at schools.

Prostate cancer death rates stabilizing

ASHINGTON | AFP | Tuesday 4/2/2019 - Death rates from prostate cancer -- the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men -- have stabilized or declined in dozens of countries since the turn of the century, the American Cancer Society reported Tuesday. In 33 of 44 countries surveyed, the incidence of prostate cancer had stabilized in the last five years for which data was available -- and in seven countries, it was down, the report found. Only four of the countries surveyed, including Bulgaria, saw an increased incidence of prostate cancer, it said. “In the most recent five years of data examined, prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates are decreasing or stabilizing in most parts of the world,” the study’s author MaryBeth Freeman said. Prostate cancer deaths were down in 14 countries surveyed and stable in 54 others. Only three countries experienced a rise in prostate cancer deaths, according to the study findings, which were presented Tuesday at a conference in Atlanta. The United States had the biggest drop in prostate cancers, which Freeman attributed to a decline in the use of a controversial diagnostic test that identified too many non-dangerous tumors. The incidence of prostate cancers rose in the US during the 1980s and early 1990s when the PSA, or Pros-

tate-Specific Antigen, blood test became widely available. The test is imprecise, however, and yields too many false positives. It identifies higher than normal levels of PSA, a protein produced by the prostate, which could be a sign of cancer but is more often a symptom of other diseases. Moreover, some prostate cancers are not aggressive and do not grow enough to pose a risk. A false positive, on the other hand, can have harmful consequences for the patient: anxiety, complications linked to biopsies or anti-cancer treatments. In 2012, the US Preventive Services Task Force, an expert panel that reviews the effectiveness of preventive clinical services, advised against use of the PSA test. In 2018, it revised the recommendation to say that taking the test should be an “individual” decision for men 55 to 69. At 70 and after, it advised against its use.

The President’s Executive Order specifically instructs the Administration to facilitate the purchase of health insurance coverage across state lines. As a direct result, CMS is issuing this RFI to increase consumer choice. The RFI process allows CMS to obtain valuable feedback from the public and collect ideas on how to change the existing system. In particular, CMS is interested in feedback on how states can take advantage of Section 1333 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which provides for the establishment of a regulatory framework that allows two or more states to enter into a Health Care Choice Compact to facilitate the sale of health insurance coverage across state lines. CMS is primarily looking for input on how the agency can expand access to health insurance coverage across state lines, effectively operationalize the sale of health insurance coverage across state lines, and understand the financial impacts of selling health insurance coverage across state lines. “Americans are in desperate need of more affordable health insurance options,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “Eliminating the barriers to selling health insurance coverage across state lines could help provide access to a more competitive and affordable health insurance market. We are looking for information and ideas from the public on how to create a more

Sudhir Mathuria HEALTHLIFE 360 713-771-2900

dynamic health insurance market with more insurers participating and competing to meet the needs of the American people just like we see in markets for so many other products and services that enhance our daily lives.” The Trump Administration has made expanding choice and affordability in the health insurance market a key priority. Average individual market premiums available through the Exchange more than doubled from 2013 to 2017, and half of U.S. counties had only one issuer during the 2018 plan year. While average premiums dropped slightly and issuer participation increased this year, premiums remain far too high and a substantial portion of counties continue to have just one issuer. Expanding the sale of health insurance coverage across state lines could provide more options to people with access to just one issuer and give them a new opportunity to pick a plan that better meets their needs and lowers their cost. The RFI will be open for public comment for 60 days. - Source: CMS To get health insurance coverage on short term basis, on small group basis and for critical care coverage, Medicare plans coverage contact Sudhir Mathuria at 713-771-2900.

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DIET & EXERCISE

VOICE OF ASIA 18

5 morning yoga videos for easing into spring days

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

All you need to know about Vitamin D, importance, deficiencies and diseases PART 1

Prof. Meenakshi Bhattacharjee.

Yoga with Adriene is one of five morning yoga videos for easing into spring days. (Photo: YouTube)

fter the recent clock change you might be feeling a little sleepier than usual as your body adjusts to the new time schedule and we all try to adjust to the darker mornings. Here we pick four morning yoga videos that will help ease you out of bed and into your day. Yoga with Adriene Adriene Mishler has a whole range of morning yoga videos on her Yoga with Adriene YouTube channel. Designed to suit every mood, whether you prefer an energizing flow or a quiet and peaceful practice, there is something for everyone. Tara Stiles The founder of the Strala, which offers studio classes combining yoga with qigong

and tai chi, Tara Stiles also has her own yoga channel on YouTube for you to practice at home. Her morning yoga videos start at just a couple of minutes long, for those who are either short on time or motivation so early in the day, and some can even be practiced in bed if you’re really not a morning person. Tone it Up In addition to their highintensity cardio workouts and kettlebell exercises, Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott from Tone it Up also have some shorter and more calming yoga videos if you need something more soothing early in the day. As well as morning yoga they also have meditation videos designed to start your day in a positive way, and many are filmed outside on the beautiful

California coast so you can also enjoy some sunshine. Yoga with Kassandra Yoga with Kassandra offers Yin Yoga and Vinyasa Flow classes for all levels on her YouTube channel, including a selection designed especially for morning, whether you are looking for just five minutes of stretching to help wake you up, or a full-body 60 minute flow to get your workout done early in the day.

by Meenakshi Bhattacharjee, Rice University, Houston TX

he “sunshine” vitamin is a hot topic these days. You may have recently found out that you are deficient or know someone who is. The truth is that a lot has changed, and vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency is now a global public health problem affecting an estimated

tivity in people with MS. Numerous studies have linked the occurrence of MS with birth month. There is also a higher prevalence of MS in geographic areas farther from the equator, where people are exposed to less sunlight. The lack of sunlight exposure appears to be a significant predictor, and research is ongoing in this area. A large review of studies shows that with adequate vitamin D levels in people with MS there are fewer relapses, lower risk of development of new lesions in the brain, less disability and disease severity, and better nonverbal long term memory performance. • Lupus: People with lupus are often photosensitive, causing rashes and possible disease flares when exposed to sunlight. The resulting lack of exposure to sunlight puts them at high risk for vitamin D deficiency. Evidence has shown that a deficiency can affect dis-

reason for this, and studies are ongoing to examine this relationship. Infections • It’s possible that maintaining adequate vitamin D levels could lessen the length and severity of upper respiratory infections and possibly even prevent them from occurring in some people. The role of vitamin D in reducing the risk of hospital-acquired infections, such as pneumonia, bacteriamia, urinary tract infection, Inflammation reduction • Many of the health benefits associated with vitamin D may come from its role in decreasing inflammation. Research has shown a decrease in levels of C-reactive protein , a marker of inflammation, with increased levels of vitamin D. Inflammatory bowel disease

SarahBethYoga Sarah Beth has 5-30 minute power yoga, stretching and restorative yoga segments. Also, meditation, ‘desk yoga’, prenatal and other health-specific poses (and an app). - MSN

China lists fentanyl as controlled substance in US gesture by Ryan Mcmorrow

EIJING, China | AFP | Monday 4/1/2019 - China announced Monday it will launch a crackdown on all fentanyl-like substances from May 1 following US pleas for Beijing to control a drug fuelling a deadly opioid crisis. China is suspected of being the main source of a powerful painkiller 50 times stronger than heroin that has caused record overdose deaths in the United States. The issue has figured in trade talks between the Fentanyl and its analogues are 50 times more powerful than heroin and United States and China, blamed for a massive opioid epidemic in the United States (AFP Photo/CHIP with Beijing promising SOMODEVILLA) to list any type of fentanyl when presidents told AFP. doctors “excessive prescripDonald Trump and Xi Jinping American officials attending tion”, lax enforcement and agreed to a tariff truce in Dethe press conference declined American culture conflating cember. drugs with “freedom, individuto comment. ality and liberation”. “The US is concerned about Wang Hesheng, deputy direcall variants (of fentanyl), and “If the US really wants to it has all been resolved,” Liu tor of China’s National Health resolve the fentanyl substance Yuejin, deputy director of the Commission, indicated some problem, they have more work National Narcotics Control analogues of fentanyl with le- to do domestically,” he said. Commission, said at a press gitimate medicinal, industrial and scientific purposes would - ‘Extremely important’ step conference. not be included in the listing. Vigil agreed that “corporate Designating all fentanyl ana- ‘Horror drug’ greed in pharmaceutical induslogues as controlled substances from May 1 aims to prevent In December, Trump said the try” and overprescription of smugglers from skirting the move against the “horror drug” opioids had driven a lot of the law by changing formulas to could be a “game changer” epidemic in the US. make drugs similar to the pain- because China has the death “If China stems the movekiller. penalty for major narcotics of- ment of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids to the United Liu outlined further work fences. China would undertake, includThe action comes as China’s States it would have a huge ing inspections of key bio-med- top trade negotiator, Vice Pre- impact, but it would not stop ical and chemical industrial mier Liu He, prepares to return the epidemic,” he said, adding parks, cleaning up drug-related to Washington this week for American politicians need to information online and cutting more talks following discus- take action. off criminals’ online communi- sions in Beijing last week. The US Justice Department cation channels. has indicted several Chinese “The Chinese government Chinese authorities will also will step up co-operation with individuals on allegations of urge courier companies to im- other countries including the manufacturing and distributing plement real-name registration US to join hands to tackle the illegal drugs. for parcels, stepping up cus- global challenge fentanyl presAsked about the cases, Liu toms checks for high-risk inter- ents,” Liu Yuejin said. said China was working with national packages and enhancStill Liu repeated China’s US law enforcement, but had ing enforcement co-operation. denial of responsibility for the not found evidence that the inSellers often ship fentanyl via US’s deadly opioid crisis, say- dividuals had broken Chinese express package services. ing US allegations of large law. These are big steps which scale trafficking from China Diplomats invited to attend would have a significant im- “lack evidence and are contrary the briefing said Beijing’s acpact, said Mike Vigil, former to the facts”. tion marked an important step head of international operations for combatting the drug trade. Admitting the existence of for the US Drug Enforcement some cases of Chinese and “What China did today was Administration. American criminals working extremely important,” said China produces 85 percent of together, Liu said the “amount Stefan Thorsell, a police and the world’s synthetic opioids, was extremely limited,” and customs liaison officer for the he said. China “cannot possibly be the Swedish embassy in Beijing. “Without China’s co-opera- major source to the US”. “Even though Sweden is a tion the United States would Instead, Liu blamed Ameri- small country we have probnot be able to put a dent in the can’s abuse of prescription opi- lems, not as big as the United current opioid epidemic that oids, pharmaceutical industry States, but we have problems has taken so many lives,” Vigil influence, US pharmacies and with fentanyl as well,” he said.

1 billion people worldwide. Vitamin D was discovered to be essential when it was found to be needed for the treatment of rickets. Vitamin D is one of the four fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K). There are two forms of vitamin D: D2 and D3. Vitamin D2, also known as ergocalciferol, comes from fortified foods, plant foods, and supplements. Vitamin D3, also known as cholecalciferol, comes from fortified foods, animal foods (fatty fish, cod liver oil, eggs, and liver), supplements, and can be made internally when your skin is exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. Structurally, these two are not the same. Many believe that vitamin D should be classified as a hormone, with some calling it the forgotten neurosteroid. The health consequences of being deficient go far beyond rickets and what occurs with any other vitamin. And unlike other vitamins, it can be made by your body when exposed to sun and the active form in your body, called calcitrol, has similarities to other hormones (estrogen, cortisol, and testosterone).Only 20% of our vitamin D is meant to come from our diet with the remaining 80% provided by our skin from UV-B exposure to the sun. What are health risks of vitamin D deficiency? By the turn of the 20th century, 90% of the children living in New York, Boston, and Leyden in the Netherlands were afflicted with rickets, a bonedeforming disease. The first observation of this disease was in the mid-1600’s in children living in industrialized cities in Great Britain with deformities of the skeleton, especially of the lower legs. It wasn’t until 1889 that the discovery that “sunbathing” was important for preventing rickets came about. Since then, many other health benefits of vitamin D and risks associated with deficiency have been reported. These include the following: Autoimmune disease • Type 1 Diabetes: Research has shown that children with type 1 diabetes have a higher chance of having a vitamin D deficiency compared with the general population. • Multiple sclerosis (MS): Current evidence supports that vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of developing MS and alters the disease ac-

ease activity and damage along with contributing to the morbidity and mortality in people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). • Rheumatoid arthritis (RA): A review of research found that people with the highest vitamin D levels had a 24.2% lower risk of developing RA compared to those with the lowest levels. They also found that there was a higher rate of vitamin D deficiency among people with RA than with the general population, and the activity of RA got worse as the level decreased. • Autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD),Graves disease and Hashimoto disease and thyroiditis: In a review of 20 studies, they found that AITD patients has lower levels and were more likely to have vitamin D deficiency compared with controls. In a review sun is the primary source of vitamin D, researchers are looking to see what role it plays in skin cancer. Some believe that enough sun exposure to keep your vitamin D levels up, while protecting your skin from damage, is beneficial to skin cancer survival. There has also been research to show the protective effect that vitamin D has with the development of other cancers, including colon, breast and prostate cancer. The antiinflammatory properties of vitamin D may also be able to assist with lowering pain levels in cancer patients when deficiencies are corrected. Cognitive disorders • It’s been shown that vitamin D plays a crucial role in brain development, brain function regulation, and a healthy nervous system. Vitamin D deficiency has been found to be common in patients with Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Schizophrenia, depression, anxiety disorders, dementia, and older adults with cognitive decline. It’s been suggested that maintaining adequate levels of vitamin D levels throughout life may help to prevent age-related neurological disorders. Cardiovascular (heart disease)

disease

• Vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increases in hypertension (high blood pressure),hyperlipidemia, peripheral vascular disease, coronary artery disease, myocardial infraction, heart failure and stroke. The anti-inflammatory effects of vitamin D may be the

(IBD) • When there is an inability to properly absorb nutrients in the GI tract, there is a higher risk for nutritional deficiencies. Vitamin D’s role goes beyond this in that the level of deficiency may impact the severity of IBD, and maintaining adequate levels may keep you in remission longer. There has even been evidence showing larger numbers of cases of IBD in northern latitudes suggesting it has a role in prevention, as well. Obesity • A study including over 500 adults found that vitamin D deficiency was linked to greater fat mass, but only in those with elevated parathyroid hormone (PTH), suggesting the cause may lie in controlling that level. Skeletal disease • Vitamin D enhances the absorption of dietary calcium by 30%-40% and phosphorus by 80%. Without it, only 10%-15% of calcium and 60% of phosphorus is absorbed. Vitamin D promotes calcium absorption in the gut and maintains blood calcium levels to enable normal mineralization of bone and prevent abnormally low blood calcium levels that can then lead to tetany. • Vitamin D insufficiency leads to secondary hyperparathyroidism that causes increased bone loss, osteopenia, osteomalacia, osteoporosis, and increased fracture risk. Furthermore, moderate elevations of parathyroid hormones (PTH) may promote insulin resistance, weight gain, hypertension, (high blood pressure), and left ventricular hypertrophy. • There are vitamin D receptors in human muscle that have a direct effect on muscle strength. A severe vitamin D deficiency can cause myopathy, which can cause muscle weakness and pain. Vitamin D supplementation can reverse this and improve balance. Another advantage to correcting a vitamin D deficiency has been seen in decreasing knee and hip pain. A longitudinal population-based cohort study of 769 randomly selected older adults aged 50-80 years found that moderate vitamin D deficiency predicts the incidence or worsening of knee pain over five years and possibly hip pain over 2.4 years. To be concluded next week

VOICE OF ASIA 19

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

A tale of two Delhis: Deadly air exposes rich-poor divide by Abhaya Srivastava

EW DELHI, India | AFP | Sunday 3/30/2019 - Walls draped in lush vertical gardens and air filtered through purifiers insulate diners at a swanky New Delhi food court from the choking haze outside in one of the most polluted places on earth.

court in Worldmark Aerocity, a grand commercial centre boasting purified air. A meal here could cost twice Singh’s monthly salary, but it is a price Mawatwal is willing to pay because outside the smog is at hazardous levels. “I love to come here for my meals.

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

Smart home market to grow 27% in 2019, Apple to continue gaining traction by Chance Miller

DC is out this week with a look at the smart home market in 2018 and predictions for 2019. According to IDC data, the global smart home device market is expected to grow 26.9 percent year-over-year to 832.7 million shipments. In terms of categories, the home monitoring and security category is expected to continue to dominate with 140.3 million shipments in 2019. Lighting and smart speakers are expected to grow as well, with the former accounting for 56.9 million shipments in 2019 and the latter 144.3 million. Jitesh Ubrani, IDC research manager, explains that Google and Amazon excelled at reaching new consumers at 2018, but the goal in 2019 should be to create a “cohesive experience” between different services:

Air pollution kills more than one million Indians every year, according to a study by Lancet Planetary Health, and Delhi is ranked one of the most toxic urban centres to live, regularly exceeding World Health Organisation (WHO) limits. (Pictures by Sajjad Hussein and Chandan Khanna) But these eco-eateries, offering cleaner air as well as modern menus to the well heeled are beyond reach for the poor, who have little means of escaping the deadly smog which coats the city for much of the year. Air pollution kills more than one million Indians every year, according to a study by Lancet Planetary Health, and Delhi is ranked one of the most toxic urban centres to live, regularly exceeding World Health Organisation (WHO) limits. But for Ramavtar Singh there is no escape: like many of the city’s poorest, he eats, sleeps, and works outside. “I work for six to eight hours every day and my children eat and sleep outside most times of the year,” the father of five tells AFP at a roadside food stall, gulping down a 50-cent dish of rice and lentils. Singh earns a living by cycling passengers and cargo around Delhi on his rickshaw, a strenuous activity that means he’s inhaling dangerous concentrations of tiny pollutants deep into his lungs. At best, he can wrap a rag over his mouth on smoggy days, a low-cost approach taken by labourers and rickshaw drivers that does little to prevent the most dangerous particles entering the bloodstream. Delhi’s smog peaks from October to February, routinely exceeding WHO recommendations for PM2.5 -- tiny and harmful airborne particles -- and some days registers levels more than 20 times safe limits. Experts warn the long term health consequences of living enveloped in pollution are disastrous, often causing chronic sickness and in some cases early death. - ‘ A quick oxygen shot’ Across town, Abhimanyu Mawatwal is settling down for lunch at a food

It is like getting a quick oxygen shot,” the office worker says, surrounded by creeper vines and a faux stream as he breathes lungfuls of filtered air circulating through expensive filters. “We need to bring greenery to concrete jungles and create places where everybody can come for a breath of fresh air,” insists S. K. Sayal, CEO of Bharti Realty which owns Worldmark Aerocity. Delhi’s affluent, who are often better informed about the dangers of pollution, increasingly expect the same safety measures they have in place at home, to be available when they are out. High-end eateries, bars and cinemas are tapping into that demand -- installing electronic air purifiers and creating dedicated areas of rich vegetation to help filter airborne toxins. But for Singh, and the one in five Indians living on less than $2 a day, visiting such places is nothing more than a fantasy. “What will I do if I spend all the money on one meal? How will I feed my family?” said the rickshaw cyclist, who earns about 1,200 rupees ($17) a month. He cannot dream of buying the foreign-made air purifiers to protect his family at home -- machines favoured by Delhi’s elite, expat communities and office workers -- that easily cost Singh’s annual wage. “The rich and the poor have to breathe the same poisonous air. But the poor are more exposed to pollution,” explains Sunil Dahiya, a campaigner for Greenpeace India. He adds: “Most of the time, they don’t even know the effects the toxic air is having on their health. Poor communities are definitely at the losing end.”

“2018 was all about getting products into consumers’ homes and both Amazon and Google excelled at this through low-cost smart speakers and multiple bundles across device categories. However, 2019 will be more about tying the various devices together to form a more cohesive experience and more importantly, layering in additional services.” Building on the success of Google

An employee demonstrates the HomePod speaker on the first day of sales at an Apple Inc. and Amazon in 2018, IDC also expects that Apple will gain traction in the smart home space. The firm attributes this to the existing popularity of the Mac and iOS ecosystem, which should continue to attract companies to create HomeKit accessories: Though the smart home market will essentially be dominated by two companies, Amazon and Google, Apple is

also expected to gain traction in the coming years. The existing popularity of iOS and macOS devices combined with the availability of Apple apps/ services on non-Apple products will help the company slowly entice more consumers into their ecosystem while also attracting third parties to build compatible devices. - 9To5Mac.com

Facebook removes ‘fake’ accounts linked to Pakistani military

SLAMABAD, Pakistan | AFP | Monday 4/1/2019 - Facebook is removing 103 pages, groups and accounts linked to the media wing of Pakistan’s military, the social media giant announced Monday, calling them “fake” accounts created to manipulate people. The statement by Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, shines a rare light on efforts by Pakistan’s shadowy military establishment to use social media as a propaganda tool. “Today we removed 103 Pages, Groups and accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook and Instagram as part of a network that originated in Pakistan,” Gleichner said in the statement. “Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found that it was linked to employees of the ISPR (Inter-Service Public Relations) of the Pakistani military,” he said. Gleichner said ISPR employees were operating military fan pages, as well as pages on Kashmir, “general Pakistani interest”, and local and political news including on topics such as arch-rival India’s army and politicians. Some 2.8 million accounts followed one or more of the pages, he said. Examples included a post from a page called “Pakistan Army - the BEST”, with an image purporting to show a crashed Indian fighter jet with text reading: “Indian airforce has become a consistent failure which is evident from current embarrassment for India”. Others praised Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan for promoting peace, or propagated unverified claims

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have millions of users in Nepal, whose population of about 30 million has an internet penetration of about 57%. (AFP file photo) a Pakistani pilot had shot down five Indian planes. “We are constantly working to detect and stop coordinated inauthentic behavior because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people,” Gleichner said. An ISPR spokesman had no immediate comment when contacted by AFP. Facebook also said it was removing 687 pages and accounts engaged in similarly “inauthentic” behaviour that were linked to India’s opposition Congress party, which is contesting nationwide elections due to start on April 11. Congress reacted cautiously, with spokesperson Manish Tewari saying the party “will need to verify the veracity of these reports”.

Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir saw a deluge of “fake news” hit social media, raising concerns over misinformation in the upcoming election in the world’s largest democracy. Journalists in Pakistan, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for media, are regularly exhorted by the military to promote a positive image of the country. Any reporting considered critical of the military has long been considered a red flag, with reporters at times detained, beaten and even killed for falling foul of the security establishment. The army has stirred unease previously with declarations it is monitoring social media in Pakistan, where posts considered “against the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defence of Pakistan” are against the law.

Scientists find likely source of methane on Mars NASA is scrambling to meet the White House by Patrick Galey

ARIS, France | AFP | Monday 4/1/2019 - The mystery of methane on Mars may finally be solved as scientists Monday confirmed the presence of the life-indicating gas on the Red Planet as well as where it might have come from. In the 15 years since a European probe reported traces of the gas in the Martian atmosphere, debate has raged over the accuracy of the readings showing methane, which on Earth is produced by simple lifeforms. Because methane gas dissipates relatively quickly -- within around 12 years on Earth -- and due to the difficulty of observing Mars’ atmosphere, many scientists questioned previous studies that relied on a single data set. Now an international team of experts have compared observations from two separate spacecraft, taken just one day apart in 2013, to find independent proof of methane on our neighbouring planet. Furthermore, they conducted two parallel experiments to determine the most likely source of methane on Mars to be an ice sheet east of Gale Crater -- itself long assumed to be a dried up lake. “This is very exciting and largely unexpected,” Marco Giuranna, from Rome’s National Astrophysics Institute, told AFP. “Two completely independent lines

of investigation pointed to the same general area of the most likely source for the methane.” Europe’s Mars Express probe measured 15.5 parts per billion in the atmosphere above the Gale Crater on June 16, 2013. The presence of methane in the vicinity was confirmed by readings taken 24 hours earlier by NASA’s Curiosity rover. Using the data, Giuranna and the team divided the region around the crater into grids of 250 by 250 square kilometres. One study then ran a million computer-modelled emissions scenarios for each section while another team studied images of the planet surface for features associated on Earth with the release of methane. - ‘Indicator of life’ The most likely source was a sheet of frozen methane beneath a rock formation, which the team believes periodically ejects the gas into the atmosphere. Giuranna said that while methane is a sign of life on Earth, its presence on Mars doesn’t necessarily constitute evidence of something similar on the Red Planet. “Methane is important because it could be an indicator of microbial life,” he said. “But life is not required to explain these detections because methane can be produced by abiotic processes.”

A recent standoff between India and

mandate to return astronauts to the moon by 2024 by Christian Davenport

ASHINGTON, Monday, 4/1/2019 - NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Monday that the agency will need additional funding to meet a White House mandate to land people on the moon by 2024. But he did not say how much more money NASA would need or provide any specific details of how it plans to accomplish the mission. Speaking at a town hall meeting at NASA headquarters, Bridenstine made it clear NASA was scrambling to figure out how to get to the lunar surface before the presidential election in 2024. He said he was fully aware that past administrations have set bold goals to explore the moon or Mars, only to pull them back as Congress fails to provide funding or a new administration comes in and cancels previous plans. During the presidency of George W. Bush, NASA was directed to go to the moon. Under Barack Obama, reaching an asteroid and Mars were the missions. Now, under President Trump, it’s the moon again. Many in the space community compare that record to the scene in the cartoon strip “Peanuts” when Lucy pulls the football away just as Charlie Brown is about to kick it. “I hear the comment all the time about Lucy and the football,” he said.

“This is not Lucy and the football. In the executive branch, people are very serious, we are going to the moon and going fast.” Bridenstine’s comments came several days after Vice President Pence called for NASA to return to the moon within five years, an ambitious goal that took many at NASA by surprise. In a speech before the National Space Council last week, Pence said that the agency needed to have a much greater sense of urgency. He took aim at Boeing and other NASA contractors building the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is supposed to be used in the moon missions but is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. Pence also fired a salvo at NASA itself, saying if it can’t get astronauts to the lunar surface in five years “we need to change the agency, not the mission.” The questions NASA employees posted on the agency’s website ahead of the town hall gave voice to the skepticism that has reigned since Pence voiced his new goal. Under the previous plan, NASA was looking at sending people to the moon by 2028. Moving it up by four years came as a shock. “Please explain in detail what ‘We’ll change the Agency, not the mission’

entails,” one employee wrote. “Accelerating our return to the moon is an unfunded mandate,” asked another. “How will we do it without gutting our other important missions?” Bridenstine offered few specifics during his Monday presentation. He said the agency planned to use what’s known as a Gateway, a sort of space station that would be placed in orbit around the moon. But the agency has yet to award a contract to build it. It also does not have the landing craft needed to carry astronauts from the Gateway to the lunar surface and back again. NASA is also struggling with its moon rocket, the SLS. Frustrated with the constant delays, Bridenstine told a Senate hearing last month that he would look at using other, commercial rockets for the upcoming test flight of the Orion spacecraft that would ultimately be used to fly astronauts to the lunar Gateway. But the possibility of sidelining NASA’s main rocket, the construction of which provides thousands of jobs in many congressional districts, led to a withering backlash from Congress, and Bridenstine has since backtracked, saying it just was not technically feasible to use commercial rockets for the mission. -Washington Post

TRAVEL & LEISURE

VOICE OF ASIA 20

Snøhetta’s new underwater restaurant in Norway is seriously epic

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

Disneyland has a new luxury princess brunch — and theme park tickets aren’t required by Carlye Wisel

njoying a three-course brunch and champagne toast with Belle won’t require a trip all the way to the French countryside — just to southern California. A new princess breakfast at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa at Disneyland mixes character interactions, luxury goals and an over-thetop feast for an experience that’s as close as you can get to living “Be Our Guest” in real life.

At Under, a Snøhetta-designed restaurant balanced on the Norwegian coast, guests dine 16 feet below the ocean surface. (Photos: Snøhetta) by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

SLO, Norway While dining deep isn’t exactly new— there are several underwater restaurants around the world—they’re mainly held in aquariums or other controlled environments. By contrast, the Snøhetta-designed Under, which opened this week in Lindesnes, Norway, sits in the wild, icy North Atlantic, perched seemingly precariously on a rocky coastline. At Under, a table with a view means an awe-inspiring sight that changes by the minute, and fluctuates with the seasons. A 36-foot-wide and 11-foot-tall horizontal acrylic window—cut into the oneand-a-half-f00t-thick concrete walls at the end of the tubeshaped restaurant— provides a panoramic portal to the wildlife outside. “Under is a natural progression of our experimentation with boundaries,” says Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, founder of Snøhetta. “[It] proposes unexpected combinations of pronouns and prepositions, and challenges what determines a person’s physical placement in their environment. In this building, you may find yourself under water, over the seabed, between land and sea. This will offer you new perspectives and ways of seeing the world, both beyond and beneath the waterline.”

While dining deep isn’t exactly new—there are several underwater restaurants around the world—they’re mainly held in aquariums or other controlled environments. The design is a tilted concrete tube that gives the impression of sliding into the sea. “The idea was to make a tube that would bring people from above sea level down under the sea,” lead architect Rune Grasdal told Dezeen. “That transition is easy to understand, but it’s also the most effective way to do it. It also feels secure, but you don’t feel trapped.” The angle was also designed with the building’s aquatic neighbors in mind. It’s hoped that, in time, the structure will become part of its environment, acting as an artificial reef. Marine research is part of the project: cameras and other measurement tools have been installed outside the restaurant to help researchers learn about the population, behavior, and diversity of the

The dining experience at Under is created by two-time Michelin-starred chef Nicolai Ellitsgaard, originally from Denmark. His “Immersion” menu is a tasting menu comprised of around 18 locally sourced seafood delicacies. “Fresh ingredients and pure, naked flavors are of utmost importance to us,” says Ellitsgaard. “At the same time, we want to provide a unique dining experience that ushers our guests beyond their current comfort zone.” The tasting menu with wine will set you back about 4 hours and around $400 per person, but you’ve got time to save up. The restaurant is already booked through September.

Prevention starts prior to the trip to the airport: Strong pretravel health will mean your body has the tools it needs to fight off illness, no matter the hygiene level of your plane. You should talk to your doctor if you have any specific health concerns, and of course make sure you’re not allergic to any vitamins or other medicines you’re considering taking. “Travelers should aim to exercise regularly, sleep well, eat healthfully, reduce stress levels, and have some kind of regular digital detox established at home,” says Dr. Navya Mysore, a primary care physician who counts frequent business travelers among her patients at One Medical, a membership-based medical practice. These habits will not only boost overall immunity, cultivating them year round will make you more likely to keep them up while on the road. Once you’re off, Mysore suggests a super simple first defense: drinking enough water. “When you’re wellhydrated, your gut moves better, so there’s less chance of acid build-up and headaches,” she says.

Getty Images

Wash hands “constantly,” advises Dr. Mysore, and wear a face mask on planes and public transit. “Masks are the best defense you can have, and have helped me not get sick” she says. If wearing a mask makes you feel a little weird, just tell seatmates that it’s “for my own health,” which most people can relate to. Masks can also help keep the nasal passages moist, which helps keep bacteria from sticking around. A bumpy flight, missed meal, or weird food combinations can all easily bring on nausea, which is the most common travel complaint. Mysore relies on ginger for travel nausea: She keeps cutup raw chunks of it doused with a fresh lemon (which keeps the spicy root naturally fresh) in her plastic bag. Sleep can keep the immune system strong, but it’s often a serious challenge for frequent travelers. Melatonin is something to keep in your travel wellness kit. “It doesn’t make you go to sleep --it helps regulate your

sleep cycle,” says Dr. Neil Borja, division director for Integrative Medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, who suggests taking it 1 to 2 hours before you want to sleep. Try melatonin at home once to see how much works for you, advises Dr. Borja, and talk to your doctor before starting any new regimen. And if you have the time and space, try a 30-minute siesta to catch up on your rest: “Naps are helpful in rejuvenating the body and clearing the mind,” says Borja. If you feel a cold coming on, Dr. Borja says vitamin C works for some people -- and won’t hurt. He recommends aiming for 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C a day. If a sore throat is dogging you, the simplest solution is to gargle with warm water and salt, which is both antibacterial and antiviral. “Peppermint and chamomile tea can help soothe the throat,” says Borja. Reducing stress wherever -- and whenever -- you can will keep stress hormones like cortisol at bay. Stress reduces immunity, so try to leave for the airport early to avoid rushing, and “if you can sneak in a meditation before takeoff, do it to reduce your cortisol levels,” says Mysore. - CNN

A champagne toast is included for adults, and children are gifted an autograph book, souvenir pen, and a surprise gift throughout the duration of the meal. As the easiest way to meet this many Disney princesses in one visit, it’s an event fit for royalty — or, for the rest of us, a perfect celebratory breakfast or worthy vacation splurge. Reservations can be made on Napa Rose’s websitethis link opens in a new tab for dates starting March 30. - Travel + Leisure

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The struggling fashion house Roberto Cavalli closes its U.S. stores Known for flamboyant, flesh-baring styles, the Italian brand says it is seeking a deal with creditors to avoid bankruptcy.

ravel is stressful for the mind -- and body.

Naturally, planes -- and hotels’ potentially dry indoor air -- are dehydrating factors. Mysore suggests drinking half-again what you normally do at home: If you normally quaff one to two liters of water a day, add a half-liter to a liter when traveling.

The three-course meal begins with a pastry basket of housemade monkey bread and scones before a tiered tower of treats, like lobster rolls and parfaits, suddenly appears. Fill up a plate of short rib, perfectly scrambled eggs or Mickey waffles & fried chicken afterwards — made from the same seasoning as Plaza Inn’s famed blend — as “papas bravas” seasoned fries are magically delivered to the table. Then comes dessert: a tray of delightful sweets, including peanut butter tarts and artfully

themed cake pops, brought out to be enjoyed before guests move on for hands-on activities with princesses. It’s here that diners can enjoy storytime with Belle or participate in oneon-one warrior training with Mulan before the the morning culminates in a final private photo opportunity.

ONDON — The ailing Italian luxury house Roberto Cavalli has shuttered its North American operations, hours after the brand said it was seeking a deal with creditors to stave off a bankruptcy filing and less than a week after the departure of its creative director, Paul Surridge.

by Starre Vartan

Frequent business travel can lower your resistance, but there are some very easy ways to keep from getting sick when away from home.

It’s a splurge, but at $125 per person (tax and gratuity not included), the Disney Princess Breakfast Adventure is a twohour luxury experience that’s packed with entertainment, plenty of facetime, and so much food.

by Elizabeth Paton

Avoid getting sick when you travel for work

A few behavior changes and some over-the-counter, widely available supplements can help road warriors ward off common ailments like colds and the flu.

A far cry from a regular meetand-greet with famed Disney royals, this specialty breakfast, now offered Thursday through Sunday at Napa Rose restaurantthis link opens in a new tab, is a culinary journey through Rapunzel’s, Aurora’s and others’ adventures, with sweet and savory dishes themed to each princesses’ journey. (Think Dole Whip is magic? Just wait until these desserts are sprinkled with glitter sugar from an actual fairy wand.)

species living in this part of the North Atlantic.

- Dwell.com

Sip a cajun-spiced, shrimptopped Bloody Mary, eat seashell-shaped “The Little Mermaid” macarons or commiserate over your love for beignets with Princess Tiana while actually eating them — it’s all possible at the elegant new meal, which doesn’t even require park admission.

Photo: Courtesy of Disney

On Friday, the brand confirmed in an emailed statement that it intended to file a plan with Italian courts that would allow the business to keep running while it secured new investors or ownership. The fashion house, headquartered in Florence and famous for its flesh-baring, flamboyant designs (often in animal prints), has fallen from favor with its fan base in recent years, struggling to turn around falling sales and to maintain its profile in an increasingly competitive global luxury market dominated by the major conglomerates. The Italian private equity company Clessidra has owned a 90 percent stake in Cavalli since 2015. Speculation that it wanted to offload the beleaguered fashion investment grew in recent months, fueled by news of discussions with a number of prospective bidders, including the controversial German fashion designer Philipp Plein and the United States-based investment firm Bluestar Alliance. By Friday, however, no deal had been announced, though a Cavalli spokesman confirmed that discussions were continuing “between shareholders and parties potentially ready to inject cash in Cavalli to provide it with the resources necessary to overcome its current state of financial difficulties.” And despite the filing made Friday in Milan by lawyers for Cavalli, employees in its eight stores and four outlets in the United States — in upscale spots like Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, Calif. — were

Getty Images

told to go home and several high-ranking executives based in the United States resigned. A Cavalli spokesman confirmed Monday that Art Fashion Corporation, the name of the brand’s North American subsidiary, would liquidate under Chapter 7 of the United States bankruptcy code by April 4 as part of a restructuring effort. In Florence, Italy, employee unions have a strike planned for Monday, with protests outside Cavalli headquarters. The liquidation of the house’s North American operations

comes three weeks after questions over the future of Cavalli were raised by unions Filctem Cgil and Femca Cisl. Representatives publicly expressed concern about the future of Cavalli workers and production sites amid rumors of an imminent sale. That a crisis was brewing inside the company was then all but confirmed when Mr. Surridge, the British designer recruited by the Cavalli board to rejuvenate the Florentine fashion house in 2017, confirmed on Instagram that he was leaving. - New York Times

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VOICE OF ASIA 21

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

SMALL BUSINESSES

VOICE OF ASIA 22

BUSINESS DIRECTORY

ACCOUNTANTS BOOK-KEEPING

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

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STATEPOINT CROSSWORD THEME: SPACE

When you find some time, READ!

READ DAILY! 15 - 30 minutes of reading daily helps your brain focus better. Grab a novel! A Community message from Voice of Asia Group

Texas

Week of April 5, 2019 21 March to 20 April A Mercury-Saturn sextile over the weekend clears your head and makes room for necessary details. What have you been doing right? What have you been doing wrong? Making improvements is possible when you’re objective.

21 April to 20 May A direct confrontation with someone may not work out as well as you hoped early this week. Be willing to leave people alone and do your job with as little fanfare as possible. Be patient if you’re in a frustrating or dysfunctional situation.

21 May to 20 June You may seek a wider audience for what you do now so you can attract buyers, investors, or others with money. Something you’re planning requires more money in order to get it off the ground. It’s very important to pay some attention to money you share with others.

21 June to 22 July It’s time to shake all that stress out of your body and have some fun. Try any form of exercise you really enjoy that gets you moving. Dancing is a favorite, because the music makes you want to move. You can do this in the privacy of your own home or while out socializing.

23 July to 22 August Guess what, Leo? The moon is in dreamy Pisces at the start of the week, so you might have stars in your eyes when it comes to romance. Is it love at first sight or are those just your rose-colored glasses talking?!

23 August to 22 Sept Work hard to finish what you’ve already started this week. Family interests may take priority. Be very accountable if your plans change. Take time to carefully review your personal budget and any finances under your control at work. Ignore small details at your own risk.

astrology.com

23 September to 22 Oct You may find that you’re expanding a home-based business at this time due to a lucky aspect in this area of your chart. If need be, turn an extra bedroom into an office so you can close the door on your work at the end of the day.

23 October to 21 Nov You might enjoy experimenting with some of the new healing methods available. Vibrational healing is something that you could be attracted to now. Flower and gem essences are two examples of this kind of modality.

22 November to 21 Dec Because you’re great at setting things up for a lovely experience, a first date is sure to be impressed! Buy new cologne, eat gourmet food, and enjoy all the luxuries life has to offer. You don’t need a partner to have a good time!

22 December to 20 Jan You may not be the flashiest person, but you’re extremely reliable. This can be one of those rather forgettable weeks, but being a good team player will build your reputation. Expect to feel calmer and more balanced by the end of this week.

21 January to 19 Feb You may want to get it in gear this week. Your communication skills are ramping up, showing you that you can get ahead through strong, clear requests of those around you. Ask for what you want and you just may get it, at work and in your money life. But things may be tense, so try and stay karmically clean.

20 February to 20 Mar You can heal many health issues with mind over matter. Some people who have struggled with troublesome illnesses have found that they feel better when they harness the power of their own thoughts. You have this power available to you. You can make it work if you have the determination.

ACROSS 1. Not slouching 6. However, poetically 9. “Poor me!” 13. Yo-Yo’s instrument 14. Read-only storage 15. Clear the chalkboard 16. Macho one 17. Gobbled up 18. Prepare for winter takeoff 19. *”2001: A Space ____” 21. *First man in space 23. Rocketman’s title 24. Green gemstone 25. Middle-earth creature 28. Dharma teacher 30. *Like space 35. Actress Gilbert 37. Heartburn relief 39. Parent, to a child 40. All over again 41. Pertaining to Os 43. Rani’s dress 44. Great reviews 46. 1,000 grams 47. Moon pull 4 8 . * N A S A’ s h u m a n spaceflight program 50. Major European river 52. Huxley’s choice 53. Bookie’s quote 55. Two halves 57. *Robotic space explorer 61. *Kennedy Space Center location 65. Pleasant smell 66. Be indisposed 68. “____ death do us part” 69. Manicurist’s office 70. Court 71. Underwater breathing organs 72. Benevolent fellows 73. Car nut 74. Conversation starter

DOWN 1. Acoustic phenomenon 2 . L o u o f T h e Ve l v e t Underground 3. Abounding with elms 4. Teacher’s audience 5. Throat lymph node 6. Carhop’s carrier 7. *Like Venus 8. *____ Centauri or ____ Nebula 9. *____ 51 10. Bear’s den 11. Fungal spore sacs 12. “As ____ on TV” 15. Push one’s way into 20. One of the Muses 22. Internet pop-ups 24. Comfy nightwear 25. City in Japan 26. Piled up, as in debt 27. Words to live by 29. *Falcon Heavy entrepreneur 31. *Kind of frontier? 32. 21st century letter 33. Smart candy? 34. ____-and-true 36. Military no-show 38. Place for a house plant 42. Business-oriented programming language 45. *”For the Benefit of All,” e.g. 49. “___ to Joy” 51. As much as necessary 54. A southern ____ 56. Bert’s partner 57. Bud holder 58. Instead of written 59. Part of an egg 60. Singer-songwriter Tori 61. Use a cat o’ nine tails 62. It will 63. Popular pickling herb 64. Additionally 67. Promise to pay

SOLUTION: SPACE on Page 23

CLASSIFIEDS

VOICE OF ASIA 23

Job Posting - Multi Media Journalist KTRK-TV the ABC Owned station in Houston, TX is looking for a hard-working, self-sufficient MMJ with a passion for unique story-telling. You will be researching, shooting, writing, and editing for TV and/or digital on a daily basis. You must be comfortable covering hard breaking news as well as fun-filled feature stories. Resumereels should include examples of packages and live shots that are innovative, creative and memorable. On most days, you will be working independently but on some days you will be assigned a photographer, in particular for live shots. You must have a knack for quickly cultivating contacts in the community and must know how to dig for unique, exclusive content on the big and little stories alike. We want a respected, knowledgeable, ethical station representative and promoter with a strong presence on social media. Candidates need at least 4 years of on-air experience and must be open to working anyshift on any day of the week. Background check clearance and clean driving record will be required.To be considered all interested applicants must apply online at disneycareers.com, reference job # 655372BR. Please upload a cover letter, resume and list of references. Female/Minority/Veteran/Disability/Sexual Orientation/ Gender IdentityNo Telephone Calls Please

Job Posting - News Photographer/Live Truck Operator - Temporary

KTRK-TV, the ABC owned station located in Houston, TX, has an opening for atemporary News Photographer/Live Truck Operator. Candidates should have aminimum three years’ experience in all facets of television news photography includinglighting, audio and editing, and show exceptional knowledge and creativity in theseareas. Applicants should have a good eye for news photography, be able to work in thefield unsupervised or with various reporters and be able to work in deadline situations.The ideal candidate will have experience or be able to operate a microwave live truckand must be able to lift and carry 30 lbs. of equipment. All interested applicants must apply on-line at www.disneycareers.com by uploading aresume file, cover letter and list of references. Reference Job ID: 655565BR on allmaterials submitted. Equal Opportunity Employer - Female/Minority/Veteran/Disability/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity No Telephone Calls Please Houston Community College Request for Proposals (RFP) OPTIONAL RETIREMENT PLAN (ORP) 403(B) & 457 INVESTMENT PRODUCT SERVICES Project No. 19-43

Houston Community College Request for Proposals (RFP) Integration of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Cloud-Based Solution Project No. 19-45

Sealed proposals will be received in Procurement Operations (3100 Main Street,

R o o m N o . 11 B 0 1 , Houston, Texas 77002) until 2:00PM (local time) on April 30, 2019. Documents can be o b t a i n e d a t : w w w. hccs.edu/about-hcc/ procurement/

R o o m N o . 11 B 0 1 , Houston, Texas 77002) until 2:00PM (local time) on April 26, 2019. Documents can be o b t a i n e d a t : w w w. hccs.edu/about-hcc/ procurement/

Stay in touch with your community.

Visit: www.voiceofasia.news

Email Obituaries to us at: voiceasia@ aol.com Deadline for publication: Tuesday by 5pm

STATEPOINT CROSSWORD SOLUTION

Houston Community College Invitation for Bid (IFB) Brays Oaks Campus Parking Lot Expansion Project No. 19-47 Sealed bids will be received in Procurement Operations (3100 Main Street, Room No. 11B01, Houston, Texas 77002) until 2:00PM (local time) on Tuesday, April 30, 2019. Pre-Bid Meeting & Site Visit (Non-Mandatory) will be held by the Procurement Operations Department at the Brays Oaks Campus, Conference Room, “204” 8855 West Bellfort St., Houston, TX 77081, Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 10:00 am (local time). A Site Visit will follow after the PreBid Conference. Documents can be o b t a i n e d a t : w w w. hccs.edu/about-hcc/ procurement/

Get Smart! It’s EASY to advertise your business or event in our newsletter Simply call 713-774-5140 or email request to: voiceasia@aol.com

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

Theme: SPACE from Page 22

VOICE OF ASIA 24

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019

Home&Real Estate Pending home sales drop 1% in February, despite lower mortgage rates by Diana Olick

omebuyers signed 1 percent fewer contracts to buy existing homes in February compared with January, according to the National Association of Realtors’ pending home sales index. These contracts are a harbinger of closed sales one to two months later. Pending contracts were 4.9 percent lower tha a year earlier. “In January, pending contracts were up close to 5 percent, so this month’s 1 percent drop is not a significant concern,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors. “As a whole, these numbers indicate that a cyclical low in sales is in the past, but activity is not matching the frenzied pace of last spring.” Yun pointed to some sales growth in the West, although the region’s current sales are well below the sales activity from 2018. “There is a lack of inventory in the West and prices have risen too fast. Job creation in the West is solid, but there is still a desperate need for more home construction,” he added. The drop came despite buyers having the benefit of lower mortgage rates. The average rate on the 30-year fixed was just over 5 percent in November but began falling in December. They started January just above 4.6 percent but fell at the start of February to around 4.5 percent, according to Mortgage News Daily. Rates then sat there throughout the month, when these sales contracts would have been signed. Closed sales of existing homes jumped nearly 12 percent month to month in February, also a reaction to the drop in mortgage rates at the end of the year. It may also have been simply due to more supply on the market and a cooling in home prices. Closed sales were still lower compared with a year

ago. Regionally, pending sales in the Northeast declined 0.8 percent month to month and were 2.6 percent below a year ago. In the Midwest, sales fell 7.2 percent monthly and 6.1 percent annually. Sales in the South were up 1.7 percent monthly and down 2.9 percent annually, and in the West sales increased 0.5 percent monthly and were 9.6 percent below a year ago. The supply of homes for sale has been rising steadily, up just over 3 percent in February compared with a year ago. Home prices are still rising, but the gains have been shrinking each month for nearly a year. - Lower rates, nicer weather At an open house in Bethesda, Maryland, last Sunday, potential buyers were out in force. The fully renovated, five-bedroom colonial was listed at $1.275 million.

An epic cantilevered house hits the market for $1.55 Million by Kate Reggev

njoy incredible views and the drama and glamour of a Richard Neutra design in this updated midcentury residence now on the market. In 1966, famed midcentury architect Richard Neutra completed 3737 Oakfield Drive, one of 17 distinct “stilt homes” in Sherman Oaks, California. Sited with dramatic views overlooking Beverly Glen, the homes are known as Platform Houses because of their large cantilevering volumes that jut out above the steep slope of the valley below. At 1,800 square feet, 3737 Oakfield Drive incorporates classic elements of Neutra’s California homes, including broad expanses of floor-to-ceiling glass, a simple, open floor plan, and a strong horizontal emphasis. The property is one of 17 stilt homes Neutra designed between 1962 and

Designed by renowned midcentury architect Richard Neutra in 1966. (Photo: Sotheby’s) 1966. The building appears to be a typical midcentury residence from the street, with an overhanging flat roof, stucco and wood cladding, and simple punched windows.

“Everything is falling into place, where interest rates are going down, the weather is nice, we have some houses to look at and people are excited,” said Dana Rice, a real estate agent with Compass. “The spring season started Jan. 2. My phone started ringing off the hook and I believe now buyers are finally seeing some inventory that’s entering the market.”

The home has undergone a series of updates over the years while still retaining its original character. New systems include Sonos and smart home Control 4 technology, pushbutton automated blackout shades, a drop-down projection screen, a theater-grade projector, and a 7.1 sound system for the ultimate home theater experience.

There is more for sale, especially on the higher end, but demand is so high that in some markets buyers still face heavy competition. “It seems like there are fewer houses on the market that are more affordable, and it also seems they go very quickly, within the first couple weeks of showing,” said Tania Peters at the open house. “So you’ve got to get there right away to see them, and it’s hard with schedules, and you don’t have a lot of time to think about it. You’ve got to be ready to move.”

This impression is completely upended when one enters the twobedroom, two-bathroom house. The back of the home features large, floorto-ceiling glazing and an open living/ dining space. An original woodburning fireplace clad in fieldstone provides a textured, earthy contrast to the glazing.

An outdoor terrace can be accessed via generous floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors. A Zen side garden and a second bedroom with a walk-in closet and garden views completes the residence.

The side yard features a Zen garden with local plantings, and an area that is partially covered by a cantilevering roof. (Photo: Kate Reggev)

3737 Oakfield has been frequently featured in movies and television shows, and while its views may be priceless, the residence is currently on the market for $1,550,000. - Dwell.com

- CNBC

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This is not an offer of real estate for sale, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, to residents of any state or province in which registration and other legal requirements have not been fulfilled. Pricing does not include options, elevation, or lot premiums, effective date of publication and subject to change without notice. All square footages and measurements are approximate and subject to change without notice. Trademarks are property of their respective owners. Equal Housing Opportunity.

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