1. hobbies and interests
2. games
3. gambling

dsec prepares for
‘population by-census’
apec finance ministers
meeting in beijing A population census is
conducted every ten years, with
a by-census usually in the middle
of the intercensal period
Asia Pacific finance ministers were
meeting yesterday in Beijing to
consider coordinated responses to
the regional economic slowdown
P5
P10
THU. 23
STATS 2012-14
4,636,400
Visits 7,129,350
Pageviews 81,065,918
11.37 Pages/Visit
Unique Visitors
T. 23º/ 29º C
H. 60/ 95%
Blackberry email service
powered by CTM
N.º 2176
P19
macaudailyTimes.com.mo
Oct 2014
MOP 5.00
HKD 7.50
venetian
macau
open
tee-off
ceremony
RANKING
Founder & Publisher Kowie Geldenhuys
Editor-in-Chief Paulo Coutinho
“ THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ ”
WORLD BRIEFS
PHILIPPINES-CHINA The
ap photo
Philippine president said
that the international
arbitration Manila has
initiated to challenge
China’s territorial claims in
the South China Sea and
a legally binding “Code of
Conduct” are the only ways
to settle the long-raging
disputes peacefully.
Pro-democracy groups
plan first-ever protest
at Hengqin campus
P3
VIETNAM-USA The State
Department welcomed
Tuesday the release of
one of Vietnam’s most
prominent dissidents,
as the U.S. urges the
authoritarian government
in Hanoi to improve its
human rights record
and smooth the way
for stronger relations.
State Department
Spokeswoman Marie Harf
said Nguyen Van Hai, also
known as Dieu Cay, was
due to arrive in the U.S.
on Tuesday. He had been
serving a 12-year prison
term for conducting
“propaganda against
the state” in relation to
his blogging and citizen
media activities.
MALAYSIA A second ship
was preparing to join the
hunt for Malaysia Airlines
Flight 370 in a remote patch
of the Indian Ocean, as
Malaysia’s defense minister
expressed confidence the
plane will be found.
PHILIPPINES A U.S. Marine
suspected in the gruesome
killing of a transgender
Filipino was flown from his
warship to the Philippine
military’s main camp, where
he will continue to be
guarded by fellow Marines,
in a compromise that eased
a looming irritant over his
custody. More on p12
THAILAND Two Myanmar
migrant workers have
retracted their confessions
to killing two British
travelers on a southern Thai
resort island and now claim
to have neither raped the
female victim nor slain the
pair, the men’s lawyers said.
More on backpage
Local culture must survive in
gambling hubs, scholar says
P2 MDT REPORT
MACAU
2
23.10.2014 thu
th Anniversary
澳聞
Local culture must survive in
gambling hubs, scholar says
Catarina Pinto
S
cholar and expert on
gaming studies, Mr Sytze F.
Kingma, from the VU University
Amsterdam, believes that preserving local culture and heritage in
gambling hubs is crucial for Macau’s economy and the welfare of
its local community. Speaking on
the sidelines of a seminar on Global Gambling held yesterday at
the University of Macau, professor Sytze Kingma, an expert on
gaming studies who is particularly focused on Europe and the
Netherlands, said that “the local
culture must survive.”
Sytze Kingma
Sytze Kingma
Visiting Asia’s gaming hub for
the first time, the scholar found
Macau impressive, and recognized that there’s much more to
this city than gambling. “What I
found interesting to see is that,
for instance, in the Netherlands
there isn’t only gambling but
there is also heritage. The heritage element is interesting for
tourists, but also for the local
community,” he said, adding
that Macau possesses similar
features.
“I hope that Macau regulators
will maintain these two cultures
and that it will not become too
dominated by the casino industry. So that there are also other
economic sources and points of
interest for tourists to visit. And
other kinds of jobs for people living here,” he added.
When comparing gaming be-
20 short films from
15 countries selected
T
he Sound and Image
Challenge 2014 received a total of 397 movies
from 56 countries, competing across the categories
of Fiction, Animation, Documentary and Advertisement.
The pre-selection period
ended on October 17 2014,
with twenty short films
selected for the final competition. The shortlisted
works come from 15 countries and 5 different continents.
According to the Cen-
ter for Creative Industries, commonly known
as Creative Macau, this
year’s partnership with
the University of Saint Joseph’s Faculty of Creative
Industries is “a great leap
forward in the overall quality of the contest, revealed in the unprecedented
number of participations.”
The shortlisted movies
were sent to a jury comprising of 15 international experts, who will vote for the
Best in Event award and
select the best film in each
www.macaudailytimes.com.mo
MDT’s Website has logged over
81 million page views
since January 1st, 2012 up to today.
Thank You!
Like us? facebook.com/mdtimes
renato marques
I hope that
Macau
regulators will
maintain these
two cultures
and that it will
not become
too dominated
by the casino
industry
tween Macau and the Netherlands, he says that Macau policies are more liberal than those
in the Netherlands.
However, Holland Casino,
which has the legal monopoly
on gambling in the Netherlands,
is not making a profit. “So they
could look at Macau and learn
how they manage casinos here.
For the other way around: Macau has to be very careful in
maintaining proper regulations,
so that casino companies don’t
dictate how profits are shared,
or how much tax is paid over
profit, or where the money can
be invested in, or how casinos
will be,” he said.
In his opinion, the local government should always remain in
control. “In the Netherlands,
perhaps there is too much control, whereas Macau runs the
risk of not having enough regulation and control of casinos,”
he added.
Holland Casino has 14 casinos in the Netherlands. Some of
them, he explained, have been
integrated into historical areas,
which tourists visit often. He
believes that one of the reasons
why they are not making a profit is related to mismanagement,
and the reluctance to adapt to
changes, as some casinos date
back to the 1990s.
At the seminar, he recalled
how the gambling world has
first seen “a Las Vegasization,”
where many integrated resorts and casinos were inspired by
the American gambling city. But
that has changed, particularly in
Asia, where Macau was able to
gradually play a bigger role.
Professor Sytze Kingma thinks
that future gambling hubs or integrated resorts in Asia will look
to Macau for inspiration rather
than looking all the way to Las
Vegas.
“When there’s an interest of
developing a casino resort in
other Asia regions, they will
probably look at Macau because as we discussed big investors
from the United States [when
establishing casinos here] had
to change the way they operate, and the way they manage
casinos,” he stressed, adding
that foreign operators have learned how to adapt to the Asian
market.
Sytze Kingma is an associate professor in organizational
space and technology at the
VU University Amsterdam. He
is an expert on gaming studies,
particularly keen on studying
gambling activities, taking into
account temporal and special
settings.
He believes that time and space
are crucial when studying gambling, while politics, economy
and culture are also important
elements that should be taken
into account.
Yesterday’s talk is part of the
Casino and Development in Asia
Seminar Series, which is organized and hosted by the UM’s
Department of Sociology, at the
Faculty of Social Sciences.
category.
The 20 shortlisted movies will be screened on
December 4 2014 in two
sessions: 11am – 1:30 p.m.;
and 2 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. at
the Auditorium of the Macau Museum of Art, where the audience will have
the opportunity to vote
for the Best Public Award.
The award ceremony and
screening of the winning
films will take place in the
same venue, from 7 p.m. to
9 p.m. All events have free
entry.
Director and Editor-in-Chief_Paulo Coutinho [email protected]
Managing Editor_Paulo Barbosa [email protected]
Contributing Editors_Eric Sautedé, Leanda Lee, Severo Portela
China & foreign editor_Vanessa Moore [email protected]
Design Editor_João Jorge Magalhães [email protected] | Newsroom and Contributors_Albano
Martins, António Espadinha Soares, Catarina Pinto, Cyril Law, Emilie Tran, Grace Yu, Irene Sam, Jacky I.F. Cheong, Jenny Philips,
João Pedro Lau, Joseph Cheung, Juliet Risdon, Keith Ip, Renato Marques (photographer), Richard Whitfield, Robert Carroll (Hong
Kong correspondent), Rodrigo de Matos (cartoonist), Ruan Du Toit Bester, Sandra Norte (designer), Sum Choi, Viviana Seguí |
Associate Contributors_JML Property, MacauHR, MdME Lawyers, PokerStars | News agencies_ Associated Press,
Bloomberg, Lusa News Agency, MacauHub, MacauNews, Xinhua | Secretary_Yang Dongxiao [email protected]
A Macau Times Publications Ltd Publication
Administrator and Chief Executive Officer
Kowie Geldenhuys [email protected]
Secretary Juliana Cheang [email protected]
Address Av. da Praia Grande, 599, Edif. Comercial Rodrigues, 12 Floor C,
MACAU SAR Telephones: +853 287 160 81/2 Fax: +853 287 160 84
Advertisement [email protected]
For subscription and general issues:
[email protected] | Printed at Welfare Printing Ltd
send newsworthy information and press releases to: [email protected] website: www.macaudailytimes.com.mo
ISSN 2305-4271
thu 23.10.2014
th Anniversary
澳聞
Pro-democracy groups plan first-ever
protest at Hengqin campus
P
ro-democracy activists are planning to organize their first protest at the University of Macau’s new campus
in Hengqin, an area that is now
under Macau’s jurisdiction.
The protest, due to be held on
October 31, addresses alleged
violations of academic freedom,
after two Political Science professors lost their jobs for publicly expressing political views.
In addition, the protest will also
focus on cases of sexual assault
at the University of Macau.
“We urge everyone who’s concerned about academic freedom
to participate,” said Jason Chao.
Yesterday the activists filed a request within the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM)
seeking authorization to organize the protest. They are concerned however, over a possible
negative response from Macau’s
authorities. “If they deny our
request, we will appeal to court
again,” Jason Chao revealed.
The University of Macau’s new
campus in Hengqin is now operating, with students already attending classes there. Although
Hengqin Island is part of mainland China, the area accommodating the new campus – which
is 20 times larger than the former campus located in Taipa –
is under Macau’s jurisdiction,
meaning that the city’s laws and
citizens’ rights are applied.
Jason Chao said that the event
will be organized in an outdoor
area of the campus, and he’s
hoping that it will be rolled out
as any other demonstration in a
public space.
Protestors will be fighting for
academic freedom, since two
Suspected sexual abuse case at UM
T
he online media site Macau Concealers
has published articles in recent days claiming that a University of Macau (UM) teaching staff member has received a penalty of
12 days suspension for sexually harassing a
student. The Times sent an enquiry yesterday
to the university. In a statement, UM replied
that some online reports are “not based on
facts and highly misleading.” “After receiving
a report of a case, the university shall initia-
MIF
Protocol is ‘win,
win, win situation’
O
n the eve of the
Macau International Trade and Investment Fair (MIF)
opening, the Macau
Chamber of Commerce
signed a protocol with
the Portuguese Agency for Foreign Trade
& Investment (AICEP)
to “take advantage of
development opportunities.”
On the sidelines of
the protocol signing,
AICEP’s chairman Miguel Frasquilho said
that the Portuguese
economy must become
more driven towards
external markets.
“A small economy
like Portugal’s must
turn outwards in order to profit from the
business opportunities otherwise it won’t
grow,” he said, adding
that China and Macau
are “Portuguese bets.”
The protocol with the
Macau Chamber of
scholars have been sacked over
alleged political motivations.
Scholar Bill Chou, who’s an active member of the pro-democratic group New Macau Association, did not see his contract
renewed with the University of
Macau this year, after facing a
disciplinary process for allege-
dly imposing political views on
students.
Scholar and political scientist
Eric Sautede, former professor
of the University of Saint Joseph,
was also sacked for sharing his
political views in newspaper columns and in media interviews.
The protest will also address
the matter of sexual assault, since a group of students reported
the case of a professor who has
been suspended for 12 days, after being accused of sexually assaulting a female student.
On Tuesday, candidates from
a list running for the student
union election called for the
end of sexual assaults in the
university, by sharing photos of
posters on Facebook. The students declined to comment on
the matter when asked by Lusa
news agency. MDT/Lusa
Jackson Chang
Commerce constitutes
a “win, win, win situation,” added AICEP’s
chairman. “Everybody
will benefit because
Macau can establish
itself as a platform to
bridge China and lusophone
countries.
Portugal can be a special partner since it is
strategically
located
and it belongs to the
European Union and
to CPLP (the Community of Portuguese
Language
Speaking
Countries).
Also yesterday, IPIM
hosted its 20th anniversary dinner at the
Fisherman’s
Wharf
Convention and Exhibition Centre Auditorium. During the
event, IPIM’s president Jackson Chang
spoke to MIF participants that attended the
banquet, stressing that
over 2,800 businessmatching sessions are
scheduled to take place
during the fair.
“IPIM is organizing
several activities to
promote
economic
ties between mainland
China and Portuguesespeaking
countries,
both online and offline.
These activities include
the establishment of
a digital platform that
can provide information about bilingual
talents - Chinese and
Portuguese – and data
about markets’ evolution in the lusophone countries. Besides
that, this years’ MIF
includes a lusophone
pavilion with more
than 1,500 square meters,” Mr Jackson said,
specifically addressing
MIF participants from
Portuguese-speaking
countries. MDT/Lusa
te a preliminary investigation. The university shall then decide as to whether to pursue
a disciplinary investigation based on whether
the claim is substantiated and how severe is
the nature of the allegation,” UM stated. According to UM, in the past six years the university received reports of two cases involving
alleged sexual harassment. Neither of the cases involved a teacher making sexual advances to a student.
Chan Chak Mo
fears impact of
gov’t changes
L
awmaker
Chan
Chak Mo fears that
changes to the government’s team of secretaries
in the Chief Executive’s
next term will have an impact upon ongoing legislative work, Radio Macau
reported.
Nevertheless, Chan Chak
Mo, who also serves as
president of the Legislative Assembly’s 2nd Standing Committee, believes
that discussion mechanisms with Macau’s government will not be harmed
or altered with the new
team of secretaries.
The AL Standing Committees commenced their
work for this legal year
yesterday, and are now
analyzing legislation related to the prevention
of corruption within external trade. Chan Chak
Mo said that the bill is
not too complex, but that
with changes to the government’s team, he hopes
that they will be able to
table the legislation within the next two months.
If these two months are
not enough for the Committee to elaborate and
gather its opinions, Chan
said they would have to
further discuss with the
government on how to
proceed.
He added that they have
to coordinate better with
the government and the
president of the Legislative Assembly to see if they
can speed up the process
of analyzing this particular law. In addition to perfecting the drafting, the
lawmaker said that some
ideas in the document
needed to be further clarified. He stressed that there aren’t many doubts or
issues arousing from this
legislation. For instance,
lawmakers will be suggesting the clarification of a
few concepts in this law
such as public enterprises.
MACAU
3
Smoke escapes
from MIA baggage
carousel
Authorities have received a report that
suggested smoke was spotted coming
from the baggage carousel in the
departure lobby on the second floor of
the Macau International Airport (MIA)
early yesterday evening. Firefighters
arrived at the scene at around 7
p.m. and confirmed that there was
smoke coming out from the carousel.
According to information from the
scene, the fire took place near the C1
check-in counter that is next to the
restricted area. It was also suggested
that the carousel was on fire and that
the flames were put out by MIA staff
members. The authorities are still
investigating the incident.
Portuguese School
granted Identity
Award 2014
The Portuguese School of Macau
(EPM) will receive the 2014 Identity
Award, granted by the International
Institute of Macau. Each year the
Institute awards individuals or
institutions that have contributed
continuously to the preservation and
richness of Macanese identity. In a
press release, EPM said the award is
in recognition of the school’s work
over the past 15 years, particularly
in promoting Portuguese language
and culture as one of the Macanese
community’s intrinsic features. The
ceremony takes place tomorrow at 5
p.m. at EPM. On Saturday, EPM is
also hosting their own school award
ceremony. The event intends to honor
students who have been awarded
prizes from the Education and Youth
Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) for outstanding
academic, civic and artistic work
during the previous school year. The
ceremony will take place on Saturday
at 11 a.m.
Ten workers
caught without
occupational
safety cards
The Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL)
deputy director Teng Nga Kan
revealed that there were 10 workers
who were found without the
occupational safety card that has been
required for the construction industry
since the implementation of the
Construction Safety Card Regulation
on October 6. So far, authorities
have issued more than 120,000
occupational safety cards, with more
than 90,000 of them remaining valid.
Ms Teng said that DSAL officials
have conducted inspections every day
since the regulation came into force
and have randomly inspected 181
workers. Ten of them, mostly nonresident workers (TNRs), were not
cardholders, and punitive procedures
were launched against them. Teng
Nga Kan said that the regulation has
been implemented for only two weeks
and the authorities will strengthen
their efforts towards promoting
awareness and education.The deputy
director made the comment during
a cross-Taiwan Strait seminar on
occupational safety and health that is
being held in Macau until tomorrow.
4
MACAU
23.10.2014 thu
th Anniversary
澳聞
A
Transmac drivers’ association published a statement in the Chinese-language
newspaper Macao Daily News
complaining of passengers’ aggressive behavior, which has
resulted in at least nine cases of
drivers being attacked.
According to local media, the
association said in an advertisement published in the Chinese newspaper that a Transmac
driver was recently attacked by
a passenger who first splashed a
liquid at him before getting off
the bus. The driver got off the
bus too, but the passenger hit
him, breaking his nose. Transmac’s deputy general manager,
Kuan Weng Kai, told The Macau Post Daily that the driver
underwent surgery at the public
hospital, while the passenger
was referred to a police station
nearby.
He urged passengers not to
vent anger at drivers over bus
frequency issues, since these
matters are decided by the go-
ad
renato marques
Public bus drivers complain
over aggressive passenger
behavior
vernment and not by bus operators.
A spokesperson for the Transmac drivers’ association told
newspaper Ponto Final that they
will not be filing complaints over
offenses to physical integrity, as
these matters are usually solved
within the company.
Lawmaker Lei Cheng I, from
the labor sector, told Ponto Final that cases of passengers attacking bus drivers are related
to an increasing number of people using public transportation
in recent years. “Overcrowded
buses have prompted passengers’ upheaval and discontent,”
she said. The lawmaker added
that the increasing number of
non-resident workers has harmed Macau’s public transportation service quality.
Bus operator TCM also revealed that it has recorded three
cases of passengers who have
attacked their staff, newspaper
Tribuna de Macau reported. A
spokesperson for the bus operator said that they file complaints to Macau’s police forces
whenever there’s a case of assault against its drivers. They
have also launched training
programs to help drivers manage passengers’ behavior.
STATISTICS
Restaurant operating
expenses increase by 27 pct
A
total of 1,918 restaurants
and similar establishments
were operating in 2013, up by
240 year-on-year, comprising
1,843 restaurants, eating and
drinking places (up 217) and 75
cooked-food stalls in municipal
markets. According to information released yesterday by the
Statistics and Census Service
(DSEC), the number of persons in the industry increased
by 4,200 to 26,187. Receipts
and expenditure of restaurants and similar establishments
amounted to MOP8.50b and
MOP7.82b, up by 23 pct and 24
pct respectively.
According to data analyzed by
DSEC, the sector’s contribution
to the economy rose by 20 pct
year-on-year to MOP 3.25b.
Expenditure of restaurants, eating and drinking places
amounted to MOP 7.81b, up
by 24 pct year-on-year. Major
items of expenditure included purchase of goods (MOP
3.24b) and compensation of
employees (MOP 2.56b), up by
25 pct and 20 pct respectively.
Operating Expenses increa-
sed by 27 pct to MOP2.01b, of
which establishment rents rose
significantly by 38 pct to reach
MOP 787 million.
Owing to an increase in cookedfood stalls operating in municipal markets, the number of
cooked-food stalls stood at 75
(+23) and persons engaged totaled 153 (+54) in 2013. Receipts (MOP 27m) and expenditure (MOP 13m) of cooked-food
stalls went up by 39 pct and 24
pct respectively year-on-year,
DSEC revealed.
thu 23.10.2014
th Anniversary
澳聞
MACAU
5
DSEC prepares for ‘Population By-census’
João Pedro Lau
T
he Statistics and
Census
Service
(DSEC) will launch
the “Population Bycensus” in 2016. In preparing
for the project, the bureau will
commence the trial survey
next year.
A population census is conducted every ten years, with a
by-census usually in the middle of the intercensal period.
On the sidelines of the opening ceremony of a photo
exhibition that commemorated the 30th anniversary of
DSEC’s establishment, the bureau’s director Kong Pek Fong
said that a government interdepartmental task group has
already been working on the
contents of the questionnaire
used in the trial survey and bycensus. She also commented
on the possibility of expenses
cuts to her department and a
shortage in human resources.
Kong Pek Fong said that the
most important event in the
next year and the year after
would be the “2016 Population By-census.” It will detail
how the structure of the population, including age, gender
and employment, has changed
after the 2011 Population Census.
In order to prepare for 2016,
a trial survey will be launched
next year. “We have already
formed a government interdepartmental task group to
look into some of the basic
components [of the trial] such
as creating the questionnaire.
We hope to confirm the final
version and the contents of the
questionnaire at the end of the
year,” director Kong said.
She suggested that although
the scale of the by-census will
not be as large as that of the Population Census, the amount
of preparation is actually the
same. She said that her wish is
to use electronic devices protected by passwords to collect
data, in order to process it in a
faster and safer manner.
Moreover, government departments are preparing for
their 2015 budget. The Education and Youth Affairs Bureau
has already indicated that they
are going to reduce their expenses in recruitment. When
asked about the spending on
the trial survey, the director
indicated that since the trial is
only to test-run the whole system, the expenses will be relatively small.
“The scale of the trial survey
next year will not be as big as a
formal census. It may only involve around 10,000 families.
(…) The major objective is to
test the feasibility of the questionnaire and to see if there could be problems arising
Kong Pek Fong
from the calculation of data
collected through the questionnaire. (…) The expenses
required [for the trial] will be
very different from the formal
census. Even if there is really
a need for expenses cuts, we
can also make adjustments in
other aspects and be able to
handle it,” she said.
Kong Pek Fong also revealed
that DSEC has always been
The scale of the
trial survey next
year will not
be as big as a
formal census.
It may only
involve around
10,000 families
Kong Pek Fong
recruiting new staff. The bureau is also going to witness
a retirement peak in the upcoming two years. “However,
statistics and census are some
semi-professional
aspects.
Therefore, we are not going
to accept every applicant. The
selection will be strict and
hence [the recruitment] is relatively slow. But we try to use
information technology and
ask our current staff members
to contribute more in order to
temporarily supplement the
lack of human resources,” she
said.
Furthermore, Ms Kong reckoned that being labor-intensive is a characteristic of
statistics and census workers.
“However, there has been a
large demand for human resources since the sovereignty handover, and the supply
is seriously lacking. After all,
the population in Macau is limited. Therefore, DSEC used
to have more than 300 staff
members before the hando-
ver, which marks the peak.
But now we have only around
220 people,” she said.
The director also stated that
the reduction in staff numbers
is accomplished through the
introduction of information
technology. “We hope that
after reducing the amount
of workers, efficiency can be
maintained or even improved,” she said.
Ms Kong added that throu-
gh introducing online and
electronic data collection, the
resources spent on data entry
and review can be reduced,
with more time and human
resources saved. The director
also believes that another advantage of using online data
collection is that people can
provide their information round-the-clock without facing
temporal or spatial restrictions.
high data accuracy
Kong Pek Fong claimed that
there is a standard requirement in
terms of the accuracy, transparency
and coverage of official statistics.
“It is only after all these requirements are fulfilled that we will
release the data. If we have any
doubts regarding any data before it
is released, we will review it again,”
she said. She also suggested that
apart from the figures, it is also
crucial to interpret the numbers
accurately. “People will have different feelings about the same set of
data if it is interpreted differently.
Therefore, no matter if it is used
for government policy or residents,
we will have professional staff explain the numbers to the data users
so that people can use that data
correctly and know the meaning
behind the numbers. This is how
statistics can help people and government administration,” she said.
DSEC statistics record society’s changes
K
ong Pek Fong suggested that by
reviewing the statistics released by
her bureau, people will be able to observe the changes Macau has gone through
in recent decades. “From the figures, we
can see the drastic changes in the economic structure, society and employment [in Macau],” she said.
In the director’s opinion, the most significant change in Macau, apart from the
development of the gaming industry, is
how it led to changes in other industries. “For example, the fishing industry
and manufacturing industry have been
in serious decline. Their share in the
economy is not even worth mentioning.
(…) The change in the construction industry also follows the gambling industry. When the first wave of casino construction in Cotai began, the construction
industry took off. But once the building
process ended, the construction goes
down again,” she said.
The director thinks that no other industry can surpass the gaming industry in the short-term, judging from its
immense scale. She also suggested that
there are some other industries, including retail, catering, transportation and
telecommunications that are enjoying a
growth that is faster than the gaming
industry, due to the development of
tourism in Macau.
6
MACAU
23.10.2014 thu
th Anniversary
澳聞
Parisian retail area set to focus on
‘creative, edgy and incubator’ brands
Catarina Pinto
S
ands Retail’s new
integrated resort, The
Parisian Macao, is set
to open in late 2015,
and tenancy commitments for
the new property have reached 85 percent of its retail
area, according to the casino
operator. In an interview with
the Times, Las Vegas Sands
Corp. Senior Vice President
of Retail, Mr David Sylvester,
said the idea behind The Parisian Macao “was to tie in with
the Paris theme and bring new
and creative brands, that would attract a customer who’s a
bit more style savvy.”
French fashion house Isabel Marant, French designer
Sonia Rykiel, Belgian fashion
designer Martin Margiela, and
cosmetics store Temptation
are some of the brands already
confirmed for integration into
the Parisian’s retail area.
“When you think about Paris, you think about creativity, innovation. [The Parisian]
sits in a price point below The
Four Seasons and above The
Venetian; we call it premium.
But the whole idea is that it’s
more creative, bringing in
brands like Isabel Marant,
Carven and Sonia Rykiel,” David Sylvester added.
When building a new mall,
he said, Sands Retail is not
interested in bringing brands
that are already available in
other properties. David Sylvester said that their strategy for
providing the market with new
brands remains. Each mall is
targeting a specific audience,
with The Venetian Macao focusing on a more high-street
approach, Sands Cotai Central
paying greater attention to family-oriented products, while
ad
We try to bring
new brands into
the market, to
create a deeper
range, which
is obviously
more appealing
to more
customers
David Sylvester
David Sylvester
Shoppes at Four Seasons offers
luxury products.
“We try to bring new brands
into the market, to create a
deeper range, which is obviously more appealing to more
customers,” he added.
French house Maison Martin Margiela, which was founded in 1988 by Belgian designer Martin Margiela, is often
seen as cross-section between
fashion and ready-to-wear collections, also dubbed “avantgarde and experimental.”
“One of the key differen-
tiators of the Maison Martin
Margiela brand is that it’s often seen as experimental, but
it’s still regarded as highly stylish,” said Patrick Fan, President of World First Holdings
Ltd. in a statement. World-renowned designer John Galliano has recently joined Maison
Martin Margiela as its creative
director.
Cosmetics concept store,
Temptation, will also be part
of Shoppes at Parisian. Alessandra Piovesana, Regional
Managing Director of The
Nuance Group (HK) Ltd., which operates Temptation, said
that opening their “concept
store in a premium location
popular for the millions of visitors it attracts each year was
highly compelling.”
With “incubator brands and
edgy items,” David Sylvester
said this is a mall that is also
looking to attract those who
are truly into fashion.
“Some of the brands people
may know from Hong Kong or
China, but it’s a concentration
of these like brands together
that will be the attraction. It
will have an appeal for middle
class right up to the wealthy,”
he added, recalling that Paris
is one of mainland Chinese
visitors’ prime destinations,
making the Parisian “a special
product.”
The Parisian Macao will add
over 3,000 hotel rooms and
“a wide range of food and beverages,” in addition to its
320,000 square foot shopping
mall, housing over 150 boutiques. Shoppes at The Parisian
Macao will be connected to
the other Sands Retail malls
via air-conditioned walkways.
“There’s a bridge connection that comes across Four
Seasons. The idea was for all
malls to be inter-connected,
so the Four Seasons will connect into the Parisian too,”
said David Sylvester.
Other brands confirmed to
be joining Shoppes at the Parisian include Agent Provocateur, Marni, ASH, Red Lifestyle, André, Moschino Couture,
Dirk Bikkembergs, Cerrutti
Paris, Cosmo Paris, Minelli,
Ba&sh, among others.
thu 23.10.2014
th Anniversary
分析
BUSINESS
7
bloomberg
ad
Caesars seeking to
build USD1 billion
casino in Philippines
Stephanie Wong, Cecilia Yap
and Siegfrid Alegado
C
aesars Entertainment Corp.,
the largest operator of U.S. casinos, is seeking a license from the
Philippine government to build
a USD1 billion resort in the country, betting on luring gamblers from across Asia.
Chairman Gary Loveman and Steven Tight, president of the Las Vegas-based casino owner’s international development
unit, held preliminary talks with Philippine President Benigno Aquino last month
in the U.S. to discuss the possibility of
building the resort in the Southeast Asian
country, Tight said in a phone interview
this week.
“There’s no major international brand
currently in Manila,” he said. “There’s a
chance to create something that will drive
tourism, that will really put Manila on the
regional tourism map.”
The Philippines awarded four licenses
in 2008 and 2009 to casino operators
owned by billionaires including James
Packer, Lawrence Ho and Enrique Razon
to build resorts in the 120- hectare (297acre) Entertainment City, a Las Vegas-style complex designed to compete with
Singapore and Macau’s gambling markets. Each Philippine licensee agreed to invest $1 billion over five years. The country’s gaming regulator hasn’t granted any
new licenses under Aquino’s term, which
started in 2010, said Philippine Amusement & Gaming Chairman Cristino Naguiat, who this week confirmed Aquino’s
discussion with Caesars.
Caesars approached the government to
seek a license and approval for the lease of
the land next to Ninoy Aquino International Airport, about 4.7 kilometers from Entertainment City, Tight said.
“We’re in the process of evaluating
everything,” Naguiat said when asked if
the regulator will give out new licenses.
The government may consider raising the
investment requirement of new entrants
to $1.5 billion, he said. “If we will bring
in someone new, there has to be value added,” Naguiat said.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer earlier
reported on the talks. President Benigno
Aquino, in a forum with reporters, said
yesterday the government is reviewing
Caesars’ application.
Caesars is seeking to build a resort with
shops, restaurants and an entertainment
district that could showcase international
performers such as Celine Dion and Elton
John, Tight said.
The company hopes the project would
complement a casino resort it’s building
in South Korea, Tight said. Caesars plans
to build a network of casinos in Asia and
is also interested in the market in Vietnam, he said.
A Philippine resort would benefit from
the increasing number of South Korean
travelers to the country as well as tourists from southern China, according to Tight. More than 20 percent of tourists in
the Southeast Asian country came from
South Korea in the first seven months
of the year, according to the tourism department. This was followed by the U.S.
which contributed 16 percent of the total,
while China ranked third with 9 percent.
Caesars is working with a local company on a possible casino project and is
seeking a “large scale” domestic partner
for the resort, Tight said.
Entertainment City will have four casinos including Solaire Resort & Casino by
Razon’s Bloomberry Resorts Corp. City of
Dreams Manila, a venture owned by Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. and Philippine billionaire Henry Sy, is slated to
open by this year.
The two remaining licenses are held by
an affiliate of Kazuo Okada’s Universal
Entertainment Corp. and a venture of
Genting Hong Kong Ltd. and Philippine billionaire Andrew Tan. If Okada’s
group doesn’t complete its casino project
by March, it may forfeit its performance
bond of 100 million pesos ($2.2 million)
to the Philippine gaming agency, Naguiat
said. Bloomberg
8
ADVERTISEMENT
23.10.2014 thu
th Anniversary
廣告
thu 23.10.2014
th Anniversary
published in partnership with macauhub.com.mo
Macau
I
ncreases in rent and
the cost of eating out
were, once again, the
main factors behind the
5.82 percent surge in Macau’s
annual inflation in September,
the region’s Statistics and Census Bureau said.
The Bureau also said that,
compared to September last
year, there were significant increases in the price indices of
the categories of housing and
fuel (+12.15 percent) and food
and non-alcoholic beverages
(+5.46 percent) .
In September, the Consumer Price Index increased by
0.53% in monthly terms, with
the indices of the categories of
spending on education, housing and fuel, and food and
non-alcoholic beverages posting rises of 2.63 percent, 1.04
percent and 0.92 percent, respectively, compared to the pre-
bloomberg
Rents drive annual
inflation by 5.82 pct
in September
vious month.
The inflation rate, measured
by the average CPI for the last
12 months over the preceding
12 months, rose 6.03 percent,
中葡論壇
FORUM
9
Angola
12th Projekta fair
showcases 500 companies
T
he 12th edition of Projekta, the largest trade show dedicated to the construction, civil engineering, urban planning
and architecture sector in Angola, will be held in Luanda from
23 to 26 October with the participation of 500 companies, the
fair’s organizers said.
Eventos Arena – Organizaçao e Gestao de Feiras e Eventos
said in a statement that the fair, which this year will have an
exhibition area of ​​16,000 square metres, will feature two new
delegations from Pakistan and Kuwait.
Portugal will continue to have the largest international representation with 54 companies from different segments of
the construction industry that will occupy an area of over 800
square meters.
For the first time this year Projekta 2014 presents Decor
Expo, a new area dedicated to furniture and decor for the
home, office and commercial spaces.
Projekta, according to the fair’s organizers, is a unique platform to establish partnerships, make new contacts and conduct business between Angolan and foreign businessmen in
the construction, civil engineering, urban planning and architecture industry. MDT/Macauhub
with substantial increases in
the indices of housing and fuel
(+11.83 percent) and food and
non-alcoholic beverages (+6.24
percent). MDT/Macauhub
ad
CHINA
th Anniversary
中國
bloomberg
10
23.10.2014 thu
Apple’s iCloud attacked
by mainland hackers
A
pple has posted a new
security warning for users
of its iCloud online storage service amid reports of a
concerted effort to steal pas-
swords and other data from
people who use the popular
service in China.
“We’re aware of intermittent
organized network attacks
using insecure certificates to
obtain user information, and
we take this very seriously,”
the computer-maker said in
a post Tuesday on its support
website. The post said Apple’s
own servers have not been
compromised.
Apple’s post did not mention China or provide any
details on the attacks. But
ap photo
APEC finance ministers
meeting in Beijing Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli
A
sia Pacific finance ministers
were meeting yesterday in Beijing to consider coordinated responses amid concerns over a slowdown in the regional economy highlighted by lower Chinese growth
figures.
Opening the meeting of 21 ministers from Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation economies, Chinese
Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli said recovery from the global economic
downturn had been tepid.
But he said China was on track to
meet its loose goal of 7.5 percent
growth for the year, with inflation
stable and the economy set to produce more than 10 million new jobs.
“We have full confidence in the
Chinese economy,” said Zhang,
who ranks seventh in the ruling
Communist Party’s hierarchy.
The meeting comes a day after China, the world’s No. 2 economy, announced that economic growth had
dwindled to a five-year low of 7.3
percent in the last quarter, raising
concerns of spill-over effects on the
global economy.
Yesterday’s meeting was being
chaired by China’s finance minister
Lou Jiwei and comes weeks ahead
of APEC’s leadership summit in
Beijing.
Participants, including those from
the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank, will discuss the
regional economic outlook and discuss possible coordinated action
to respond. An APEC news release
said ensuring financing for infrastructure was among the issues to be
discussed. AP
Red Cross official tells
Beijing meeting 6 months
to contain Ebola
A
top Red Cross official said yesterday
that he is confident the
Ebola epidemic that has
killed thousands of people in West Africa can be
contained within four to
six months.
Elhadj As Sy, secretary
general of the International Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent
Societies, told a news
conference in Beijing
that the time frame is
possible if there is “good
isolation, good treatment of the cases which
are confirmed,” and “safe
burials” of those who die
from the disease.
The Ebola outbreak has
killed more than 4,500
people since it emerged
10 months ago, with Liberia, Guinea and Sierra
Leone the worst-affected
countries.
The Red Cross is holding its Asia-Pacific re-
ap photo
Brandon Bailey, Technology Writer,
San Francisco
several news outlets reported
Tuesday that some Chinese Internet users have begun
seeing warnings that indicate
they had been diverted to an
unauthorized website when
they attempted to sign into
their iCloud accounts.
That kind of diversion,
known to computer security
experts as a “man in the middle” attack, could allow a
third party to copy and steal
the passwords that users enter
when they think they are signing into Apple’s service. Hackers could then use the pas-
swords to collect other data
from the users’ accounts.
Chinese activists blamed the
attacks on that country’s government, according to news
reports and the Chinese activist website GreatFire.org,
which suggested the campaign
was spurred by the fact that
Apple recently began selling
its newest iPhone models, the
iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, in China.
The new smartphones have
software with enhanced encryption features to protect
Apple users’ data.
Apple, which is based in
Cupertino, California, said in
its post that the attacks have
not affected users who sign
into iCloud from their iPhones
or iPads, or on Mac computers
while using the latest Mac operating system and Apple’s Safari browser. But the company
suggested users should verify
they are connecting to a legitimate iCloud server by using
the security features built into
Safari and other browsers
such as Firefox and Google’s
Chrome. The browsers will
show a message that warns
users when they are connecting to a site that doesn’t have
a digital certificate verifying
that it is authentic.
“If users get an invalid certificate warning in their browser while visiting www.icloud.
com, they should pay attention to the warning and not
proceed,” Apple said in the
post. AP
A medical worker wears full Ebola protective equipment
gional conference, held
every four years, in the
Chinese capital.
Sy praised China for
contributing relief items,
laboratory
equipment
and protective gear to
help in the fight against
Ebola at a time when
“many people were coming out and running
away and others were
very hesitant to send
people.”
The World Food Program announced Monday that China has donated $6 million to help
stave off food shortages
in the three worst-affected countries.
With the world’s second-largest
economy
and a permanent seat on
the U.N. Security Council, China is beginning
to make larger contributions to international aid
efforts.
China is also Africa’s
largest trading partner.
“As some said it when I
was in Sierra Leone and
Guinea, it is only at this
time that you know who
your friends are, and definitely they see China as
their friend,” Sy said. AP
thu 23.10.2014
th Anniversary
中國
Mainland media says
protesters are foreign puppets
bloomberg
C
A man wrapped in a Chinese flag gestures as he stands next to a group of police officers in front of an area occupied by prodemocracy demonstrators in the Causeway Bay
Around 200
people took
part yesterday
in a march to
Leung’s official
residence in
response to the
remarks they
perceived as
elitist
his electric wheelchair. “It’s
an understatement that Leung
has lost touch with low-income people. He thinks we don’t
exist.”
The Global Times editorial
was published a day after student leaders met with Chief Secretary Carrie Lam in televised
talks to resolve the impasse.
During the talks, the government said it is considering
submitting a report to China relaying the demands and concerns of the protesters. While such
a report would provide Beijing
with a “reference” on the demonstrators’ opinions, the 2017
election has to be done in accordance with the legal framework
laid out by Chinese lawmakers,
Lam said.
China has said candidates for
the election must be vetted by a
1,200 person-nominating committee. Leung has said that the
question of how the members
of the group are chosen could
be open for discussion.
Alex Chow, the secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students that led the
talks, on Tuesday questioned
the usefulness of the report
that Lam was proposing and
refused to commit to further
dialogue.
Society’s patience with the
protesters is wearing thin as
some main roads remain blocked, Leung said Tuesday. Pressure to resolve the occupation
is mounting since three temporary injunctions for their removal were approved on Monday,
he said.
Members from a taxi association yesterday afternoon
removed parts of the make
-shift barricades protesters
erected at Mong Kok, one of
the three protest sites, with
the material taken to a truck
driven into the midst of the
rally area.
“We really want to clear the
roads, but it’s beyond our abilities right now,” Eddie Ng, director general of the Taxi Drivers and Operators Association,
told reporters yesterday.
Over the weekend, clashes
in the Mong Kok district north of the city’s harbor led to
some of the worst violence since demonstrations began on
Sept. 26, with police saying on
Monday that the protests there
risked turning into a riot.
“The talks yielded almost
nothing,” said Donald Lung,
a 22-year-old student at the
University of Hong Kong.
“I’ll not leave until the government really responds to our
demands. Only fundamental
change in the political structure can resolve problems,”
including the widening gap
between rich and poor and
policies favoring tycoons and
property developers, he said.
Bloomberg
S
mooth jazz star
Kenny G stopped in at
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests yesterday,
but his visit was out of
tune with Chinese authorities, who have warned
about foreign meddling.
The American musician
tweeted about his visit to
the semiautonomous southern Chinese city, where
thousands of student-led
protesters have occupied
streets for more than
three weeks to press their
demands for greater democratic reforms.
“In Hong Kong at the sight of the demonstration.
I wish everyone a peaceful
ap photo
Kenny G’s Hong Kong visit out of tune with PRC
Kelvin Chan, Hong Kong
11
Hong Kong
Frederik Balfour and Clement Tan
hina’s media is ratcheting up the rhetoric
against Hong Kong’s
pro-democracy movement, saying protesters risk becoming foreign puppets.
In an editorial yesterday in
the English-language daily Global Times, the paper linked the
protests to other movements
that China deems hostile to the
Chinese Communist Party’s authority.
“The external political situation concerning Occupy Central
is increasingly clear cut,” the
paper said. “A mix of traditional forces that are confronting
the current Chinese regime,
including Tibetan, Xinjiang
and Taiwan separatists, Falun
Gong devotees, and pro-democracy activists, have beaten the
drums for the Hong Kong protests like cheerleaders.”
The comments in the Global Times, which is affiliated
with the official People’s Daily
newspaper, come after Hong
Kong Chief Executive Leung
Chun-ying said that foreign forces were fanning the protests.
Student leaders have pledged
to continue demonstrations
unless China reverse a decision
to vet candidates for the city’s
first-ever leadership election in
2017.
The four-week protest is the
biggest challenge to China’s
rule over Hong Kong since the
end of colonial rule in 1997.
Leung told foreign media on
Monday that giving more voice
in government to people at the
bottom end of the income scale
would lead to populist policies
unfavorable to big business.
Around 200 people took part
yesterday in a march to Leung’s
official residence in response to
the remarks they perceived as
elitist.
“I am extremely angry about
our chief executive’s comments,” said Yip Wing, 27, who
participated in the march in
CHINA
Smooth jazz saxophonist Kenny G
and positive conclusion to
this situation,” he wrote.
Photos had circulated
earlier on social media of
the star by himself and
with protesters at the
main protest zone.
The American musician’s laidback soprano
sax tunes are wildly popular in China, especially his
song “Going Home,” which can be heard at train
stations, department stores, airports, hotel lobbies
and over loudspeakers in
public parks, and is often
used as a signal for people
to clear out. He completed
a four-concert tour of the
country in September.
When asked about the
appearance, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying paused
and noted Kenny G’s popularity — and then warned foreigners not to get involved.
“I think Kenny G’s music
is popular in China, though regarding the illegal
protest in Hong Kong, the
Chinese government has
a clear position. We think
that is an illegal campaign,” Hua said.
“We support the government of Hong Kong to
handle it in accordance
with the law to maintain
stability in Hong Kong.
Thus we hope all foreign
countries and individuals
could be discreet in words
and deeds and not support the illegal protest in
any forms,” she said.
Beijing has warned repeatedly that unspecified
foreign forces are influencing the protesters
in Hong Kong, without
spelling out who exactly
is involved. Hong Kong’s
Beijing-backed
leader,
Leung Chun-ying, has
also recently taken up the
claims. AP
ASIA-PACIFIC
th Anniversary
亞太版
North Korea
Andrew Welsh-Huggins
A
U.S. man detained for
nearly half a year in
North Korea has landed back home.
Officials say a plane carrying
Jeffrey Fowle landed yesterday
morning at Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base in Ohio.
The State Department announced Tuesday that the 56-year
-old Fowle had been released. The news came about six
months after he was taken into
custody after leaving a Bible at
a nightclub. Christian evangelism is considered a crime in
North Korea.
He had been awaiting trial —
the only one of three Americans
held by Pyongyang who had not
been convicted of charges.
The two others were each sentenced to years in North Korean
prisons after court trials that
lasted no more than 90 minutes. The three Americans entered North Korea separately.
Fowle was flown out of North Korea on a U.S. military jet
that was spotted at Pyongyang’s
international airport Tuesday
by two Associated Press journalists. There was no immediate
explanation for the release of
Fowle, who was whisked to the
U.S. territory of Guam before
heading back to his wife and
three children in Ohio.
State Department deputy
spokeswoman Marie Harf said
Tuesday that Fowle was seen by
doctors and appeared to be in
good medical health. She declined to give more details about
his release except to thank the
government of Sweden, which
has an embassy in Pyongyang,
American detainee lands
back home in Ohio
acquittals for all three men.
In Berlin, Secretary of State John
Kerry said “there was no quid pro
quo” for the release of Fowle.
“We are very concerned about
the remaining American citizens
who are in North Korea, and we
have great hopes that North Korea will see the benefit of releasing them also as soon as possible,” Kerry told reporters.
“We’re in constant touch with
ap photo
12
23.10.2014 thu
their families, we’re working on
their release, we’ve talked to
the Chinese and others, and we
have a high focus on it,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from the government of
North Korean leader Kim Jong
Un. The United States has no
diplomatic relations with North Korea and strongly warns
American citizens against traveling to the country. AP
s. korea dismantles border christmas tree American detainee Jeffrey Fowle
for its “tireless efforts.”
Harf would not say whether
any American officials had intervened directly with the North Koreans.
Relations between Washin-
gton and Pyongyang, never
warm, are at a particularly low
point, and the U.S. has sought
unsuccessfully for months to
send a high-level representative to North Korea to negotiate
South Korea has pulled down
a 43-year-old front-line Christmas
tower that North Korea viewed as
propaganda warfare, with officials
saying Wednesday the structure was
unsafe.
The massive steel tower was demolished last week and South Korea plans
to build a park in its place, according
to South Korea’s Defense Ministry
and local city officials.
South Korea stopped the lightening
of the tower in 2004 as relations with
North Korea warmed during an era of
reconciliation. But it allowed Christian
groups to light the tower in 2010 and
2012 as tensions spiked following two
attacks that killed 50 South Koreans
and a banned long-range rocket test
by North Korea.
The tower, which was located about
3 km from the border, sat on a peak
high enough for North Koreans living
in border towns to see it.
South Korean Defense Ministry officials denied media speculation that
the tower was dismantled as a conciliatory gesture aimed at improving ties
with North Korea.
Philippines
Jim Gomez, Manila
A
U.S. Marine suspected in the gruesome
killing of a transgender
Filipino was flown yesterday from his warship to
the Philippine military’s
main camp, where he will
continue to be guarded
by fellow Marines, in a
compromise that eased a
looming irritant over his
custody.
The emotional case involving Pfc. Joseph Scott
Pemberton and Jennifer Laude, whose former
name was Jeffrey, came
as the Philippines and the
United States were strengthening ties with the recent signing of a defense
accord that allows greater U.S. access to Philippine military camps.
The accord would help
Washington’s bid to reassert its presence in Asia
ap photo
Marine murder suspect guarded by US in camp U.S. Marine Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton is escorted to his detention
as he arrives at Camp Aguinaldo military headquarters in suburban
Quezon city, north of Manila
and Manila to deter what
it calls China’s aggressive moves to reinforce its
claims in contested South
China Sea territories.
Left-wing activists and
nationalist Filipinos have
cited the custody provi-
sion of the accord — which says American military
suspects shall remain in
U.S. custody until legal
processes are completed
— as proof that the accord
undermines the sovereignty of the Philippines,
which was an American
colony until 1946.
Pemberton’s transfer by
helicopter to Manila was
agreed by the U.S. and
the Philippines, military
chief of staff Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang told a
news conference.
The 19-year-old Marine, who arrived in handcuffs, was detained in an
air-conditioned container
van with grilled windows,
directly guarded by U.S.
Marines while Philippine military police will be
posted outside the fenced compound, Catapang
said.
President Benigno Aquino III welcomed the U.S.
decision to transfer the
suspect, telling a news forum with foreign correspondents that the Americans “are responding to
our needs and our sensitivities.”
Appearing before a Senate foreign relations committee hearing on Laude’s
killing, Foreign Secretary
Albert del Rosario said
the Philippine government would never have
agreed if U.S. officials decided to detain Pemberton at the American embassy in Manila, where a
Marine rape suspect was
held years ago, describing
such a prospect as “totally
unacceptable.”
Hours after the U.S. Marine’s transfer, Laude’s
mother, two sisters, German boyfriend and the family’s lawyer — trailed by
a throng of journalists and
TV cameramen — managed to come close to the
military camp compound, where Pemberton was
being held, and demanded that they be let in.
“This is the family of the
woman he killed. Come
here,” family lawyer Harry Roque yelled from outside the locked gate. “Mr.
American, how come you
haven’t even condoled?”
When
the
Filipino
guards refused to open
the gate, one of Laude’s
sisters and German boyfriend climbed over the
fence into the compound
but were prevented by
the guards from getting
close to Pemberton’s van
a few meters away. Other
military officials arrived
and Laude’s family and
lawyer later left.
While the suspect has
been moved to a Philippine camp, he remains
in U.S. custody, the U.S.
Marine Corps said, citing
the Visiting Forces Agreement, which stipulates
treatment of American
military personnel suspected of breaking the
law. AP
thu 23.10.2014
th Anniversary
廣告
ADVERTISEMENT
13
14
WORLD
23.10.2014 thu
th Anniversary
分析
Islamic State
Diaa Hadid, Beirut
Militant fighters seize weapons
cache meant for Kurds
IS loyalists
on social
media posted
sarcastic
thank you
notes to the
United States,
including one
image that said
‘Team USA’
ap photo
I
slamic State group fighters seized at least one cache of weapons airdropped
by U.S.-led coalition forces
that were meant to supply Kurdish militiamen battling the extremist group in a border town,
activists said Tuesday.
The cache of weapons included hand grenades, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, according to
a video uploaded by a media
group loyal to the Islamic State
group.
The video appeared authentic
and corresponded to The Associated Press’ reporting of the
event. The Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, which bases its information
on a network of activists on the
ground, said the militants had
seized at least one cache.
The caches were airdropped
early on Monday to Kurds in the
embattled Syrian town of Kobani that lies near the Turkish
border. The militant group has
been trying to seize the town for
over a month now, causing the
A frame grab from undated video uploaded by militants shows an Islamic State group militant looking through some items from a seized cache of weapons airdropped by
U.S.-led coalition forces
exodus of some 200,000 people from the area into Turkey.
While Kurds are battling on
the ground, a U.S.-led coalition
is also targeting the militants
from the air.
On Tuesday, IS loyalists on
social media posted sarcastic
thank you notes to the United
States, including one image
that said “Team USA.”
But the lost weapons drop was
more an embarrassment than a
great strategic loss. The Islamic
State militants already possess
millions of dollars-worth of
U.S. weaponry that they captured from fleeing Iraqi soldiers
when the group seized swaths
of Iraq in a sudden sweep in
June.
State Department deputy
spokeswoman Marie Harf said
the U.S. had seen the video but
couldn’t confirm its accuracy
and was seeking more information.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Central
Command said U.S. military
forces conducted four airstrikes
near Kobani that destroyed IS
fighting positions, an IS building and a large IS unit.
Also Tuesday, Syrian government airstrikes hit a rebel
-held town along the country’s
southern border with Jordan,
killing at least eight people.
Activists with the Local Coordination Committees and the
Observatory said the number
of those killed was likely to rise
as there are more victims under
the rubble.
The LCC said Syrian govern-
ment planes dropped crude explosives-laden canisters on the
town of Nasib on the Syria-Jordan border.
The airstrikes are part of battles between Syrian government forces and Islamic rebel
groups for control of the area.
Syrian government forces
have been heavily bombing rebel areas in recent weeks, while
the U.S-led coalition has been
conducting airstrikes against
Islamic State militants elsewhere in Syria. AP
USA
Kathryn Harris
B
enjamin C. Bradlee, the editor who
transformed the Washington Post into a leading
U.S. newspaper with the
pursuit of the Watergate break-in story, which
culminated in the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974, has
died. He was 93.
Ever the newsman and
ever one to challenge
conventional
wisdom,
Bradlee imagined his
own obituary years earlier and found something
within it to quibble over.
“Bet me that when I
die,” he wrote in his 1995
memoir, “there will be something in my obit about
how The Washington
Post ‘won’ 18 Pulitzer prizes while Bradlee was editor.” That, he said, would
ap photo
Watergate editor Ben Bradlee dies at 93
In this June 11, 2012 file photo, Ben Bradlee, former executive editor
of The Washington Post, listens during an event sponsored by The
Washington Post to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Watergate
be bunk. The prizes are
overrated and suspect, he
wrote, and it’s largely reporters, not newspapers
or their editors, who deserve the credit.
Yet the Post’s Pulitzer-winning coverage of
the Watergate scandal
is an inextricable part
of Bradlee’s legacy, and
one measure of his success in transforming
the Post from a sleepy
hometown paper into a
great national one.
As managing editor
first and later as executive editor, Bradlee
engineered the Post’s
reinvention, bringing in
a cast of talented journalists and setting editorial
standards that brought
the paper new respect.
When Bradlee retired
from the Post newsroom
in 1991, then-publisher
Donald Graham said,
“Thank God the person
making decisions in the
last 26 years showed us
how to do it with verve
and with guts and with
zest for the big story and
for the little story.”
With Watergate, Bradlee himself became a big
part of a story that epitomized the glory days of
newspapers — back before websites, cable chatter
and bloggers drove the
talk of the day.
Actor Jason Robards
turned Bradlee into a box
-office hit with his Oscar
-winning portrayal of the
editor in the 1976 movie “All the President’s
Men,” which recounted
the unraveling of Watergate under the reporting
of Bob Woodward and
Carl Bernstein. Bradlee’s
marriage in 1978 to Post
star reporter Sally Quinn
(his third) added more
glamour to his image.
He was one of the few
to know the identity
early on of the celebrated Watergate source
dubbed Deep Throat, revealed publicly in 2005
to be FBI official W.
Mark Felt.
“I think he did a great
service to society,” Bradlee said after Felt’s role
finally came out.
In enduring partnership
with publisher Katharine
Graham, Bradlee took a
stand for press freedom
in 1971 by going forward
with publication of the
Pentagon Papers, a secret
study of the Vietnam War
broken by The New York
Times, against the advice
of lawyers and the entreaties of top government
officials. The ensuing legal battle went all the way
to the Supreme Court,
which upheld the right
of newspapers to publish
the leaked papers.
The Post’s decision
to publish helped pave
the way for all of the
smaller, difficult ones
that collectively produced the newspaper’s
groundbreaking coverage of Watergate.
Bradlee “set the ground rules — pushing,
pushing, pushing, not so
subtly asking everyone
to take one more step,
relentlessly
pursuing
the story in the face of
persistent accusations
against us and a concerted campaign of intimidation,” Katharine
Graham recalled in her
memoir. AP/Bloomberg
thu 23.10.2014
th Anniversary
廣告
ADVERTISEMENT
15
16
INFOTAINMENT
what’s ON
...
6th Cultural Week of China and
Portuguese-speaking Countries - Music and
Dancing Performance
Time: 7pm-11pm
Venue: Senado Square
Enquiries: (853) 8791 3368
Oktoberfest 2014
Time: 6pm-midnight
Until: October 25, 2014
Venue: Vista II, MGM Macau, Av. Dr. Sun Yat Sen,
NAPE
Admission: MOP120 (including one standard drink)
Enquiries: (853) 8802 2666
The Worm Talks # Macau -The First Solo
Exhibition of Ah Chung’s art in Macau
Time: 12pm-8pm, (Thursdays to Sundays)
Until: October 26, 2014
Venue: Macpro Gallery, 2/Fl., Centro ComercialPraia
Grande, 429, Avenida da Praia Grande, Macau
Enquiries: (853) 2833 7828 23.10.2014 thu
th Anniversary
資訊／娛樂
TV canal macau
13:30
News (RTPi) Delayed Broadcast
14:30
RTPi Live
18:15
Heavy Load (Repeated)
19:00
Montra do Lilau (Repeated)
19:30
Soap Opera
20:30
Main News, Financial & Weather Report
21:00
TDM Talk Show
21:30
Criminal Minds S7
22:10
Heavy Load -The End
23:00
TDM News
23:30
Champions League Highlights
23:45
UEFA Champions League: Monaco - Benfica (Repeated)
01:25
Main News, Financial & Weather Report (Repeated)
cinema
cineteatro
23 Oct - 29 Oct
Calendar Illustrations by Guan Huinong Time: 10am-7pm (closed on Mondays, no admission
after 6:30 pm)
Until: December 28, 2014
Venue: Macau Museum of Art, Av. Xian Xing Hai,
s/n, NAPE
Admission: MOP5 (Free on Sundays and public
holidays)
Enquiries: (853) 8791 9814
Macau Grand Prix Museum & Wine Museum
Time: 10am-8pm (Closed on Tuesdays)
Venue: Rua Luis Gonzaga Gomes, 431, basement
fury_
room 1
2.00 4.30, 7.00, 9.30 pm
Director: David Ayer
Starring: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 134min
(Tourism Activities Centre-CAT)
Admission: Free Enquiries: (853) 8798 4108 / 2833 3000
Historical Paintings of Macao in the 19th
Century
Time: 10am-7pm (Closed on Mondays, no admission
after 6:30 pm)
Until: December 31, 2014
Venue: Macau Museum of Art, Av. Xian Xing Hai,
s/n, NAPE
Admission: MOP5 (Free on Sundays and public
holidays)
Enquiries: (853) 8791 9814
Offbeat
Toys R Us pulls ‘Breaking
Bad’ dolls
Toys R Us is pulling its four collectible dolls based
on the characters of AMC’s hit series “Breaking Bad”
after taking heat from a Florida mom who launched a
petition campaign last week.
The dolls are based on the series about a high school chemistry teacher named Walter White who turns into a crystal
meth dealer and his sidekick Jesse Pinkman. The toys have
a detachable bag of cash and a bag of methamphetamines.
Toys R Us told The Associated Press late that the
dolls are being removed immediately from its website
and shelves.
The Fort Myers, Florida mom, who was identified by
news media as Susan Schrivjer, launched a petition on
change.org last week, demanding that Toys R Us immediately stop selling the dolls. The mom, who wrote
the petition under the name Susan Myers, said that
the dolls are a “dangerous deviation from their family
friendly values.”
“While the show may be compelling viewing for adults, its violent content and celebration of the drug trade
make this collection unsuitable to be sold alongside
Barbie dolls and Disney characters,” she wrote.
As of yesterday, the petition had 8,000 signatures.
alexander and the terrible, horrible, no
good, very bad day_
room 2
2.30 4.00, 5.45, 9.30 pm
Director: Miguel Arteta
Starring: Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 81min
let’s be cops_
room 2
7.30 pm
Director: Luke Greenfield
Starring: Jake Johnson, Damon Wayans Jr., Rob Riggle
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 104min
the giver_
room 3
2.15 4.00, 5.45, 9.30 pm
Director: Phillip Noyce
Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 97min
whiplash_
room 3
7.30 pm
Director: Damien Chazelle
Starring: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 106min
macau tower
23 Oct - 05 Nov
fury_
2.30, 4.30, 7.30, 9.30 pm
Director: David Ayer
Starring: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 134min
this day in history
1951 Churchill denies
‘warmonger’ claims
The Conservative leader, Winston Churchill, has wound
up his election campaign with a hard-hitting speech in
which he vigorously denied accusations of warmongering.
The former prime minister, who is bidding to return to
office after six years in opposition, was speaking in Devonport in Plymouth, on the final day of the five week
campaign.
Labour has been in power since the end of World War
II in 1945. Labour leader Clement Attlee was returned to
government in February 1950 - but his administration has
been hampered by a strong opposition and splits within
his own party.
His decision to go to the polls now in the hope of increasing his majority comes at a time of worsening oil dispute
with Persia and Egypt’s attempt to regain control of the
Suez Canal.
Labour has concentrated its attack on Mr Churchill and
the Conseratives saying their return to government would
make a third world war more likely.
“Whose finger on the trigger?” has become the slogan
for this campaign after the Daily Mirror coined the phrase
for a front-page headline.
Mr Churchill firmly rejected the charge of warmonger in
today’s speech: “This is a cruel and ungrateful accusation. It is the opposite of the truth.
“If I remain in public life at this juncture it is because,
rightly or wrongly but sincerely, I believe that I may be able
to make an important contribution to the prevention of a
third world war, and to bringing nearer that lasting peace
settlement which the masses of the people of every race
and in every land fervently desire.”
Mr Churchill said he had sought to prevent war ever
since his speech at Fulton in the United States in March
1946, in which he spoke of an “iron curtain” descending
across the continent of Europe and the need to reach
agreement through the auspices of the United Nations
Organisation.
Mr Churchill went on to attack Mr Attlee and his government’s track record.
“Nothing could be worse for our country and nothing
could be more injurious to the cause of world peace than
for Mr Attlee to be returned dependent upon a sham reconciliation between the main body of the Socialist Party
and the powerful and turbulent left-wing forces whom Mr
Bevan represents,” he said.
Mr Bevan resigned from the government in protest at
a decision to raise funds for rearmament by charging for
spectacles and dentures, which had previously been free
on the NHS - established during his period as minister
of health.
He is seen by some on the left wing of the party as a
leader in waiting.
Courtesy BBC News
In context
Winston Churchill won the election, returning to the post of
prime minister for the first time in peacetime at the age of 77.
The Conservatives took 321 seats to Labour’s 295. The Liberals had not even been able to put up a candidate in every constituency and consequently lost out to the Conservatives.
However, Labour polled the highest share of the vote, gaining 12,948,605 votes, 200,000 more than Churchill received
and higher than any of its landslide victories in 1945, 1966 or
1997.
Mr Churchill was knighted in 1953.
He served as prime minister until 1955 when he resigned due
to poor health. He returned to the backbenches until his death
in 1965.
thu 23.10.2014
th Anniversary
資訊／娛樂
Mar. 21-Apr. 19
Taurus
April 20-May 20
No problem is insurmountable to
you and your amazing personal
energy! Figure out a few creative
solutions just to get warmed up, then
wow the crowd with an improvised
reaction that looks impossible!
Let others lecture the room — you
need to marshal your resources and
avoid looking too pompous now.
You should find it easy to improve
your position if you just keep quiet
for much of the day.
Gemini
Cancer
May 21-Jun. 21
Jun. 22-Jul. 22
Don’t hold back! Your opinions are
firmly held (well, for now, anyway)
and should be well received. The
social whirl you live in may create
a bit of confusion, but it shouldn’t
last for long.
Sometimes your impulses get the
better of you — and then there are
days like today, when they make life
infinitely better for you! Some little
action you quickly decide on sets a
positive cascade in motion.
Leo
Virgo
Jul. 23-Aug. 22
Aug. 23-Sept. 22
People are really paying attention to
you today, and you can understand
why — you can even see in the mirror
how dynamic and charismatic you
are! Have fun and try to remember
the little people.
The day gets a little out of hand by
this afternoon, and you could find
yourself wishing you could just go
to bed early. Work through it all —
you’ve got some great energy coming,
and you want to be free to enjoy it!
Libra
Scorpio
Sep.23-Oct. 22
Oct. 23 - Nov. 21
You are closer to your inner
workings than usual — as if a
barrier has been temporarily lifted.
You should be able to plot out your
next few moves knowing exactly
what you want to accomplish.
Your boss — whatever that term
may mean to you — is causing you
stress today. That doesn’t mean it’s
time for a confrontation, but you
should see if you can ease back a
little in your dealings.
Sagittarius
17
The Born Loser by Chip Sansom
YOUR STARS
Aries
INFOTAINMENT
Capricorn
Nov. 22-Dec. 21
Dec. 22-Jan. 19
Try not to make a big deal out of it
when you find that your situation
has suddenly improved — maybe
quite dramatically. Your energy has
caused the universe to take notice
and upgrade you!
You’ve got problems — but that
doesn’t mean you can’t focus on
business. In fact, those are the issues
that are easiest for you to face. It still
takes work, but you can pull off a
coup!
Aquarius
Pisces
Jan. 20-Feb. 18
Feb.19-Mar. 20
Try not to worry about how
difficult the social situation is —
just make sure that you’re playing
your part and advocating for what
you think is right. Power struggles
can’t be ignored!
Your friends and colleagues are
generally pretty easygoing, but today
is not a good time to try to influence
them. No matter what, it comes
across as a lecture, so give it a rest
until tomorrow.
SUDOKU
Weather
Easy
Medium
Hard
Beijing
8
20
Harbin
1
14
haze
Tianjin
11
22
cloudy/haze
Urumqi
8
18
clear
Xi’an
11
23
cloudy
Lhasa
-1
13
cloudy
Chengdu
15
23
shower/cloudy
Chongqing
17
23
overcast
Kunming
10
23
cloudy
Nanjing
11
24
clear
Shanghai
15
23
clear
cloudy
Condition
cloudy/haze
Wuhan
11
25
Hangzhou
13
25
clear
Taipei
21
25
drizzle/overcast
Guangzhou
21
29
cloudy
Hong Kong
24
28
cloudy
-11
-4
cloudy/flurry
world
Moscow
Crossword puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com
Down: 1- Nailed obliquely; 2- Parks on a bus; 3- Start the pot; 4- One who carries a
golfer’s clubs; 5- Sicilians, e.g.; 6- Swindle; 7- Romain de Tirtoff, familiarly; 8- Elevate;
9- Powdery residue; 10- Intensified; 11Estimator’s phrase; 12- Baseball stats;
Yesterday’s solution
13- Facial feature; 19- Afternoon affairs;
21- Even ___ speak...; 25- Hackneyed;
27- Get it?; 28- Legend; 29- ___ a million;
30- U-Haul competitor; 31- Mother-in-law of
Ruth; 33- Slope; 34- Spine-tingling; 35- Fear
greatly; 38- Adhere closely; 41- Photograph;
43- First principles; 46- Cpl.’s superior; 48First place?; 51- Chow; 53- Encroachment;
55- Gravy, for one; 57- Former spouses; 58Bits of thread; 59- Res ___ loquitur; 61- Golf
club which can be numbered 1 to 9; 63- Yes
___?; 64- Gave temporarily, holy period of
40 days; 65- “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”
author; 67- Mine find; 68- Assist
Max
China
Easy+
Crosswords
Across: 1- ___ II (razor brand); 5- Bakery employee; 9- Decorate; 14- Mrs. Chaplin;
15- When said three times, a 1970 war movie; 16- ___-Croatian; 17- Cornerstone
abbr.; 18- Direct opposite; 20- Labyrinthine; 22- End for Siam; 23- Prepare to be
shot; 24- ___ soup yet?; 26- Leisure; 28- Alert; 32- Felt; 36- At all; 37- Early computer;
39- Conger catcher; 40- Places to sleep; 42- Fur scarf; 44- Be bold; 45- Property
claims; 47- Author Zola; 49- Actress Peeples; 50- Infuriate; 52- Unpublished; 54School orgs.; 56- FBI guys; 57- New Haven students; 60- Mai ___; 62- Register; 66Horseshoe crab; 69- Nabisco cookie; 70- Belgian painter James; 71- San Francisco’s
___ Tower; 72- Part of A.D.; 73- Cabinet department; 74- Wraps up; 75- Specks;
Min
Frankfurt
7
9
drizzle
Paris
10
12
drizzle
London
12
14
drizzle
New York
10
14
moderate rain
Useful telephone numbers
Emergency calls 999
Taxi (Yellow) 28 519 519
Fire department 28 572 222
Taxi (Black) 28 939 939
PJ (Open line) 993
Water Supply – Report 1990 992
PJ (Picket) 28 557 775
Telephone – Report 1000
PSP 28 573 333
Electricity – Report 28 339 922
Customs 28 559 944
Macau Daily Times 28 716 081
S. J. Hospital 28 313 731
Kiang Wu Hospital 28 371 333
Commission Against
Corruption (CCAC) 28326 300
IACM 28 387 333
Tourism 28 333 000
Airport 59 888 88
ad
18
ADVERTISEMENT
23.10.2014 thu
th Anniversary
廣告
thu 23.10.2014
th Anniversary
體育
SPORTS
19
2014 Venetian Macau
Open tee-off ceremony
Mr. Edmund Ho, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative
Conference
Ernie Els and Scott Hend
(From Left to Right) Mr. Grant Slack, Senior Vice President, IMG Golf, Mr. Kyi Hla Han, Chairman of the Asian Tour, Ernie Els, Scott Hend,
Mr. Charles Newland, Senior Vice President of Food and Beverage and Director of Paiza Operations for Venetian Macau Limited., Mr. Jose
Tavares, President of the Macau Sport Development Board, Mr. Edmund Ho, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative
Conference, Mr. Charles Lo, President of the Macau Golf Association, Mr. Vong Lao Lek, Chairman of the Administration Committee of The
Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, Zhang Lianwei and Liang Wen-chong attend the 2014 Venetian Macau Open tee-off ceremony
Zhang Lianwei and Liang Wen-chong
Champions League
Andrew Dampf, Rome
P
ep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich lineup is finally starting
to resemble his Barcelona team
that revolutionized football not
too long ago. Arjen Robben scored twice as Bayern routed Roma
7-1 on Tuesday for a club-record
away win in the Champions League, showing the German club is
once again among the favorites to
take the title.
Having taken target practice in a
6-0 rout of Werder Bremen at the
weekend, it was more of the same
from Bayern early on at the Stadio Olimpico with five goals in the
first half.
“It seemed like watching Barcelona again, with small, rapid
players running all over the place,” Roma midfielder Daniele De
Rossi said.
Robben put the 2013 champion ahead nine minutes in with
an expertly curled shot from a
tough angle, before Germany’s
World Cup hero Mario Goetze
doubled the lead in the 23rd and
Robert Lewandowski made it
ap photo
Bayern beats Roma 7-1 for record away win
Roma goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis fails to make a save during the Group E
Champions League soccer match between Roma and Bayern Munich
3-0 in the 25th.
Again taking advantage of poor
defense from Ashley Cole, Robben scored his second goal on
the half-hour and then Thomas
Mueller added a penalty in the
35th after Kostas Manolas was
whistled for a handball at the edge
of the area.
Gervinho pulled one back for
Roma in the 66th, 10 minutes after hitting the post, but then substitutes Franck Ribery and Zherdan Shaqiri added more goals for
Bayern. Bayern’s previous biggest
away win in the Champions League was a 5-0 victory at Sporting
Lisbon in the first knockout round in 2009.
Guardiola took over Bayern last
season and, although he secured
the Bundesliga title, his club lost
on 5-0 aggregate to Real Madrid in
the Champions League semifinals.
“Last season we had the legs
but not the mindset,” Guardiola
said. “We needed to decide things a split-second quicker and now
we’re doing that.”
The transfer of midfielder Xabi
Alonso from Real Madrid has
added more Spanish flavor to
Bayern. “He’s one of the most
intelligent players I’ve coached,”
Guardiola said.
The outcome matched Roma’s
heaviest defeat in the competition, a 7-1 loss at Manchester United in the 2007 quarterfinals.
“This is a fluke,” Guardiola said. “It’s not normal to win
7-1.” Bayern has nine points atop
Group E, five clear of Roma. Manchester City has two points and
CSKA Moscow one.
Earlier, City wasted a two-goal
lead in a 2-2 draw in Moscow.
“The only good news tonight
came from City and CSKA, which
allowed us to stay second in the
group,” said Roma coach Rudi
Garcia, who took responsibility
for erring in his tactics and acknowledged that his squad should
have sat back more.
“Tonight they were better than
us. We were spectators,” Garcia
added. “It shows us we have a way
to go to reach the level of the world’s top squads.”
Bayern’s win extended the
unbeaten streak for Josep Guardiola’s club to 12 matches in all
competitions, with the last loss to
Borussia Dortmund in the German Super Cup in mid-August. AP
pope praises bayern munich after roma rout
Pope Francis has welcomed
the victorious Bayern Munich
team to the Vatican after its 7-1
Champions League rout of Roma,
telling the players they “played a
wonderful game” and receiving
a signed jersey in return. CEO
Karl Heinz Rummenigge said it
was “a great honor” for the German club and announced Bayern
would donate one million euros
in proceeds from a future friendly
match to the pope for charitable
purposes. Rumminegge told Francis it would be up to him to use
the money “to help people in need
wherever they are in the world
and regardless of their faith,” the
team’s website said. The soccermad Francis has received several
visiting teams and has a collection of signed jerseys. The private
audience occurred before yesterday’s general audience.
Dominican Republic establishes
BUZZ Ebola travel ban
THE
HK Observer
Robert Carroll
At Berlin Wall,
Kerry warns
against Cold
War redux
The protests here have probably changed
the political future of Hong. While on the
one hand as we have seen by the National
People’s Congress Standing Committee
decision, a hardened stance of Beijing, on
the other hand the increasing politicization
of the next generation here. The genie is
out of the bottle but will all the levers that
Beijing is able to pull here be able to put
it back?
There will no doubt be an even greater
concentration of minds in the China Liaison
Office and in the capital to try to preempt
future moves by students and pan-democrat parties and come up with more carrots
and sticks to sway, or swat, public opinion.
Well how did we get into this mess and
where does this leave us? Government
misjudging of public sentiment saw an
emboldened half a million citizens on the
streets in 2003 over national security law,
Article 23; and later protests over national
education, seen as communist propaganda, stirred secondary school students on
the street too. In both cases the government backed down. However now we are
not dealing with a local government decision but a decision taken by the highest
legislative authority in the land, and the
last resort committee that is responsible
for over seeing matters regarding the Basic Law.
Even though journalists commonly refer
to it as a mini-constitution (mea culpa too)
the Basic Law is, in fact, as University of
Hong Kong’s Professor Danny Gittings explains clearly, in his book, “Introduction to
the Hong Kong Basic Law”, a law of the
PRC. He also explains convincingly that
not only is Hong Kong’s autonomy broad in
its scope compared to other autonomous
zones, internationally, but that on the other
hand we are highly dependent on Beijing’s
good will to see it exercised in our favor.
Gittings also points out that the Chinese
government has exercised “self-restraint
in not applying national laws. Furthermore, while Hong Kong enjoys comparatively
wide autonomy, nominally at least, compared to how devolved other examples are
worldwide, it lacks a crucial element characteristic of other genuinely autonomous
zones, namely an independent dispute
resolution body, for dealing with disagreements between the territory and the central
government, on issues of autonomy.” He
concludes therefore that “if China wants to
take away some of Hong Kong’s powers it
can do so unilaterally with no more than a
nod in the direction of the Committee for
the Basic Law”.
Given these reality checks and another;
the stiffening of attitudes in an increasingly
more powerful, internationally influential
and self-confident China, led by a very determined leader, how far can Hong Kong’s
opposition parties and the student movements, if at all, persuade the hawks in Beijing that Hong Kong needs more freedom?
It does look as though the government
is playing the waiting game, and winning;
wearing down the protestors as their numbers dwindle, despite resurgences every
time protestors are attacked by police.
However the latest police violence against
a lawmaker in Hong Kong shows how high
standards the police are expected to keep
here.
ap photo
Beginning the endgame John Kerry holds up the T-shirt he bought to the crowd gathered
outside a souvenir store near Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin
Matthew Lee, Berlin
S
urrounded by relics of the Cold War,
U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry and his German counterpart warned
yesterday against a return to the bitter divide
between east and west
over the current crisis in
Ukraine.
Under gloomy skies and
a steady rain, Kerry and
German Foreign Minister
Frank-Walter Steinmeier
visited one of the few remaining sections of the
Berlin Wall. They emphasized that the West does
not seek confrontation
with Russia and implored
Moscow to move quickly
to fulfill the terms of an
agreement to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine
between the government
and pro-Russian separatists.
Ukraine accuses Moscow
of aiding the separatists,
a charge that Moscow denies.
Ahead of next month’s
25th anniversary of the
fall of the Berlin Wall,
Kerry and Steinmeier met
German high-school students about the age that
Kerry was when he lived
in divided Berlin after
World War II while his
The Wall
had not been
built when
Kerry rode
his bicycle
into the
Soviet zone
of the city as
a 12-year-old
father served as a U.S. diplomat.
Though the Wall had not
been built when Kerry
rode his bicycle into the
Soviet zone of the city as
a 12-year-old, he recalled
the stark contrast between
east and west, visible in
the clothing and demeanor of Berliners as well as
the conditions.
“As a young child I saw
the difference, I felt the
difference,” he told reporters after he and Steinmeier met the students
and, with the wall behind
them, chatted with a woman who had escaped
East Germany by driving
her Trabant car to Hungary.
“It frightened me enough
that I turned back fairly
quickly,” Kerry said of his
bicycle ride. “It was a difference between hope and
despair, between light and
darkness. You noticed it.”
On his way to a meeting
with Chancellor Angela
Merkel, Kerry swung by
the former Checkpoint
Charlie, a crossing point
between the American
and Soviet sectors of Berlin during the Cold War.
Arriving at the chancellery, he thanked Merkel
for being at the “forefront
of diplomacy” on Ukraine
and other matters.
Germany has been leading efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the
crisis in Ukraine, while also seeking to keep
up pressure on Moscow
with economic sanctions.
Merkel has talked frequently with Russian President Vladimir Putin and
met him in Italy last week.
“Even as we celebrate the
fall of the Wall and all that
it symbolizes, it was very
clear to me today, as it is
to America, that the story
of Germany is not past,
it’s the future and what
you are doing to define
that future, leading on so
many issues of global importance,” Kerry said.
Earlier with Steinmeier,
Kerry said he hoped the
Ukraine crisis would not
spark another Cold War
and
maintained
that
the West’s tough stance
against Russian intervention in Ukraine was only
standing up for peoples’
basic freedoms.
“These freedoms are still
being threatened in too
many parts of the world
and they are even being
threatened right here in
Europe,” he said. “Russia’s aggression in Ukraine needs to end.”
“We hope that Russia,
with whom we do not
seek conflict, with whom
we would much rather be
working together to deal
with the problems of the
world ... will understand
how seriously the world
takes the efforts to cross
the lines of sovereignty
and independence of a nation.”
“We know that this
conflict is still explosive
enough to threaten the
peaceful order in Europe,”
Steinmeier said. “It is our
responsibility to prevent a
new divide in Europe opening up ever again.”
Kerry added that “none
of us want another generation growing up with
the foreboding sense of a
Cold War.” AP
Roadside
80-110
Moderate
High
Density
80-110
Residental Moderate
Area
source: dsmg
opinion
with Haiti.
There are no direct flights between the Dominican Republic and any African country.
Jamaica, Guyana, St. Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago have announced similar travel restrictions.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has already
killed more than 4,500 people, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone since it emerged 10
months ago.
Air quality
Ambient
80-110
Moderate
WORLD BRIEFS
RUSSIA The driver of the
snowplow that apparently
caused the plane carrying
the Total CEO to crash at
a Moscow airport says he
neither saw nor heard the
private jet as it sped toward
him down the runway in the
dark. The Dassault Falcon
50 clipped the snowplow
on takeoff late Monday
and crashed, bursting into
flames and killing Total SA
Chief Executive Christophe
de Margerie and the three
French crew members on
board.
USA Three teenage girls
from Colorado flew to
Europe in a possible bid to
join Islamic State militants
in Syria, and now authorities
are looking at their friends
to see if any have similar
intentions. A U.S. official
said the evidence gathered
so far made it clear that the
girls — two sisters, ages 17
and 15, and their 16-yearold friend — were headed
to Syria, though the official
said investigators were still
trying to determine what
sort of contacts they had in
that country.
UK The father of a British
photojournalist held by the
Islamic State group has
died just weeks after he
appealed from his hospital
bed for the militants to
release his son. Paul Cantlie
was recovering from throat
surgery when he recorded
a video he hoped would be
seen by those holding his
son, John, who he called
an impartial journalist who
wanted to tell the world
about Syria.
ap photo
The Dominican Republic has joined a group
of Caribbean countries in restricting travelers
from West African nations dealing with Ebola
outbreaks.
Dominican Health Minister Altagracia Guzman says the ban applies to travelers who have
been in those countries in the past 30 days. She
announced that authorities will remain vigilant
at airports, seaports and the border it shares
Station
BELGIUM The European
Union legislature has
approved the appointment
of former Luxembourg
leader Jean-Claude Juncker
as the new EU Commission
president molding policies
of the 28-nation bloc for the
next five years.
CANADA A gunman shot a
Canadian soldier standing
guard at the National
War Memorial in Ottawa
yesterday, then entered
Parliament and shots rang
out, police and witnesses
said. People fled Parliament
by scrambling down
scaffolding erected for
renovations, witnesses told
the Canadian Press news
agency. Others were in
lockdown.