1. law, govt and politics
2. government

mdt awarded in italy
laurie anderson on
art and freedom
Macau Daily Times was one of
six international publications
awarded the prize “Premio
Reporter Del Gusto 2014”
(Tasting Reporter)
“I am an artist because I want to
be free,” said acclaimed performer
Laurie Anderson, who gave a concert
in Macau last Saturday
P2
low
expectations
as china
considers
legal
reforms
P5
P10 FEATURE
MON. 20
Oct 2014
T. 24º/ 28º C
H. 60/ 90%
N.º 2173
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FOUNDER & PUBLISHER Kowie Geldenhuys
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Paulo Coutinho
“ THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ ”
WORLD BRIEFS
CHINA A bear in central
China has bitten off the arm
of a 9-year-old boy who tried
to feed it through its cage,
state media and a doctor
said yesterday. Media reports
said the attack happened
Saturday afternoon at
Pingdingshan Hebin Park in
Henan province, which has a
zoo inside. The boy managed
to push his arm through the
bear’s cage to feed it when
the bear bit him. He lost his
entire right arm, which had to
be amputated.
CHINA A court on Friday
jailed two journalists
accused of taking
bribes and smearing an
engineering company with
fabricated articles, one of
a series of recent scandals
surrounding the statecontrolled media.
The Yuelu District Court in
the central city of Changsha
sentenced Chen Yongzhou
to one year and 10 months
in jail and fined 20,000 yuan
(USD3,300) for what it said
were false reports accusing
construction equipment
manufacturer Zoomlion of
announcing phony financial
information. The co-writer of
the articles, Zhuo Zhiqiang,
was sentenced to 10 months
and fined 10,000 yuan
($1,600).
Mass moves
margins, says Tracy
I
n an exclusive interview with Macau Daily
Times, Edward Tracy, president and CEO
of Sands China, explains how the company
was able to produce such an impressive Q3
result, as announced last Thursday by parent
company Las Vegas Sands. It’s all about focusing on the Ebitda margin, and SCL’s dedication to serving the mass market, he says.
P3
INDONESIA’s defeated
presidential candidate
meets president-elect
Jokowi Widodo for the
first time since the bitterly
contested polls in July, in a
sign that political tensions in
the Southeast Asian nation
might be thawing.
More on backpage
3
days to go
Harvard-linked
hospital planning to
open medical center
in Hengqin
P8
With articles republished from
Economic data fail
to credit HK’s role
as a gateway for
F1
China
2
MACAU
TIS opens new
field, possible
public access in
future
The International School
of Macau (TIS) unveiled
its new field on Saturday,
coinciding with the school’s
Community Day where
school staff, students, and
families gathered for a day
of activities. The renovation
of the field took place
over the summer, with its
overall size increasing by 40
percent, to more than 8,000
square meters. The current
size of the field will allow
three small soccer pitches
to be placed there sideby-side. “Not only will we
have additional green space
for our school’s academic
classes, extra curricular
activities and sports teams,
but we will also be opening
up the field to members of
the Macau community,”
said Head of School Howard
Stribbell. He added that
they are in the process of
developing guidelines for
community use, and will
begin accepting reservations
in November.
HK rugby club
visits Macau
A friendly match took place
on Saturday between the
Macau U12 team and the
Sandy Bay team, Hong Kong’s
third biggest rugby club. The
40 minute game at the Macau
Stadium in Taipa and ended
in a draw. Macau Bats Rugby
president Simon Carrington
said that the match proved
a great start to the rugby
season. Despite missing two
of its strongest players, the
Macau team put in a solid
performance. Mr Carrington
revealed that the U12 team
now has nowhere suitable
to play for three weeks, as
new grass is being laid at
the usual venue. They will
therefore enter the Hong
Kong U12 league “at a big
disadvantage.” “Nevertheless,
what we lack in local
facilities, we make up for in
team spirit,” he emphasized.
20.10.2014 mon
th Anniversary
澳聞
M
ACAU Daily Times was
one of six international
publications awarded the prize “Premio Reporter Del Gusto
2014” (Tasting Reporter), along
with five Italian media outlets.
The award ceremony took
place last week at the three-starred Ristorante da Vittorio
at Brusaporto, Bergamo, and
was presided by Mr Francesco Pizzagalli, President of the
IVSI – Instituto Valorizzazione Samuli Italiano, a non-profit organization created by
“salumi” companies from the
Emiglio-Romagna Region to
promote the famous Italian
cured meat.
MDT was awarded the “Excellence in Trade Editorial
Award” for having “highlighted the market prospects of the
Italian food products in Macau
(…) and the potential interest
of Chinese entrepreneurs,” said
the organizers in a press release. Titled “Italian Trade Commission promotes salami in
town” the article was published
on November 21, 2013. Macau
Daily Times editor-in-chief,
Paulo Coutinho attended the
ceremony. The other awardees
REPORTER DEL GUSTO
Macau Daily Times
report awarded in Italy
Mr Francesco Pizzaggalli (left) presided over the Premio Reporter Del Gusto 2014
award ceremony
in the Hong Kong and Macau
category were Mark Hammons (Tasting Kitchen), Li Hui
(Phoenix TV), Grace Yan Yan
Pang (Oriental Daily) and Yin
Wa Chan (U Magazine). A Spe-
cial Prize went to British newspaper The Sun for “Excellence
in Feature Editorial”.
This was the 9th edition of
Premio Reporter Del Gusto, an initiative that started
in 2004 under the auspices
of IVSI with the support of
the Minister of Agriculture of
Italy. Dozens of journalists
and media outlets from Italy,
other European countries, the
USA, Japan and Korea were
awarded in the past. MDT is
the first Macau publication to
be distinguished by the Italian
institute.
Around 100 people from the
salumi and media industries
attended the event, including a
gala dinner masterly prepared
by Italian star-chefs Kiko Cerea
and Bobo Cerea.
Clube Militar hosts gastronomy and wine Festival
C
LUBE Militar is hosting a Festival of
Portuguese Gastronomy and Wines led
by chef José Júlio Vintém and his assistant
Francisco Pires. The festival kicked off last
Saturday and will run until October 27.
The gastronomy festival is a club tradition that was first launched in 1999, according to a press release. Over the years,
organizers have brought famous Portuguese chefs to town, namely Vítor Sobral, Joaquim Figueiredo, Marco Gomes, Manuel
Gonçalves, Fausto Airoldi, Justa Nobre
and last year’s Henrique Sá Pessoa.
José Júlio Vintém is a famous chef specializing in the gastronomy of the Alentejo region. He will be working to provide
a buffet featuring over 50 different Portuguese wines, including white, red, rosé,
and Muscat wines, as well as Ports and
sparkling varieties.
Clube Militar hopes to promote Portuguese cuisine and its traditional flavors
throughout the event. In addition, they
will provide the restaurant staff with refreshment training led by a renowned chef.
Chef José Júlio Vintém was born in Por-
talegre, and graduated in Tourism and
Hydrotherapy. He gained fame after opening a restaurant focusing on traditional
gastronomy from Alentejo in the South of
Portugal. He won the “Best Restaurant of
2007” award, launched by a wine magazine. He is an active member of the “slow
food” movement, which is being promoted
as an alternative to fast food. “His cuisine
is characterized by pure flavors, using simple techniques, where texture, aroma and
flavors are enhanced to the fullest,” Clube
Militar said in a press release. CP
Ho Iat Seng calls for progressive AL reform
T
HE Legislative Assembly
(AL) president Ho Iat Seng
said that while it is impossible to have full and immediate
universal suffrage embedded
in the legislature, he does not
oppose increasing the proportion of directly and indirectly
elected seats.
“I would not rule out the idea
that it is the best to have all
seats directly elected. However, judging from the current
situation where we have a
certain amount of appointed
seats in the AL, we cannot immediately have full universal
www.macaudailytimes.com.mo
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since January 1st, 2012 up to today.
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suffrage. (…)I do not object to
the increase in the proportion
of indirectly [and directly]
elected seats,” he said.
The Chief Executive appointed seven of the 33 seats in
the current AL. 14 were directly elected and 22 indirectly elected.
The president also commented on some lawmakers’ criticism of the AL Rules and Regulations, which prevents them
from enquiring about the same
issue more than once in a legislative session.
He
said
that
allowing
lawmakers to enquire about a
particular issue more than once
is a waste of resources. He therefore recommended AL members consider their enquiries
so that they can generate more
profound questions regarding
the issue.
“For the lawmakers, they
should discipline themselves.
You cannot raise the same issue multiple times. This is not a
good thing. This will waste a lot
of AL resources. I hope that they
can [consider an issue] from different perspectives so that, for
example, if [a lawmaker] en-
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]
Ho Iat Seng
quired about an issue and the
government failed to reply properly, they can approach [the
issue] from another perspective
and come up with a more thoughtful question,” he said. JPL
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
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ISSN 2305-4271
mon 20.10.2014
th Anniversary
澳聞
MACAU
3
Mass moves margins, says Tracy
right tools to succeed – then
you will not be able to achieve that third thing, which is
satisfying the profit objective,” he says. “We spend a lot
of time trying to define that,
and then to communicate
that down to the frontline
employees.”
This focus on the mass
market is not always understood for its intricacy, and
so Tracy takes time to define the segments within the
mass market that he asks his
Anthony Lawrance
Special to MDT
E
DWARD
Tracy,
president and CEO
of Sands China Ltd,
has just delivered
results for the third quarter (Q3) that show Macau’s
biggest and most profitable
company generating Ebitda
of USD809m over the past
three months. The result has
come as a surprise for many
analysts, as profit margins,
at 35%, held up remarkably
well amid a downturn in revenues since the previous
quarter.
To Tracy, however, there
is nothing surprising about
the result. As he explains
it, this business is all about
focus: on the model, and on
the people. Take care of the
customers in the way they expect, give your staff the tools
they need to achieve that,
and the profitability follows.
It is more technical than
that, of course, and so the
CEO elaborates. “Margin
management has two basic
components,” he explains,
“managing revenue mix and
managing expenses.”
Given the transition that
the market is going through,
Tracy says, his management
team has been making adjustments in both areas simultaneously. “We have been
able to prepare for this change, and adjust our expenses
accordingly, balancing them
against the revenues that matter most,” he says, citing the
practical example of how the
company has been moving
staff from VIP into the mass
and premium mass segments, where margins are better.
“It is harder, of course, to
identify expenses that are not
part of our permanent cost
structure and eliminate those
in order to gain greater efficiencies,” Tracy continues.
“But we started this process
around 90 days ago and have
been making good progress
as a result. So the impact is
being felt now and the margins are not deteriorating.”
What makes the company
different than others, in
being able to manage this
change? Tracy is modest, but
clear-sighted. “Our business
model is slightly different
than some of the other operators around town in that
we are focused on mass,” he
says. “We will continue to
do the things that we have
in the past, promoting entertainment, hotels, F&B, and
retail, aimed right at those
customers.”
That said, it is clear that
Tracy has had to face up to
challenges in doing this. “In
The beauty of
this business
model is that it
is so diversified,
we are able to
cater to such
a wide range
of tastes and
spending
brackets
EDWARD TRACY
order to make these kind of
transitions when the market
shifts, you have to not kid yourself about whether you are, or
are not, supplying all the things those customers want,” he
says. “So we are not doing this
without scrutiny. But we feel
that, looking five years out,
this is still where we want to
be – aiming for that rising middle class in China.
“The beauty of this business
model is that it is so diversi-
fied, we are able to cater to
such a wide range of tastes
and spending brackets. Look
at what we do with retail,
for instance – it contributes
US$2bn a year of revenue
and around US$300m of
Ebitda. This is important to
our margin mix.
“Frankly, the way we feel
about margin is that it is the
ultimate measurement of our
efficiency. The best thing we
can do as a management team
is to drive as many dollars as
possible to the Ebitda line.
Stock price and shareholder
return on capital is all based
on that, and that is what we
try to focus on.”
At this, Tracy takes a pause,
and extrapolates. “Obviously, if you are not doing the
two most important things
right first – providing your
customers with the ultimate
experiences and providing
your team members with the
teams to concentrate on.
“We like to talk about four
distinct segments,” he says.
“There is super premium
mass, which is high level
players who do not go through junkets and do not require credit. Premium mass
players, meanwhile, are above-average players who have
average daily theoreticals
above US$5,000. And then
we have the middle mass
and what we like to call the
‘mass mass’, or the grind
mass. These last two have
numbers far in excess of the
others. They are the deepest
and widest part of the revenue pyramid.
“In order to service these
people appropriately, you
need a lot of capacity and
a lot of content – all those
things we do on a daily basis
to entertain and engage our
customers: shopping, dining,
gaming, leisure, etc., all the
elements of a great integrated resort experience.
“It is important to us that
we deliver an experience
across all of these categories,
but also that we go deep into
each, and cater to customers
at every price point. We are
going to continue to do that.
When the Parisian opens up
it will be a very differentiated
product – again – and we are
looking forward to introducing a new experience to the
market.”
MDT/Macau Inc. exclusive
4
MACAU
20.10.2014 mon
th Anniversary
澳聞
Flat turns into
illegal inn twice
The proprietor of an apartment told the police that
her apartment in the third tower of Edificio Hung
On Torre in ZAPE has again been turned into an
illegal inn, despite being sealed for seven months
by the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO).
The female proprietor said that after having her
property unsealed, she commissioned a property
agent to help her to lease the apartment. She also
specifically asked the agent to enquire about the
leaser’s background before renting it out. However,
when the property owner received the leaser’s
identity document she found that it was actually
the same person who had previously used her
house as an illegal inn.
Cheong U injured in
Citizens Games
The Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture,
Cheong U, tripped when racing against
lawmakers and celebrities in a 4x100 relay
game in the 1st Citizen Games on Saturday. He
immediately got up and finished the race before
receiving medical attention at the venue. When
speaking to reporters later, he attributed the
accident to the lack of practice. “I should take the
lead and exercise more so that I will do better
next time,” he said. His left wrist and right knee
were reportedly injured. The Secretary went
to the Conde de São Januário Central Hospital
(CHCSJ) for a medical checkup later that night
before returning home.
ad
TDM FORUM
Opinions divided over
property security licensing
João Pedro Lau
A
T yesterday’s TDM Forum, government officials, industry representatives
and residents voiced conflicting opinions regarding the
licensing for security guards
working for property management companies.
The Housing Bureau (IH) acting president Ieong Kam Wa
and a number of residents believe that now is not a suitable
time to set up an accreditation
scheme for property security guards. Others, including
the Property Management
Business Association Macau
(PMBA) president Chui Ming
Man, argue that licensing is
necessary in order to implement better services for proprietors.
Currently, the local government is consulting the public
over legislation regulating the
property management business. So far, it has received
around 60 written opinions.
The consultation period ends
on November 9.
One of the ideas proposed
in the consultation document
was for every stipulated property management company
to hire at least one governmentaccredited technical supervisor. They will be responsible
for giving instructions regarding the day-to-day operation
of a property management
company. Nevertheless, the
document failed to mention
the accreditation of security
guards.
Chui Ming Man said that the
property management industry is inclined to establish a
licensing scheme for property
security guards, in order to
protect their interests.
“If it is only the technical supervisor who needs to be accredited, it is possible that the professionalism cannot be brought
to the [rank-and-file security
guards],” Mr Chui said.
IH acting president Ieong
Kam Wa responded that the
administration did not propose the licensing of property security guards because of
the relatively advanced age of
local guards. Their work, he
added, does not require highly
professional skills.
“There are two aspects that
we have to look at. First, according to a survey we have
done previously, there are
almost 5,000 people who are
in the property management
industry. Their average age is
relatively high. And they have
a relatively low professional
knowledge, while the industry
does not require them to have
very high professional skills.
[The government policy on
property security guards] is
mainly to provide assistance rather than licensing,” he
said.
Ieong Kam Wa added that
with constrained resources,
the government should focus
on regulating technical supervisors, whom he argues are
playing the most crucial role
in property management services.
Like the division between the
government and industry representatives, residents who
attended the forum were divided on the topic of property
security guard accreditation.
Pro-licensing residents were
mainly disgruntled with the
performance of the security
guards in their buildings, accusing them of sleeping through their shifts. They were
reportedly impolite towards
residents, and took other parttime jobs, such as washing
cars, during their supposed
working hours.
Those who oppose licensing
were concerned with the employment opportunities of the
elderly population, worrying
that they would be unable to
keep their jobs if accreditation
is required. They think that
it is difficult for old people to
pick up new skills in order to
meet potential licensing criteria. One of the residents also
proposed that, any future licensing scheme for property
security staff should be divided into different levels.
Ieong Kam Wa later spoke
to the media on the sidelines.
The IH acting president believes that the legislation on
property management regulations can be handed to the
Legislative Assembly in 2016.
mon 20.10.2014
th Anniversary
澳聞
MACAU
5
LAURIE ANDERSON IN MACAU
Giving people a sense of freedom
Catarina Pinto
asked about her peculiar voice,
she said: “most of my brothers
and sisters sound most like
me. I use filters (…) changing
the voice is thrilling to me, [it’s
like] you become a different
person (...)”
She said her life improved significantly five years ago, after
she decided not to ever read or
hear anything about her work.
“And I haven’t. I have no idea
what people say. I just realized it
never really helped me. If it was
a good review I would feel I’d
need to do well in the next one
(…) it was always discouraging
no matter what,” she recalled.
Performing in Macau for the
first time, her first impressions
of the city were mostly about
Macau’s buildings and narrow
streets. While remarking that
as a visitor, she often has little
time to see attractions, Laurie
Anderson was impressed by the
imaginative shapes of Macau’s
buildings.
“The very first thing you see is
the incredible shapes of the buildings, it’s a museum of skyscrapers.”
Laurie Anderson, widow of recently deceased musician Lou
Reed, performed on Saturday
at Mount Fortress, under the lighting design of Brian Scott - a
show included in Macau’s 28th
International Music Festival
program.
A
MERICAN
performing artist Laurie Anderson hopes that her
art will give people a
sense of freedom. “I am an artist because I want to be free,”
she said in an open discussion
held a day ahead of her show
last Saturday. In “The Language
of the Future,” her performance
in Macau’s 28th International
Music Festival, the artist drew
on the idea of the impact of time
and memory on reality.
“It’s a work about how to describe time (…) stories about
time, perception and memory.
The future, not as science fiction, but as the future tense of
the language, [about] our expectations. Expectations and
regrets, and the flaws of history, are some of the themes,”
Anderson told reporters after
the open discussion.
She likened it to “a collection
of stories.” It is a show in which she’s the DJ, and where a
lot of sounds come out, almost
like a film soundtrack, she said,
with occasional improvisations:
“very cinematic” and “quite
wordy,” with a lot of subtitles.
“I really enjoyed creating these
images with words,” she said.
The Guardian describes Anderson, 67, as a “performer,
composer, artist and all-round
superstar of New York’s downtown avant-garde.”
As an artist, she has always
remained faithful to the experimental camp, sometimes spending up to years creating multimedia performances, featuring
songs about themes as varied as
democracy, nuclear weapons,
or even a simple post office.
But where did this interest in
electronics, for instance, first
arise? Anderson lived in a Manhattan street, she recalled,
that was filled with old electronics. She loved to look through
I am an artist
because I want
to be free
LAURIE ANDERSON
all the stuff and see how she
could make things work. “You
do a lot of things because you’re
close to that stuff,” she recognized. Anderson says she loves
doing physical things, and thin-
gs with her hands. “I like electronics because it was available, it’s fast and energetic.” Her
attraction to electronics was all
about speed.
Anderson was born in the
American Midwest in 1947 and
moved to New York in the late
1960s. She’s known for incorporating multimedia in her
art. She plays the violin and
the keyboards. She sings as
well, always experimenting and
creating different voices. In the
open discussion last Friday,
supporting occupy central
ALTHOUGH ARTIST Laurie Anderson says that back in
the United States, recent Ebola
cases have eclipsed the ongoing incidents in Hong Kong, she
confirmed ahead of her show last
Friday her awareness of the movement and supports Hong Kong’s
call for democracy. “Anytime
students are questioning things,
and demanding their freedom to
know things, it’s a great and won-
derful situation,” she emphasised.
Recalling that she was also once
a student radical, the artist said
she appreciated the desire among
youths to challenge existing political conditions and to engage politically. According to the Guardian,
she supported the Occupy Wall
Street movement against social
and economic inequality back in
2011 and credited it with giving
her work a new impetus.
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6
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20.10.2014 mon
th Anniversary
廣告
mon 20.10.2014
th Anniversary
澳聞
RENATO MARQUES
DSAT: No final decision yet
on yellow taxis
Catarina Pinto
M
ACAU’S Transport
Bureau
(DSAT) has not
yet revealed if it
will renew licenses granted
to Vang Iek Radio Taxis, the
company currently operating
under the more commonly
known name of “Yellow Taxis.” In a reply via email to
the Times, DSAT said it is
currently in close talks with
“Vang Iek” to find ways to improve service quality.
The 100 licenses for special
taxis are due to expire on November 6. “The government
understands there is a public
demand for radio taxis which provide service solely to
call-in clients. Therefore, it
is carrying out a final assess-
ment about the operation and
public demand for this type of
taxi,” DSAT said.
Stressing that the Macau
government is handling the
matter “in a practical and realistic manner,” DSAT added
that it has not yet reached a
final decision on whether to
renew Vang Iek’s licenses or
not. “The government will try
its best to give an explanation
of the situation in the shortest
possible time,” it stated.
DSAT recalled that 200 new
black taxi licenses, which will
be in operation by the end of
this year, “will work as a supplement” for the existing taxi
service.
Furthermore, the Transport
Bureau said it is still analyzing
opinions, which were collected through a public consultation on the revision of current
legislation regulating taxi services.
The revision of the law, they
said, will adjust and define the
policies behind special taxi
licenses, simultaneously improving their licensing scheme in order to better respond
to public demand.
Last February, the government extended Vang Iek’s
license for nine more months, stipulating specific rules and new conditions. These included the fact that the
company could only run 40
taxis operating normally,
and that they could only
take passengers within Macau’s streets. However, sixty
percent of these taxis would
have to operate on an oncall basis, meaning that they
are not allowed to take passengers who attempt to hail
them.
Citizens have nonetheless
complained of difficulties in
requesting a yellow taxi via
their call center.
Global Tourism Forum kicks off on Oct 27
M
ACAU will once again host the
Global Tourism Economy Forum
(GTEF) this year, which will take place
between October 27 and 29 at The Venetian. This year, around 1,000 representatives from different countries will
attend the event.
The theme of GTEF 2014 is “Maritime
Silk Road – From Macau We Begin.” In a
press conference on Friday, the Forum’s
organizing committee revealed the agenda and the guest list.
“The aim of this Forum is to bring
experts from other countries to Macau, so they can all be here with us
and analyze the global tourism issue,
as well as how Macau can develop in
that area. Also, because Macau’s infrastructure has improved over the
last few years, we can raise the quality
of our tourism sector,” said Pansy Ho,
vice chairperson and secretary-general of GTEF, during the press conference.
Macau Government Tourist Office
(MGTO) director Helena de Senna Fernandes also pointed out the importance
of tourism to Macau’s economic development. “Of course we’ve dealt with several challenges and we hope that Macau,
as a platform, can participate in even
more international meetings so that we
[are] well prepared and have a vision,”
she said.
During the Forum this year, the first
annual report on tourism trends in
Asia will also be released. It is also the
first time that countries and cities like
Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Dubai, United Emirates, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and
Greece will be represented.
Pansy Ho: MGM considering
non-gaming projects
W
Pansy Ho
HEN asked about the recent downturn in
gaming revenue, Pansy Ho, co-chairperson
of MGM China, commented on the sidelines of the
GTEF press conference that the local gaming industry is stabilizing, allowing casino operators to make
predictions regarding future development.
She stated that she was “not concerned adversely”
about the recent gaming revenue results. Instead,
she believes that it is a “good moment” for long termbusiness planning. She also believes that gaming
concessionaires will pay more attention to developing non-gaming projects and attractions in future.
MACAU
7
One dead and four
injured in Delta
Bridge accident
An industrial accident took place
at a construction site for the Hong
Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (Delta
Bridge) in Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong.
It led to the death of a worker and
four injuries. The accident happened
in the early hours of yesterday
morning. A number of Hong Kong
media organisations reported that
five workers at a 15-meter high pier
were operating a crane machine
to lift construction materials. The
pier collapsed and two workers
fell to the ground. One of them, a
43-year-old, died after being rushed
to hospital. Among the four injured,
three of them are still in hospital,
with one in critical condition. They
mainly suffered injuries to their feet,
backs, and waists. After preliminary
investigations, the authorities did not
find the incident suspicious.
Asian Paralympics
open in Incheon
The South Korean city of Incheon
has again received athletes from
across Asia for the 2014 Asian
Paralympic Games, following the
finishing of the 2014 Asian Games.
The opening ceremony, which will
run from October 18 to 25, took place
on Saturday night in the Munhak
Stadium. Around 2,500 athletes will
compete in 23 sports throughout the
seven-day event. Athletes from Macau
yesterday faced their opponents
in badminton, swimming, table
tennis, track and field, boccia, and
wheelchair fencing.
Slump in takings
from VIP baccarat
Revenue from ‘VIP’ gambling in
Macau’s casinos in the third quarter
of the year was down 28 percent on
the first quarter, resulting in a drop
in their overall revenues between
the two periods. Official figures
on the website of the gambling
inspectorate show that in the third
quarter the casinos had 46.771
billion patacas in revenue from VIP
baccarat - card games on tables
accessible only to selected customers
- against 65.062 billion patacas in
the first quarter. Baccarat on openaccess tables, by comparison, was
down just 2.65% in the third quarter
compared to the first, at 27,736
billion patacas. Overall revenue in
the territory’s casinos in the third
quarter - excluding betting on
football, basketball, horse-racing
and Chinese lotteries - was 82.855
billion patacas, down 19% from
102.199 billion patacas in the first
quarter.
8
BUSINESS
20.10.2014 mon
th Anniversary
分析
Harvard-linked hospital
planning to open medical
center in Hengqin
Don’t bet against
LVMH in China
slowdown,
chairman
Arnault says
The building,
which has a
working name
of MGH Hospital
China, would
be located in a
‘special economic
development
zone’ on the
island of Hengqin
L
neral said in the letter.
“When the opportunity arose to
explore a relationship with Chinese partners to jointly create a tertiary medical center in the rapidly
growing Pearl River Delta region,
where the cities of Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou are located, we
felt it would be appropriate to look
into the possibility more deeply,”
the hospital executives said in the
letter posted Friday.
Massachusetts General would operate the hospital with Guangdong
Provincial Hospital of Traditional
Chinese Medicine, a local health-care provider. The building, which has
a working name of MGH Hospital
China, would be located in a “special economic development zone”
on Hengqin island. The center would provide clinical care and support
research and medical training programs.
“These discussions are preliminary, and no final decision is expected until next summer at the
earliest,” the executives said in the
letter.
Massachusetts General officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Speculation that a Harvard-linked
hospital has been preparing to open
a branch in the country has swirled
since December, when real estate
billionaire Hui Ka Yan’s Evergrande
Real Estate Group Ltd. said it had
signed an agreement with a Harvard
hospital to build in China. Officials
at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
in Boston said in February that they
were considering such an agreement, and later dropped the idea.
A press release about the Massachusetts General plan was distributed in China last week and has led to
coverage in the media there, according to the letter. Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General
are both members of Partners HealthCare system in Boston, which is
separate from Harvard with its own
board of directors. Bloomberg
VMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton
SA, the world’s largest luxury-goods
maker, is confident it can adapt to deteriorating market conditions, particularly
in China, according to billionaire Chairman Bernard Arnault.
“The group has always been at its best
economically during tough times,” Arnault said yesterday in an interview with
Bloomberg Television at a preview of the
new Fondation Louis Vuitton contemporary art museum in Paris. “We are ready.”
LVMH last week reported slowing growth in Asia as Chinese shoppers curbed
spending on Vuitton handbags and Hennessy cognac. Fewer tourists are shopping
in Hong Kong because of pro-democracy
protests, while a government crackdown
on lavish spending has weakened consumption in China, leading Bain & Co.
to predict global sales of personal luxury
goods will rise this year at the slowest
pace since 2009.
“We have to adapt” to the slowdown in
Asia, Arnault said. “Our goal is to be number one in 20 years from now, as we are
today. So we have time.”
LVMH’s “economic success is based on
creativity,” Arnault said. “Since the beginning, I thought it was important to
give back to the world, to the public, to
the customers, to the shareholders, to the
employees of the group, part of what they
brought to us.” Bloomberg
BLOOMBERG
M
ASSACHUSETTS
General Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, has
agreed with potential partners in China to explore a joint venture to build
and run a hospital in the country.
The Boston hospital has been engaged in talks with Chinese healthcare groups and investors for the
past year and signed an agreement
last week to continue “the planning
and due diligence necessary to determine whether to commit to this
effort,” according to an internal letter obtained by Bloomberg News.
U.S. hospitals and medical schools
have begun eyeing China as its economy has developed and demand
for health care increases. Government reforms have opened the
country to international trade and
privatization, and China is making
“significant investments” in the
health industry, Massachusetts Ge-
BLOOMBERG
Caroline Connan and Andrew Roberts
John Lauerman
A shopper enters a Louis Vuitton in Hong Kong
corporate bits
field primed for venetian
macau open this week
The Venetian Macau Open will
boast one of its strongest ever
fields with seven Asian Tour Order of Merit champions, led by
reigning number one Kiradech
Aphibarnrat, and 18 of the top20 ranked players headlining
the event alongside marquee
names Ernie Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez this week.
Australian big-hitter Scott
Hend will defend his crown at
the USD900,000 full-field Asian
Tour tournament at the Macau
Golf and Country Club from October 23 to 26 which will include
past champions American Jason Knutzon, Chinese Taipei’s
Chan Yih-shin and Australian
David Gleeson.
Current Merit leader David
Lipsky of the United States
hopes to cement his position
ahead of second-ranked Anirban Lahiri of India and Filipino
veteran Antonio Lascuna.
Thai great Thongchai Jaidee,
the only man to win three Order
of Merit crowns, will be one of
the favorites to win the Venetian
Macau Open following another
superb season highlighted by a
victory at the Nordea Masters in
Sweden.
k-pop girl group 2ne1 plays to packed
venetian arena
South Korean girl group 2NE1
thrilled fans at The Venetian
Macao’s Cotai Arena Friday for
their 2014 2NE1 World Tour “All
or Nothing” in Macau.
Made up of CL, Dara, Bom
and Minzy, the “Queens of
K-pop” started the show with
“Crush” setting the full house of
fans on a tremendous spiral of
excitement with their dynamic
performance and vibrant costumes. They also impressed
audiences later in the concert
with their other hit tunes, such
as “Fire” and “Gotta Be You.”
Three of the members also
gave unique solo performances, with the youngest member
Minzy doing a short solo dance,
CL performed her two specially
rearranged solo hits “The Baddest Female” and “MTBD,” and
Dara impressed with her guitar
skill.
cem continues to offer tca discount for
tariff group a customers
To fulfill its corporate social responsibility pledge, CEM announced that it will continue to offer TCA
discounts for Tariff Group A customers (mainly residential customers
and small and medium enterprises
supplied with low voltage, covering
more than 99% of the total number
of customers). With support from
the Macau SAR Government, the
4th quarter TCA for Tariff Group A
will be 37 cents per kWh instead of
the standard price of 45 cents per
kWh, meaning that a total of 8 cents will be subsidized.
Likewise, the TCA for Tariff
Groups B, C and D will be adjusted
to 45 cents per kWh in the 4th quarter in accordance with the contractual calculated value, down 1 cent
per kWh.
mon 20.10.2014
th Anniversary
廣告
ADVERTISEMENT
9
CHINA
th Anniversary
中國
AP PHOTO
10
20.10.2014 mon
Chinese paramilitary policemen march across Tiananmen Gate in Beijing
Low expectations as Beijing
considers legal reforms Didi Tang, Beijing
T
HE most important meeting of the year for the 205
members of China’s ruling
Communist Party’s Central
Committee, beginning today,
will focus on how to rule the
country in accordance with
law.
That has fed hopes that the
party might move to respect
the letter and spirit of the
constitution, but some legal
experts and political analysts
say the country’s leaders are
intent on expanding power,
not limiting it.
There may be some efforts
at the four-day plenum to discourage rampant corruption
in low-level courts, they say,
but the key goal will be to build a legal system that protects
and strengthens the party’s
political dominance.
“There is absolutely zero
chance that the plenum session will see support for constitutional reform that imposes
meaningful checks on party
power,” said Carl Minzner, a
law professor and expert on
the Chinese legal system at
Fordham Law School in New
York.
As usual, this year’s plenary
session will be held in a conclave in Beijing, and its decisions, expected to be announced after the conclusion, set
the broad policy framework
for the upcoming year. It’s not
clear if the meeting will discuss
the protests in Hong Kong,
where pro-democracy students have occupied key streets
for three weeks to demand
that Beijing change its decision to screen candidates for
first open elections in the semiautonomous city in 2017.
Party-controlled media are
already gearing up to tout
great legal progress to come,
but some observers expect the
party to continue something it
has done since Xi Jinping took
power nearly two years ago:
Step up efforts to suppress criticism and dissent.
There is
absolutely zero
chance that
the plenum
session will
see support for
constitutional
reform that
imposes
meaningful
checks on
party power
CARL MINZNER
LAW PROFESSOR AND CHINESE
LEGAL SYSTEM EXPERT, FORDHAM
LAW SCHOOL, NEW YORK
“The developments over the
past year under Xi’s leadership have signaled deep disregard for the law as a tool
for resolving grievances in an
impartial manner,” said Maya
Wang, researcher with Human
Rights Watch. “The detentions
and sham trials of activists ...
show just how China’s legal
system has remained an instrument of the party’s power.”
Yet, the party will seek changes to bring some fairness to
the local level, where unrest
stemming from lack of justice
has flared up into violence.
Last week, a land dispute in
a southwestern town left two
villagers and six construction
workers dead after villagers
took up farm tools to fight
what they saw as unfair seizure of their lands for a government-backed commercial project. The villagers told state
media they have no legal venue in which to seek redress.
In hopes of improving justice
at the local level, the plenary
meeting is expected to give
provincial courts supervisory
powers over their county-level
peers in the areas of funding
and appointments, removing
the lower courts from the influence of local authorities.
Other changes may include
vetting of judges to ensure
they are professionally qualified and making more verdicts
available to the public to hold
judges accountable for their
rulings.
Legal scholar Xie Youping at
Fudan University said those
incremental changes would be
moves in the right direction.
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” he
said.
Yet China’s courts reside firmly under the party’s control
and Communist leaders have
repeatedly ruled out adopting
the Western notions of an independent judiciary and that
all must conform to law.
Contrary to the principles of
the rule of law, Chinese law
has been molded to the party’s
will, dissident legal scholar
Zhang Xuezhong said.
The rhetoric for rule of law
“is only a propaganda slogan
that will not be seriously dealt
with by the party,” Zhang said.
Rule of law is “incompatible
with an authoritarian regime,”
he said.
Even if the party should pledge to operate within the law,
it could merely be paying the
lip service, said Willy Lam, a
political analyst at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong.
China’s Constitution says
no group should be above the
law and guarantees rights of
free speech and assembly, yet
in reality, the party has ruled
with legal impunity and, people are routinely detained over
political speech.
To help gradually build up
the authority of the constitution, some legal scholars
have proposed to establish a
committee to arbitrate on the
constitutionality of laws and
regulations, although others
warn that the court could
still remain within the party’s
grips.
Still, some scholars are hoping for a declaration, even if
it is just a slogan, to serve as
a cover to argue for deeper reforms.
The upcoming plenary needs
to make a statement that “our
party is not a party that opposes constitutional rule,” said
former official Wu Jiaxiang,
adding that the constitution is
the supreme law.
Party propaganda appears
to run counter to constitutional rule. Last year, a string of
editorials appeared in state
media, warning that constitutional rule would subvert the
party’s rule. In recent weeks,
party theoreticians have argued that rule of law should
not replace China’s current
political and social system
with the party at its apex.
But the pervasive corruption
that erodes public trust and
threatens party rule is driving
the need for further legal reform, said Cheng Li, director
of the John L. Thornton China
Center at the Brookings Institute, a Washington-based
think tank.
Ad-hoc anti-graft campaigns
that have brought down prominent politicians are only
treating the symptoms without tackling the root causes,
Li said. “Ultimately it is the
legal system that can prevent
this kind of outrageous corruption.”
Putting the party under the
constitution would be a “very
important change in ideology that will pave the way for
many changes to come,” Li
said. AP
mon 20.10.2014
th Anniversary
中國
HONG KONG
AP PHOTO
Protest violence continues
amid plan for talks
A pro-democracy protester carries a banner that reads: “bad police” down an occupied section of the Mong Kok district in Hong Kong
Fion Li and Chong Pooi Koon
H
ONG Kong officials
and pro-democracy
protesters agreed
to start talks this
week, while police and demonstrators continue to face
off in Mong Kok after three
days of clashes that left officers and students injured.
Discussions will begin Tuesday, Chief Secretary Carrie
Lam, the city’s No. 2 official,
said Saturday, a day after police clashed with about 9,000
demonstrators following the
clearing of barricades by authorities. The Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of
the groups leading the protests, said it will participate in
the dialogue.
Students are demanding China reverse its decision that
candidates for the city’s leadership election in 2017 must
be vetted by a committee. The
rule triggered the protests,
which swelled to as many as
200,000 people at their peak,
according to organizers. Chief
Executive Leung Chun-ying
has said Beijing’s decision
isn’t negotiable. Hong Kong’s
finance and health chiefs yesterday called on the protesters
to withdraw while the talks
take place.
“At this moment, the movement’s founders, students in
the movement and citizens
who support it should put their
passions down, calmly assess
the direction of the movement
as it continues,” Financial Secretary John Tsang wrote in
his blog. “Withdrawal isn’t an
easy decision, which warrants
a great deal of courage. But I
still believe you can have the
bravery to make the right choice at the key moments.”
Thirteen
protesters
were hurt in
the clashes
in Mong Kok
yesterday,
seven with
head injuries
Clashes between police and
demonstrators,
and
with
groups who oppose the Occupy
movement, have led to arrests
and injuries as the protests
drag into their fourth week
and tempers get short. While
demonstrations in Mong Kok
were peaceful Saturday evening and jewelry shops on a
main thoroughfare were open,
skirmishes erupted just after
midnight and police used batons to push back protesters.
On Oct. 17, police used batons, shields and pepper spray
as they sought to reclaim roads
filled with a crowd they estimated at 9,000. Chui Chun-tak,
chief superintendent of the Police Public Relations Branch,
told reporters Oct. 17 that 38
officers had been injured since
the demonstrations started. He
said five were hurt in yesterday’s early morning skirmishes.
Thirteen protesters were
hurt in the clashes in Mong
Kok yesterday, seven with
head injuries, RTHK reported
citing Au Yiu Kai, a volunteer
who leads the Occupy Central
movement’s medical team.
More than 200 people have
been hospitalized over the
past three weeks of protests,
Secretary for Food and Health
Ko Wing-man said on a Cable TV live broadcast Saturday.
Yesterday he urged the demonstrators to refrain from
violence.
“As the government has already made arrangements to
have dialogue with the students in the hope of resolving the
situation, I would appeal here
again to the protesters that it
would be counter-productive
to resort to violence again at
this particular time point,” Ko
said. “I am in particular worried about the casualties that
may result.”
Hong Kong earlier canceled
talks that had been scheduled
to begin Oct. 10, after leaders
of the movement called supporters back to the streets,
Lam said at the time.
Leung said Thursday the police will continue actions to
end the blockades that still
disrupt transport and commerce in the one of the world’s
biggest financial centers.
“Dialogue and clearing protesters are two different issues,” he said at the time. “We
won’t stop clearing protesters
because we are having dialogue. We won’t stop having dialogue because we are clearing
the sites.”
Financial Secretary Tsang
wrote on his blog that the
protests’ impact on the Hong
Kong’s economy will mostly
be reflected in the medium- to
long-term, including the city’s
international reputation.
“Even if it is just about foreigners’ impression of Hong
Kong, once changes occur, it’s
going to be very hard to reverse that,” he wrote. Preliminary data show the retail and
restaurant sectors have been
affected the most, and creditcard expenditures have dropped significantly since the
protests began.
The Standing Committee of
China’s legislature ruled in August that the candidates for Hong
Kong’s 2017 election would have
to be screened by a 1,200-member nominating committee. Prodemocracy activists say the mechanism will guarantee a leader
loyal to the government in Beijing. Bloomberg
CHINA
11
Mainland to
broaden two
child policy in
2 years
All Chinese couples will be
allowed to have a second child
in two years, said a researcher
who advises the government
on birth control policies. “We
will fully relax the policy” in
two years after an experiment
allowing some couples to have
a second baby, Cai Fang, a
vice director of the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences,
the government’s research
arm, said in a brief interview
Saturday after a speech in
Beijing. “People wish to choose
the number of children they
want to have, and they should
be given the choice, at least
for two children.” Chinese
President Xi Jinping relaxed
China’s family-planning policy
last year by allowing couples
to have two children if either
parent is an only child. The
change failed to deliver a baby
boom in the world’s most
populous country - less than
3 percent of the 11 million
Chinese couples eligible for
another child applied for
permission in the first six
months, according to data
from the National Health &
Family Planning Commission.
Censors shut
down Tencent
website in
Shaanxi
Censors in China have shut
down a provincial website
of Tencent Holdings Ltd.,
owned by the country’s thirdrichest man, according to
a government notice. The
website (xian.qq.com) will
be closed for seven days for
“lack of control on contents”
and “permitting the spread
of vicious and harmful
information,” according to a
notice by the Shaanxi Internet
Information Office on the local
government’s news portal. An
official at the office confirmed
the ban and declined to
provide further details. Calls
to Tencent Holdings head
office in Shenzhen and its
local website in Xi’an went
unanswered yesterday. The
website, known as Daqin,
provides local news and
information to 15 million
users in the northern province
of Shaanxi. The closure of
Daqin was part of a campaign
by the Shaanxi Internet
Information Office in “cleaning
up cyberspace and protecting
legal rights of citizens,”
targeting “terrorism,”
“political rumors” as well as
“fake journalists,” according to
the notice. China has blocked
foreign Internet companies
including Google, Twitter
and Facebook. Authorities
have stepped up a crackdown
on Internet content since Xi
Jinping assumed office in
2012.
12
ADVERTISEMENT
20.10.2014 mon
th Anniversary
廣告
mon 20.10.2014
th Anniversary
亞太版
ASIA-PACIFIC
13
SOUTH KOREA
Hyung-Jin Kim, Seoul
T
ROOPS from the rival Koreas exchanged gunfire yesterday
along their heavily
fortified border in the second
such shooting in less than 10
days, South Korean officials
said. There were no reports of
injuries or property damage,
but the 10 minutes of shooting
highlighted rising tensions between the divided countries.
The Koreas’ first exchange of
gunfire came after North Korea opened fire at balloons
carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets that were floating across
the border from the South.
Yesterday’s shootout began
after North Korea sent soldiers close to the border line.
The move was an attempt by
the North to increase worries
in the South about what might
happen if leafleting continues,
analysts say.
South Korean activist groups,
mostly made up of North Korean defectors, have been
staunch in their vows to continue sending the leaflets, which Pyongyang considers propaganda warfare; one group
says it will float about 50,000
on Saturday. North Korea has
warned it will take unspecified
stronger measures if leafleting
AP PHOTO
2 Koreas exchange gunfire along border
South Korean army soldiers stand guard at a military check point at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom
continues.
Generals from the sides met
at a border village last week
in their first military talks in
more than three years to discuss how to ease the recent
spike in tensions, but the mee-
ting ended with no agreement
and no prospects to meet
again.
Yesterday, South Korean soldiers broadcast warnings and
fired warning shots at about
10 North Korean soldiers who
were approaching the military demarcation line inside
the 4-kilometer-wide Demilitarized Zone that bisects the
Korean Peninsula, according
to a statement from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Two shots believed to have
been fired by North Korean
soldiers were found at a South
Korean guard post. South Korean soldiers fired toward the
North, the statement said.
South Korean defense officials said the North Korean
soldiers turned back after the
shooting.
North Korea opened fire on
Oct. 10 after activists floated
propaganda balloons across the
border, following through on a
previous threat to attack. There were no reports of casualties
from that incident either.
North Korea has repeatedly
demanded South Korea ban
activists from sending leaflets,
which often urge North Korean citizens to rise up against
leader Kim Jong Un. South Korea has refused, saying
activists are exercising freedom of speech.
Analyst Cheong Seong-chang
at the private Sejong Institute think tank said yesterday’s
gunfire exchange showed
North Korea is intentionally
escalating military tension to
spread fear about possible casualties should leafleting continue. He said North Korea is
expected to launch more provocations as long as South Korea doesn’t change its position
on leafleting. AP
Kim Tong-Hyung, Seoul A
South Korean man
involved in planning
an outdoor pop concert
where 16 people were killed after falling through
a ventilation grate was
found dead Saturday in
an apparent suicide, officials said, as doctors
treated eight others facing life-threatening injuries from the disaster.
The man, 37, an employee of the Gyeonggi
Institute of Science and
Technology Promotion,
was found dead at around 7 a.m. in Seongnam,
the city south of Seoul
where Friday’s accident occurred, said city
spokesman Kim Namjun.
The site of his death
was not far from where 16 people watching
a performance by 4Minute, a girls band that
is popular across Asia,
were killed when the
ventilation grate they
AP PHOTO
S. Korea concert planner found dead after 16 die
Members of the South Korea Crime Scene Investigation team investigate a collapsed ventilation structure
in Seongnam
were standing on collapsed. Eleven other people
were seriously injured.
It was believed that
the man, who was questioned by police Friday
night over the accident,
leaped from the top of a
10-story building, police
inspector Park Jeong-ju
said.
Gyeonggi Institute of
Science and Technology Promotion was one
of the sponsors of the
concert, which was organized by the news site
Edaily and was part of a
local festival. About 700
people had gathered to
watch the concert, which
was abruptly halted after
the accident happened.
In a televised briefing
on Saturday, Kim said
there was a possibility
that the death toll from
the accident could rise.
Of the 11 people treated
at hospitals, eight were
dealing with life-threatening injuries to the
abdomens or lungs, he
said.
Most of those who were
killed were men in their
30s and 40s, while five
were women in their 20s
and 30s, fire officials
said.
Photos of the accident
scene showed a deep
concrete shaft under the
broken grate. Kim said
it was believed that the
grate collapsed under
the weight of the people.
A video recorded by
someone at the concert
that was shown on the
YTN television network
showed the band continuing to dance for a while in front of a crowd that
appeared to be unaware
of the accident.
Dozens of people were
shown standing next to
the ventilation grate, gazing into the dark gaping
hole where people had
been standing to watch
the performance. YTN
said the ventilation grate was about 3 to 4 meters wide. Photos apparently taken at the scene
showed that the ventilation grate reached to the
shoulders of many passers-by.
The collapse came as
South Korea is still struggling with the aftermath of a ferry disaster in
April that left more than
300 people dead or missing.
For a time, the sinking
jolted South Korea into
thinking about safety
issues that had been almost universally overlooked as the country
rose from poverty and
war to an Asian power.
Analysts say many safety problems in the
country stem from little
regulation, light punishment for violators and
wide ignorance about
safety in general — and a
tendency to value economic advancement over
all else. AP
14
ADVERTISEMENT
20.10.2014 mon
th Anniversary
廣告
mon 20.10.2014
th Anniversary
分析
A KURDISH APPEAL
Despite the barrage of airstrikes, the U.S. so far has been
unable to help Kurdish defenders break the siege. The U.S.
and its allies have said that airstrikes alone will not be enough
to beat back the extremists.
That requires ground troops,
both in Syria and Iraq.
Since President Barack Oba-
Kobani key to US strategy
blocking Turkish Kurds from
joining the fight in Kobani. And
neither Turkey nor the Syrian
Kurds are enthusiastic about
joining ranks if Turkey sends
army troops to Kobani.
Further complicating the issue, the U.S. said it has begun
talking directly to the Kurdish
fighters’ political wing in Kobani — a diplomatic move that
could stretch tensions with
Turkey even farther.
A Turkish government official
on Friday said Ankara does not
oppose action that is intended
to weaken IS.
“Turkey is part of the coalition against ISIL,” said the official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was not
authorized to make public statements.
AP PHOTO
D
15
ISLAMIC STATE OFFENSIVE
Lara Jakes, National
Security Writer, Washington
USTY and remote,
the Syrian city of Kobani has become an
unlikely spoil in the
war against Islamic State militants — and far more of a strategic prize than the United States wants to admit.
Perched on Turkey’s border,
the city of about 60,000 has
been besieged for weeks by IS
fighters. Kobani is now a ghost
town: the U.N. estimates that
fewer than 700 of its residents
remain as its people flee to safety in Turkey.
The Obama administration
has declared Kobani a humanitarian disaster, but not a factor
in the overall strategy to defeat
the Islamic State group.
“Kobani does not define the
strategy of the coalition with
respect to Daesh,” Secretary of
State John Kerry told reporters
in Cairo earlier this week, using
an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. “Kobani is one
community, and it’s a tragedy
what is happening there, and
we don’t diminish that.” But,
Kerry said, the primary U.S.
military focus is in neighboring
Iraq.
But last week, the U.S. dramatically upped its air power
strikes against IS in and around Kobani, including 59 strikes
over the last four days alone, as
of Friday. Several hundred IS
fighters were killed, the Pentagon said.
Now, the U.S. cannot afford to
lose Kobani, said Robert Ford,
the former U.S. ambassador
to Syria. That means the city’s
fate is tied, in part at least, to
the success of the U.S.-led strategy against the Islamic State.
“The most important thing
about Kobani now is that if
it falls to the Islamic State, it
would be seen as a defeat for
the Americans, and thus would
touch on the credibility of the
American policy to contain and
degrade the Islamic State,” said
Ford, now at the Middle East
Institute in Washington.
“We have made a real effort to
help the defenders in Kobani by
targeting various Islamic State
assets,” he said. “And if it falls
nonetheless, then it makes it
looks like the U.S. military couldn’t contain that, and that’s how
it would be seen in the region.”
Said Navy Rear Adm. John
Kirby, the Pentagon’s spokesman: “We never said Kobani
didn’t matter.”
Here is a look at why it does:
WORLD
People on a hilltop watch smoke rising from a fire caused by a strike in Kobani, Syria
ma is adamant that American
troops will not join the fight on
the ground, the U.S. has been
working to help arm, equip
and revamp training programs
for national and Kurdish Peshmerga security forces in Iraq
and moderate rebel fighters
in Syria. The Peshmerga and
other Kurdish forces have been
key in containing — if not defeating — IS across much of
northern Iraq. Making sure
they keep up that front is a top
priority for the U.S.
Irbil, the Kurdish capital in
Iraq, asked the Obama administration to increase airstrikes
in Kobani, said Mahma Khalil,
a Kurdish lawmaker from northern Iraq. While there’s no
formal link between the government in Irbil and the Kurdish
population in Syria, both dream
of an independent nation for
ethnic Kurds.
“The current level of airstrikes
are not enough to stop the terrorists from seizing Kobani,”
Khalil said this week. “The U.S.
airstrikes against the Islamic
State group in Kobani and Iraq
should be accelerated more and
more” to avoid the extremists from reclaiming areas they
were pushed from earlier this
summer, he said.
A U.S. military official confirmed Khalil’s account and noted
that maintaining good relations with Irbil is an important
part of Washington’s strategy
against the Islamic militants.
The official was not authorized
to discuss the diplomatic issue
by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Publicly, the Pentagon and
State Department say the reasons for the increased airstrikes
at Kobani are twofold: The city
The most
important thing
about Kobani
now is that if
it falls to the
Islamic State, it
would be seen
as a defeat for
the Americans
ROBERT FORD
FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR
TO SYRIA
has become an easier target in
recent days due to an influx of
Islamic State fighters who have
gathered there. And the strikes
serve as a humanitarian relief
mission to protect the city while Kurdish fighters reorganize
their front.
WHERE’S TURKEY?
Kobani also has become a
symbol of Turkey’s reluctance
to fight the Islamic State — even
in a city right across its border.
It is an example of the difficulty of uniting regional enemies
against a common threat, and
has created a messy intersection of U.S. military and diplomatic interests.
If Kobani falls, the Islamic
extremists will have a border
way-station for militants to slip
in and out of Turkey. Already,
Turkey is grappling with how
to tighten its borders against
thousands of foreign fighters,
mostly from Western and Eastern European nations, who
have traveled through Turkey
to join the insurgency.
The U.S. has tried for months
to coax Turkey into providing
more assistance, including border security, to the global coalition against the Islamic State
group. So far, Turkey has provided sanctuary to an estimated 200,000 Syrian and Iraqi
refugees, and recently agreed
to train and equip moderate Syrian rebel fighters trying
to remove Syrian President
Bashar Assad from power.
But Turkey is not expected to
send troops or aid to the Kurdish fighters who are defending
Kobani due to a decades-long
dispute it has waged against a
Kurdish guerrilla group linked
to the city’s defenders. The fighters in Kobani are affiliated with
the Kurdistan Workers Party,
or PKK, which both Turkey and
the U.S. consider a terrorist organization.
Turkey has openly said it is
THE PROPAGANDA BATTLE FOR KOBANI
The U.S. isn’t sure why IS is
fighting so hard for control of
Kobani, a city with few resources and far removed from any
capital. But like the U.S. with
Kobani, a loss to a ragtag group
of Kurdish fighters would be a
propaganda loss for IS.
Much of the daily fighting in
Kobani is caught on camera,
where TV crews and photographers on the Turkish side of the
border have captivated the world’s attention with searing pictures of refugees, black plumes of
smoke from explosions, and the
sounds of firefights on the city’s
streets. In video after video, refugees just across the border can be
seen and heard cheering as U.S.
airstrikes pound the extremists.
IS has published pictures of
its militants closing in on Kobani, aiming “to appear strong,
undeterred, and unharmed by
the strikes,” said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence
group, which monitors jihadist
networks online. As recently as
last week, in pictures and Tweets, the militants’ supporters
declared Kobani as theirs, and
changed the city’s name to Ayn
al-Islam, or Spring of Islam.
But the online jeering has quieted considerably after the airstrikes of the last several days.
The Islamic State relies on its
global online propaganda machine, run largely by supporters
far from the battle, to entice
fighters, funding and other aid
to the front. If the militants’
victories begin to ebb in such a
public forum, U.S. officials believe, so too will their lines of
support. That alone makes the
battle for Kobani a must-win fight for the U.S. strategy.
And that is not lost on Washington. “What makes Kobani significant is the fact that ISIL
wants it,” Kirby said. AP
16
INFOTAINMENT
what’s ON
...
Beyond Pixels, by Victor Marreiros
Time: 12pm-8pm
Until: December 31, 2014
Venue: Signum Living Store,
20.10.2014 mon
th Anniversary
資訊／娛樂
TV canal macau
13:00
TDM News
13:30
News (RTPi) Delayed Broadcast
14:30
RTPi Live
17:45
Heavy Load (Repeat)
18:30
Non-Daily Portuguese News (Repeated)
19:30
Soap Opera
20:30
Main News, Financial & Weather Report
21:00
TDM Sports
22:10
Heavy Load
23:00
TDM News
23:30
Champions League Magazine
00:00
Main News, Financial & Weather Report (Repeated)
00:30
RTPi Live
cinema
cineteatro
16 Oct - 22 Oct
Rua do Alm Sergio, 285, R/C
Enquiries: (853) 2896 8925
Macau Science Centre
Address: Avenida Dr. Sun Yat-Sen
Admission: Exhibition Centre: MOP25
Planetarium (Dome/Sky Shows): MOP50
Planetarium (3D Dome/3D Sky Shows): MOP65
Enquiries: (853) 2888 0822
See The World Through Child’s Eyes
Time: 12pm-7pm (Closed on Tuesdays)
Until: November 24, 2014
Venue: Ox Warehouse, corner of Avenida Do
Coronel Mesquita and Avenida Do Almirante Lacerda
Admission: Free
Enquiries: (853) 2853 0026
Dragon Training Camp
Time: 4pm (Mondays to Fridays)
10am & 4pm (Saturdays & Sundays)
Until: December 31, 2014
Venue: Level 4, Caspian Ballroom,
Sheraton Macau Hotel, Cotai Central
Admission: HKD/MOP150 per child (4-12 years old)
with one adult (or additional adult HKD/MOP50),
maximum three adults with one child.
Enquiries: (853) 8113 0228
Macau Grand Prix Museum & Wine Museum
Time: 10am-8pm (Closed on Tuesdays)
Venue: Rua Luis Gonzaga Gomes, 431,
basement (Tourism Activities Centre-CAT)
Admission: Free
Enquiries: (853) 8798 4108 / 2833 3000
THE GIVER_
room 1
2.15 4.00, 5.45, 9.30 pm
Director: Phillip Noyce
Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 97min
ANNABELLE_
room 1
7.30 pm
Director: John R. Leonetti
Starring: Ward Horton, Annabelle Wallis, Alfre Woodard
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 98min
LET’S BE COPS_
room 2
2.15,4.05, 5.55, 9.30 pm
Director: Luke Greenfield
Starring: Jake Johnson, Damon Wayans Jr., Rob Riggle
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 104min
JUON - THE BEGINNING OF THE END_
room 2
2.15, 4.00, 5.45, 9.30 pm
Director: Masayuki Ochiai
Starring: Shô Aoyagi, Yoshihiko Hakamada,
Yasuhito Hida
Language: Japanese (Chinese/English)
Duration: 91min
Offbeat
Hot
wins
Fired Dublin worker
USD25K over snack
1967 Thousands join anti-war
movement
The biggest demonstration yet against American involvement in the Vietnam War has taken place in the
town of Oakland, in California. An estimated 4,000
people poured onto the streets to demonstrate in a
fifth day of massive protests against the conscription
of soldiers to serve in the war.
The city was brought to a standstill as protesters
built barricades across roads to prevent buses carrying recruits to the Army’s conscription centre.
Police reinforcements came in from San Francisco
as the protests turned violent. Demonstrators, many
wearing helmets and holding plywood shields, overturned cars and threw bottles, tin cans and stones
at the police. Four people were injured and seven
arrested.
There was no repeat of the scenes three days ago,
however, when police in Oakland used clubs and
chemical sprays to clear the streets. The heavy-handed treatment of demonstrators caused outrage
throughout the country.
Today’s demonstration was part of what is being
called “Stop the Draft Week” - a nationwide initiative
which has seen peace marches in cities across the
United States.
It is expected to move to Washington DC tomorrow,
and demonstrators are said to be targeting all roads
to the capital.
It is thought up to 40,000 could join a protest march
from the Lincoln Memorial to the Pentagon.
The demonstrators are trying to disrupt military induction centres, encouraging large numbers of young men to turn in their draft cards. Many are burning
the cards - an illegal act under a law passed by Congress two years ago.
About 50 conscientious objectors have already
been sent to jail for their protest. It is estimated up
to 7,000 have left the country, mainly to Canada, to
avoid the draft.
Recent polls suggest that American support for the
war in Vietnam is declining steadily. President Johnson is under attack from those who believe he is not
being aggressive enough on Vietnam as well as those
who think he should withdraw.
A Gallup poll published earlier this month showed
his popularity rating plummeting to the point where
if an election were held at this point in his term of
office, he would lose by a landslide.
dog!
An Irish cinema may have just bought the world’s most
expensive hot dog for an unfairly fired worker. Ireland’s
employment appeals court on Thursday ordered Dublin’s
Cineworld to pay Carl Meade 20,000 euros (USD25,640) for
canning him over his illicit discount on a workplace snack.
Cineworld said it used surveillance footage to show Meade buying an extra-large hot dog, but paying only for a
regular, and taking a slightly pricier brand of candy than
what appeared on his signed receipt.
The total difference in cost between what he bought, and
what he consumed? One euro ($1.28). A three-judge panel
found that the employer should have considered Meade’s
contention that he’d made an innocent mistake.
Meade worked three years for Cineworld before his 2012
dismissal for gross misconduct. AP
this day in history
WHIPLASH_
room 3
2.30, 4.30, 7.30, 9.30 pm
Director: Damien Chazelle
Starring: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 106min
macau tower
09 Oct - 22 Oct
DRACULA UNTOLD_
2.30, 4.30, 7.30, 9.30 pm
Director: Gary Shore
Starring: Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadon
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 92min
Courtesy BBC News
In context
The anti-war movement grew from strength to strength, until
in March 1968 President Johnson announced a pause in the
bombing of North Vietnam to start negotiations for peace.
At the same time, he announced he would not be standing for
re-election as President.
He left office in 1968, while the war was still at its height.
Lyndon Johnson continued to be closely involved in negotiations for peace in Vietnam, in an initiative which culminated
in the Paris Peace Accords of 1973.
He did not live to see the treaty signed. Five days before, on
22 January 1973, he died suddenly of a heart attack at his
Texas ranch.
The hated draft ended in the same year, and America converted to an “all-volunteer military”.
Despite the Accords, the fighting in Vietnam continued until
the Saigon government surrendered to the Vietcong in April
1975.
mon 20.10.2014
th Anniversary
資訊／娛樂
Taurus
Mar. 21-Apr. 19
April 20-May 20
You need to take bold action! It may
not be exactly what you want to do,
but you’re sure to do well if you can
just force yourself to step up and
take the bull by the horns. It’s easier
once you start!
See if you can get an outside
mediator to help you make sense
of today’s big weird issue. Things
are sure to get tangled if you just
try to handle it all yourself. It may
have to be a stranger.
Gemini
Cancer
May 21-Jun. 21
Jun. 22-Jul. 22
You’re surrounded by people who
are thinking more or less like you
are. Things may start to get a little
more interesting as you all start
to vibrate at the same frequency.
Enjoy the results!
Check your bank account before
making any impulse purchases
today — things are sure to get weird
pretty quickly otherwise. You may
find a new way to squeeze extra out
of your budget, too!
Leo
Virgo
Jul. 23-Aug. 22
Aug. 23-Sept. 22
You’re feeling the urge to show off
a little — and why not? Things are
better than they’ve ever been, and
you may find that your energy is
too good to be contained anyway.
Someone new takes notice!
You can’t quite keep up with the
pace of the day — so you need to be
flexible in order to make anything
happen. Things are sure to get a
lot more interesting if you can just
stretch a bit!
Libra
Sep.23-Oct. 22
Oct. 23 - Nov. 21
Something small turns out to be
pretty stressful — so see if you can
just get past it or even ignore it!
Your energy is a bit less useful than
usual, but you’re sure to get back
into it quickly.
Capricorn
Nov. 22-Dec. 21
Dec. 22-Jan. 19
A stroke of good luck blasts through
your life, clearing a path that you’d
never thought would be open to
you. Don’t hesitate! This situation
is unlikely to last for long, but you
can take advantage of it now.
People are looking for trouble
today — try not to give it to them!
It’s likely at least one person is
picking a fight in order to test your
limits. Show them you can outlast
them indefinitely.
Aquarius
SUDOKU
WEATHER
Easy
Medium
Hard
Feb.19-Mar. 20
A wild idea strikes you early
today — and though it seems to
contradict all available evidence,
you decide to pursue it anyway. It’s
sure to lead somewhere interesting
and unexpected.
There’s too much drama today!
You need to chill out, take a step
back and try to let others do
things their way. Your energy is
out of sync with theirs, but that’s
quite temporary.
Crossword puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com
DOWN: 1- Agitate; 2- Drink to excess; 3- Composer Khachaturian; 4- Cause of ruin;
5- Gumshoe; 6- Lawsuits; 7- Improvement;
8- You ____! Sure!; 9- Compositions; 10Friday’s solution
Argentine plain; 11- Bendable twig, usually of
a willow tree; 12- Pertaining to birth; 13- Diary
bit; 21- Central nervous system; 23- Tea
type; 26- Bone: Prefix; 27- Buenos ___; 28Building additions; 29- Flat-fish; 31- “From
___ according to his abilities…”; 34- Sack
starter; 36- ___ expert, but...; 37- Large
cat; 38- “___ quam videri” (North Carolina’s
motto); 39- Numbered rds.; 41- Foolish; 43Migraine; 46- Subdivide; 49- Predatory; 51Shamus; 52- Urns; 53- Pineapple fiber; 54Quench; 55- Biblical king; 57- Having wings;
60- Top-flight; 61- Muffin choice; 62- Actress
Virna; 63- Mild oath; 66- Distress signal
Beijing
11
21
haze
Harbin
11
22
haze/cloudy
Tianjin
14
24
clear/haze
Urumqi
7
19
clear
Xi’an
14
19
drizzle
Lhasa
3
18
shower/cloudy
Chengdu
14
21
shower
CONDITION
Chongqing
17
19
moderate rain/drizzle
Kunming
15
23
cloudy
Nanjing
17
27
cloudy
Shanghai
19
26
cloudy
Wuhan
17
25
cloudy
Hangzhou
17
27
clear
Taipei
22
28
overcast
Guangzhou
19
30
clear
24
29
cloudy
Moscow
-5
3
overcast/sleet
Frankfurt
10
17
cloudy/shower
Paris
13
16
overcast/drizzle
London
15
17
cloudy
New York
10
15
clear/cloudy
WORLD
CROSSWORDS
ACROSS: 1- Runs through; 6- Raise to third power; 10- Corn bread; 14- Synagogue
scroll; 15- Primates with short tails or no tail; 16- Slippery ___ eel; 17- Bucky Beaver’s
toothpaste; 18- Cpls.’ superiors; 19- Baseball glove; 20- Recall; 22- Become visible;
24- Bear in the air; 25- Every 52 weeks; 26- Black Sea port; 30- Writing table; 32Farm structure; 33- Home furnishings chain; 35- Crude carrier; 40- Capital of Estonia;
42- Druggist; 44- Ruhr city; 45- Dull pain, often in the head or back; 47- It runs in
the cold; 48- Iams alternative; 50- Makes amends; 52- Hindu Preserver; 56- Created;
58- Out, in bed; 59- Forgiving; 64- Celestial body; 65- Sir ___ Newton was an English
mathematician; 67- Not a dup.; 68- Nevada city; 69- Compass point; 70- American
space agency; 71- Bird feed; 72- First name in cosmetics; 73- Children’s author Blyton;
MAX
Hong Kong
Pisces
Jan. 20-Feb. 18
MIN
CHINA
Easy+
Scorpio
You’re tuned in to the big picture
today — and things are definitely
looking bright! You may need to
deal with someone who’s obsessed
with the little details, but you’ve
got what it takes.
Sagittarius
17
THE BORN LOSER by Chip Sansom
YOUR STARS
Aries
INFOTAINMENT
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
SPORTS
th Anniversary
體育
FOOTBALL
AP PHOTO
Atletico beats Espanyol,
extends home unbeaten run
Joseph Wilson, Barcelona
A
TLETICO Madrid beat Espanyol 2-0 yesterday to extend its unbeaten home streak in
the Spanish league to 24 games.
Atletico limited Espanyol to one
shot on goal and earned 12 corners to just one for the overmat-
ad
ched visitors.
Goalkeeper Miguel Moya saved
Espanyol’s sole chance by Lucas
Vazquez in the 13th minute, and
midfielder Tiago Cardoso put
Atletico ahead in the 43rd when
he floated a header over goalkeeper Kiko Casilla from Gabi Fernandez’s pass.
Atletico has excelled at set pieces under coach Diego Simeone
and finished Espanyol off with a
corner kick in the 71st, which was
headed on by center backs Diego
Godin and Jose Jimenez before
Mario Suarez tapped the ball in.
The defending champion rose to
fourth place, five points behind
leader Barcelona.
Espanyol’s first defeat in five
rounds left it in the middle of the
table.
Espanyol lost forward Sergio
Garcia to an apparent leg injury,
while Atletico substitute Antoine
Griezmann hit the post late.
Atletico has scored 10 of its 14 league goals from set pieces, with nine
of its goals coming from headers.
“We work hard at our set pieces
and it is paying off,” Suarez said.
Atletico’s last league loss at the
Vicente Calderon Stadium was in
May, 2013.
Later, Valencia visits Deportivo
La Coruna, Sevilla is at Elche and
Villarreal hosts Almeria.
Valencia and Sevilla can overtake Real Madrid in second place
with wins. AP
RENATO MARQUES
18
20.10.2014 mon
Pacquiao makes
professional
basketball debut
M
ANNY Pacquiao made his professional
basketball debut yesterday, just a month
before he is set to defend his WBO welterweight
crown.
Pacquiao started yesterday’s game for the newly
formed KIA Sorento of the Philippine Basketball
Association but played only seven minutes and
committed two turnovers in his team’s 80-66 win
over the Blackwater Elite at Philippine Arena.
The boxing icon, who joined the pro league
team as a player-coach, played in a preseason
game earlier this month, finishing with one point
and two turnovers after a 10-minute stint.
Pacquiao said after the game he would take a
break from his KIA duties to focus on the defense of his WBO welterweight crown on Nov. 22 in
Macau against undefeated junior welterweight
champion Chris Algieri.
At 5 feet 6 inches (169 centimeters) tall, Pacquiao does not have the typical stature of a basketball player, but is a big fan of the sport. AP
mon 20.10.2014
th Anniversary
體育
RUGBY
John Pye, Brisbane
A
USTRALIAN Rugby
Union chief executive
Bill Pulver says he has
no idea who’s available to coach the Wallabies
following Ewen McKenzie’s
surprise decision to announce
his resignation after Saturday’s
Bledisloe Cup match.
Pulver also said yesterday that
he “hadn’t seen any evidence of
McKenzie losing respect of the
players” and that he was surprised by McKenzie’s decision
to resign well before the match, without telling the players.
Australia lost 29-28 to New
Zealand.
“I’ve got a lot of options,” Pulver said yesterday at a media
conference with Wallabies captain Michael Hooper. “I have
had no conversations with any
other coaches. Today we’re
trying to work out where we are
at... I don’t even know who can
get on a plane on Friday.”
The Wallabies leave Friday
for a European tour. Pulver
also suggested he might make
an interim appointment. The
favorite for a full-time position
appears to be Michael Cheika,
who coached the New South
Wales Warataths to the Super
Rugby title this season.
Hooper also said he didn’t feel
McKenzie had lost respect of
the players.
“We play for him and we play
S
COTT Hend beat Angelo Que of the Philippines in a playoff to
win the Hong Kong Open
yesterday and become the
first Australian to win the
event since Greg Norman
in 1983.
Que and Hend both ended the final round tied
on 13-under 267 to force
a playoff on the par-four
18th hole of the Fanling
Course at the Hong Kong
Golf Club.
Hend held his nerve to
win on the first playoff
hole with a par putt from
five feet having watched
Que bogey after failing to
reach the green with his
approach shot.
“I felt quite calm on that
playoff. We were wondering how to play that
hole because the pin was
placed in a tricky position
and you can easily make a
bogey. It would have been
nice to win with a birdie
and on a positive note but
I will take it,” said Hend.
AP PHOTO
Pulver has no idea on Wallaby
coaching replacement
for everyone in the staff... we
respect his decision,” Hooper
said yesterday.
On Saturday, the stoppagetime loss to New Zealand was
the last act in McKenzie’s short
and tumultuous stint as Australia coach, leaving the Wallabies rudderless a week ahead of
the European tour and only 11
months before the Rugby World Cup.
McKenzie had been dealing
with an investigation into utility back Kurtley Beale’s off-field conduct, amid reports
about discord within the Wallabies squad and increasing
speculation in the last two
weeks that the coaching job
was on the line.
McKenzie said he’d made up
his mind well before the game
that it would be his last in charge.
“I resigned this morning at
10 o’clock,” McKenzie said,
delaying his statement until
Hooper had left the room. “I’ve
been a very proud contributor
to Australian rugby, but I feel
SPORTS
19
at this point ... there’s a bunch
of reasons. The intention was
win, lose or draw, I was going
to announce that resignation
tonight.”
McKenzie waited until after
the match to inform the team,
and none of the players were
made available to comment.
“I didn’t actually advise the
team or any of the members
of staff, so I’ve just done that,”
McKenzie said. “I’m not going
to go into the detail — you guys
can work that out. The easiest
way for me is to exit stage left
and I’ll leave you guys to ponder, speculate.”
McKenzie had coaching success at provincial level, helping
New South Wales to the Super
Rugby final in 2008 — despite
being told earlier in the season
that his contract wouldn’t be
renewed — and, after a stint in
Europe, returning to Australia
and helping lift the Queensland
Reds out of the doldrums to a
Super Rugby title in 2011.
The World Cup-winning prop
was appointed Wallabies coach
last August, only days after Robbie Deans — the first foreigner
hired as head coach of Australia’s top team — was fired.
McKenzie guided the Wallabies in 22 tests for 11 wins, a
draw and 10 losses — that span
including a stretch of seven
consecutive wins.
On Saturday, Pulver blamed
media critics for McKenzie’s
sudden departure, describing
recent reporting as unfounded
and unwarranted and saying
“we lost a good man tonight.”
He reiterated most of those
comments on Sunday.
“We are capable of winning
the World Cup in 2015,” Pulver said yesterday. “Last night
shows we have a team of men of
character.” AP
GOLF
Hend wins Hong Kong Open in a playoff
It was the biggest win
of the 41-year-old Hend’s
career that includes five
victories on the Asian
Tour. With the tournament being co-sanctioned
by the European Tour, it
will allow the Florida-based Australian to play
next season on the more
lucrative tour.
“This victory is to be
treasured,” said the delighted Hend as he kissed
the trophy won previously
by several accomplished
players including Tom
Watson, Norman, Jose
Maria Olzabal, Bernhard
Langer, Padraig Harrington, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Rory McIlroy.
Hend had begun the
day one shot behind sole
leader Marcus Fraser of
Australia who was on 11
It was
the biggest
win of the
41-year
old Hend’s
career that
includes five
victories on
the Asian
Tour
under. With the chasing
pack never far behind,
neither was able to build
much of a lead.
Fraser lost his lead immediately when he double-bogeyed the first hole
allowing England’s Mark
Foster, who had started
on nine-under, to grab
the lead with two birdies
from his first two holes.
The lead then changed
hands again with Que,
who had also started the
final round on nine-under, rolling in three birdies on the 12, 13th and
14th to jump to a one shot
advantage on 12 under.
Hend regained the lead
at 13-under before Que
pulled off a magnificent
approach shot to within
a foot of the pin from
the edge of the woods lining the 18th fairway that
allowed him to birdie the
last hole and also go to 13
under.
“That was the shot of my
career. My goal today was
to just go under par but
this is even better,” said
Que after carding a 66.
He then waited as Hend
in the final group came
in. The Australian didn’t
blink and finished his regulation round also on
the same score forcing the
play-off.
Ireland’s Kevin Phelan
finished third on 11 under
while Foster was fourth
on 10 under.
Four-time major winner Ernie Els, struggling
with a sore right hip, could only manage two birdies in his final round to
end his first appearance
at the Hong Kong Open
on a disappointing note,
tied fifth, after carding a
one-under 69 to finish on
nine-under 271.
“It is very disappointing, I didn’t play well at
all this weekend,” said Els
who had led by two shots at the halfway mark.
“I’m having trouble with
my hip and the lower I go
down, the more a nerve
or something catches. If I
can sort my hip out I have
got a game good enough
to win a tournament before the end of this year.”
Els is on a month-long
Asian swing and will play
at the Macau Open next
week before heading to
China and Malaysia.
“My hip has been bothering me for a while and
it will not keep me out of
playing in the rest of the
tournaments. I will bite
the bullet and hope an
elbow can improve my
condition. Maybe I might even do some Chinese
acupuncture,” Els said. AP
THE
Novel on sibling with Down’s
BUZZ syndrome wins prize
Severo Portela
You run, I follow
As the ‘dust’ settles in Admiralty, Causeway Bay
and Mong Kok, pepper spray dissolves into thin
air and the umbrella protests come to an end, only
to revive again and again. We guess it’s time to
at least try to evaluate the outcome of over two
weeks of direct social action by students under
Federation or Scholarism, and the pro-democracy
mix, Occupy Central. Do forgive us for not going
into the more public violence, be it minimal, appropriate or excessive force.
Writing from the opposite border of the Pearl
River Delta, we first look to the Macau Special
Administrative Region to underline the fact that,
contrary to some catastrophists, local students
and pro-democracy enthusiasts did not run a copycat action. Macau pro-democracy circles restricted themselves to nothing more than a mere
demonstration of solidarity as an immediate and
sympathetic echo of the Hong Kong demonstrations. And they did so, not because they are mature or sensible enough to be encouraged by fellow
Hongkongers’ antics to make a true universal
case for suffrage, but because the MSAR’s Basic
Law is…different, as are the demographics, the
economics, the statistics.
More than this, Macau is on its way to MSAR’s
15th anniversary, an event that opens a new and
decisive political cycle, distinguished by the presence of President Xi Jinping.
No wonder that the antiestablishment feelings
of local youth have been funneled towards less
spectacular objectives, when so much is at stake
in the coming 4th quinquennium. But no one should be mistaken about Macau’s new generations
and more liberal sectors: the longing for democratic improvement is the same in both SARs.
Now, after establishing, or rather realizing that
Macau students and liberals will not copy the
behavior of fellow Hongkongers, we have to stress
what seems to be the core of the social movement
challenging CY Leung, the Liaison Office, and
the Chinese Government. To quote the insight of
wellknown commentator Stephen Vines, writing in
‘Next’ magazine, “even the most optimistic protestor appreciates that not only could these demonstrations be crushed, but the cause of democracy
will be set back, possibly for generations.”
That is, everybody knew that the yellow umbrella
protests were doomed to fail, so that is not the
point. Apparently, umbrella action aimed only to
have CY Leung discuss constitutional matters face-to-face; Leung himself, at the boiling stage of
the protests, resorted to an invitation to dialogue
around constitutional matters. One would say it
was a match made in heaven when both camps
appeared ready to talk to each other, but appearances can be deceptive.
While dialogue may sound like a good option for
many, neither CY Leung nor ‘Occupy’ could have
anything substantial to say to each other. The CE
was bound to the NPC ruling on the electoral figurine, outside whose frame he would be swimming
in forbidden waters. The Umbrella activists could
not buy into an offer of a few places in the electoral
committee, because they would then be endorsing
the unacceptable small-circle electoral system.
Let us put it in another light. Leung could offer a
way out to the students opening the small-circle
and keeping the pre-screening of candidates for
2017; while activists could exchange or replace
the demands on electoral methods by the erasure
of anachronistic functional constituencies in Legislative Council. That is the real target.
Attentive central authorities (Chen Zuo’er) seemed to put this idea to sleep through a surrogate
conflict between demonstrators who read themselves as umbrella protesters inside the system,
and the reading of Occupy Central, Scholarism
and the Federation of Students as a color revolution. Umbrella people look more like a Moisés
Naím new social group aiming for nothing more
than particular interferences and small-scale
disturbances, and authoritative Beijing handles
the situation with the ‘rule of law’ and the threat
of prosperity nuisance. Who is running? Who is
following?
Once in million
years: Comet
buzzing Mars on Sun
Comet C/2013 A1, also known as Siding Spring, as captured by Wide Field
Camera 3 on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope
Marcia Dunn, Cape Canaveral
T
HE heavens were hosting an event over the
weekend that occurs once in
a million years or so. A comet
as hefty as a small mountain
passed mind-bogglingly close
to Mars yesterday, approaching within 140,006 kilometers at a speed of 202,767 kph.
NASA’s five robotic explorers at Mars — three orbiters
and two rovers — are being
repurposed to witness a comet named Siding Spring
make its first known visit to
the inner solar system. So are
a European and an Indian
spacecraft circling the red planet.
The orbiting craft will attempt to observe the incoming iceball, then hide
behind Mars for protection
from potentially dangerous
dusty debris in the comet tail.
Shielded by the Martian atmosphere, the Opportunity
and Curiosity rovers may well
have the best seats in the house, although a dust storm on
Mars could obscure the view.
“We certainly have fingers
crossed for the first images
of a comet from the surface
of another world,” said NASA
program scientist Kelly Fast.
Spacecraft farther afield, including the Hubble Space Telescope, already are keeping a
sharp lookout, as are ground
observatories and research
balloons.
“We’re getting ready for a
spectacular set of observations,” said Jim Green, head
of NASA’s planetary science
division.
Named for the Australian
observatory used to detect
it in January 2013, Siding
Spring will approach Mars
from beneath and zoom right
in front Sunday afternoon,
Eastern Time.
On Earth, the best viewing,
via binoculars or telescope,
will be from the Southern
Hemisphere — South Africa
and Australia will be in prime
position. In the Northern Hemisphere, it will be difficult
to see Siding Spring slide by
Mars.
The comet — with a nucleus
estimated to be at least 8 kilometers in diameter — hails
from the Oort Cloud on the
extreme fringe of the solar
system. It formed during the
first million or two years of
the solar system’s birth 4.6
billion years ago and, until
now, ventured no closer to the
sun than perhaps the orbits
of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or
Neptune. It comes around
every one or more million
years. It will be the first Oort
Cloud comet to be studied up
close in detail.
For comparison, the flyby
distance of 140,006 kilometersis about one-third of the
way from here to the moon.
Siding Spring’s tail could extend from Earth all the way to
our moon. Its gaseous coma,
the fuzzy head surrounding
the nucleus, might stretch
halfway to the moon.
No comet has come anywhere near this close to Earth in
recorded history.
“We can’t get to an Oort
Cloud comet with our current
rockets ... so this comet is coming to us,” said Carey Lisse,
senior astrophysicist at Johns
Hopkins University’s applied
physics laboratory.
By studying Siding Spring’s
composition and structure, scientists hope to learn
more about how the planets
formed, according to Lisse.
Scientists also are keen to
spot any changes to the comet or Mars due to the close
approach. NASA’s newly arrived Maven spacecraft, for ins-
tance, will compare the upper
atmosphere before and after
it passes.
“Think about a comet that
started its travel probably at
the dawn of man and it’s just
coming in close now,” Lisse
said. “And the reason we can
actually observe it is because
we have built satellites and rovers. We’ve now got outposts
around Mars.”
Scientists initially worried
the spacecraft orbiting Mars
would be at considerable risk
from the comet’s massive trail
of dust.
The nucleus itself poses no
danger of impact. But the
particles in the tail, hurtling
through space at 126,000
mph (202,767 kph) could
fry electronics, puncture fuel
lines, or destroy computers,
transmitters or other vital
spacecraft parts.
As Siding Spring’s path became clearer, the threat level
was deemed minimal. Still,
space agencies are taking no
chances. They’re employing
the “duck and cover” strategy.
NASA’s three orbiters —
Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and newcomer Maven — will be behind
the red planet at the time of
peak danger. That’s a 20-minute-or-so period approximately 1½ hours after the closest
approach by the comet’s nucleus.
The European Space Agency also shifted the orbit of its
Mars Express as did India for
its Mars Orbiter Mission, or
MOM, the country’s first interplanetary spacecraft that,
like NASA’s Maven, arrived
last month.
The precautions are prudent, said University of
Maryland senior research
scientist Tony Farnham, who
led a hazard-analysis team.
“Comets are complex beasts
and don’t always live up to our
predictions,” Farnham said in
an email Wednesday. “If you
don’t want surprises, then
don’t study comets.”
It will take at least a few days
to obtain and analyze the best
spacecraft data; but images
made from Earth should be
forthcoming pretty quickly.
Siding Spring should pass
closest to the sun six days after its Mars flyby, then swing
back out, bidding goodbye,
for at least another million
years. AP
Air quality
Roadside
45-65
Moderate
SOURCE: DSMG
High
Density
55-75
Residental Moderate
Area
Ambient
55-75
Moderate
WORLD BRIEFS
PAKISTAN A Pakistani
court upholds the death
sentence of a Christian
woman whose 2010
conviction for blasphemy
led to the assassination
of two politicians who
supported her, a defense
lawyer says. Asia Bibi,
a 50-year-old mother of
five, had appealed before
the Lahore High Court
against the ruling, in which
she was found guilty of
insulting Islam’s Prophet
Muhammad.
VATICAN CITY Catholic
bishops scrapped their
landmark welcome to gays
Saturday, showing deep
divisions at the end of a
two-week meeting sought
by Pope Francis to chart
a more merciful approach
to ministering to Catholic
families. The bishops
failed to reach consensus
on a watered-down
section on ministering to
homosexuals. The new
section had stripped away
the welcoming tone of
acceptance contained in a
draft document earlier last
week.
AP PHOTO
Rear Window
At the event to announce the winner, the
president of the jury, poet and deputy Manuel Alegre, said that the book “deals with a
delicate subject that could have given rise to
a vulgar sentimental vision: the relation between two brothers, one of them with Down’s
Syndrome.” The LeYa prize was inaugurated
in 2008. This year 361 original works by authors from 14 countries were submitted.
AP PHOTO
opinion
The novel ‘O meu irmão’ (My Brother), by
Afonso Reis Cabral, is the winner of this year’s
LeYa Prize for Literature, worth €100,000,
the publisher of the same name announced
on Friday at an event at its headquarters
in Alfragide, near Lisbon. The 24-year-old
author is a great-great-grandson of Eça de
Queiroz, one of the giants of Portuguese literature.
Station
NEPALESE officials
closed a section of
a popular Himalayan
trekking route yesterday
after rescuers,
overwhelmed with last
week’s snowstorms that
killed at least 38 people,
had to save new hikers
who set out after the
blizzards on the same
deadly trails. The dead
from the blizzards and
avalanches that hit the
upper section of the
Annapurna trekking
circuit in northern
Nepal included foreign
trekkers, local guides
and villagers.
UKRAINE The Ukrainian
president has said his
country has reached an
agreement with Russia
on supplies of natural
gas for the winter. When
Russia cut off gas supplies
to Ukraine in June over
unpaid bills, it raised
the risk that Ukraine
would be left without
heating. President Petro
Poroshenko said in a
television interview late
Saturday that Russia has
agreed to supply Ukraine
with gas through March 31
at a price of USD385 per
1,000 cubic meters.