1. law, govt and politics
2. government

gov’t plays safe with
‘cautious’ budget
lawmakers say ‘no’ to
debating political reform
Francis Tam hinted that the gov’t is
being cautious when drafting the
2015 budget, as the gaming revenue
slowdown is expected to continue
A proposal by pro-democracy
legislators to hold a debate on political
reform and the implementation of
universal suffrage was vetoed
P4
macau gaming show kicks off
P6
P7
WED. 19
Nov 2014
T. 16º/ 24º C
H. 45/ 80%
N.º 2194
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FOUNDER & PUBLISHER Kowie Geldenhuys
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Paulo Coutinho
“ THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ ”
Macau-licensed vehicles to
be allowed in Hengqin, 24h
border announced soon
AP PHOTO
WORLD BRIEFS
THAILAND A parcel
P2
AP PHOTO
delivery company in
Bangkok put three
packages bound for
the United States
through a routine X-ray
and made a startling
discovery: preserved
human parts, including
an infant’s head, a
baby’s foot and an
adult heart. The body
parts were stolen from
the medical museums
of one of Bangkok’s
biggest hospitals, its
administrators say.
N KOREA An anxious
North Korea will see
how the boldest effort
yet to bring its leaders
to account for alleged
crimes against humanity
will move forward, as the
U.N. General Assembly’s
human rights committee
votes on a resolution
that demands the
country’s referral to the
International Criminal
Court.
JAPAN has slashed its
whale catch target in the
Antarctic by two-thirds in
a bid to resume its annual
whale hunt, which an
international court ruled
must stop.
More on page 18
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Some barricades cleared
from HK protest site
P11
MACAU
G
UANGDONG
authorities are
preparing to receive entries of
Macau-licensed vehicles to
Hengqin Island, the Hengqin New Area Administrative Committee’s directorgeneral, Niu Jing, told the
media yesterday.
“That [policy] will be officially implemented next
year,” he said “The Guangdong Province’s transport
department is formulating
the regulations and has
presented the first draft
to the Hengqin Administrative Committee for its
opinions.”
In addition, the director-general observed that
construction surrounding
the Hengqin Port has
been intensively continuing around the clock
in order to meet the po-
th Anniversary
澳聞
Macau-licensed vehicles
allowed in Hengqin next year
tential deadline for implementing a 24-hour
border crossing gateway
there.
According to reports
published by the local
Chinese language press,
it is anticipated that the
Central Government will
announce the implementation of a 24-hour
border-checking site at
Hengqin Port on the 15th
anniversary of Macau’s
handover.
The Hengqin New Area
Administrative Commi-
ttee’s
director-general,
Niu Jing, told the media
yesterday that although
he has no idea when the
Central Government will
announce such news, he
is very confident that the
policy will be promulgated within this year.
“We hope the Port’s infrasctructure will be ready before the end of this
year, so that it won’t lag
behind in meeting the requirements for the Central Government’s announcement,” he stressed. BY
BOXING
Chris Algieri advises local
youths ahead of Sunday’s fight
A
HEAD of Sunday’s boxing
match with Manny Pacquiao in the “Clash in Cotai II,”
event headliner Chris Algieri
shared some of his wisdom with
Macau’s young boxing enthusiasts; advising them to balance
boxing and study at the same
time.
The American fighter, who
obtained a Bachelor of Science
degree in Health Care Management and a Master’s Degree in
Clinical Nutrition, in addition
to his boxing career, told the
40 youngsters at the Fighting
Arts Club Macau Monday that
the key to success is “all about
being disciplined.”
“Definitely education is the
most important, but there is
enough time to do both,” said
the world champion boxer. He
continued, “when my career
does come to an end, I’d actually like to go back to school,
pursue my creation, keep lear-
ning.”
Besides urging the teenagers
to stay focused both on their
education and boxing practice,
Algieri also gave specific advice
to four young fighters who demonstrated their boxing skills
in a sparring session.
“It’s pretty amazing for him to
have an impressive educational
background and to also be a
world champion in boxing,” said
one of the participants. “Chris
has now become an inspiration
and a role model for me.”
Before his exchange with the
local youngsters, the boxer also
attended a meet and greet session with Venetian employees.
Separately, Algieri took a tour
in the city yesterday with local
boxer Ng Kuok Kun. Ng, Macau’s first professional boxer,
was on hand to introduce Algieri to one of Macau’s famous
almond cookie shops. Both boxers got involved in the baking
process under the instruction of
the chef, and the fruits of their
labors were then handed out to
the media. BY
pacquiao meets sands china staff at venetian macao
MANNY PACQUIAO met with
Sands China team members at a
meet and greet event at The Venetian Macao’s staff dining room yesterday. Pacquiao was greeted by a
Filipino team member in his native
language. After a few words from
Pacquiao, team members were given
the opportunity to meet the boxing
legend as well as have photographs
taken with him and get autographed
posters and photographs.
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Association advocates
bike priority route system
T
HE New Macau Association
(NMA) proposed a bicyclepriority route system for residents living and working in Taipa, Cotai and Coloane. The proposal suggests that bicycle lanes
should be made available on the
roads and designated as part of
future mass transportation infrastructures.
“In Macau, the number of vehicles has been rising by ten thousand each year, fighting public
buses over the roads. Not only
is riding a bicycle energy-saving
and environmentally-friendly, it
can also spare residents the necessity to take overcrowded buses,” said the proposal’s drafter
Rocky Chan.
“The road network is relatively
simple on these islands; by implementing bicycle-prioritized
transport there, along with the
pedestrian systems the government planned to build, it can reduce the residents’ dependence
on private vehicles and relieve
the pressure on public transportation,” he added.
The group suggested that the
existing two bicycle lanes should be extended; and a bicycle
lane network should be built
based on the pedestrian systems throughout the central
area of Taipa. Moreover, bicycle lanes should be added to
the Cotai Strip main roads and
around the casino resorts.
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, Brook Yang, 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]
PHOTO ARCHIVE
2
19.11.2014 wed
Meanwhile, it suggested that
bicycle parking and renting
areas should be designated
around the future Light Railway Transit stations and in
new reclamation lands.
“It’s easier to establish this
green transport system in the
new reclamation lands; and the
government can consider formulating policies that encourage commercial and residential
places to add public facilities for
bicyclists,” said Chan.
Furthermore, the NMA proposed that facilities for bicycle transport should be gradually integrated into the North Taipa urban
planning, the Seac Pai Van public
housing complex, as well as a safe
road network for two universities
located on the islands.
“Encouraging green transport
means that the space for car
parking can be reduced in the
public space and public resources can be reallocated to welfare
facilities that benefit the public,
as well as improving our living
quality,” stressed the group. BY
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
wed 19.11.2014
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MACAU
19.11.2014 wed
th Anniversary
澳聞
AL PLENARY
Gov’t plays safe with
‘cautious’ budget
Francis Tam (center)
Catarina Pinto
T
HE Budget Law
for 2015 passed its
first reading in yesterday’s Legislative
Assembly plenary meeting.
Yet lawmakers voiced concerns over gaming revenues, which declined some
23 percent year-on-year
last month, with the Secretary for Economy and Finance reiterating that next
year’s casino tax revenue
will remain at “roughly the
same” figure this year.
Francis Tam hinted that
the government is being
cautious when drafting and
discussing the Budget Law
for 2015, as gaming revenue
dropped for a fifth consecutive month last month. The
overall revenue estimated
for next year is set at over
MOP154 billion, representing a 0.7 percent increase
over this year, while total
expenditure is due to reach
MOP83 billion, representing a 7.9 percent increase
when compared to 2014.
The government estimates
it will collect over MOP115
billion in special casino tax
revenue (direct tax) next
year.
Lawmaker
Ng
Kuok
Cheong questioned the administration on whether
the budget estimations
were rigorously calculated
or if it was merely an overall balance. The legislator
argued that casino tax revenue should be ploughed
into different sectors to
enhance Macau’s development, and suggested that
subsidies and contributions
to the Macau Foundation
could be shared with other
sectors.
Currently, there’s an effective tax rate of 38 to 39
percent on casino gaming
revenue, 35 percent of which relates to tax on gross
gaming revenue, while 1.6
percent is a contribution to
the Macau Foundation and
1.4 percent is a contribution
to SJM.
“Gaming revenue taxes
are applied in different investments and for instance have allowed the Macau
Foundation to be granted
huge sums. But gaming revenues might not last long,
so could those subsidies [to
the Macau Foundation] be
reduced or be transferred to
other sectors, for instance
to provide pensions for the
elderly or to further invest
in education?” Ng Kuok
Cheong questioned.
Lawmaker Kou Hoi In
said they are worried about
gaming revenues for next
year. He also requested
further information on the
Concerns about public transportation
L
AWMAKERS voiced concerns over
public transportation issues in Macau, as well as significant gaming revenue
drops over the past five months.
Last weekend saw a high number of tourists strolling around the city’s already busy
streets, as yet another edition of the Macau
Grand Prix and the Macau Food Festival
took place. In a spoken enquiry, lawmaker
Zheng Anting questioned Macau’s capacity
to receive more tourists, as mobility deteriorated significantly last weekend.
Furthermore, he recalled how four
transportation companies have found
it difficult to survive in Macau over the
past four years. First airline Viva Macau, followed by ferryboat operator Macao Dragon Company, the bankruptcy of
Reolian last year, and now Vang Iek Ra-
dio Taxi that stopped operating the socalled yellow taxis.
The lawmaker urged the government to
assess the whole concession scheme, so
that each project’s budget is also closely
monitored.
With the Chief Executive soon beginning his second term, it is believed
that his five-secretary team will change.
Some lawmakers took the opportunity
to question Chui Sai On’s priorities for
his second term. Chan Meng Kam, for
instance, recalled that Macau’s industry
relies heavily on gaming and that Small
and Medium-Sized Enterprises often
face challenges due to a high inflation
rate. He added that one of Macau’s greatest issues – housing – lacks “long-term
scientific planning.”
Budget Framework Law revision, as lawmakers have
been advocating for a reinforcement of the AL’s role
in supervising the government.
Mr Tam stressed that, according to their forecast,
casino revenue tax collected next year will be similar to the amount collected
in 2014. He acknowledged
that, since gross gaming
revenues have dropped
consecutively from June to
October, the administration has been cautious in
drafting next year’s Budget
Law.
The Secretary assured that
gaming revenue in 2015 is
due to remain “roughly the
same” as this year. He hinted that the government
drafted the Budget Law for
next year taking as a reference gaming revenues of
the past five months, thus
providing a more ‘cautious’
estimation.
In response to Kou Hoi
In’s question, Mr Tam said
that the Budget Framework
law is currently being revised and the government
plans to submit a first draft by the end of the current
year.
Lawmakers have also requested the authority to regularly provide information
on multi-year construction
projects, particularly by updating the AL on the budget
estimations and possible
overspending.
The Secretary said they
will be providing further
information on multi-year
projects next year, promising to keep lawmakers updated on budgetary issues.
Discussing the Budget
Law for 2015, legislators
raised criticism over an estimated increase on vehicle
tax revenue, which is due to
rise more MOP198 million,
reaching MOP1.3 billion.
Lawmakers
questioned
whether the increase on
vehicle tax revenue is related to a possible increase on
the number of vehicles on
Macau’s roads or even an
increase on the purchase of
luxury cars.
“Is this related to a
growing number of vehicles? Our air quality is already bad…” Mak Soi Kun
reiterated. Mr Tam assured
that this “is not a significant
increase” and that estimations are based on the vehicle tax applied this year.
on the lawmakers’ agenda
MIGRANT WORKERS Song
Pek Kei remains concerned over the
increasing number of non-resident
workers living in Macau, particularly
after four Southeast Asian migrant
workers were killed in a fire that
broke out in a small boutique last
week. Although it is important to
acknowledge that foreign workers are
contributing to Macau’s development,
the lawmaker recalled that they’ve
also contributed to a greater demand
for housing units, thus playing a role
in the rise of rental prices. “It has
led residents to live subject to rising
rental prices and high inflation rates,
which triggers social conflict,” she
said. “Non-resident workers, who leave their home countries seeking a job,
only wish to earn a few more cents,”
the legislator added. She said that if
the employer does not provide accommodation, migrant workers have no
other option but to share a flat with
other migrants, which is often dangerous, as some housing units do not
provide enough safety conditions for
all. The legislator urged the government to discuss with larger enterprises, namely gaming operators, to provide accommodation and transportation for their foreign workers.
ZHUHAI REAL ESTATE Ho Ion
Sang claims that real estate brokers
in Zhuhai are promoting and selling
flats to Macau residents while buildings are still under construction, which
is in violation of the law. He stressed
that legislation in China forbids the
promotion and sale of housing units
that are still under construction without specific authorization. However,
the lawmaker said Macau residents
have claimed that real estate agents
have been advertising and selling flats
located in Zhuhai, in a building that
hasn’t been built yet. The lawmaker
said agents are charging clients a deposit on the house purchase. “Real
estate agents in Macau assure that
the sale of these apartments to Macau
residents has had a positive response
here, with deposits surpassing the
expected amount and that all housing
units have now been sold,” he stated.
The lawmaker urged local residents to
gather more information on mainland
China’s legislation, before acquiring a
house in Zhuhai.
RIGHTS OF THE CHILD Melinda
Chan has called on the government
to produce legislation ensuring children’s rights, responsibilities, and
duties. Two years ago, Ms Chan insisted that she question the government
on the implementation and execution
of the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child. “It is a shame that the
government has not yet initiated legislative work governing the rights
of children,” she said. Ms Chan suggested amendments to the criminal
code, namely by assessing current
penalties’ efficiency for crimes against
children. She also stressed that there is a need to legislate on parents’
accountability when children are neglected. The lawmaker called on the
government to reinforce measures on
the safeguarding of both women and
children, thus speeding up the drafting of the domestic violence bill.
wed 19.11.2014
th Anniversary
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MACAU
th Anniversary
澳聞
French men set fire
to construction site
over noise
Two French men have set fire to a construction
site near their home, allegedly in complaint
over the construction noise. The two suspects,
a 33-year old teacher and a 22-year old tattoo
master, both hold Macau residency. The arson
occurred in the Travessa do Bom Jesus on
Sunday evening. The Judiciary Police (PJ) said
that the two suspects first set fire to a discarded
sofa outside the construction site and jointly
pushed the burning sofa into the site’s bamboo
scaffolds to let the fire spread, before returning
to their residence at a nearby ground floor shop.
According to the PJ spokesperson, the act of
arson was allegedly due to their resentment
towards the construction noise that had affected
their daily lives. He added that the two suspects
didn’t cooperate in the investigation and their
statements were inconsistent. The two suspects
will be charged with commiting arson.
No concrete visitor
arrival figures from last
weekend
The director of the Macau Government Tourist
Office (MGTO), Maria Helena de Senna
Fernandes, said yesterday that there are no
concrete figures on the number of tourists
entering Macau last weekend at the present
time. The Macau Grand Prix, the Food Festival
and the City Fringe Festival have certainly
attracted a high number of visitors, with Macau’s
central district packed throughout the weekend.
Although she didn’t provide a precise figure,
Ms Fernandes revealed that Saturday was the
busiest day, with a higher number of visitors
crossing Macau’s borders.
ad
Lawmakers say ‘no’ to
debating political reform
Catarina Pinto
L
AWMAKERS vetoed a
proposal by pro-democracy legislators to hold a debate
on Macau’s political reform
and the implementation of
universal suffrage.
In yesterday’s Legislative Assembly plenary meeting, Ng
Kuok Cheong and Au Kam
San tried to persuade fellow
lawmakers to discuss the implementation of a democratic
political regime in Macau, but
they only managed to garner
the support of legislator Leong
Veng Chai.
Other lawmakers stressed
that Macau’s democratic development is in Beijing’s hands,
and it should be implemented
in a phased manner.
Kou Hoi In recalled that there
are several steps Macau would
need to take before there’s a
calendar to implement universal suffrage. “We all know
that Macau’s democratic development cannot be decided by
Macau (…) the development of
our political regime has to res-
PHOTO ARCHIVE
6
19.11.2014 wed
Au Kam San and Ng Kuok Cheong
pect the central government’s
decision,” he said.
Ho Ion Sang shared a similar
opinion, stating that Macau’s
political development has to
be completed “step by step.”
“First, the Chief Executive
would have to present a report to the National’s People
Congress. Therefore, I do not
agree in holding this debate,”
he stated.
Although
acknowledging
that discussion leads people
to “know the truth,” lawmaker
Mak Soi Kun sad he would not
vote in favor of the debate,
because the democratization
process “cannot only be deci-
ded by Macau.”
Kwan Tsui Hang believes
that any administrative reform
should be conducted when
Macau’s society reaches a consensus to avoid “extreme [actions].” The legislator recalled
the Occupy Central movement
in Hong Kong, with students
and Hong Kong residents staging a sit-in that has lasted for
over a month. “We need to ponder how our society could move
forward with this discussion in
a peaceful and harmonious environment,” she stressed.
Lawmaker Wong Kit Cheng
agreed. Although he acknowledged that Macau needs to
move forward, “there’s a need
to reach a consensus on the
matter” first.
Chui Sai Cheong said he
would be voting against the
debate, since Macau already
took a big step by allowing the
population to “elect the AL.”
Lau Veng Seng, one of the
lawmakers appointed by the
Chief Executive, recalled president’s Xi Jinping words
when he said that “democracy
is not only universal suffrage.”
Leong Veng Chai, José Pereira Coutinho’s ‘number two,’
was the only lawmaker – besides Ng Kuok Cheong and
Au Kam San – supporting the
debate. “I think there’s room
for discussion on universal
suffrage. An open debate between the government and
lawmakers is much better than
conveying rumors outside [the
AL],” he said.
The debate was vetoed by
lawmakers, with 27 voting
against and only three in favor. José Pereira Coutinho did
not attend yesterday’s plenary
meeting.
wed 19.11.2014
th Anniversary
澳聞
Macau Gaming Show
attracts over 100 companies
and five VIP junket groups
Catarina Pinto
T
HE Macao Gaming
Show’s (MGS) second
edition kicked off yesterday with a total
of 146 companies joining the
event to showcase gaming-related products as well as discuss
the industry’s future.
Until tomorrow, companies
and gaming experts will be focusing on the impact of gaming
in both developed and emerging nations.
Chairman of the Macau Gaming Equipment Manufacturers Association (MGEMA), Jay
Chun, said the event has attracted “an international-line up of
leaders who will be focusing on
key gaming topics and how they
impact both established and
emerging nations including Japan, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam,
South Korea, Sri Lanka and
Macau.”
He stressed that one of MGS’s
main features is its “ability to
attract VIP junket groups.” This
year, five VIP junket groups will
be attending the event, namely
AC Group, David Group, Heng
Sheng Group, Macau Golden
Group and Suncity.
The number of companies
that joined the event was recorded as having increased by
30 percent over the last year.
Enterprises participating in
this year’s edition operate in a
wide range of sectors, namely
gaming equipment, promoters,
VIP clubs, casino fixtures & fittings, promotional services,
memorabilia, food and beverage, as well as entertainment
Supplier predicts e-tables
the future trend in casinos
W
HEN
designing
their gaming floors,
some gaming operators
may not leave much space for slot machines and
electronic tables, but
these are now becoming
a trend, with gaming table quotas and a rise in
manpower shortages.
Speaking at the Macau
Gaming Show (MGS), Mr
Jay Chun, chairman of
Paradise Entertainment,
the biggest gaming equipment provider in Macau,
told the media that “any
company coming up with
these products will be a
success” in Macau.
“In the future, like in
the US, all the electronic
tables and gaming machines will be filling in the
floor,” predicted Mr Chun.
“Everybody understands
that table care is an issue
for the near future, so
companies are looking for
fully automatic e-tables
with no personnel involved,” he explained.
Paradise has concentra-
ted its provision of e-gaming and management
systems in Macau, and
is entering the US and
Australian markets this
year with its core product: Live Multiple Game
(LMG) system.
The LMG system broadcasts live dealers to multiple terminals and supports multiple table betting
on the same terminal. Mr
Chun explained that such
a product “helps the casinos reduce the labor cost,
operating cost and increase the security level.”
“Any of these [aspects]
will help Macau, because
Macau has a shortage of
labor,” he said. Furthermore, “it’s helpful for
promoting
responsible
gambling,” as the minimum bet is lower than regular mass-gaming table
games. As a result, it can
help the gaming industry
sustain itself by allowing
gamblers’ betting to last
longer in the games.
The chairman also revealed that the other focus of the company’s renovation is in cash-handling assistance, such as
the chip vending machines and currency-exchange machines.
“That will make it much
faster and easier to handle the cash with not much
personnel involved. If the
price is reasonable, this
kind of product will be suc-
and performance. Mr Chun
added that the exhibition is larger this year, reaching 15,000
square meters.
Director of the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO),
Helena de Senna Fernandes,
said that the Macau Gaming
cessful in Macau,” he said.
Paradise, with its subsidiary LT Game, is displaying several gaming
and cash-handling technologies at the MGS. According to its investor relations manager, Mr Bryan
Wu, all salesmen have
reflected a satisfying sales
volume on the first day.
During the next year,
over sixty percent of the
equipment provider’s trade volume will be generated in overseas markets,
and its distribution protocols signed by US and
Australian manufactorers.
Nevertheless, the chairman believes that “in the
next five years, Macau
will still be the center of
Asian gaming.”
“I think the [revenue
growth in] the VIP sector
will still be slow, but the
mass market will be stable,” he said. “If, in the
near future, Macau has
more hotel rooms, it will
bring more visitors and
they will stay one or two
more nights, which will
surely increase revenue,”
he explained, adding that
the completion of the Delta Bridge in 2016 will be
another revenue driver
for the territory. BY
MACAU
7
Show provides visitors and
companies with a wider perspective on Macau’s gaming industry. “What they do here is
introduce people to what Macau has to offer, and that offer
goes beyond gaming,” she acknowledged.
At the same time, Ms Fernandes
stressed that MGS is also promoting the non-gaming sector
developed by casino operators.
“We want this type of exhibition
to allow people from all over the
world to learn more about Macau. It doesn’t have to be all about
gaming. So at the same time the
non-gaming segment [within casino resorts] is also being highlighted,” she added.
The Macao Gaming Show is
organized by the Macau Gaming Equipment Manufacturers Association (MGEMA) and
co-organized by the General Association of Administrators and
Promoters of Macau Gaming
Industry, the Associação de
Mediadores de Jogos e Entretenimento de Macau, the Macau
Jockey Club, Macauslot, and
Macau Yat Yuen Canidrome.
The event also features the Macao Gaming Summit, a conference gathering gaming experts
from all over the world. Today,
scholars and gaming experts
will be discussing the gaming
industry’s growth; the impact
of society’s change in the industry; how to appeal to the mass
market; and innovative strategies to complement customer’s
experience in the gaming and
hospitality industry.
Autumn jazz night
on Saturday
T
HE Macau Jazz
Club is organizing
a concert on Saturday,
featuring singer Ines
Trickovic and the Lamma Quartet. The gig kicks off at 8 p.m. at Casa
Garden.
Born in Dubrovnik,
Croatia,
32-year-old
Ines Trickovic is now
based in Macau. A selftaught vocalist, she has
taken part in numerous
musical projects across
Europe and Asia.
Last year she released
‘’Runjic in Blue’’, an album she recorded with
her sextet, and which
received the “Porin,” a
Croatian music award
for the best jazz performance of the year. In
May 2014, Ines Trickovic became the first nonAmerican jazz artist to
perform in “All Souls
At Sundown,” a prestigious jazz concert cycle
presented in a church in
New York City, accompanied by famous jazz
pianist Aaron Goldberg.
Ines Trickovic
Lamma Quartet is a
Hong Kong based jazz
ensemble, who draw on
modern music of the
1970s and 80s. Their
repertoire
includes
compositions by David
Holland, Joe Farrell,
Wayne Shorter, Chris
Potter, Chick Corea as
well as some original
pieces.
8
BUSINESS
19.11.2014 wed
th Anniversary
分析
AP PHOTO
Toyota to start sales of
hydrogen-powered car
next month concept car on Monday.
Besides the relatively high
cost, buyers will have to contend with finding fuel. Only
a few dozen hydrogen filling
stations have been built worldwide, though governments
are subsidizing the construction of more.
It’s an uncertain future that
depends both on whether
makers can bring down the
price, and a wide-enough network of filling stations is built. Yoshikazu Tanaka, deputy
chief engineer for Toyota’s
next generation vehicle development, said he expects it will
In time, the
fuel cell vehicle
will become
mainstream.
We wanted to
take the first
step
MITSUHISA KATO
TOYOTA EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
Toyota Motor Corp. Executive Vice President Mitsuhisa Kato, left, is escorted after a photo session as Toyota unveils its all-new
fuel cell vehicle, the “Mirai”, in Tokyo
Ken Moritsugu, Tokyo
T
HERE will only be
a few hundred, and
they won’t be cheap,
but Toyota is about
to take its first small step into
the unproven market for emissions-free, hydrogen-powered
vehicles.
The world’s largest automaker announced yesterday
that it will begin selling fuel
cell cars in Japan on Dec.
15 and in the U.S. and Europe in mid-2015. The sporty-looking, four-door Toyota
Mirai will retail for 6.7 million
yen (USD57,600) before taxes. Toyota Motor Corp hopes
to sell 400 in Japan and 300
in the rest of the world in the
first year.
“In time, the fuel cell vehicle
will become mainstream. We
wanted to take the first step,”
said Mitsuhisa Kato, a Toyota
executive vice president, at the
vehicle’s launch yesterday. “We
want to be at the leading edge.”
Fuel cell vehicles run on compressed hydrogen gas, which
in the Mirai’s case is stored
in two tanks mounted underneath the vehicle. They emit
no exhaust, though fossil fuels
are used in the production of
hydrogen and to pressurize it.
Both Honda and Hyundai are
also experimenting with limited sales and leases of fuel cell
cars. Honda showed a fuel cell
take 10-20 years for the Mirai
to reach sales in the tens of
thousands of vehicles a year.
Asked if it’s a risk, he said
yes, but Toyota views it as a
challenge. Likening it to a chicken and egg situation, he said
if you say it’s too risky and
don’t move forward with production, the number of filling
stations will never grow.
Toyota faced a similar scenario with its gasoline-electric
hybrid, the Prius, which now
sells in big numbers.
“It was a big challenge when
we first introduced the Prius,
or hybrid car, in 1997,” he said
in an interview in Tokyo. “And
it’s an even bigger challenge this time because there is
no infrastructure, and we’re
trying to lead” the commercialization of fuel cell cars.
Hoping to offset the inconvenience of finding fuel, Toyota
gave the car a futuristic look
inside and out — Mirai means
future in Japanese — and
made it peppy to try to attract
buyers. It accelerates particularly quickly from about 40 to
70 kilometers per hour, Tanaka said.
The Japanese government
also plans to offer a 2 million
yen subsidy to purchasers of
fuel cell cars, reducing the
effective price to 4.7 million
yen.
Sales will be limited to the
primarily urban areas that
have fueling stations.
In Japan, with about 30 stations, that means the regions
around Tokyo, Osaka and
Nagoya cities in central and
western Japan and the northern part of Kyushu island
in the south. A few stations
have opened in California in
the United States, and there
are plans to build some in the
Northeast. Germany and the
United Kingdom are among
European countries that have
or plan to build them.
The company has about 200
pre-orders for the vehicle,
mainly government agencies
and companies that want to go
green, the company said. Over
time, Kato said, Toyota hopes to
help build a “hydrogen society.”
The Mirai can travel 650
to 700 kilometers on its two
tanks of hydrogen. In the US,
its range is 300 miles because
of different driving conditions.
Hydrogen may be more expensive than gas initially, because there are so few customers but, over time, Toyota
expects it will be cheaper to
run a car on hydrogen than
with gas.
“To rely less on oil is very
important,” said Kato. “Japan has to spend its money to
import fuel, so we should use
it as carefully as possible.” AP
corporate bits
shell v-power nitro+ launched officially in macau
Shell announced the launch of
its new performance fuel, Shell
V-Power Nitro+, in Macau yesterday. Shell V-Power Nitro+
is the result of Shell’s latest
fuel technology, which aims at
enhancing the performance of
car engines.
Shell V-Power Nitro+ is one
of the many technical projects
that Shell collaborates on with
Ferrari, and has gone through
Formula One testing conditions
to produce a fuel that resembles
99% of Shell’s Formula One
race fuel.
In celebration of the launch of
Shell V-Power Nitro+ in Macau,
Shell Hong Kong Limited held
a launch event at MGM Macau.
Ms. Anne Yu, Retail General
Manager of Shell Hong Kong
Limited for the Hong Kong and
Macau market said, “Shell strives to innovate and seek breakthroughs in the field of scientific
research to satisfy the demand
in quality fuel from customers
and their cars. The technical
partnership with Ferrari brings
precisely the unprecedented
superiority of Scuderia Ferrari
Formula One race fuel to drivers.
Shell V-Power Nitro+ has been
highly acclaimed by Hong Kong
drivers since its successful launch in Hong Kong last year. Today,
Shell brings this premium high
performance fuel to Macau, so
Macau drivers can also enjoy the
exceptional driving experience.”
nokia plots comeback with android tablet
Nokia is back in the fray. Just
months after selling its ailing
handsets unit to Microsoft, the
Finnish company is planning to
bring its brand back to consumers with a new tablet.
This time the device operates Android instead of the
Windows software that Nokia
adopted on its cellphones
when it started a strategic partnership with Microsoft in 2011.
Sebastian
Nystrom
from
Nokia’s technologies unit said
yesterday that the former global
mobile phone leader was “pleased to bring the Nokia brand
back into consumers’ hands.”
Using Android, he said, will
give Nokia access to some 80
percent of the world’s mobile
consumers compared with just
the 2.5 percent who use the
Windows mobile devices.
Five months after completing
the purchase of Nokia’s handsets, Microsoft last week unveiled its first Lumia smartphone
under its own brand name. The
company has released a few
Lumia models since it bought
Nokia’s phone business, but
those models still carried the
Nokia brand.
Since the USD7.2 billion sale
of its mobile phone unit, the
slimmed-down Nokia has become much more profitable thanks
to its three remaining operations: networks, HERE mapping
services and software.
It is one of the few computerized roadmap providers in the
world and the only one with a
long history of working with automotive companies. HERE has
an 80 percent market share for
embedded automotive maps.
Nokia said that the 7.9-inch
N1 tablet will first be available
in China in the first quarter of
2015 with an approximate price
tag of $250, before being introduced to other markets.
After the announcement, the
company’s share price was up
more than 1.6 percent at 6.31
euros.
wed 19.11.2014
th Anniversary
published in partnership with macauhub.com.mo
9
Agriculture represents 24 pct
of country’s economy
BLOOMBERG
Chinese state
company invests
in farming
HINESE state company CITIC Construction Co. will invest USD5b in 2015
in an agricultural project in Angola in order to “help reduce the insufficient food
production in the country,” said the president of the company’s Africa division.
Liu Guigen also told newspaper China
Daily that the investment made by the
company from next year would focus on
production of corn, soybeans and wheat,
to help “rebuild the agricultural sector of
the country.”
Present in Angola since 2008, CITIC
Construction Co., one of the largest construction companies in the world, already
has two 10,000-hectare farms in Angola,
but is best known for building the Kilamba Kiaxi project, a satellite city of Luanda located about 30 kilometers from the
center of the Angolan capital.
It was a contract worth US$10 billion, which involved construction of 20,000 houses,
“90 percent of which are already occupied,”
200 shops, 24 kindergartens and 17 schools,
according to the China Daily.
About 40 other Chinese companies participated in the installation of sewage systems and power and water networks to
the new urbanization of Kilamba Kiaxi,
considered “one of the largest projects of
its kind in all of Africa.” MDT/Macauhub
FORUM
MOZAMBIQUE
ANGOLA
C
中葡論壇
Agriculture
provides a
livelihood and
food security
to more than
80 percent of
households
DANIEL CLEMENTE
M
OZAMBIQUE’S
agricultural sector represents 24 percent of the
country’s GDP and 20 percent of its exports, said the
permanent secretary of the
Ministry of Agriculture, Daniel Clemente, according to
daily newspaper Notícias.
Clemente acknowledged
that agriculture, practiced
mostly by small family far-
ms, still has some weaknesses, characterized by weak
links with markets and reduced use of agricultural
inputs and modern technology.
He said, for example, only
about 3 percent of some 3.9
million existing agri-livestock farms in Mozambique
use fertilizers and 9 percent
use improved maize seeds,
the staple food crop in the
country.
“Agriculture in Mozambique is an important economic activity which provides a livelihood and food
security to more than 80
percent of households,” said
the permanent secretary,
speaking at a meeting on
rural agricultural statistics.
The regional meeting on
the implementation of the
Plan of Action for the Global
Strategy Action for Improving Agricultural and Rural
Statistics in Africa brings
together in Maputo representatives of 29 countries,
including Mozambique, to
assess progress, and address issues such as training
on the use of newer methods
and creating a strategic plan
for agricultural and rural
statistics. MDT/Macauhub
ad
10
CHINA
19.11.2014 wed
th Anniversary
中國
AP PHOTO
Beijing’s USD350M bridge gets
scant N. Korean welcome A roadside kiosk and passers-by below a sign saying “My country is the best” on the main road into Sinuiju, a North Korean city on the border with China, where a new
International Economic Development Zone was announced in July
Eric Talmadge, Tokyo
T
HE bridge was supposed
to be a key link for trade
and travel between China’s
underdeveloped
northeast
provinces and a much-touted
special economic zone in North Korea — so key that Beijing sank more than USD350
million into it.
Now, it is beginning to look
like Beijing has built a bridge
to nowhere.
An Associated Press Television News crew in September
saw nothing but a dirt ramp at
the North Korean end of the
bridge, surrounded by open
fields. No immigration or customs buildings could be seen.
Roads to the bridge had not
been completed.
The much-awaited opening
It is beginning
to look like
Beijing has
built a bridge to
nowhere
of the new bridge over the Yalu
River came and passed on Oct.
30 with no sign the link would be ready for business anytime soon. That prompted an
unusually sharp report in the
Global Times — a newspaper
affiliated with the Chinese
Communist Party — quoting
residents in the Chinese city
of Dandong expressing anger
over delays in what they had
hoped would be an economic
boom for their border city.
The report suggested the
opening of the mammoth,
3-kilometer bridge has been
postponed “indefinitely.”
Beijing and Pyongyang have
made no official comment.
Foreign analysts have suggested the apparent lack of
progress might indicate wariness in Pyongyang over China’s economic influence in
the country, which has been
growing substantially in recent years as Pyongyang has
become more isolated from
other potential partners over
its nuclear program, human
rights record and other political issues.
Since its founding, North Korea has been exceedingly cautious of becoming too
dependent on either of its
superpower neighbors, Chi-
na and Russia, preferring to
play each off the other. That
pattern seems to be repeating
itself now.
The official media, while
saying little about business
with China, have lately been
playing up the importance of
improving trade and political
ties with Moscow. On Monday, leader Kim Jong Un sent
a powerful party cadre as his
special envoy to Russia to discuss how to bolster such ties.
Better ties with Moscow could further dilute Beijing’s leverage over the North, the limits of which became apparent
when the North went ahead
with its first nuclear test in
2006. Beijing has repeatedly
urged North Korea to abandon
nuclear weapons, to no avail.
Pyongyang, meanwhile, has
also moved quickly ahead with
several major construction
projects of its own, including
the capital’s new international
airport and high-profile housing projects.
The bridge — which, from the
start, appears to have been of
more interest to China than to
North Korea — is intended to
provide a new connection between Dandong and the special
economic development zone in
North Korea’s Sinuiju. More
broadly, China wants to develop inroads with North Korea that will allow its landlocked northeastern provinces
access to North Korean ports
so its goods can be exported
or shipped down the Chinese
coastline more cheaply.
The old bridge, built in 1937
when Korea was a Japanese
colony, carries a railway line,
as well as cars and trucks. But
the vehicle traffic can move
only one way at a time. Normally it moves one direction
in the morning, and the other
in the afternoon.
Officially, at least, Pyongyang
says it is still keen on boosting
foreign trade in Sinuiju and
elsewhere. North Korean officials involved in the Sinuiju
project say the new bridge is
an important element of an
ambitious plan to bring foreign trade and investment to
a particularly strategic corner
of their country.
Hopes of attracting foreign
investment to the 40-square-kilometer area of Sinuiju,
much of which is still farmland, have yet to materialize.
But one of the North Korean
government administrators for
the new zone, Kim Hak Yong,
told APTN that hopes for Sinuiju’s future remain high.
Hajime Izumi, a North Korea specialist at Japan’s
Shizuoka University, said the
bridge delays come as Beijing
and Pyongyang are rethinking
their relationship, shifting
from the past focus on alliance and mutual friendship to
a more pragmatic one based
instead on mutual interest.
He added that North Korea may also simply be waiting for the Chinese to chip in
more money. AP
Court convicts Web marketer in anti-rumor campaign
A
Beijing court yesterday convicted an Internet marketer of illegal
business practices and
sentenced him to four
years in prison for posting false information
and deleting posts critical of his clients, in a case
that state media have
used to praise a government crackdown on online expression.
Chaoyang District People’s Court also fined Yang
Xiuyu, manager of online
marketing company Beijing Erma, 150,000 yuan
(USD24,000).
The court said Erma
made
more
than
530,000 yuan ($86,000)
by posting false information and deleting critical posts between 2008
and 2013 and 220,000
yuan ($36,000) by deleting negative information for others between
May 2012 and 2013. The
unidentified clients included a pharmaceutical
company, a construction
company and a travel
agency.
It is not uncommon in
China for companies to
pay others to generate
online publicity for them,
help promote their reputations or damage those
of their competitors.
Yang was arrested last
year soon after authorities launched an intensified campaign to clean up
rumors, negativity and
unruliness on social media — a platform for Chinese to express themselves to a large audience in
a country where all tra-
ditional media are statecontrolled. While critics
say the campaign has suppressed criticism of the
government and ruling
Communist Party, commentaries in state media
have leapt on the case to
argue that a cleanup of
“unbecoming behavior”
is needed.
The court previously
said that Yang had used
an account on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging service to
write that a model and
her “sugar daddy” had
spent 8.88 million yuan
($1.4 million) chartering
a jet to go to London for
the 2012 Olympics. Public outrage ensued before it was revealed to have
been a publicity stunt for
the travel agent. AP
wed 19.11.2014
th Anniversary
中國
CHINA
11
HONG KONG
H
ONG Kong’s government cleared some
barriers that have
blocked the city center for the past seven weeks,
with little opposition from prodemocracy protesters who erected them.
Court bailiffs and security staff wearing white gloves moved
to enforce an injunction against
student-led demonstrators blocking an entrance to Citic Tower
in the Admiralty district. The
protesters earlier moved some
barriers themselves to reinforce those at the main protest site
nearby on roads outside the government’s headquarters, where hundreds of demonstrators
remain camped out in tents.
Though the clearance passed
without incident yesterday at
Admiralty, it isn’t clear whether
attempts to remove barricades
will go as smoothly in Mong Kok
across the harbor, which has seen
more clashes in recent weeks.
“Some protesters have not
complied with protest leaders
in Mong Kok and that’s the loose canon,” said Michael Davis, a
law professor at the University
of Hong Kong, who emphasized
that by cooperating students
would demonstrate their respect for the rule of law.
Police have said they will arrest anyone who impedes the
bailiffs and will take “resolute
action” against any violence. No
action has started to clear barricades in Mong Kok, a more
volatile protest zone that is the
target of separate injunctions.
Protesters’
options
are
shrinking after their attempts to
negotiate with the government
failed, a planned trip by demonstration leaders to Beijing
was thwarted and Hong Kong’s
High Court issued injunctions
for the removal of some barricades. Though crowds have
dwindled since their peak six
weeks ago, several hundred
tents remain pitched.
The demonstrations, the largest since China resumed its
sovereignty over Hong Kong in
1997, were sparked by the mainland government’s decision to
screen candidates for the city’s
leadership election in 2017.
“If the policemen just clear
the road outside of Citic car
park then it is acceptable to us,”
Joshua Wong, the 18-year-old
leader of the Scholarism activist group, said before barriers
were removed yesterday. Efforts to clear other parts of the site
would be contested and protesters should make their own decision on whether they are prepared to be arrested, he said.
AP PHOTO
Some barricades cleared from protest
site as demonstrators stand by
A pro-democracy protester removes her belongings before the workers start to clear away barricades at an occupied area outside government headquarters in Hong Kong
Though the
clearance
passed without
incident
yesterday at
Admiralty,
it isn’t clear
whether
attempts
to remove
barricades will
go as smoothly
in Mong Kok
The protesters are losing public support that surged in the
wake of earlier police attempts
to disperse them by using tear
gas and pepper spray. About
67.4 percent of people surveyed said the activists should
give up their street occupation
immediately, a poll conducted
by the Chinese University of
Hong Kong from Nov. 5 to Nov.
11 showed. Those against the
movement rose to 43.5 percent
from 35.5 percent in October.
“Hong Kong is a law-abiding
society and the rest of Hong
Kong expect the occupiers like
everyone else to follow the law,”
the city’s Chief Executive Leung
Chun-ying told reporters yesterday. “The demands on the
part of occupiers when it comes
to constitutional development,
especially universal suffrage to
elect the chief executive in 2017,
is very clear. I don’t see any point
in resisting the court order.”
Among protester demands is
the right for the public to nominate candidates for the leadership election. Leung has said
that isn’t permissible under the
city’s effective constitution, the
Basic Law.
High Court Chief Judge Andrew Cheung Kui-nung ruled
last week that bailiffs can remove obstructions at two protest sites in Mong Kok on the
north side of Victoria Harbour.
The court of appeals on Nov. 15
dismissed appeals against the
injunctions.
Many protesters suspect that
the authorities will resort to
more court orders to gradually
clear out the protest zones after
previous attempts using other
methods failed.
“Before they tried to use police to do it, after that they found triads. Now they’re going to
use bailiffs and injunctions,”
said protester Angelo Heung, a
34-year-old freelance art designer. “They’re going to use legal
principles and court orders but
we still won’t be afraid.”
On several occasions, police
took protesters by surprise as
they attempted to dismantle
barricades in dawn operations
that backfired, drawing more
people out into the streets.
Groups of masked men who
some suspect were members
of triads, or organized crime
gangs, have also clashed with
protesters as they attempted to
remove barricades.
The barricade removal comes
after the tower’s owner, Chinese state-owned conglomerate
Citic Ltd., was granted a restraining order requiring protesters to stop blocking access
for cars and pedestrians to the
building. A court also granted a
separate order against a second
protest site in Kowloon’s Mong
Kok district brought by taxi and
minibus operators. Activists are
also occupying a third site in the
Causeway Bay shopping district
that is not affected by any court
order. Bloomberg/AP
87% in poll say hk withstood
democracy protests
HONG KONG’S appeal to the
financial community has withstood pro-democracy protests that
threatened to become the city’s
biggest political crisis in decades,
according to a Bloomberg Global
Poll.
Eighty-seven percent of the survey’s 510 respondents said the
democracy movement that blocked
major roads and shopping districts
for seven weeks hasn’t diverted
financial activity away from the
city. Fifty-seven percent said the
protests could drive away business
if they continue, while 30 percent
said that the protests were unlikely
to affect the city’s position as a
financial center. Ten percent said
they weren’t sure.
“Hong Kong has a strong rule of
law and continues to be a major
Asian financial hub,” said Jason
Petras, a Sydney-based portfolio
manager at BT Investment Management Ltd.
“I have no concern whatsoever
about any bigger calamity,” said
Niklas Hageback, a partner at
Valkyria Kapital Ltd., a Hong
Kong-based money-management
firm that oversees about $116 million. “Money is still flowing in here,
no one is taking anything out.”
ASIA-PACIFIC
th Anniversary
亞太版
AP PHOTO
JAPAN
Abe puts off
tax hike, calls
snap poll
Elaine Kurtenbach
Business Writer, Tokyo
J
APAN’S Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called
a snap election for December and put off a
sales tax hike planned for next
year until 2017 as the country
struggles to fend off recession.
Abe said yesterday that he
decided to postpone a second
tax hike after Japan, the world’s third-largest economy,
slumped into recession due to
a tax increase in April. Abe said
he will dissolve parliament on
Friday. The election is scheduled for mid-December.
Delaying the tax hike will
slow Japan’s work on repairing its tattered public finances. But Abe said the risk to
the economy was a bigger
threat.
Fresh elections may seem a
puzzling decision given the
bad news on the economy. But
the Liberal Democrats have a
solid majority and hope to further consolidate their power
at a time when opposition parties are weak and in disarray.
The general election will seek
a renewed public mandate for
Abe’s all-or-nothing bid to revive Japan’s economy, which
has suffered from deflation
and stagnation for two decades. After taking office two
years ago, Abe declared “Japan is Back” and vowed to restore his country’s fading economic might.
Japan needs more tax hikes
to get its swollen government
A man looks at electronic stock indicator in Tokyo
debt under control, but the
April tax increase, to 8 percent
from 5 percent, crushed consumer and business spending.
As early as last week, the
Liberal Democrats were coaching freshman lawmakers
on campaign strategies and
opposition parties rushed to
discuss possible new allian-
INDONESIA
Rieka Rahadiana
and Agus Suhana
I
NDONESIAN President
Joko Widodo raised fuel
prices to reduce state energy
subsidies, moving on an election pledge less than a month after taking office to free
funds for development plans.
The price of subsidized gasoline was increased to 8,500
rupiah (USD0.70) a liter from
6,500 rupiah effective yesterday, and diesel has been
raised to 7,500 rupiah a liter
from 5,500 rupiah, after an
announcement by Widodo
in Jakarta late Monday. The
central bank will hold an unscheduled monetary policy review today, spokesman Peter
Jacobs said.
The rupiah and local stocks rallied yesterday on optimism that Widodo, known
as Jokowi, is taking steps to
overhaul Southeast Asia’s
largest
economy.
While
falling oil costs gave the president room to limit the fuel
price increase, his government has yet to say if it will
revamp or scrap the decadesold subsidy system beyond
changing prices.
“This was a very important
step for Indonesia, and basically eliminated retail fuel subsidies overnight with oil tra-
BLOOMBERG
Jokowi raises fuel price to
fulfill key development pledge
ces. Pre-election debates by
party leaders are in the works,
and new campaign posters
have gone up in Tokyo neighborhoods.
Abe got a rare second term
as prime minister, having stepped down just a year into his
rocky first term in office in
2006-2007. His support ra-
Indonesia tests female
police recruits’ virginity Niniek Karmini, Jakarta
I
ding where it is now,” Daniel
Wilson, an economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking
Group Ltd. in Singapore, said
in e-mailed comments after
the announcement.
“Raising the subsidized fuel
price will ease the pressure on
Indonesia’s fiscal deficits and
is a positive step for the sovereign rating of Indonesia,”
Takahira Ogawa, a director of
sovereign ratings at Standard
& Poor’s, said in an e-mail
yesterday. Even so, “unless a
comprehensive overhaul of
the domestic fuel price mechanism is put in place, Indonesia’s fiscal position is still
vulnerable to fluctuation in
global oil prices.”
“The country needs a budget
to build infrastructure and
for education and health,”
Jokowi said as he announced
the price changes. “Hopefully,
the decision to shift the subsidy to the productive sector
will open the door for a budget that will be more beneficial for the Indonesian people.” Bloomberg
tings started out high, as share prices surged in early 2013.
But they have fallen recently.
Parliament got bogged down
in squabbles over campaign
finance scandals that led to
resignations of two of his cabinet ministers within weeks
of an early September reshuffle. AP
NDONESIA must stop subjecting female police recruits to physical tests in an effort
to determine whether they are
virgins, a leading human rights
group said yesterday, describing
the practice as degrading and
discriminatory.
Human Rights Watch said in a
report that such tests were a longstanding practice in Indonesia,
where patriarchal attitudes and
practices in the security forces
are common.
The report was based on interviews with female police officers
and police applicants in six Indonesian cities who had undergone
the so called “two-finger” test to
determine whether their hymens
are intact.
The requirement is even posted
on the jobs website for Indonesia’s national police. On yesterday it read, “In addition to the
medical and physical tests, women who want to be policewomen must also undergo virginity
tests. So all women who want
to become policewomen should
keep their virginity.”
Citing medical experts, Human
Rights Watch said the physical
tests are useless in determining
virginity.
Indonesian police spokesman
Maj. Gen. Ronny Sompie urged
people not “respond negatively”
to the tests, saying they were ai-
XINHUA
12
19.11.2014 wed
med at ensuring applicants were
free from sexually transmitted
diseases. He said both male and
female recruits also get blood
tests for STDs.
“All of this is done in a professional manner and did not harm
the applicants,” Sompie said.
Human Rights Watch has documented the use of abusive virginity tests by police in several
other countries, including Egypt,
India and Afghanistan.
In a video interview recorded
by the group, a 24-year-old Indonesian woman said she was
among 20 applicants who underwent the test.
“I feared that after they performed the test I would not be a virgin anymore,” she told the group
in a silhouetted video interview.
“They inserted two fingers with
gels ... it really hurt.” AP
wed 19.11.2014
th Anniversary
分析
WORLD
13
ISRAEL
Tia Goldenberg, Jerusalem
T
WO Palestinians stormed a Jerusalem synagogue
yesterday,
attacking worshippers
praying inside with meat cleavers and a gun, and killing four
people before they were killed
in a shootout with police, officials said.
The attack, the deadliest in
Jerusalem in years, is bound
to ratchet up fears of sustained
violence in the city, already on
edge amid soaring tensions
over a contested holy site.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel will
“respond harshly” to the attack,
describing it as a “cruel murder
of Jews who came to pray and
were killed by despicable murderers.” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he spoke to
Netanyahu after the assault and
denounced it as an “act of pure
terror and senseless brutality
and violence.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, the first time he has done
so since a recent spike in deadly
violence against Israelis began.
He also called for an end to Israeli “provocations” surrounding the sacred site.
In a statement, Abbas’ office
said he “condemns the killing
of the worshippers in a synagogue in west Jerusalem.” The
statement called for an end to
the “invasion” of the mosque at
the holy site and a halt to “inci-
AP PHOTO
4 killed in Jerusalem synagogue attack
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man prayers as Israeli rescue workers clean the scene of a shooting attack in a Synagogue in Jerusalem
tement” by Israeli ministers.
Israeli police called the incident a terrorist attack and said
the two Palestinian assailants
were cousins from east Jerusalem. The Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine, a
militant group, said the cousins were its members. A PFLP
statement did not specify whe-
ther the group instructed the
cousins to carry out the attack.
Hamas, the militant Palestinian
group that runs the Gaza Strip,
praised the attack.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said six people were
also wounded in the attack,
including two police officers.
Four of the wounded were re-
ported in serious condition. He
said police were searching the
area for other suspects.
Associated Press footage from
the scene showed the synagogue, in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Har Nof neighborhood,
surrounded by police and rescue
workers following the attack.
Wounded worshippers were
being assisted by paramedics
and a bloodied meat cleaver
lay near the scene of the attack. Initially, police had described the weapons used as knives and axes.
“I tried to escape. The man
with the knife approached
me. There was a chair and table between us ... my prayer
shawl got caught. I left it there
and escaped,” Yossi, who was
praying at the synagogue at
the time of the attack, told Israeli Channel 2 TV. He declined to give his last name.
Yosef Posternak, who was
at the synagogue at the time
of the attack, told Israel Radio that about 25 worshippers
were inside when the attackers entered.
“I saw people lying on the
floor, blood everywhere. People
were trying to fight with (the
attackers) but they didn’t have
much of a chance,” he said.
A photo in Israeli media
from inside the synagogue
showed what appeared to be
a body on the floor draped
in a prayer shawl, with blood
smattered nearby.
Police spokeswoman Luba
Samri said the attackers were
Palestinians from east Jerusalem, which has been the scene
of relentless clashes between
Israeli police and Palestinian
protesters in recent months.
She identified the assailants as
Ghassan and Oday Abu Jamal
from the Jabal Mukaber neighborhood. AP
USA
Josh Lederman, Washington
P
RESIDENT Barack
Obama is elevating his
efforts during his last two
years in office to combat
global warming above almost all else as he seeks
to leave an imprint on the
world that will endure after he’s gone. It’s a strategy rooted not only in Obama’s long-stated support
for such efforts, but also
in political reality.
Only two weeks ago,
Obama watched his prospects for realizing his
goals on education, wages
and immigration all but
evaporate as voters handed his party a stinging
rebuke in the midterm
elections, putting Republicans in full control of
Congress for the remainder of his presidency. But
AP PHOTO
Obama stakes final 2 years on climate change
U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping
drink a toast at a lunch banquet in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on a trip last week to Asia
and Australia, Obama
sought — and found —
fruitful opportunities to
make a lasting difference
on global warming.
In China, traditionally
a U.S. adversary on environmental issues, Obama
set an ambitious new target for cutting future
U.S. emissions as part of
a landmark deal in which China will also rein in
pollution. In Australia, he
pledged USD3 billion to
help poorer nations address changing temperatures while prodding Australia’s prime minister
to stop questioning the
science of climate change.
“We’re showing there’s no excuse for other
nations not to come together,” Obama said in
Brisbane, where he also
pressed the issue with
leaders of the world’s 20
largest economies.
The emphasis on climate isn’t all by choice.
Although Obama has
long sought to rally action against climate change, White House aides
say the issue has become
even more attractive after the election because
it’s one where Obama
has considerable leverage
to act without Congress.
Foreign policy is largely
the domain of presidents, and at home, Obama
has aggressively used his
regulatory power to curb
greenhouse gas emissions
over fierce objections
from Republicans and the
energy industry.
“President Obama has
made no secret that his
climate crusade will proceed irrespective of what
the American people want
or what other global leaders caution,” said Laura
Sheehan of the American
Coalition for Clean Coal
Electricity, which represents the coal industry.
Sheehan said Australia,
whose prime minister
rose to power promising
to gut a hated carbon tax,
is a “prime example” of
lessons that some have
learned but Obama has
ignored. She warned the
deal with Beijing, which
allows China’s emissions
to keep increasing until
2030, will stall America’s economy while China’s continues to grow
“thanks to affordable, reliable power.”
Climate change advocates said the deal with China is paving the way for a
successful global climate
treaty that nations are aiming to finalize next year,
because it ups the pressure on reluctant, developing nations like India.
They argue a successful
treaty is the world’s best
chance to avert the worst
effects of global warming.
Facing dim prospects
for Senate ratification
of a new treaty, the administration is considering strategies where the
agreement could be labeled a voluntary expansion
of a 1992 climate treaty,
relying on joint political
pressure to ensure countries comply with certain
parts. AP
14
INFOTAINMENT
what’s ON
...
19.11.2014 wed
th Anniversary
資訊／娛樂
TV canal macau
The 3rd Greater China Illustration Awards
Macau Roving Exhibition
Time: 12pm-8pm (Closed Mondays)
Until: December 7, 2014
Venue: Macau Design Centre 2nd Floor,
13:00
TDM News (Repeated)
13:30
News (RTPi) Delayed Broadcast
14:30
RTPi Live
18:10
Brazil Avenue (Repeated)
19:00
TDM Interview (Repeated)
Travessa da Fabrica No.5, Macau
Admission: Free
Enquiries: (853) 2852 0335
19:30
Soap Opera
20:30
Main News, Financial & Weather Report
21:00
Montra do Lilau
In Macau in a Gentle Wind
–Solo Exhibition by Hsiao Mei
Time: 12:00 noon to 7:00 pm (Closed on Tuesdays)
Until: December 7, 2014
Venue: Ox Warehouse, corner of Avenida Do
21:45
Cougar Town S4
22:10
Brazil Avenue
23:00
TDM News
23:30
Miscellaneous
00:30
Main News, Financial & Weather Report (Repeated)
Coronel Mesquita and Avenida Do Almirante Lacerda
Admission: Free
Enquiries: (853) 2853 0026
14th Macau Food Festival
Time: 5pm-11pm (Mondays to Thursdays)
3pm-midnight (Fridays to Sundays)
Until: November 23, 2014
Venue: Sai Van Lake Square
Admission: Free
Enquires: (853) 2857 5756
Time & Routes of free shuttle bus
(3 routes): 5pm-11:30pm (Mondays to
Thursdays)
3pm-12:30 midnight (Fridays to
Sundays)
Return service to Sai Van Lake Square
and Macau Luso Bank (Av. Dr. Mario Soares), OCBC
Weng Hang Bank (32, Est. Marginal do Hipodromo),
opposite Altira Macau Hotel in Taipa
The Times of Typhoons
– Exhibition of Macau’s Archival Materials
Time: 10am-6pm
cinema
cineteatro
13 Nov -19 Nov
INTERSTELLAR_
room 1
2.30, 6.00, 9.00 pm
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway,
Jessica Chastain
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 169min
DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART 2_
room 2
2.30, 4.30, 7.30, 9.30 pm
Director: Johnnie To
Starring: Louis Koo, Miriam Yeung, Gao Yuanyuan
Language: Cantonese (English and Chinese)
Duration: 115min
(Closed on Mondays and public holidays)
Until: December 7, 2014
Venue: Historical Archives of Macau
Admission: Free
Enquiries: (853) 2859 2919
Offbeat
US
AP PHOTO
woman wears colander
for driver’s license photo
A Utah woman says she
encountered only brief
resistance when she recently had her driver’s license photo taken while
wearing a colander on her
head as a religious statement.
Asia Lemmon, whose legal name appears on her
driver’s license as Jessica Steinhauser, said the
pasta strainer represents
her beliefs in the satirical
Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
The Flying Spaghetti
Monster movement, also
known as “Pastafarianism,” started in 2005 as
a protest against teaching intelligent design as an alternative
to evolution in Kansas schools.
When she had the photo taken Sept. 29, Lemmon said she
wasn’t sure if officials at the Division of Motor Vehicles office
in Hurricane would allow her to wear the headgear, but “it was
surprisingly really, really easy.”
Nannette Rolfe, the director of Utah’s Driver License Division, said about a dozen Pastafarians have had their state
driver’s license photos taken with a similar colander or pasta
strainer on their heads in recent years.
“As long as we can get a visual of the face, we’re fine if they
choose to wear the headgear,” she said.
Hats and headgear are not allowed for driver’s license photos unless they’re religious garments.
this day in history
BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP_
room 3
2.15, 4.00, 5.45, 9.30 pm
Director: Rowan Joffe
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 92min
GANGSTER PAY DAY_
room 3
7.30 pm
Director: Lee Po Cheung
Starring: Anthony Wong, Charlene Choi, Wong Yau
Nam
Language: Cantonese (English and Chinese)
Duration: 134min
macau tower
6 Nov - 26 Nov
INTERSTELLAR_
2.30, 5.30, 8.30 pm
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway,
Jessica Chastain
Language: English (Chinese)
Duration: 169min
1985 Superpower summit
‘off to good start’
The first meeting in six years between the world’s
superpowers - the United States and the Soviet
Union - has begun in Switzerland.
Early reports indicate the meeting between President Ronald Reagan and the Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev in Geneva has got off to a good start.
Their first get together this morning - at the Villa
Water Lily owned by the Aga Khan - lasted four times
the scheduled 15 minutes.
The two men were alone apart from their interpreters.
And in the afternoon they unexpectedly went off entirely by themselves for an hour.
However, a key stumbling block to any agreement is
expected to be America’s Strategic Defence Initiative
(SDI) - popularly known as “Star Wars”.
Mr Reagan believes a defensive shield of laser gun
ships in space would guarantee peace.
But Mr Gorbachev believes SDI could upset the nuclear balance and allow a state with the technology
to launch an attack untroubled by the threat of retaliation.
There is a complete news blackout on details until
the end of the summit on Thursday.
But the general atmosphere was upbeat at the end
of the first day with Mr Gorbachev announcing the
two men had got down to “serious business”.
“We must achieve decisions together,” the Soviet
leader said.
The presidents and their wives later dined together.
The summit continues tomorrow when the leaders
are expected to discuss arms control, regional conflicts and human rights.
In the absence of hard news regarding the summit,
much interest has been focused on the activities of
the leaders’ wives.
On Tuesday Raisa Gorbachev and Nancy Reagan
carried out separate public programmes but met for
tea in the afternoon.
Reporters have dubbed the women’s alleged desire
to be the best-dressed - “Style Wars”.
Courtesy BBC News
In context
Both sides painted a positive picture of the summit but the
lack of specific details in the subsequent agreement reflected
areas of major differences.
The document signed by the two presidents committed them
to work towards a 50% cut in their nuclear arsenals and explore the possibility of an agreement on medium range missiles.
It also said they should try and resolve “humanitarian cases”
- believed to refer to the USSR granting exit visas to Soviet
Jews.
In October 1986 the two men held another summit in Reykjavik in Iceland.
However, after a positive start the meeting ending without
agreement when the US insisted it would not give up the “Star
Wars” programme.
wed 19.11.2014
th Anniversary
資訊／娛樂
Taurus
Mar. 21-Apr. 19
April 20-May 20
Your health should be your top
concern today — something about
it just doesn’t quite sit right with
you. It may be simple to make a
small change that yields profound
beneficial effects.
An object of art suddenly captures
your attention — and may change
your life! Your energy is terrific,
and you may find that you have
what it takes to get started on your
own artistic journey.
Gemini
Cancer
May 21-Jun. 21
Jun. 22-Jul. 22
Someone’s sticking their nose into
your business a little too closely
for your liking. You may need to
tell them to butt out or just slink
away on your own. In any case,
this shouldn’t last too long.
Try to avoid big-picture thinking
today — you’ve got plenty to
worry about in the here and now!
The good news is that you’re sure
to fix up plenty of smaller issues
before sunset.
Leo
Virgo
Jul. 23-Aug. 22
Aug. 23-Sept. 22
You’re doing a lot of thinking —
and rethinking — today, and that
could mean that you need to deal
with an old plan that is sorely in
need of revision. It can lead to a
much brighter future, though!
Take a second look at the fine details
— you are sure to notice something
new. If you’re lucky, it should work
to your advantage, but if not, you
just have to poke at them a little to
get there.
Libra
Sep.23-Oct. 22
Oct. 23 - Nov. 21
It’s time to make plans with your
sweetie or a good friend — someone
very close, in any case. It could be
purely practical, but more likely
there’s an allegory about your
relationship hidden inside.
Capricorn
Nov. 22-Dec. 21
Dec. 22-Jan. 19
Avoid the temptation to ask for as
much as you can get today — try
instead to just get by with what
you’ve got. It’s a lesson in humility
and it’s also just good common
sense for now.
You feel more together today —
and better able to deal with difficult
situations. Things should start to
make a lot more sense before the
end of the day, and that is good for
everyone involved.
Aquarius
SUDOKU
WEATHER
Easy
Medium
Hard
Feb.19-Mar. 20
Superficial appearances are not
helpful or even easy to understand
today — so do what you can to
ensure that you’re looking deeper.
You may need to get your people to
explain in small words.
Don’t worry if things don’t make
sense — you are sure to figure it
all out soon. Just let the facts wash
over you and try to react as best
you can. Things should be much
simpler to understand tomorrow.
DOWN: 1- A Simpson; 2- The Pacific, for example; 3- Discover; 4- Aloft; 5- “ER” extras;
6- Line in a play directed to the audience; 7- Firewood measure; 8- Baht spender; 9- He
owns the place where backpackers crash
in Europe?; 10- Doze; 11- TV producer
Yesterday’s solution
Michaels; 12- First-stringers; 13- I cannot
___ lie; 21- Boxer Laila; 22- Frozen treats;
24- Air rifle ammo; 27- One-twelfth of a
year; 28- Baby blues; 29- Boat propeller; 30Twisted; 31- Zeta follower; 32- DEA agent;
33- Trigonometry ratio; 34- China’s Chou En___; 35- Vase; 37- Like some diets; 38- Library
sight; 40- Sand hill; 41- East ender?; 42- It’s
attractive; 43- Chart shape; 44- Black key;
45- Thin glutinous mud; 46- Female demon;
47- Les ___-Unis; 48- Church instrument; 49Pardon; 50- Approaches; 52- Narrow path for
walkers, cars or ships; 53- End in ___ (draw);
57- Fairy queen
Crossword puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com
CROSSWORDS
ACROSS: 1- Tooth; 6- Pituitary hormone; 10- Strip of wood; 14- ___ the hole; 15London district; 16- Brief letter, paper money; 17- Brings up; 18- Nest eggs, briefly;
19- Hurler Hershiser; 20- Attire; 21- Supplementary; 23- Dignify; 25- Inflammatory
condition of the skin; 26- Slugger’s stat; 27- Free-for-all; 29- 1936 Olympics star;
32- “The Highwayman” poet; 33- Actor Gulager; 36- Commedia dell’___; 37- Less
loony; 38- Male swine; 39- Scandinavian rug; 40- Bar game; 41- Red fluorescent dye;
42- Compost; 43- Debate side; 44- Oblique; 47- Primitive form of wheat; 51- Scourge;
54- Algonquian language; 55- Describe; 56- I could ___ horse!; 57- Molten material; 58French friend; 59- Bad mood; 60- Light ___; 61- Nipple; 62- Goes out with; 63- Tendencies;
MAX
Beijing
-2
13
clear
Harbin
-11
2
clear
Tianjin
2
14
clear
CONDITION
Urumqi
-1
7
cloudy/clear
Xi’an
2
12
clear/cloudy
Lhasa
-1
17
clear/cloudy
Chengdu
10
16
drizzle/overcast
Chongqing
11
16
overcast
Kunming
9
19
drizzle/cloudy
Nanjing
5
15
cloudy/clear
Shanghai
10
16
cloudy
clear/cloudy
Wuhan
4
16
Hangzhou
6
16
clear/cloudy
Taipei
18
20
moderate rain/drizzle
Guangzhou
14
22
clear
Hong Kong
18
23
clear
Moscow
-8
-1
light snow
Frankfurt
7
9
drizzle
Paris
4
9
drizzle
London
8
10
drizzle
New York
-2
14
sleet/drizzle
WORLD
Pisces
Jan. 20-Feb. 18
MIN
CHINA
Easy+
Scorpio
You can handle your own baggage
quite well today — in fact, you
should find it dead simple to take
care of almost any need that arises.
You don’t mind asking for help, but
sometimes it’s best to go it alone.
Sagittarius
15
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
16
ADVERTISEMENT
19.11.2014 wed
th Anniversary
廣告
wed 19.11.2014
SPORTS
th Anniversary
體育
OLYMPICS
AP PHOTO
IOC opens door to joint bids
and new sports events
17
FOOTBALL
Former England
coach Eriksson joins
Shanghai
Former England coach Sven-Goran
Eriksson is taking over at Chinese club
Shanghai East Asia. The 66-year-old Swede
said he wants to make the club a force
not only in China but throughout Asia,
and appears willing to spend big to attract
fresh talent. The club reportedly has about
USD82 million to spend on players. “For
sure there will be some new faces, new
players for next season,” Eriksson said.
“Exactly who or which kind of players it’s
too early to speak about that today. But
there will be some new foreigners and
some new Chinese players, yes.” Eriksson is
moving to Shanghai on a two-year contract
after more than a year as coach at southern
China’s Guangzhou R&F, which he led
to a third-place finish last season. The
well-traveled Eriksson coached Benfica,
Manchester City and England from 200106, among other national teams.
AP PHOTO
Japan beats Australia
2-1 in friendly in Osaka
Stephen Wilson
Sports Writer, Lausanne
B
REAKING from the tradition of awarding the Olympics only to a single host city,
the IOC is opening the door
to possible wider bids — including
bids from an entire country, joint
bids from more than one city and
even the possibility of events held in
more than one country.
The possibility of new types of bids
was among the 40 recommendations
released yesterday as part of International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach’s reform agenda,
his drive to make the bidding process
and the games themselves more attractive and less costly.
“We want to create more diversity in
the candidatures,” Bach told a small
group of reporters at the Olympic
Museum in Lausanne. “There is no
one-size-fits-all solution.”
Bach’s proposals also include scrapping the current limit of 28 sports
for the Summer Games to allow for
new events to come in while maintaining a limit of 10,500 athletes and
310 medal events. For the Winter Games, the limit is 2,900 athletes and
100 medal events.
The proposals would allow host cities to propose the inclusion of one
or more events for their games — a
move which would clear the way for
baseball and softball to be included
in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Both
sports were dropped from the Olympics after the 2008 Beijing Games,
but are highly popular in Japan.
The package also includes measures for revamping the bid process to
make it more of a partnership with
candidates, creating an Olympic television channel, and including language on non-discrimination on sexual
orientation in the Olympic Charter
and host city contract.
The proposals also call for the
appointment of an IOC “compliance
officer” on ethics matters and a slight
tweak to the 70-year age limit for IOC
members. A member’s term could be
extended to the age of 74 if approved
by the IOC, with no more than five
cases at a time.
The reforms, called “Olympic Agenda 2020,” will be put to a vote by the
full IOC at a special session in Monaco on Dec. 8-9. Barring any surprise,
most or all the recommendations are
expected to be passed.
“These 40 recommendations are
like a jigsaw puzzle,” Bach said at the
Olympic Museum. “The full picture
is an IOC that safeguards the uniqueness of the Olympic Games and
strengthens sport in society.”
Under the proposals, the IOC will
allow “the organization of entire
sports and disciplines outside the
host city or, in exceptional cases,
outside the host country notably for
reasons of geography and sustainability.”
That would be a first for the Summer Games. The IOC rules already
allow for events to be held in a bordering country for the Winter Games.
“For Winter Games, if two countries
are sharing a mountain, why not share a bid?” Bach said. “If you also have
a city or region that can provide 95
percent of the facilities and 5 percent
is missing, why not to open the door
for them?”
In the Summer Olympics, some
events — such as sailing and many of
the preliminary-round football matches — are already held outside host
cities. But Bach said the IOC is now
ready to open the chance for country
-wide and joint bids.
“In the Summer Games, it’s more
about small or neighboring countries
where you have distances which are
manageable and feasible,” he said.
“It also could be in one country. We
want to have more diversity, to give
smaller countries the opportunity to
organize games.”
There has been a precedent for holding events outside the host country.
Because of quarantine laws in Australia, the equestrian competition for
the 1952 Melbourne Olympics was
held in Stockholm.
Bach stressed, however, that the
principle remains that there should be a “main organizing city” with
an athletes village that serves as the
center of the Olympic experience.
“We want to preserve the Olympic
spirit,” he said. “To have the central Olympic Village and to have the
athletes together, this is the core to
our philosophy. We do not want to
see this destroyed. We want the games with the unity of time, place and
action which is part of the uniqueness of the Olympic Games.” AP
Japan sounded a warning ahead of its
defense of the Asian Cup with a 2-1 friendly
win against Australia yesterday. Brimming
with confidence after a 6-0 beating of
Honduras last Friday, Javier Aguirre’s team
was making a timely improvement ahead
of the Asian Cup in Australia in January.
Second-half goals by substitute Yasuyuki
Konno and Shinji Okazaki earned Japan
a merited victory, with Tim Cahill’s lastminute header bringing scant consolation
for the visitors. Konno headed in at the far
post after 61 minutes after the Australia
defense failed to deal with Keisuke Honda’s
corner from the right, and Okazaki scored
the second with an exquisite flick from
Masato Morishige’s pass.
Rafael Nadal to return
to playing in January
AP PHOTO
International Olympic Committee, IOC, president German Thomas Bach
Rafael Nadal says he will return to playing
at the start of the year. The 14-time Grand
Slam champion hasn’t played since having
his appendix removed this month, forcing
him to miss the season-ending ATP finals.
Nadal says “I will play in Abu Dhabi in
January, and after that I will play my first
official tournament in Doha.” The Abu
Dhabi exhibition tournament is scheduled
for Jan. 1-3. The tournament in Doha,
Qatar, will be played the following week.
US producer prices rise 0.2 percent
BUZZ in October
Station
THE
Vox Parva
Automakers contributed to inflation by introducing
2015 car models, while beef prices climbed 6 percent and pork prices surged 8.1 percent.
Excluding the volatile categories of food and
energy, prices rose 0.4 percent in October. Still,
overall inflation has been historically mild. Over
the past 12 months, producer prices have risen
1.5 percent, well below the Federal Reserve’s target of 2 percent.
SOURCE: DSMG
opinion
Inflation picked up in October due to higher prices
that U.S. companies received for new model cars,
beef, pork, pharmaceuticals and electric power.
The Labor Department says the producer price index increased 0.2 percent in October from the previous month. The index measures the cost of goods
and services before they reach the consumer.
Prices for many products climbed despite wholesale gas costs plummeting 5.8 percent last month.
Roadside
Air quality
95-125
Bad
High
Density
80-110
Residental Bad
Area
Ambient
80-110
Bad
Benedict Keith Ip
AP PHOTO
JAPAN Ken Takakura, a
craggy-faced, quiet star
known for playing outlaws
and stoic heroes in scores of
Japanese films, has died of
lymphoma. He was 83.
AFGHANISTAN A Taliban
Global drug-trafficking
channels busted in
Guangdong
P
OLICE across Guangdong have busted a
number of international
drug-trafficking channels
following a crackdown on
major cross-border drug
cases in the southern province in previous months,
a senior police officer said,
quoted by China Daily.
The crackdown has dealt
a heavy blow to domestic
and international drug traffickers and producers who
have continuously tried to
turn the prosperous province into a major drug distribution center, said Deng
Jianwei, director of drug
enforcement for the Guangdong provincial department
of public security.
Police in Shenzhen seized
more than 400 kilograms
of methamphetamine, commonly known as “ice”, after
cracking a major drug case
in August. The drugs were
seized before they could be
sent abroad via the Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region.
“Police detained six suspects, including the gang
head surnamed Hu, and
seized 3 vehicles that were
used to transport the drug
in the case. And it was the
largest amount of ‘ice’ seized in a single case,” Deng
told a press conference in
Guangzhou yesterday.
Police in Foshan also sei-
zed more than 26.5 kilograms of heroin and detained 14 suspects after they
jointly busted a major drug
case with their counterparts
from Yunnan province and
the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on Aug 12.
According to the China Daily, investigations
showed that the heroin
seized in the case came
from the so-called “Golden
Triangle” of Thailand, Laos
and Myanmar, providing a
heavy blow to the drug traffickers there.
Guangzhou police seized
another 25.5 kilograms of
heroin and numerous drug
production tools after they
uncovered a drug production facility in Xintang
township in Guangzhou’s
suburban city of Zengcheng
on Oct 28. Three suspects
were detained in the case.
Police across Guangdong
had detained 24,000 suspects in 23,000 drug cases by the end of October,
Deng said, cited by the Chinese paper.
“The suspects that have
been detained include 103
Hong Kong residents and
a number of compatriots
from Taiwan and residents
from Southeast Asia,” Deng
said.
More than 15 tons of various drugs were seized
and over 200 drug produc-
tion bases were busted in
the first 10 months of the
year when the province
launched the Leiting AntiDrug Operation campaign
to fight drug-related crimes
since the beginning of the
year.
Authorities also raided
450 drug gangs that used
to be active in Guangdong,
the China Daily added.
But Deng reiterated that
fighting drugs and drugrelated crimes is a longterm and difficult task in
Guangdong, which has the
country’s largest number of
drug addicts. “The number
of drug addicts has witnessed an annual growth of
more than 40,000 people
since 2009,” Deng said.
More than 457,000 drug
addicts
are
registered
across the province, accounting for one-sixth of
the country’s total. Guangdong has been the focus
of China’s anti-drug campaign for many years.
“And many overseas drug
traffickers are using different kinds of ways to smuggle drugs in and out of the
province,” Deng said.
Deng hinted that more
special campaigns and operations will be launched to
focus on fighting drugs and
related crimes in the province in the following months, the paper concluded.
suicide bomber and
two gunmen targeted a
foreigners’ compound in
Kabul early yesterday, killing
four people in the latest
fatal blast to hit the Afghan
capital. The attack started
with a small, explosivesladen truck ramming the
gate of the compound
housing foreigners on the
city’s eastern outskirts soon
after sunrise, said Interior
Ministry spokesman Seqid
Sediqqi.
MYANMAR Students in
Myanmar are threatening
to hold nationwide protests
unless the government
amends an education
law that they say restricts
their academic freedom
and prohibits them from
engaging in political
activities. After rallying in the
streets of Yangon for four
consecutive days Monday
— and defying the threat
of arrest — they gave the
government 60 days to meet
their demands.
GERMANY A burst of spring
sunshine could be just the
wakeup call for Europe’s
comet lander. Scientists
raise hopes that as the
Philae lander nears the sun
its solar panel-powered
battery will recharge, and
the first spacecraft to touch
down on a comet will send
a second round of scientific
data back to Earth.
AP PHOTO
Are we able to impart stories, serious
knowledge and studies to our next generation? If so, in what occasions are we
able to do it?
I’ve kept asking myself this question
since I returned from Hong Kong in October. The story begins when I had a
roundtable discussion about Vienna as
an example of a livable city with Maria
Vassilakou and Paul Zimmerman. Ms.
Vassilakou is the Deputy Mayor of the
City of Vienna and Deputy Governor of
the Federal State of Vienna; and Mr. Zimmerman is a well-known HK politician
– a Southern District Councilor. Being
introduced by Dr. Franz Gassner who is
from Vienna too, I was inspired to see
what makes a city charming, interesting
as well as competitive in terms of a world-class setting: To create a so called
smart and good city, the city should ensure that it is good for children. A rich city
is not determined monetarily, but how far
it cares about its stakeholders.
No matter whether it’s a theory, moral
concept, common sense, or a service,
anything that children can understand or
be used will be adaptable for adults in
most cases. Yet we always neglect their
voices. In another sense, we simply decide for them the things that we think
are best. Yet in Macau we do even not
have enough nursery or pre-kindergarten services to take care of our children;
they are forced to compete among the
unbalanced and incomplete government
policies.
The reflection continued when I joined
a study mission in early November about
docent and museum services in Taiwan.
Sizes, topics and presentations can be
very different, but there is one common
factor: They are places where every citizen is invited to join, and the needs of
different age groups and social classes
can be satisfied. Public areas, green
areas and play areas are well designed
for “walkability”. They have dedicated
services to children and families aside
from the standard presentation of relics and beautiful objects. In the National
Palace Museum for instance, some selected relics are organized in a way that
youngsters can play and learn interactively. Courses are delivered regularly on
a daily basis to teach them how to appreciate the aesthetics and history of the
objects, while all seriousness is maintained in order to keep attracting them to
come. It was amazing to hear some kids
tell me that the museum is more than a
place to play in, but a place which they
can share and can be proud of.
“And the king will answer them, ‘Truly
I tell you, just as you did it to one of the
least of these who are members of my
family, you did it to me.’” How far are we
in Macau proud of our history? Only to
the point when it can be traded as an asset for tourism? A city is far too shallow
when the protagonists are not our children. In such a way our creativity and
liveliness will be forfeited, and the city
is truly filled with adults suffering from
dullness and stubbornness.
WORLD BRIEFS
XINHUA
What have we left the
children?
USA Mass murderer Charles
Manson acquires a license
to marry a 26-year-old
woman who visits him in
prison. The marriage license,
which The Associated Press
has obtained, was issued
Nov. 7 for the 80-yearold Manson and Afton
Elaine Burton, who left her
Midwestern home nine
years ago and moved to
Corcoran, California — the
site of the prison — to be
near Manson.
UKRAINE Germany’s foreign
minister yesterday urged
the Ukrainian government
and pro-Russian separatists
to respect their cease-fire
agreement, which has
helped to halt ground
combat but failed to stop
daily artillery exchanges.
wed 19.11.2014
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