NATION/WORLD
Saturday, March 5, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 9A
WORLD BRIEFLY
China cuts its
economic growth
target to 6.5-7 percent
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Burns fans watch their high school boys basketball team play in the quarterinals at the state 2A
basketball championships on Thursday night at the Pendleton Convention Center.
BURNS: Senior players lost out on
the chance to play two home games
Continued from 1A
classes.
With no gym to use, the girls and
boys teams traveled about 30 miles
west to Crane or 30 miles east to
Riley to practice.
Point guard Madison Carson and
wing Le[i Mace had vivid memo-
ries of the Riley practice, which took
place on a slippery concrete rubber
Àoor at an elementary school gym.
“We practiced really slow that
day,” Mace said.
Although
Harney
County
schools would reopen, Burns’ ¿rst
few “home” games were moved to
John Day and Vale.
Still, a crowd of supporters trav-
eled to each gym to cheer them on.
“That’s the great thing about
Burns. The parents still followed
us around,” boys head coach Mick
Miller said.
Although sports teams from the
school aren’t averse to traveling
— the closest Wapiti League team
to Burns is 75 miles away — both
coaches were disappointed that their
senior players lost out on the chance
to play two home games.
“Regardless of the politics of it, I
felt that we were robbed,” girls head
coach Brandon McMullen said.
Many of the players said focusing
on the team kept them motivated
and free from the distraction that
swirled around their town.
The results on the court showed
— both teams won more than 20
games and made the state tourna-
ment ¿eld.
The boys team rebounded from
a two-point loss to Vernonia in
the quarter¿nals to beat Heppner.
They will play Imbler Saturday, the
winner ¿nishing fourth in the state.
The girls have gone even further,
beating Monroe Friday night to
make it to the championship game
for the second year in a row.
Jake Thompson, the former girls
coach and a social studies teacher at
the high school, said teenagers have
a natural ability to “Àush things
away” when they need to.
Thompson used the refuge
occupation as a teachable moment
in his social studies class, but said
such an event is better left outside
the walls of a basketball gym and a
the camaraderie of a team huddle.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or
541-966-0836.
1-year spaceman: Joints ache, can’t sink basketball
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
(AP) — Fresh from a year in space,
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly said
Friday his muscles and joints ache.
His skin is so sensitive it burns
when he sits or walks. And he can’t
sink a basketball shot.
He’s surprised — not necessarily
about his basketball skills, but
everything else. After his previous
half-year space station mission ¿ve
years ago, he wasn’t nearly this tired
or sore.
“Adjusting to space is easier than
adjusting to Earth for me,” he said at
his ¿rst postÀight news conference
Friday.
Like other astronauts, he got
taller in space. He said he gained 1½
inches. But he lost it almost as soon
as he stood on solid ground.
Kelly returned from the Interna-
tional Space Station on Wednesday,
ending a 340-day mission that set a
U.S. record. It took him a full day to
get back home from the landing site
in Kazakhstan to Houston. That’s
when the aches and pains set in —
this from the guy who hopped out of
his space capsule and later promptly
jumped into his backyard pool.
Initially, he felt better than last
time, but that quickly changed.
The
52-year-old
astronaut
said because his skin hasn’t had
signi¿cant contact with anything
for so long — in space, clothes just
Àoat around you — “it’s very, very
sensitive. It’s almost like a burning
feeling wherever I like sit or lie or
walk. I’m not wearing these shoes
all the time,” he said, kicking up
his right foot, which sported a shiny
black dress shoe. “I just wore them
for you guys.”
Thick running shoes are his
preference these days; they make
his feet “feel a little bit better.”
As for the culture shock of being
back on Earth, Kelly e[pects that
will hit soon. “From having so little
on the space station and so few
choices about what you’re going
to do every day, what’s available to
you, to basically having just about
anything,” he told reporters.
His ¿rst food back on Earth" A
banana he found on his bed aboard
the plane. He didn’t realize the irony
until he ate half of it; he cavorted
around the space station a few
weeks ago in a gorilla suit, a gag
gift from his identical twin, Mark, a
retired astronaut.
The genetic doubles — one in
space, one on the ground — took
part in medical studies throughout
the Àight. NASA wants to know
how the body and mind adjust to
long periods in space before sending
astronauts to Mars; e[peditions are
planned for the 2030s.
NASA’s chief space station
scientist, Julie Robinson, said she’d
ideally like 10 or 12 astronauts to
spend e[tra-long periods in space to
know what all the risks might be.
Johnson Space Center physi-
ologist Dr. John Charles said he
was impressed Kelly managed to
complete all his physical e[ercises
— standing up suddenly, walking
heel-to-toe, navigating an obstacle
course — immediately after
touchdown. He’d likely fare well
on Mars, scrambling to get out of a
spacecraft on his own, taking a fast
spacewalk and settling in, according
to Charles and Mark Kelly.
“He’d be a good e[ample of
somebody who could probably
make that trip to Mars for si[
months and then in a short period
of time, do some reasonable work,”
observed Mark Kelly. Round trip, a
Mars mission would last 2½ years.
BEIJING (AP) — China’s
leadership cut this year’s growth
target for its slowing economy
to 6.5-7 percent and promised
Saturday to open its oil and
telecoms industries to private
competitors as part of sweeping
reforms aimed at boosting
productivity and incomes.
The growth target, down from
last year’s “about 7 percent” and
less than half of 2007’s peak
of 14.2 percent, was included
in a work report delivered by
Premier Li Keqiang to China’s
national legislature in front of
nearly 3,000 delegates gathered
in the cavernous Great Hall of the
People.
Li, the top economic of¿cial,
promised to press ahead with
market-oriented reforms that will
include opening the telecoms,
petroleum and public utilities
industries, though he failed to say
whether foreign companies might
be allowed in. He said private
companies would receive the
same treatment as state-owned
enterprises in project approval,
¿nance and ta[ policy.
“We must deepen reform across
the board,” the premier said in
a nationally televised speech.
He said the market “must play a
decisive role.”
The world’s second-largest
economy has cooled steadily
over the past ¿ve years as the
ruling Communist Party tries to
replace a worn-out model based
on trade and investment with
self-sustaining growth driven by
domestic consumption. Growth in
2015 declined to a 25-year low of
6.9 percent and is forecast to drift
lower this year.
Turkish-Russian
tensions not felt in
village near border
AL-ISSAWIYAH, Syria (AP)
— In this Syrian mountain village
perched above the Mediterranean,
residents say they have enjoyed
a measure of peace, even though
they live near a border that has
seen escalating tensions in recent
months between Turkey and
Russia.
The villagers, most of whom
are members of Syria’s Turkmen
ethnic minority, have formed
their own militia, but they rely
heavily on the Syrian army, said
Al-Issawiyah’s mayor, Mustafa
Yussef Kafe.
On Friday, hundreds of them
lined up to receive a truckload of
food, water and other humanitarian
aid sent by Moscow, a longtime
ally of Syrian President Bashar
Assad. The delivery was part of a
cease-¿re that began last weekend
in the 5-year-old civil war between
Assad and the rebels trying to oust
him from power.
“We live in peace here, and we
are very grateful to Russia for the
help it is offering,” the mayor told
international reporters on a trip to
the village organized by Russia’s
foreign and defense ministries.
On Nov. 24, NATO-ally Turkey
shot down a Russian Su-24 that
it said ignored repeated warnings
and crossed into Turkish airspace
from Syria for about 17 seconds.
The two pilots of the Russian
warplane ejected, but one was
killed by Syrian rebel ¿re as he
parachuted from his aircraft. One
of two helicopters sent to the
crash site to search for survivors
was also hit by rebel ¿re, killing a
serviceman.
Police question Brazil’s
ex-president in
corruption probe
SAO PAULO (AP) —
Brazilian police hauled former
President Luiz Inacio Lula
da Silva from his home and
questioned him for about four
hours Friday in a sprawling
corruption case involving
state-run oil company Petrobras
that has already ensnared some
of the country’s most-powerful
lawmakers and businessmen.
The once-immensely popular
president, who governed from
2003 to 2010 and remains a
towering ¿gure in Brazil, angrily
denounced the morning raid as
part of a campaign to sully his
image, that of his party and that
of his hand-picked successor,
President Dilma Rousseff.
Rousseff also e[pressed her
“total inconformity” with the
operation, which she called
unnecessary, although she
appeared to distance herself from
her one-time mentor by only
brieÀy mentioning Silva in an
address Friday afternoon.
“I felt like a prisoner this
morning,” said Silva, who has
e[pressed interest in possibly
running for president again. “I
have gone through many things,
and I am not one to hold a grudge,
but I don’t think our country can
continue this way.”
At a rally late Friday in Sao
Paulo, an emotional Silva insisted
on his innocence. “If they are a
cent more honest than I, then I will
leave politics,” he pledged, his
eyes welling with tears.
SpaceX launches
satellite, but fails to
land rocket on barge
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
(AP) — SpaceX has another
launch under its belt, but not
another rocket landing.
The leftover ¿rst-stage booster
hit the Àoating platform hard
Friday, said SpaceX chief Elon
Musk. The company never
e[pected to nail this landing, he
said, because of the faster speed
of the booster that was required to
deliver the satellite to an e[tra-
high orbit.
SpaceX scored a rocket landing
on the ground at Cape Canaveral
in December, but has yet to nail a
trickier barge landing at sea.
The good news, though,
is that the unmanned Falcon
9 rocket successfully hoisted
the broadcasting satellite for
Lu[embourg-based company SES.
It was the ¿fth launch
attempt over the past few weeks;
Sunday’s try ended with an engine
shutdown a split second before
liftoff. Friday’s sunset launch
provided a stunning treat along the
coast.
BUSINESS BRIEFLY
Chamber sets
annual meeting
Friday, March 11 by calling
541-481-3014.
IRRIGON — The Irrigon
Chamber of Commerce
invites the public to its
annual meeting.
The no-host gathering is
Wednesday with the meet
and greet starting at 11:45
a.m. at Stokes Landing
Senior Center, 195 N.W.
Opal Place, Irrigon. The meal
is $8 for members and $10
for non-members.
In addition, people are
reminded the chamber is
holding its membership
drive for both new members
and renewals. For more
information, contact 541-922-
3857 or irrigonchamber@
irrigonchamber.com.
Workshops feature
social media
Chamber lunch
features agri-
tourism consultant
BOARDMAN — Janet
Dodson, a consultant
for the EOVA (Eastern
Oregon Visitor Association)
Agri-Tourism Committee,
is the guest speaker at
the upcoming Boardman
Chamber of Commerce
luncheon.
The no-host gathering
is Wednesday, March 16 at
noon at the Port of Morrow,
2 Marine Drive, Boardman.
The meal is $12 per person.
Those who plan to
attend need to RSVP by
UMATILLA — A pair
of upcoming workshops are
designed to help businesses
grow through the use of
social media and provide tips
to save time through the use
of social media.
The free sessions are
Wednesday, March 16 with
Grow Your Business with
Email & Social Media
Marketing from 1:30-4
p.m. and Social Media
Time Savers from 7-8:30
p.m. Presented by Constant
Contact and the Umatilla
Chamber of Commerce, both
workshops will be held at
Umatilla Community Center,
201 Seventh St.
For more information or
to register, contact Karen
Hutchinson-Talaski at
541-922-4825 or karen@
umatillachamber.net or visit
www.constantcontact.com.
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