Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
September 1, 2014
Pacquiao to help set up boxing academy in China
MANILA, The Philippines (AP) — Philippine boxing icon Manny Pacquiao
says he will help train boxers in China and expressed confidence that the
country’s 1.4 billion people can produce world champions. Pacquiao says he
partnered with a Chinese company and the Chinese government to set up a
boxing institute in his name to share his knowledge about the sport where the
35-year-old has won eight world titles. Pacquiao, who is also a congressman, told
ABS-CBN television in Manila that his new venture will also help promote good
ties between the Philippines and China, whose territorial dispute in the South
China Sea has intensified in recent months. Pacquiao was in Shanghai to
promote his November 22 fight against Chris Algieri for a World Boxing
Organization welterweight title in Macau.
Japan sees first local dengue case in more than 60 years
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese health authorities have reported the first locally
transmitted case of dengue fever in the country in more than 60 years. The
ministry said the case occurred in Saitama, a prefecture adjacent to Tokyo. Local
media reports said the patient was a teenage girl who has since recovered.
Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga, in confirming the report, said the
news was not cause for alarm because the illness is not transmitted directly from
person to person. Japan sees dozens of imported cases of dengue fever each year,
mostly tourists who catch the illness while travelling in tropical regions. The
disease, which is transmitted by mosquito, was common in Japan during World
War II, but was locally eradicated for decades. Dengue causes symptoms
including fever, severe joint pain, and headaches. There is no treatment.
Dengue has spread in recent years, with 50 million to 100 million dengue
infections per year in more than 100 countries. According to the World Health
Organization, before 1970 only nine countries had experienced dengue
epidemics. Japan reported 249 cases last year.
Tibet puts 20-person limit on tour busses
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities are limiting the number of passengers
aboard tour busses on the mountain roads of Tibet, following two fatal accidents
involving such busses, according to two travel agencies and a man at the official
Tibet Regional Tourism Bureau. “It’s for safety,” said the man who answered the
phone at the tourism bureau, but refused to give his name, a common practice
among Chinese bureaucrats. He confirmed the new rule that puts a 20-person
limit on any tour vehicle, including a driver, a guide, and a police officer, in Tibet.
Tourism has been booming in the Himalayan region, also home to some
treacherous roads that wind and dip amid steep mountains. A tour bus carrying
about 50 people plunged into a ravine on August 9 after crashing with a pickup
truck and a sport utility vehicle in southern Tibet. Forty-four people died. More
recently, a 45-person tour bus fell into a river in southeastern Tibet, killing three
and leaving 13 others missing. A man at the Lhasa Youth Travel Service, who
gave only his last name Wang, said he received a notice announcing the limit. A
woman at the Lhasa International Travel Service also confirmed the same
directive, saying the recent accidents prompted the size restriction on travelling
groups. Li Simin, an expert on tourism, said the measures, including the
addition of a police officer on board, will improve safety.
Sony network hit by attack, exec’s flight diverted
TOKYO (AP) — Sony says its PlayStation Network service for video games
was unusable for two days after being flooded by an online attack. Sony
Computer Entertainment spokesman Satoshi Nakajima has since said the
problems were fixed. Separately, he said an American Airlines flight carrying
Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley from Dallas to San Diego
was diverted to Phoenix about the same time as the attack. An individual or
group called Lizard Squad claimed through a Twitter account that there might
be explosives on the plane. The account also claimed responsibility for the attack
on PlayStation Network. Sony’s network was compromised for about a month in
2011, including the personal data of 77 million accounts. Sony says there was no
breach of personal information in the latest incident.
HOPE FROM THE HOLY SEE. Faithful sing a reunification song during a mass for peace and reconciliation out-
side Myeongdong cathedral in Seoul, South Korea. Pope Francis wrapped up his first trip to Asia by challenging Koreans
— from the North and the South — to reject the “mindset of suspicion and confrontation” that clouds their relations and
find new ways to forge peace on the war-divided peninsula. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Pope leaves South Korea
after urging peace
By Nicole Winfield and Jung-yoon Choi
The Associated Press
S
EOUL, South Korea — Pope Francis
wrapped up his first trip to Asia by
challenging Koreans — from the North
and the South — to reject the “mindset of
suspicion and confrontation” that clouds their
relations and find new ways to forge peace on
the war-divided peninsula.
Before boarding a plane back to Rome, the
pope held a mass of reconciliation at Seoul’s
main cathedral, attended by South Korean
President Park Geun-hye as well as some
North Korean defectors. It was the final event
of a five-day trip that confirmed the impor-
tance of Asia for the papacy and for the
Catholic Church as a whole, given the church
in Asia is young and growing whereas it is
withering in traditionally Christian lands in
Europe.
A plea for peace from the pope came as the
United States and South Korea started a joint
military drill that North Korea warned would
result in a “merciless pre-emptive strike”
against the allies.
In a poignant moment at the start of the
mass, Francis bent down and greeted seven
women, many sitting in wheelchairs, who were
forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese
military during World War II. One gave him a
pin of a butterfly — a symbol of these “comfort
women’s” plight — which he immediately
pinned to his vestments and wore throughout
the mass.
Francis said in his homily that reconcilia-
tion can be brought about only by forgiveness,
even if it seems “impossible, impractical, and
even at times repugnant.”
“Let us pray, then, for the emergence of new
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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian golfer Mohd Nazri Zain had a
rare hole-in-one on a par-4 hole during the SapuraKencana National Qualifier
tournament. Zain holed out on the water-lined 289-yard 16th hole on the Kuala
Lumpur Golf and Country Club’s west course during the tournament, which
awards the winner a place in the $7 million CIMB Classic. There has been only
one hole-in-one on a par-4 on the PGA Tour, by American golfer Andrew Magee
at the TPC Scottsdale during the FBR Open, now called the Phoenix Open, in
2001.
Liane B. Nishimura, Agent
BEIJING (AP) — Action star Jackie Chan says he’s ashamed and saddened
over his son’s arrest on drug charges and has apologized to the public. In a
microblog posting, Chan said his actor son Jaycee Chan would have to face the
consequences of his actions, but promised that the two would face the future
together. Jaycee Chan was detained with Taiwanese movie star Kai Ko. They
are the latest high-profile celebrities to be ensnared in one of China’s biggest
anti-drug crackdowns in two decades. Police said both actors tested positive for
marijuana and admitted using the drug, and that 3.53 ounces of it were taken
from Chan’s home. China named the elder Chan as an anti-drug ambassador in
2009.
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Golfer aces par-4 hole in Kuala Lumpur tournament
Jackie Chan expressed shame over son’s drug arrest
opportunities for dialogue, encounter and the
resolution of differences, for continued gener-
osity in providing humanitarian assistance to
those in need, and for an ever greater recogni-
tion that all Koreans are brothers and sisters,
members of one family, one people,” he said.
During his trip the pope reached out to
China, North Korea, and a host of other
countries that have no relations with the Holy
See.
The pope will visit the Philippines in
January, along with Sri Lanka. In Seoul,
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the archbishop
of Manila, said Francis is offering “a friendly
hand to the other countries, and assuring the
countries we are not here for any worldly
ambition, we are not here as conquerors, we
are here as brothers and sisters.”
Francis laid out these themes from the start
of his visit, which was clouded by the firing of
five rockets from Pyongyang into the sea.
North Korea later said the test firings had
nothing to do with Francis’ arrival but rather
commemorated the 69th anniversary of Ko-
rea’s independence from Japanese occupation.
The U.S.-South Korean military exercises,
involving tens of thousands of troops, are
described by the allies as routine and
defensive, but Pyongyang sees them as
invasion preparation. A spokesman for the
North Korean army’s general staff said in a
statement carried by state media that a “most
powerful and advanced merciless pre-emptive
strike will start any time chosen by us.”
Such rhetoric is typical from the North and
direct strikes by Pyongyang are rare, although
attacks blamed on the North in 2010 killed 50
South Koreans.
Before the mass, Seoul Cardinal Andrew
Continued on page 7
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