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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2014)
Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER ASIA / PACIFIC October 6, 2014 Reporters faxed stories at Asian Games SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean officials said North Korean reporters were using fax and American e-mail services to file stories from the Asian Games in Incheon because the northerners’ websites are blocked in the South. An official from Seoul’s Unification Ministry said the North Koreans had a direct communication line set up for the games to send faxes. They also used e-mail accounts from American internet companies such as Google and Yahoo to send stories to Pyongyang. The Korean Peninsula is still technically in a state of war because there has never been a peace treaty to end the 1950-1953 Korean War. There is little communication between the rivals, and South Korea blocks access to official North Korean news sites. China busts smugglers of iPhone 6 in Shanghai BEIJING (AP) — China has busted a slew of smugglers bringing Apple iPhone 6 models into the country ahead of the official release in the country. State media announced the seizure of 453 smartphones in Shanghai. The official Xinhua News Agency said hundreds more were seized during three separate busts in Hong Kong, including from men with a speedboat who were loading contraband onto a wooden sampan-style boat in a mangrove. Xinhua said the seizure was from the luggage of two passengers arriving at the Shanghai airport from Tokyo, one of them Chinese and one of them Japanese. Nearly 700 more of the phones have been confiscated individually from passengers who did not declare them. Last king of Nepal suffers heart attack KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — The last king of Nepal is in stable condition in a hospital after suffering a heart attack, according to doctors. Gyanendra Shah was brought to the hospital last month. He was recovering in the intensive care unit and was out of danger, said Dr. Bharat Rawat at the Norvic Hospital in Kathmandu. Hundreds of Gyanendra supporters crowded the hospital and security was tightened around the hospital in the center of Kathmandu. Gyanendra was the last king to rule Nepal before the Constituent Assembly abolished the centuries-old monarchy and turned the country into a republic. He remains in Nepal as a common citizen with no powers, but is provided security by the government. He was crowned as king in 2001 after his elder brother Birendra was killed in a palace massacre, but remained mostly unpopular. Mass demonstrations forced him to give up his authoritarian rule. Many people believe Gyanendra was involved in the massacre of Birendra and nine other royal family members. An investigation blamed Birendra’s son Dipendra, who was among the dead, for the massacre. Gyanendra has maintained a low profile with occasional public appearances. Despite his unpopularity, he still has tens of thousands of supporters who want the monarchy reinstated. Drunk intruder causes stir at Asian Games village SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Police questioned a South Korean man accused of intruding into the Asian Games athletes’ village while he was drunk and yelling at athletes. South Korean police said the 53-year-old man allegedly followed food suppliers into the security perimeter and inside a restaurant at the village before shouting at players who were there for lunch. Inspector Song Myeong-su said North Korean judo representatives were among the athletes at the restaurant, but added that the verbal outburst didn’t specifically target the North Koreans. Song said police allowed the man to return home and haven’t decided whether to press charges. Indonesia’s Aceh province canes four for gambling BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — Authorities in Indonesia’s conservative Muslim province of Aceh last week caned four gamblers inside a mosque compound as hundreds of people watched. The four were caned five times each at Al Makmur Lamprit mosque in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital. Chief prosecutor Husni Thamrin said the four were detained while playing poker in August and police confiscated $76 from them. It was the second public caning in Aceh in two weeks, and the first since provincial lawmakers passed a new law that punishes gay sex by public caning and subjects non-Muslims to the region’s strict interpretation of Islamic Shariah law. Human-rights groups have said the law violates international treaties signed by Indonesia protecting the rights of minorities and women. Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has a policy of secularism but allows Aceh on Sumatra island to follow a version of Shariah law. Aceh is considered more devout than elsewhere in Muslim- majority Indonesia. The region canes people found guilty of adultery, gambling, and consuming alcohol. Females wearing tight clothes can be fined, as can people who skip Friday prayers. India fined $10,000 for withdrawing athletes INCHEON, South Korea (AP) — India was slapped with a $10,000 fine for its late withdrawal of athletes from the Asian Games. Indian Olympic Association (IOA) joint secretary Rakesh Gupta said the fine was announced by the Olympic Council of Asia, but the national body has protested since “it could not oppose a government decision” to reduce the contingent. The IOA had recommended 662 athletes and 280 officials in a total of 942, but the government cut the list to 516 athletes and 163 support staff for an overall 679, saying only those with a realistic chance of winning medals should participate. India had sent a contingent of 933 members, including 609 athletes, for the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, where it won 65 medals, including 14 gold. ROLLING OUT NEW RULES. Kuwait’s Mohammad Aseel competes in the women’s singles squad A bowling com- petition at Anyang Hogye Gymnasium at the 17th Asian Games in South Korea. On the sidelines of the bowling competition, World Bowling is considering radical changes to the sport. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) Goodbye 300? World Bowling eyes radical changes By Eric Talmadge The Associated Press NCHEON, South Korea — About a month-and-a-half ago, Kevin Dornberger and his Swedish friend Christer Jonsson were watching a bowling tournament in Hong Kong. They made it through most of the afternoon before Jonsson, the secretary general of the World Tenpin Bowling Association, looked at Dornberger, the president of World Bowling. “This is boring,” he said. Dornberger — who has bowled since he was eight years old, had a 40-plus-year competitive career, has rolled 16 perfect 300 games, and now heads the sport’s international governing body — nodded his head emphatically. “I’ve watched more world championships competitions than anyone in the world,” Dornberger told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the Asian Games bowling competition in Incheon, South Korea. “And it has occurred to me that the people who say we are boring have a point.” Dornberger’s solution, which he wants to see implemented by the 2016 World Champion- ships in Doha, Qatar, is a radical overhaul of the very heart of the sport — its complicated, but to bowlers beloved, scoring system. What he would like to see is an arrangement similar to the soccer World Cup that would pit players against each other in a group format culminating in finals. Scoring, possibly only in the finals, could be simplified into a frame-by- frame showdown. The player winning the frame would get one point. Any player getting to six points would automatically be the winner, and that would be the end of it. Another radical suggestion being considered is to make every strike count for 30 points, no I matter what the next ball is. Spares would count for 20. That would make the math a lot easier, but retain the 300 as the perfect score for a game — a tradition many bowlers would be very unhappy to see vanish. “I’m open to anything because I love our sport,” Dornberger said. “I love tradition, but it’s vital that we become an Olympic sport. If we have to be dragged into the 21st century to do that, I’m okay with that.” Here’s how bowling currently works: Each game is broken down into 10 frames. If a bowler rolls a strike, that counts for the 10 pins knocked down in that throw, plus the pins knocked down in the next two throws. If the bowler fails to knock down all the pins on the first throw, there’s another chance. If the bowler knocks over the remaining pins, that’s called a spare, and it counts for the 10, plus however many pins that bowler knocks down in the next throw. If the bowler fails to get a strike or a spare, the score for the first frame is registered as however many pins are knocked down in the first two attempts. Simple enough, right? Dornberger and a lot of people trying to figure out how to keep the sport of bowling out of the gutter don’t think so. At big international competitions, where dozens of bowlers are playing at the same time and the winners are determined by cumulative scores, not finals, it’s hard for spectators to get emotionally involved because no one knows the winners until the whole day’s competition is over. “It took 11½ hours to complete the two rounds of play today,” said Bill Hoffman, a five-time world champion and Hall of Fame bowler who is coaching Hong Kong’s team at the Asian Games. “That is way too long for Continued on page 7 Retirement Living . 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Kina · · Philippine Peso· · · Russian Ruble · · · Saudi Riyal· · · · · Singapore Dollar · · South Korean Won · Sri Lankan Rupee · Taiwan Dollar · · · Thai Baht · · · · · Vietnam Dong · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 77.375 4088.0 6.1395 1.9491 7.7615 61.61 12178 26519 109.76 8084.7 3.2582 98.754 102.51 2.4869 44.814 39.938 3.7517 1.2822 1062.1 130.35 30.415 32.64 21280