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
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Exchange Rates
Units per U.S. dollar as of 10/04
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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