Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
May 16, 2016
First climbers in two years reach summit of Mount Everest
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nine Nepalese guides reached the top of Mount
Everest, becoming the first climbers in two years to conquer the world’s highest
mountain after two successive natural disasters. Nepal Mountaineering De-
partment official Gyanendra Shrestha, who is at the base camp, said the group
reached the 29,035-foot summit earlier this month. The Nepalese Sherpa guides
are hired by expeditions to carry equipment and fix ropes on the icy and rocky
slopes for use by foreign climbers. Nearly 300 foreign climbers and their guides
are attempting to reach the summit from Nepal this year. Many are expected to
succeed as favorable weather is in the forecast. May is the most popular month
to climb, coming between the harsh winter and dangerous monsoon season.
Nepal is hoping for a safe 2016 season on Everest, after an avalanche triggered
by a powerful earthquake killed 19 climbers and injured 61 others at base camp
last year. In 2014, 16 Sherpa guides were killed by an avalanche above the base
camp. The two disasters largely emptied the peak. Last year’s climbing season
was scrubbed and nearly all of the climbers in 2014 abandoned their attempts
after the avalanche. The only team who reached the summit that year from the
Nepal side was a Chinese woman and her five Sherpa guides.
CATTLE CATWALK. A pair of bulls wait for their turn to walk the ramp during a bovine beauty pageant in Rohtak,
India. Hundreds of cows and bulls walked the ramp in the bovine beauty pageant, which aims to promote domestic cattle
breeds and raise awareness about animal health. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
These beasts are beauties: India
holds bovine beauty pageant
By Rishabh R. Jain
Man loses in China’s first transgender labor dispute
The Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese transgender man says he is disappointed but will
continue to fight for equality after a labor arbitration panel rejected his
complaint that he was fired unfairly, in China’s first transgender job
discrimination case. The man, who uses the name Mr. C to protect his parents
from discrimination, said the panel in the southwestern province of Guizhou
granted his demand for about $62 in wages owed but did not rule that his
dismissal was unfair. Mr. C was hired for a sales job with a local health services
center but was let go after the probation period ended. Mr. C believed he was
dismissed because he lives as a man even though he was born a woman.
R
North Korea expels BBC journalist, complains of coverage
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea has expelled a BBC
journalist for allegedly “insulting the dignity” of the authoritarian country,
which invited scores of foreign media for its ongoing ruling party congress. O
Ryong Il, secretary-general of the North’s National Peace Committee, said news
coverage by the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes distorted facts and “spoke ill of
the system and the leadership of the country.” He said Wingfield-Hayes wrote
an apology, was expelled, and would never be admitted into the country again.
The BBC says Wingfield-Hayes was detained along with producer Maria Byrne
and cameraman Matthew Goddard, and that all have been taken to the
Pyongyang airport. It said they were in North Korea before the congress and had
accompanied a group of Nobel laureates on a trip.
Gang rape, murder of Indonesian girl sparks call for reform
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The rape and murder of a teenage girl by 14 men
has reignited calls in Indonesia for a sexual-violence law that is languishing in
parliament to be enacted. The attack on the girl in Bengkulu province in western
Indonesia occurred April 2 and went largely unnoticed at a national level until
social-media users began highlighting its brutality. Activists from the Alliance
for Community Care of Victims of Sexual Violence called on the government to
urgently pass the Elimination of Sexual Violence Act. Half of the suspects are
younger than 18 years old and the maximum sentence they can receive because
of Indonesia’s child protection law is 10 years. A local police chief in Bengkulu,
Eka Chandra, said trials have begun for the seven minors and prosecutors are
seeking 10-year sentences. Local media reported the girl was dragged into a
forest by one of the perpetrators on her way home from school. She was found
three days later. Arist Merdeka Sirait, chairman of the National Commission for
Child Protection, said the adult suspects could receive the death penalty if
there is evidence the girl’s murder was premeditated. Two of the men are still at
large.
Chinese province orders religion out of school
BEIJING (AP) — A heavily Muslim Chinese province has demanded strict
adherence to a ban on religion in schools after a video was circulated online in
which a kindergartener recited verses from the Quran. The government in the
northwestern province of Gansu reiterated the officially atheistic communist
government’s rules forbidding the presence of religion in public schools at all
levels, saying it was protecting children. “This video has drawn a gasp from the
public, as many people are infuriated,” said the statement. “The Education
Department of Gansu province strongly condemns the act that harms the
mental health of the youth, and demands education agencies of all levels to stop
it resolutely and strictly bans religion from campuses.” In the video, the
unidentified girl is seen wearing a black Muslim head covering and sitting in a
classroom with dozens of other students — apparently all in Muslim attire.
There is no indication when and where the video was taken, but the provincial
government statement said it was taken in the predominantly Muslim
prefecture of Linxia. The government did not identify the kindergarten or if
anyone from the school was punished. China also enforces tight restrictions on
religious participation by young people outside of school, particularly in its
culturally distinct western regions where Islam and Tibetan Buddhism are
widely practiced. The government is especially wary of what it sees as the use of
religion to promote a non-Chinese cultural identity or independence for Tibet
and the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
OHTAK, India — Even beasts can be
beautiful.
Hundreds of cows and bulls walked
the ramp in a north Indian town in a bovine
beauty pageant aimed at promoting domestic
cattle breeds and raising awareness about
animal health.
As farmers led their animals, the panel of
experts judged the beasts for their size and
overall looks, the length of their horns, and, for
the cows, their milk-yielding capacities.
The judges selected 18 winners in various
categories, choosing the healthiest and
best-looking cows and bulls from more than
630 animals in the contest, which was held in
the farming town of Rohtak in Haryana state.
On the ramp, the bovines displayed their
individuality. Some sashayed with casual
grace, while others dug in their heels and had
to be pulled and prodded by their owners to
walk for the judges.
The winners, representing three different
breeds, carried home prizes and a winner’s
sash.
The farmers led their prize cows with pride
at the sprawling grounds of the International
Institute of Veterinary Education and
Research.
“I have brought my best cow for the show
and she has won a prize,” Randhir Singh, a
farmer from nearby Dwarka village, said as he
pointed to a red ribbon tied around the head of
his well-groomed cow, which won first place in
its category. “I wanted my cow to win and she
has done me proud.”
Prem Singh, the Haryana official in charge
of animal husbandry, said only indigenous
breeds were allowed to take part in the contest
because the state government was trying to
popularize local breeds of cows.
Farmers from all 21 districts of Haryana
participated in the cattle show and pageant,
the official said.
In recent years, India has emerged as one of
the world’s largest producers of milk, although
yields from Indian cows are low compared to
those in Europe or America. The government
is trying to improve milk yields of domestic
cows by offering better veterinary support and
counselling to cattle farmers.
China’s Xi congratulates North Korea’s Kim on new title
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi
Jinping has extended his congratulations to
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on his new
title of chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party
of Korea.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency said
Xi, also head of China’s ruling Communist
Party, expressed hope that Kim’s leadership
would bring “new accomplishments in the
cause of building socialism.”
Despite a fraying of ties in recent years, Xi
called the traditional friendship between the
once-close communist neighbors a “shared
treasure.”
He said China stood ready to work for
further improvements in bilateral relations
and to make “positive contributions to safe-
guarding peace, stability, and development in
the region.”
Kim has yet to visit China, despite its status
as the North’s key source of economic and
diplomatic support.
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78.375
4055.0
6.532
2.0956
7.764
66.774
13325
30304
108.63
8107.0
4.031
106.83
104.65
3.1646
46.59
65.453
3.7501
1.3722
1171.5
146.15
32.606
35.455
22358