Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
May 16, 2016
Female coach leads champion
men’s team in Hong Kong
LOST IN SPACE. An H-2A rocket carrying an x-ray astronomy
satellite called Hitomi is launched from the Tanegashima Space Center
in Kagoshima prefecture, southern Japan, in this February 17, 2016 file
photo. Japan’s space agency has abandoned its efforts to restore the op-
erations of a multimillion-dollar satellite that was to probe the mysteries
of black holes using x-ray telescopes. (Kyodo News via AP, File)
Japan abandons costly
x-ray satellite lost in space
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s space agency has abandoned
its efforts to restore the operations of a multimillion-dollar
satellite that was to probe the mysteries of black holes
using x-ray telescopes.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
announced it would stop trying to fix the satellite after
determining that it was “highly likely” that its two solar
arrays had broken off at their bases.
Contact was lost with the satellite on March 26, more
than a month after its launch from southern Japan on
February 17.
The satellite, named Hitomi, was much larger than
previous Japanese scientific satellites, measuring 46 feet
in length and weighing 2.7 tons. It was designed to study
x-rays emitted by black holes and other objects in space.
The x-rays cannot be detected on earth, because they are
blocked by its atmosphere.
The space agency initially thought it had received
signals from the lost satellite on three occasions, but later
concluded that the frequencies of the communications
indicated they were not from Hitomi.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) was a principal partner in the Japan-led mission,
which involved eight other nations, including Canada and
the Netherlands.
Japan’s Kyodo News agency reported that Japan spent
about 31 billion yen ($290 million) on the project, and
NASA had invested about $70 million.
HONG KONG (AP) — At age 27, Chan Yuen-ting is
younger than several of the players she coaches at
Eastern Sports Club, yet she has already secured a unique
place for herself in soccer history by becoming the first
woman to lead a men’s team to a top-division national
championship.
Chan took charge at Eastern in December, with the club
not having won the Hong Kong league for 21 years, and in
April the team clinched that elusive title and made their
female coach the talk of the town.
“I’m really lucky,” Chan said to SNTV. “Now I make
history and then no one think that will happen in Hong
Kong. I have to say thanks to the club that they trust me,
give me support, and also player encourage me a lot this
season.”
Chan had impediments in her path: a family that was
skeptical of her career choice, conservative views about
women’s involvement in men’s sports, and her own
anxieties about whether she could command authority
with players who were often verbally — and occasionally
physically — aggressive.
“When I was like, maybe, 13 years old, and I wanted to
play football, my family didn’t allow it, because in Chinese
culture, girls or woman shouldn’t play football, you should
go to dance or you go to draw something, something like
this,” Chan said.
A couple of years after that knockback by her family,
Chan forged her mother’s signature on a form to apply for
a summer training program and joined her local club at
Sha Tin.
Though her path into the sport, and her subsequent
climb to the top of the game in Hong Kong, was littered
with hurdles, her initial inspiration to get involved in
soccer was a common one for teenage girls at the time — a
love for David Beckham.
And her ardor and respect for the former Manchester
United and England great has not dimmed.
“Why I play football is because I love David Beckham,”
Chan said. “Yeah, every time I want to quiz something, I
watch Beckham’s match video and just try to get some
message or positive energy, messages from him.”
Eastern’s title win gives it a shot at next year’s Asian
Champions League, and club bosses have promised to
invest in the squad to pursue further success in 2017, but
FOOTBALL FIRST. Eastern Sports Club head coach Chan
Yuen-ting (top photo, center), celebrates with her players after winning
the Hong Kong Premier League title in Hong Kong. At age 27, Chan is
younger than several of the players she coaches at Eastern Sports Club,
yet she has already secured a unique place for herself in soccer history by
becoming the first woman to lead a men’s team to a top-division national
championship. In the bottom photo, coach Chan gives instruction during
a match against Kitchee Sports Club in the Hong Kong Premier League.
(AP Photos/Kin Cheung)
Chan has ambitions beyond Hong Kong.
“I want to go to another country, maybe just as an
assistant coach to get more knowledge,” Chan said.
“Hong Kong football level is not very high compared
with like Japan, Korea, or even we go other country U.K.,
U.S., so if I have chance I want to go out. And I want to
learn something and then bring something to Hong Kong
football.”
Kim Jong Un’s younger sister gets new post during congress
SEOUL, South Korea
(AP) — North Korean
leader Kim Jong Un’s
younger sister is among the
officials who were awarded
key posts at the country’s
ruling-party
congress,
according to state media.
The Korean Central
News Agency reported that
Kim Yo Jong was named a
member of the Workers’
Party of Korea’s Central
Committee during the
recent congress.
State media also said
Kim Yo Jong has served as
a vice department director
at the ruling party.
Believed to be in her late
20s, she frequently appears
at her brother’s public
events, standing out amid
elderly male officials.
While the new post
raises Kim Yo Jong’s
profile, it does not elevate
her to North Korea’s No. 2
position, as some North
Korea-watchers had specu-
lated might happen during
the congress.
NORTH’S NEPOTISM. An image of North Korean leader Kim Jong
Un’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, is shown on a screen broadcasting
a television news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South
Korea, in this November 27, 2014 file photo. Kim Yo Jong is among the
officials who won promotions at the country’s ruling-party congress. The
letters in the photo read “Kim Jong Un’s sister.” (AP Photo/Ahn Young-
joon, File)
Malaysia: Two more pieces ‘almost certainly’ from Flight 370
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) —
Malaysia’s government says two more
pieces of debris, discovered in South Africa
and Rodrigues Island off Mauritius, were
“almost certainly” from Flight 370, which
mysteriously disappeared more than two
years ago with 239 people on board.
The announcement means a total of five
pieces of debris from the Malaysia Airlines
jet have now been discovered in various
spots around the Indian Ocean since it
vanished on March 8, 2014, while flying
from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Transport minister Liow Tiong Lai said
the two new pieces were an engine cowling
piece with a partial Rolls-Royce logo and
an interior panel piece from an aircraft
cabin. This was the first interior part
found from the missing plane.
An international team of experts in
Australia who examined the debris con-
cluded that both pieces were consistent
with panels found on a Malaysia Airlines
Boeing 777 aircraft, Liow said.
“As such, the team has confirmed that
both pieces of debris from South Africa and
Rodrigues Island are almost certainly
from MH370,” he said in a statement.
In March, investigators confirmed two
pieces of debris found along Mozambique’s
coast were almost certainly from the air-
craft. Last year, a wing part washed
ashore on Reunion Island in France.
Flight 370 is believed to have crashed
somewhere in a remote stretch of the
southern Indian Ocean about 1,100 miles
off Australia’s west coast. An ongoing
search has found nothing so far. Authori-
ties predicted that any debris from the
plane that isn’t on the ocean floor would
eventually be carried by currents to the
east coast of Africa.
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