Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
October 17, 2016
Girl found wrapped in dead parents’ arms in collapse
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese state media say rescuers recovered a three-year-old
girl who survived under the remains of collapsed homes by being protected by
the bodies of her dead parents. At least 22 people died in the collapse of a group of
decrepit homes in eastern China. Six people survived and are in stable
condition. State broadcaster CCTV reported that firefighters found the girl and
her dead parents under the rubble after 15 hours of rescue work on the outskirts
of the city of Wenzhou. CCTV said the child had only minor injuries and avoided
being struck by heavy objects. Her parents died after being hit by a piece of
cement floor. They were found with their arms around their daughter.
Tourist jailed for three months for silencing sermon
MANDALAY, Myanmar (AP) — A court in Myanmar (also known as Burma)
has sentenced a Dutch citizen to three months in prison for interfering with a
religious observance by unplugging an amplifier blasting a late-night Buddhist
sermon near his hotel in Mandalay, the country’s cultural capital. Klaas
Haytema, 30, and his girlfriend embraced and wept as he left the courtroom
after his sentence was announced. Haytema was arrested in late September
after a crowd gathered around his hotel in protest when the loudspeakers at a
nearby religious hall were turned off. The man, who was reciting the sermon,
pressed charges against Haytema. Haytema was also fined 100,000 kyats (about
$100) for violating visa regulations requiring him to respect the culture. He
could have been sentenced to two years in prison for insulting religion in the
predominantly Buddhist country.
Indonesia arrests man for broadcasting porn on billboard
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian police say a man they arrested for
broadcasting pornography on an electronic billboard in the country’s capital
gained access to the system after it displayed its log-on credentials. Jakarta
police chief Muhammad Iriawan said the suspect, 24-year-old Samudera Al
Hakam Ralial, admitted he hacked the IT system of the billboard operator, but
claims the broadcast of the porn movie was accidental. Eleven people, including
employees of the company responsible for the billboard, were questioned after
the movie was displayed for a few minutes on the giant video screen in southern
Jakarta just after Friday prayers in the Muslim-majority country. Twitter in
social-media-mad Indonesia was set alight by the incident. Many users posted
clips of the billboard as it displayed a Japanese porn movie to passing traffic.
Iriawan said Samudera had passed by the billboard earlier in the day and saw it
was displaying user credentials and other information, which he recorded with a
photograph. He then logged onto the system from his office. According to
Iriawan, Samudera said he didn’t realize a pornographic website he viewed was
uploaded to the billboard. Iriawan said the perpetrator could be charged under
either the Electronic Transaction Law, which carries a maximum prison
sentence of six years and a fine of 1 billion rupiah ($77,000), or the Pornography
Law, which carries a prison sentence of up to 12 years.
Parents of teen girl who died fasting investigated in India
HYDERABAD, India (AP) — Police are investigating the parents of a teenage
girl who died after fasting for 68 days in a religious ritual in southern India, an
inspector said. The 13-year-old girl’s father denied allegations that his daughter
was forced to fast as part of a ritual practiced by Jains, an Indian religion that
preaches nonviolence. “She wanted to become a Jain nun, and had gone on fast
twice in the past,” Lakshmi Chand Samdariya told The Associated Press. “She
never faced any problem” before. But two days after ending her latest fast, when
she was on a liquid diet, “her condition deteriorated,” Samdariya said. “We
shifted her to a local hospital, where she was declared dead” on October 3. Police
in the southern city of Hyderabad opened the case against the girl’s parents after
a complaint was filed by a children’s rights association, inspector M. Mattaiah
said. “This is an allegation, and we are investigating to establish the facts,”
Mattaiah said.
KIROBO MINI. Toyota Motor Corp. SMO Moritaka Yoshida speaks with a compact sized humanoid communication
robot, Kirobo Mini, during a press unveiling in Tokyo. The robot is not equipped with face recognition technology, so it can-
not recognize different people, but the idea is one Kiribo Mini per person, according to Toyota. More people in Japan are
living alone these days, including the elderly and young singles. And they need someone, or in this case something, to talk
to, according to Fuminori Kataoka, general manager in charge of the robot project. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
Toyota’s tiny robot sells for less
than $400, talks, can’t drive
By Yuri Kageyama
AP Business Writer
T
OKYO — The new robot from Japanese
automaker Toyota Motor Corp. can’t do
much but chatter in a high-pitched
voice.
The 39,800-yen ($390), four-inch-tall,
doll-like Kirobo Mini — whose name comes
from kibo, or “hope,” and “robot” — supposedly
has the smarts of a five-year-old.
Fuminori Kataoka, general manager in
charge of the project, says its value is
emotional, going from home to car to the
outdoors as a faithful companion, although the
owner must do all the walking and driving.
Preorders start later this year. Shipments
are set for next year. No overseas sales are
planned so far. The company said it planned a
gradual rollout, initially limited to Tokyo and
Aichi prefecture in central Japan, near
company headquarters, to get feedback from
consumers.
The robot comes equipped with a camera,
microphone, and Bluetooth, and connects to a
smartphone, which needs to be installed with a
special software application. It turns its head
toward a voice, although sometimes that
function fails as its voice recognition is far
from perfect.
“Toyota has been making cars that have a lot
of valuable uses. But this time we’re just
pushing emotional value,” Kataoka said.
During an interview with The Associated
Press, the robot turned its head to the reporter
and then to Kataoka when he replied. But the
first time Kataoka asked the robot for its
name, it replied by asking what kind of car he
had. It got it right the second time. Kataoka
just laughed.
The robot is not equipped with face recogni-
tion technology, and so it cannot recognize
different people. The idea is one Kiribo Mini
per person, according to Toyota.
More people in Japan are living alone,
including the elderly and young singles. And
they need someone, or in this case something,
to talk to, Kataoka said.
But he was amazingly frank about how
useless his robot is.
“This is not smart enough to be called
artificial intelligence,” he said. “This is about
the existence of something you can talk to. A
stuffed animal might not answer back, but
people do talk to it, like my daughter once did
this. But if it talked back, wouldn’t that be
better? And isn’t this better than talking to a
box?”
Some may find depressing, if not disturbing,
a vision of a society of lonely people turning to
dialogue with machines. But proponents say
that’s the reality, and that the technology can
serve as a tool to help care for the sick or the
elderly.
Naoki Mizushina, a researcher at Tokyo-
based MM Research Institute, which studies
the robotics market, said the robot was too
much like talking toys, on sale at cheaper
prices, and it seemed to lack concrete functions
to make it a big hit, such as linking to online
shopping or furnishing convenient informa-
tion.
“Will this take off? It might be tough,” he
Continued on page 13
Asian Currency
Exchange Rates
Vietnam seizes more than 2 tons of elephant tusks
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnamese authorities have seized more than 2
tons of elephant tusks illegally imported from Mozambique. Customs news-
paper reported that 2,052 kilograms of ivory hidden in timber in two containers
was seized at a port in Ho Chi Minh City. Officials in Ho Chi Minh City were not
available for comment. In addition, customs officers in Hanoi International
Airport seized 309 kilograms (682 pounds) of elephant tusks illegally smuggled
from Nigeria. Elephant ivory is used as jewelry and home decorations in
Vietnam, which bans hunting of its own dwindling population of elephants.
Toyota recalls 340,000 Prius hybrid cars for faulty brakes
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. has recalled 340,000 gas-electric hybrid
Prius cars around the world, 212,000 of them in Japan and 94,000 in North
America, for a defect in the parking brake. Toyota acknowledged receiving
reports of crashes, injuries, and deaths. The Japanese automaker refused to
provide details, saying it was still looking into the reports. Toyota said the park-
ing brake cable can disengage unexpectedly, causing it to stop working properly.
So if the car is left in any gear other than park, it could start rolling away and
possibly crash. Toyota said 17,000 Prius vehicles were recalled in Europe, and
the rest in Australia and other regions. The problem models were manufactured
from August 2015 through October 2016. The company said all the vehicles were
manufactured at its Tsutsumi plant in Toyota city, Japan, the company’s
headquarters, one of a handful of plants around the world that make the Prius.
Units per U.S. dollar as of 10/14
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78.337
4070.0
6.7274
2.0721
7.7574
66.936
13053
31650
103.76
8130.0
4.2092
107.06
104.67
3.1678
48.325
63.010
3.7509
1.3841
1136.6
146.88
31.712
35.161
22301