Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
March 5, 2018
Seoul footing record tab for North Korea at Olympics
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) — How much was it worth to Seoul for
hundreds of North Koreans to attend the PyeongChang Winter Olympics? Try
$2.5 million. According to South Korea’s Unification Ministry, that’s the record
amount the nation allotted to pay the bills of more than 400 North Koreans at
the Winter Games. Only 22 of those people were athletes. The North’s
performers — a 140-member orchestra with vocalists and dancers, an all-female
229-member cheering squad, and a demonstration taekwondo team — were a
major attraction at and around the games. That’s because their presence itself is
seen as a sign of eased tensions after a rough year and because of the exotic
appeal they have due to the general isolation of their country.
Duterte bans reporter from presidential palace compound
MANILA, The Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president has banned a
reporter from entering the presidential palace compound to attend news
briefings because her online news organization’s license to operate was revoked
by the government’s corporate watchdog. President Rodrigo Duterte invoked
the Securities and Exchange Commission ruling in banning Rappler reporter
Pia Ranada from the Malacanang palace complex, where he, his spokesman, and
other top officials hold news briefings. The commission ruled that Rappler
violated a constitutional prohibition on foreign ownership of news media.
Rappler, known for its critical reporting of Duterte’s presidency, and media
watchdogs called the move an attempt to muzzle the press. Presidential
spokesman Harry Roque Jr. argued that it was not, saying she can report by
watching news conferences on television.
Malaysian rapper held for allegedly insulting Islam in video
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian police say an ethnic Chinese
rapper has been detained over complaints that his latest music video featuring
dancers wearing dog masks and performing obscene moves insulted Islam and
could hurt racial harmony. It was the second time in two years that Wee Meng
Chee, popularly known as Namewee, was investigated over his music videos.
Police say Wee was detained after they received four public complaints that his
video marking the Chinese Year of the Dog had “insulted Islam and could
negatively impact racial unity and harmony.” In the video entitled “Like a Dog,”
Wee sits on a chair in a public square in the government administrative capital
with dancers wearing dog masks around him. Several of them mimic the
“doggy-style” sex move.
U.S. fighter jet dumps fuel tanks near fishermen in lake
TOKYO (AP) — A U.S. fighter jet dumped two fuel tanks into a lake in
northern Japan, creating a fuel slick, as about 10 fishermen were catching clams
in boats below, according to officials. No one was injured. The U.S. Air Force said
in a statement that an F-16 jet assigned to Misawa Air Base dumped the
external fuel tanks after developing an engine fire while flying above Lake
Ogawara. The air force said the aircraft returned safely to the base and there
were no injuries to the pilot or people on the ground. Japanese defense minister
Itsunori Onodera said officials spotted parts believed to be from the aircraft in
the lake. He said the water surface was smeared with fuel. The local fisheries
association and town officials were assessing the impact of the fuel leaking from
the tanks. Clams, icefish, and smelt are in season at the lake. Local fisherman
Takao Ebina said his colleagues saw huge columns of water rising from the
lake’s surface about 330 feet from where they were catching clams. “It’s scary.
They might have been hit if the fuel tanks had fallen a bit closer,” he said. There
have been a series of recent incidents involving the U.S. military on the
southern Japanese island of Okinawa, including parts of aircraft falling on
schools.
DIGITAL DESIGNS. Ryo Taniguchi, right, the designer of the characters that will serve as mascots for the Tokyo
2020 Olympic Games and Paralympics Games, receives a 3-D model of his designed characters in Tokyo. The mascots
were selected after a vote among school children across Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
School kids rule: Digital designs
are 2020 Olympic mascots
By Jim Armstrong
The Associated Press
OKYO — The school children have had
their say: A pair of futuristic digital
characters will be the mascots for the
Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.
Organizers unveiled the winning designs at
a school in Tokyo.
A total of 205,755 classes at 16,769 ele-
mentary schools took part in selecting three
short-listed designs, with their classes casting
a single vote.
The winning pair, clad in the ichimatsu
checkered pattern of the official logo of the
games, received 109,041 votes.
“The Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic
Games finally have their mascots,” said
Ryohei Miyata, head of the mascot selection
panel. “This means a lot, especially in Japan. I
cannot wait to see these two characters coming
T
UNICEF says Pakistan is riskiest country for newborns
By Kathy Gannon
The Associated Press
SLAMABAD — The U.N. children’s agen-
cy in a recent report singled out Pakistan
as the riskiest country for newborns,
saying that out of every 1,000 children born in
Pakistan, 46 die at birth.
“It’s abysmal,” said Dr. Ghazna Khalid, a
leading obstetrician in Pakistan’s north-
western Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Province. “We
don’t need frontline medical doctors. We have
plenty of them. We need skilled midwives.”
The report, with its dismal figures that show
South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa as the
worst places for a child to be born, is part of
UNICEF’s new campaign, launched to raise
awareness to bring down neonatal mortality
I
Philippine chief justice taking leave, expects impeachment
MANILA, The Philippines (AP) — A Philippine Supreme Court chief justice
expects to be impeached by the House of Representatives and will go on
indefinite leave to prepare for the trial, according to a spokesman. Chief Justice
Maria Lourdes Sereno will go on leave, but is confident of being cleared of any
wrongdoing during the impeachment trial, spokesman Jojo Lacanilao said.
Lacanilao stressed the chief justice will not resign amid reports that rival
justices demanded she quit in a meeting. Lacanilao said at a news conference
that any effort to remove the chief justice outside of an impeachment trial is
unconstitutional. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he wanted
Sereno and an anti-graft prosecutor impeached, and accused them of allowing
themselves to be used to discredit his administration.
Seven workers die in India while cleaning drainage pit
HYDERABAD, India (AP) — Seven workers died of suffocation while cleaning
an underground drainage pit at a poultry farm in southern India, according to
police. Deputy superintendent of police Chowdesari said the deaths occurred in
Morem village in Andhra Pradesh state. After the first worker entered the
drainage pit, he shouted for help because he had difficulty breathing.
Chowdesari, who uses one name, said the eight other workers entered the pit to
help. He said four died on the spot and three others succumbed later in a
hospital. A large number of villagers gathered outside the poultry farm and
demanded the arrest of farm officials. Police said they are investigating the
deaths. Such accidents are common in India, where workers clean deep drainage
pits without protective gear.
to life in the stadiums, on the streets, and on
TV.”
Organizers say the mascots combine
tradition with innovation.
Their names will be decided by copywriters
and other professionals and announced in July
or August.
The selection process involving school
children was introduced to get students
enthusiastic about the games while also
ensuring transparency.
The original official logo was hit with
plagiarism allegations and scrapped.
The designer of the winning mascots is Ryo
Taniguchi, who graduated as an art major
from Cabrillo College in California, and is
currently active as a character designer/illus-
trator. His work has been featured by
companies and at exhibitions in Japan.
The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled for July
24 through August 9, 2020.
rates.
Henrietta H. Fore, UNICEF’s executive
director, said after the report’s release that
though the world has “more than halved the
number of deaths among children under the
age of five in the last quarter century, we have
not made similar progress in ending deaths
among children less than one month old.”
“Given that the majority of these deaths are
preventable, clearly, we are failing the world’s
poorest babies,” she said.
UNICEF’s report said that after Pakistan,
the Central African Republic is the next
riskiest country for newborns, and Afghani-
stan is the third.
“Babies born in Japan, Iceland, and
Singapore have the best chance at survival,
Continued on page 4
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83.011
3990.7
6.3454
2.022
7.8308
65.234
13757
37353
105.75
8308.9
3.9035
104.28
110.65
3.198
51.9
56.814
3.7505
1.32
1080.5
155.23
29.273
31.444
22616