Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
December 17, 2018
Rally urges release of “Person of the Year” journalists
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Several dozen journalists and activists held a
rally in Myanmar’s biggest city to mark the anniversary of the arrest of two
reporters for the Reuters news agency who are among a group of journalists
being honored by TIME magazine as its “Person of the Year.” The protesters
wore t-shirts calling for the release of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who had
reported on a brutal military-led crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority.
They were arrested more than a year ago and charged with illegal possession of
official documents. The two, who were sentenced in September to seven years
imprisonment, denied the charge and said they were framed by police. Covers of
some editions of TIME’s next issue carry a picture of the men’s wives holding
photos of their husbands.
Indian bishop accused of misusing funds for family resigns
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of an
Indian bishop who, according to news reports, was accused of misappropriating
church funds to support a secret family. Bishop Prasad Gallela of Cuddapah in
southern India denied the accusations. The Vatican said Gallela had offered to
resign and Francis accepted. At 56, Gallela is well below the normal retirement
age of 75 for bishops. The Ucanews news agency, which covers the Catholic
Church closely in Asia, said two lay Catholics filed a criminal complaint against
Gallela accusing him of misappropriating diocesan social welfare funds to
support a wife and teenage son. Ucanews quoted Gallela as saying the
accusations were false and that the woman identified as his wife on land deeds is
actually the wife of his dead brother.
Team Japan’s coach goes with youth for Asian Cup squad
TOKYO (AP) — Southampton’s Maya Yoshida and Salzburg’s Takumi
Minamino have been included in a Japan squad that will be missing Shinji
Okazaki and Shinji Kagawa at next month’s Asian Cup. The January 5 through
February 1 tournament in the United Arab Emirates will be Japan’s first Asian
Cup under head coach Hajime Moriyasu, who has a record of four wins and a
draw since succeeding Akira Nishino after the World Cup in Russia. “The last
time we couldn’t win the title,” Moriyasu said. “So for this Asian Cup, I hope to
win back the title and bring it back to Japan. We hope to compete with that goal
in mind.” Leicester City striker Okazaki and Borussia Dortmund playmaker
Kagawa were both omitted in the announcement. Moriyasu said he was eager to
give younger players some international experience, overlooking some veterans
who played earlier this year at the World Cup. “The players chosen this time
might have less experience, but I want them to have strong feelings about
building their own new national team and competing for the title with these
feelings in mind,” Moriyasu said. Japan will face Turkmenistan in its Group F
opener on January 9, followed by matches against Oman on January 13 and
Uzbekistan on January 17. The expanded Asian Cup features 24 teams. Japan
last won the quadrennial continental championship in 2011 when it beat
Australia in Qatar. Australia won the last Asian Cup on home soil in 2015.
Surrogate moms freed after vowing to keep babies
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodian officials say 32 women who
acted illegally as surrogate mothers and were charged with human trafficking
have been provisionally released from detention after agreeing to keep the
babies they gave birth to rather than giving them up as originally planned. A
spokeswoman for the National Committee for Counter-Trafficking said the
women, who were charged in July for breaking surrogacy and human-traffick-
ing laws, were released on bail in three groups. Acting as an intermediary
between an adoptive parent and a pregnant woman carries a penalty of one to six
months in prison. The human-trafficking offense is punishable by seven to 15
years of imprisonment. A Chinese man and four Cambodian women accused of
managing the business were charged with the same offenses.
Japan draft defense plan seeks aircraft carrier for U.S. jets
TOKYO (AP) — Japan is seeking to possess its first aircraft carrier allowing
for the deployment of U.S.-made stealth fighters as it seeks to bolster its arms
capability under a new 10-year defense plan. A draft outline of Japan’s new
defense plan presented by the government proposes refitting an existing
helicopter carrier into one that can deploy U.S.-made F-35 stealth fighters
capable of short take-offs and vertical landings. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is
scrapping the current program after only five years in use, citing rapid changes
in the security environment requiring higher deterrence to cope with threats
from North Korea and China. Critics say possession of an aircraft carrier would
give Japan a strike capability in violation to the country’s pacifist constitution.
LUNAR LANDING. In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the Chang’e 4 lunar probe is launched from the
Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern China’s Sichuan province on December 8, 2018. China began its ground-
breaking mission to land a spacecraft on the largely unexplored far side of the moon, demonstrating its growing ambition
as a space power to rival Russia, the European Union, and the U.S. (Jiang Hongjing/Xinhua via AP)
China launches pioneering
mission to far side of moon
By Christopher Bodeen
The Associated Press
EIJING — China has launched a
groundbreaking mission to land a
spacecraft on the largely unexplored
far side of the moon, demonstrating its
growing ambition as a space power to rival
Russia, the European Union, and the U.S.
A Long March 3B rocket carrying a lunar
probe blasted off December 8 at 2:23am from
the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in
Sichuan province, southwestern China, the
official Xinhua News Agency said.
With its Chang’e 4 mission, China hopes to
be the first country to make a soft landing,
which is a landing of a spacecraft during which
no serious damage is incurred. The moon’s far
side is also known as the dark side because it
faces away from Earth and remains
comparatively unknown. It has a different
composition than sites on the near side, where
previous missions have landed.
If successful, the mission would propel the
Chinese space program to a leading position in
one of the most important areas of lunar
exploration.
China landed its Yutu, or “Jade Rabbit,”
rover on the moon five years ago and plans to
send its Chang’e 5 probe there next year and
have it return to Earth with samples — the
first time that will have been done since 1976.
A crewed lunar mission is also under
consideration.
Chang’e 4 is a lander-rover combination and
will explore both above and below the lunar
surface after arriving at the South Pole-
B
Aitken basin’s Von Karman crater following a
27-day journey.
It will also perform radio-astronomical
studies that, because the far side always faces
away from Earth, will be “free from
interference from our planet’s ionosphere,
human-made radio frequencies, and auroral
radiation noise,” space industry expert
Leonard David wrote on the website
Space.com.
It may also carry plant seeds and silkworm
eggs, according to Xinhua.
Chang’e is the goddess of the moon in
Chinese mythology.
China conducted its first crewed space
mission in 2003, making it only the third
country after Russia and the U.S. to do so. It
has put a pair of space stations into orbit, one
of which is still operating as a precursor to a
more than 60-ton station that is due to come
online in 2022. The launch of a Mars rover is
planned for the mid-2020s.
To facilitate communication between
controllers on Earth and the Chang’e 4
mission, China in May launched a relay
satellite named Queqiao, or “Magpie Bridge,”
after an ancient Chinese folk tale.
China’s space program has benefitted from
cooperation with Russia and European
nations, although it was excluded from the
420-ton International Space Station, mainly
due to U.S. legislation barring such coopera-
tion amid concerns over its strong military
connections. Its program also suffered a rare
setback last year with the failed launch of its
Long March 5 rocket.
GRASS-FED
BEEF FOR SALE
Lawmakers pass measure to ease political ban
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s parliament has passed legis-
lation that could allow a five-year ban on political activity by top opposition
politicians to be lifted. The action was the latest in a low-key charm offensive to
improve relations with western nations that accuse Prime Minister Hun Sen’s
government of suppressing human and democratic rights. The main point of
contention has been this year’s general election, which critics charge was
neither free nor fair because the only credible opposition party was dissolved
and its candidates barred from politics. The legislature’s action would allow the
118 top members of the dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party to
apply to have their bans lifted. However, there would be conditions to restora-
tion of political rights that some opposition politicians have already rejected.
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Asian Currency
Exchange Rates
Units per U.S. dollar as of 12/14
Bangladesh Taka· ·
Cambodian Riel · ·
China Renminbi · ·
Fijian Dollar · · · ·
Hong Kong Dollar ·
Indian Rupee · · · ·
Indonesian Rupiah ·
Iranian Rial · · · ·
Japanese Yen · · ·
Laos New Kip · · ·
Malaysian Ringgit ·
Nepal Rupee · · · ·
Pakistani Rupee · ·
Papua N.G. Kina · ·
Philippine Peso· · ·
Russian Ruble · · ·
Saudi Riyal· · · · ·
Singapore Dollar · ·
South Korean Won ·
Sri Lankan Rupee ·
Taiwan Dollar · · ·
Thai Baht · · · · ·
Vietnam Dong · · ·
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83.735
4020.4
6.9051
2.1435
7.8106
71.935
14574
42025
113.3
8536.8
4.182
115.62
138.74
3.2645
53.058
66.729
3.7472
1.3733
1133.0
179.84
30.904
32.834
23472