Saturday, May 14, 2011

Him Law reveals he has bed scene with Charmaine Sheh in new movie

Him Law and Irene Wong were modeling for a hang bag brand's Autumn Collection. Because of the hot weather, Him was dripping wet in sweat under his leather jacket. He reveals that he is currently shooting new movie Love is the Only Answer and will have kiss and bed scenes with Charmaine Sheh.

Yesterday Him was dressed in a leather outfit under the 32 degree C weather and didn't have the opportunity to show off his chest. Him joked that he already accepted swimwear shows and will show his muscles for the show then. He frankly said that doing these shows is difficult. Recently, Him is shooting for new movie Love is the Only Answer with Charmaine Sheh and Alex Fong. The three of them are in a love triangle, Him reveals that he will soon have kiss and bed scenes with Charmaine. Asked if he's afraid of rumors spreading between them? Him said: "I did think before... collaborate with Charmaine, she's a TV Queen, very challenging." Later he greatly praised Charmaine is very easy to get along with, they chat on the set. Asked if he has asked about Charmaine's rumors recently? He laughed: "No, should not ask too much about her personal matters, we should have mutual respect."

Source: Sina Entertainment
Translated by: aZnangel @ AsianEU

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Ada Choi gives birth to 9 pound 4 oz baby 'big' girl

Ada Choi was expected to due on May 17th, but the day before, Ada already started feeling pain and gave birth to her baby daughter 6 days early at Canossa Hospital. Ada once had a wish to personally experience the natural process of giving birth, but in the end it was not successful and the doctor had to give her a C-section to help her. Ada's baby daughter was born at 5:11pm, weighing 9 pounds and 4 ounces. Her name is Zoe Cheung Chor Yee (張楚兒). Yesterday Ada wrote on Weibo announcing the good news and posted a family photo!

A mother for the first time, Ada felt that the approach of a new life was very amazing, while her husband and father Max Zhang was so happy while carrying the baby, he couldn't stop smiling. He describes his daughter as a strong female because when she first came out, she did not have any loud cries, her hands and feet are thick and solid. Ada chose Canossa Hospital, where many other actresses went into labor there too, like Kelly Chen. It costs the least, starting from HK$100,000 and up.

A May 11, 2011, 5:11pm birth

Yesterday at 5:30pm, Max came down to the hospital's entrance for interviews with the media. A father for the first time, he first thanked everyone for the concern and then bowed. He appeared very excited as he said: "Both mother and daughter are safe. Our baby girl is born, Ada was admitted to the hospital last night, her expected due date was May 17th. Earlier, the magazines reported it all wrong, I saw that her stomach was so big already, so I bought her into the hospital to prepare, it was such a coincidence, eventually our baby girl was born on May 11, 2011 at 5:11pm. She is 9 pounds, 4 ounces and I believe is the heaviest baby in the entire hospital."

Accompanying Ada into the delivery room, Max watched Ada in labor and really felt that being a mother is not easy. He will treat his wife better and when the nurse carried their baby to them, Max's eyes were filled with tears, while Ada already started crying in joy. Asked who the baby looks like? Max said: "She has dad's mouth, and mom's hair. She is a beauty. (Gave her a name?) Ada wants to give her a single character, I want her name to have a "Chor" (楚) in it because I want my daughter to clearly understand the God's truth and in the end, we decided to give her the name "Chor Yee" and English name is Zoe. Her name represents a meaningful life."

Ada's mother already went to visit her in the hospital, asked Max if both parents already visited? He said: "Everyone that should come already came. (When will Ada be discharged?) Not that fast, I won't be working yet, spend some time with her first. (Ada is going to be a full-time housewife?) She cannot settle down like that... let her rest first, I think she'll come back to acting!"

FRIENDS VISIT ADA AND CONGRATULATES NEW PARENTS

At 7pm, Nick Cheung visited Ada at the hospital. The two became good friends after shooting Secret of the Heart, Nick said: "After visiting Ada and seeing her baby girl, perhaps she just gave birth, the baby and mom looks exactly the same. (Give her baby caring tips?) We talked about it before. (What's your gift?) Later, wait until she leaves the hospital. We known each other since Secret of the Heart, and now we both have our own babies!"

Cecilia Cheung: "Congratulations! I wish her success in losing the weight after birth and is prettier than before. Her baby is healthy and happy." She also urged Ada that it is not suitable to start eating supplements after birth, especially fish maw and bird's nest. She said: "This is purely personal opinion because fish maw will cause the wound to stiffen, next time when she gives birth again, it will be hard for surgery. Also, for the first 7 days, it is best to breastfeed because these 7 days is very important for mother and baby. Other things, let nature take its course, eat light and it should be okay."

Ada's best friend and already a mother, Monica Chan said: "Should just let the new parents enjoy the happiness together as a family!" Earlier when Monica visited Ada, she was very emotional and cried: "The baby is very cute, she is 100 times prettier than on camera. I congratulate Ada and Max for becoming parents from the bottom of my heart. I also wish baby grow up fast and becomes a beautiful girl!"

Ada's "big sister" Mary Hon saw the baby and was extremely happy: "Baby is very healthy, very cute. However, it is hard to tell who she looks more like when she's so tiny. Health is the most important, the new father is very happy and smiled nonstop."

Cindy Au: "Congrats! (Baby is over 9 pounds?) Wah, very lucky and as expected. Earlier when we had dinner with Ada, I saw she had long arms and legs, baby will inherit mom's genes. (You will be due soon too!) Since I have experience, I'm not as anxious as the first time."

On Weibo:

Eileen Yeow: "Congrats! So happy, give a kiss to Baby and Ada for me, yeah!"

Koni Lui: "Congrats! A new little life is so fantastic!"

Macy Chan: "Congrats! Who does baby look like? No... whoever she looks like mother or father, she will be beautiful! Congrats to you all as a family!"

Others include: Sonjia Kwok, Leila Tong, Tavia Yeung, Hacken Lee Athena Chu, Leanne Li, Timmy Hung, Astrid Chan, Sammi Cheng, Liza Wang, etc..

Source: Oriental Daily
Translated by: aZnangel @ AsianEU

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Government-Christian tensions highlighted in China (AP)

BEIJING – Leaders of underground Chinese Protestant churches condemned the government's persecution of a fellow congregation, while Catholics voted under the watchful eye of security forces for a new government-approved bishop, reports said.

The developments illustrate growing tensions between Communist authorities and increasingly assertive Christian groups whose memberships are growing rapidly.

While China's Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, Christians are required to worship in churches run by state-controlled groups. However, tens of millions of Christians are believed to worship in unregistered "house" churches which receive varying degrees of harassment.

In Beijing, underground Protestant church leaders issued a petition to the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp legislature, calling for an end to persecution of Shouwang Church and its 1,000 members who have been blocked from their worship place in Beijing in recent weeks.

Members who have sought to hold worship services have been briefly detained or confined to their homes.

Asked about the authorities' actions, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu on Thursday avoided details, but said church members had been "gathering illegally many times and in order to keep social order, public security departments have adopted relevant measures."

The petition, drafted by senior underground church leaders Xie Moshan and Li Tianen and signed by 17 church leaders from six cities, is a strong indication of nationwide support for Shouwang's plight.

"With the incessant growth of the number of urban Christians and the continued expansion of the church, the conflict between state and church of this sort is likely to continue to break out," said the petition, dated Tuesday. It demanded that a law be passed to protect religious freedom.

The expansion and growing influence of house churches has unsettled China's rulers, always suspicious of any independent social group that could challenge Communist authority.

In southern Guangdong province, many security officers accompanied priests and lay people to cast votes Wednesday for Huang Bingzhang, 43, as the new bishop of Shantou, said ucanews.com, a news service that covers the Catholic church in Asia.

Huang, the only candidate, received 66 of the 72 votes, its said. Huang is a member of the National People's Congress and head of the government-controlled Guangdong provincial Catholic Patriotic Association.

Calls to the local religious affairs bureau rang unanswered Friday.

Local authorities had sought to appoint Huang for several years, but had been thwarted by opposition from local Catholics, ucanews.com said. The website is run by the Union of Catholic Asian News, based in Bangkok.

The Vatican-appointed bishop of Shantou, Zhuang Jianjian, has never been recognized by Beijing and has been under house arrest for over a month, it said.

China and the Vatican have no formal relations and even informal contacts have recently been testy. That is largely due to Beijing's insistence that it has a right to assign bishops through carefully orchestrated elections in defiance of the pope's authority to make such appointments.

An accommodation in which most new bishops received tacit approval from the Vatican appeared to break down last year. Chinese officials responded to criticism by accusing the Vatican of seeking to undermine the independence of the Chinese church and interfering in the rights of Chinese Catholics to practice their faith.

China says about 6 million Catholics worship in 6,300 official congregations across the country, although millions more are believed to worship outside the official church. China says almost half of the country's 97 dioceses lack bishops and that it intends to move quickly to fill them — with or without Vatican approval.

In a further sign of that determination, Li Zhigang — a priest with close government ties — was elected bishop of the southwestern diocese of Chengdu on Tuesday, ucanews.com said.



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Rights group says abuses continue in Philippines (AP)

MANILA, Philippines – Amnesty International says human rights abuses continue in the Philippines under new President Benigno Aquino III, and hundreds of violations committed under the previous government remain unresolved.

Aurora Parong, the group's head in the Philippines, said Friday that extra-judicial executions by security forces and armed groups belonging to political clans continue with impunity.

She said almost no perpetrators of more than 200 cases of disappearances and at least 305 extra-judicial killings during former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's administration have been brought to justice.

The government had no immediate comment.



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Japanese climber gets sick, dies on Mt. Everest (AP)

KATMANDU, Nepal – A Japanese climber who became ill while attempting to scale Mount Everest died just several hundred feet (meters) from the summit, a Nepalese official said Friday.

Takashi Ozaki was headed down the slopes of the Everest on Thursday after feeling sick when he collapsed at an altitude of 28,200 feet (8,600 meters), Department of Mountaineering official Tilak Pandey said. He died that afternoon.

Pandey said attempts are being made to bring down the body of the 59-year-old climber, and it most likely will be picked up on Saturday by a helicopter from a lower camp.

Ozaki was attempting to reach the 29,035-foot (8,850-meter) summit with a team of international climbers.

He is the third climber to die this year while attempting to climb the world's highest peak from the southern side. More than 200 climbers are known to have died while attempting to climb Everest.

In 1996, Ozaki became the first climber to summit Mt. Hkakabo Razi, Myanmar's highest peak at 19,294 feet (5,881 meters), according to the Uemura Naomi Memorial Museum, a private foundation that gives out awards in the name of the famous Japanese climber.

(This version CORRECTS the climber's name.)



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Gasoline bomb explodes in China bank, hurts dozens (AP)

BEIJING – A bank cashier fired for stealing money threw a gasoline bomb inside the bank in northwestern China on Friday, injuring dozens of people, some of whom jumped from a fifth-story window to escape, the local government said.

The suspect, Yang Xianwen, fled but was caught by police about nine hours later a short distance away, the government said.

Employees of the Tianzhu County Rural Credit Cooperative Union were meeting at about 8 a.m. when Yang threw the gasoline bomb, the propaganda office of the county's Communist Party said in a statement.

It said more than 40 people were hurt, 19 seriously. It said some of the injured jumped from the meeting room window onto a three-story building.

The statement said Yang was fired last month for embezzling bank money.

A witness reached by phone and the official Xinhua News Agency described ambulances and police streaming to the scene in the county seat of Tianzhu in Gansu province.

The injured, with visible burns, were carried out of the building on stretchers, according to a witness quoted by Xinhua.

A woman who answered the phone at the Tianzhu County Hospital's security office told The Associated Press about 20 victims had been sent there. She did not know how seriously they were hurt. Like many Chinese, she refused to give her name.

Tianzhu, with about 200,000 people, is an area of pasturelands stuck between deserts and mountains in Gansu province about 450 miles (725 kilometers) west of Beijing.

More than 80 police were involved in the search for Yang, who was cornered at the county waterworks, the county government said.



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China seems to rule out talks with Tibetan leader (AP)

BEIJING – China appeared to rule out talks with the new head of Tibet's government-in-exile on Friday, quashing any hope of improved relations between Beijing and the new leadership.

Beijing does not recognize the government, based in India, that until recently was headed by the Dalai Lama. It has held talks with the Tibetan Buddhist leader and his representatives in the past, but nine rounds have made no headway.

Recently, though, the Dalai Lama turned over political power to an elected head of the government, Lobsang Sangay, a 43-year-old Harvard legal scholar who won April elections.

Lobsang Sangay said this week he was ready to negotiate with China "anytime, anywhere."

However, in an interview with the official "Chinese Tibet" magazine, a top official for Tibetan contacts said Beijing would only meet with personal representatives of the Dalai Lama.

"That government-in-exile of his, no matter who leads (it), it's all just a separatist political clique that betrays the motherland with no legitimacy at all and absolutely no status to engage in dialogue with the representatives of the central government," said Zhu Weiqun.

China accused the Dalai Lama — and other exiled Tibetans — of seeking independence, though the spiritual leader insists he only wants greater autonomy for the region.

Zhu did not say if China would meet with Lobsang Sangay if he were to adopt another title. Previously, China has met with officials of the exile government in their capacity as the Dalai Lama's special representatives.

Lobsang Sangay was elected last month by tens of thousands of Tibetans around the world after the 75-year-old Dalai Lama said he wanted to shift his political authority to an elected leader.

Lobsang Sangay said his government would seek genuine autonomy for Tibet under Chinese rule by following the "middle path," the Dalai Lama's policy of measured compromise.

China claims Tibet has been its territory for centuries, although many Tibetans say they were effectively independent for most of that time. The Dalai Lama fled into exile in amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, nine years after communist forces entered the Himalayan region.



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Thursday, May 12, 2011

Him Law is not afraid of rumors with Charmaine Sheh

 
Law Chung Him (Him Law) and Wang Yuanyuan yesterday attended a handbag event. They wore leather jackets outdoors. Him Jai was sweating bullets. However, Him Jai revealed that recently he took a swimwear modeling show so he had to get into shape. Recently he has been busy with Charmaine Sheh Si Man and Alex Fong Lik Sun on the film A DATE AFTER DIVORCE (YUN YEUK LEI FUN HAU), in which they had a love triangle. He and Ah Sheh even had kiss and bed scenes. Was he afraid of rumors? He said that earlier he already wanted to work with Ah Sheh because she was a television Best Actress. He would not get involved in rumors. Reporters said that he was linked in rumors with Theresa Fu Wing, he immediately said, "Don't mention it." He then changed the subject and said that Ah Sheh was very easy to get along with. Recently Ah Sheh was linked with a rich Mainland businessman. He said that he would not ask others too much about their personal lives.

Wang Yuanyuan yesterday held Him Jai's arm during the show. She was not worried that her boyfriend would be jealous. He also said that earlier she worked with Him Jai on THE MONKEY KING (DAI LAU TIN GUNG) and the collaboration was pleasant. She pointed out that her boyfriend was very generous but jealousy was very normal. Later she will work on a romantic film. If it had any intimate scene she would respect her boyfriend and ask for his opinion.
 
Source: takungpao
Translated by: hktopten 


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Cecilia Cheung rumoured to use body double for non-action scenes


Love Again, produced by Stanley Kwan and directed by Pan Liang Yuan, began its principal filming in Shenzhen, China last week.

Hong Kong actress Cecilia Cheung, who is believed to be pregnant, requested the use of a body double even for non-action scenes, so as to protect her pregnancy.

Most of the time, the Love Again male lead, Korean actor Kwon Sang Woo was forced to act with the double. While he is not thrilled by the arrangement, Sang Woo obliged.

There had been a hot demand for Cecilia in China and Hong Kong, after the actress made her return to showbiz.

Previously, it was rumoured that the actress is currently pregnant with a baby girl, and had reportedly set four major rules prior to the filming. They included the use of a body double, leaving the film set for lunch, limiting the shoot to six hours a day, and the need to go back to Hong Kong daily after the shoot.

In Love Again, Cecilia portrays a florist and only needed to do simple actions such as passing flowers from her left to her right hand. The stalks of flowers were not dangerous, and most of the shots only required facial expressions.

When the crew was preparing for the next scene, Cecilia could be seen listening to songs or talking on the phone. The actress cut herself from everyone and did not even interact with her co-stars Kwon Sang Woo and veteran actress Tanny Tien.

The actress was said to have left at 5pm sharp daily, since working hours had previously been agreed on. Cecilia even had a group of umbrella-carrying bodyguards to escort her to her van.

After Cecilia left, Sang Woo was forced to act with her body double for the rest of the scenes. It is believed that Sang Woo had once questioned the director about the use of a body double and had helplessly obliged when he was told that the arrangement was to help Cecilia protect her latest pregnancy.

Faced with Cecilia's various demands, a crew from Guangzhou lamented, "Whether filming is affected or not, depended on how good the actors are. This time, the actor, producer and director are down-to-earth. However, Cecilia doesn't even let anyone step near her. Fans aside, even when we (the crew members) want to ask her something, we are stopped by her assistant from a few feet away!"


Source: xin.msn
Translated by: mv_228 @ AsianFanatics

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William Chang hides a secret in the Monkey King poster

Chow Yun Fat, Donnie Yen Chi Tan and Aaron Kwok Fu Sing starred film THE MONKEY KING (DAI LAU TIN GUNG)'s first concept poster was unveiled in Cannes. The Hong Kong Film Award winning art director William Chang Suk Ping designed the poster. In order to express the earth shattering concept even more directly, in the poster the golden staff struck many colors out of the Heavenly Palace. Reportedly Chang Suk Ping hid a secret in the poster. "This secret requires attentive people to slowly discover, perhaps they would find numbers or small rules of the graphic and understand the secret message that I hid."

As for Cecilia Cheung Pak Chi and her son Lucas Tse's film TREASURE HUNT (MO GA JI BO), in the poster Pak Chi carried Lucas with a tree vine in hand and swung around like Tarzan.

Sources: mingpao, on.cc
Translated by: hktopten

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Nina Paw feels daughter resembles Josie Ho


Nina Paw Hee Ching, Chung King Fai and Vivien Leung Siu Bing yesterday attended the 2010-2011 3rd Hong Kong Theatre Libre Award. Sister Paw said that recently she worked with Aaron Kwok Fu Sing on Yim Ho's new film, which has been rather difficult. However the film will soon wrap. Sister Paw said that Kwok Fu Sing in the film played her adopted son, Josie Ho Chiu Yi would play her in her youth. Did she feel Chiu Yi look like her? She said that she always thought her daughter resembled Chiu Yi. She pointed out that Chiu Yi had a very tough time during this production as she was constantly bruised.
 
Source: Takungpao
Translated by: hktopten


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India's ruling party outraged over Gandhi's arrest (AFP)

NEW DELHI (AFP) – India's ruling Congress party reacted with fury Thursday after police arrested senior leader Rahul Gandhi, widely tipped as a future prime minister, as he took part in protests by farmers.

The 40-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty and son of Congress party president Sonia Gandhi was briefly taken into custody Wednesday night after he joined farmers protesting against the construction of a highway.

On Thursday, other senior political leaders trying to join the protest, including Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), were also detained by police, reports said.

The arrest of Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh has further poisoned relations between the state's firebrand leader, chief minister Mayawati, and the Congress party, which fiercely protects its young leader's image.

"How can the state government arrest Rahul Gandhi? He is fighting for the farmers and that is not a crime," said Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi in New Delhi.

"The state government of Uttar Pradesh is greedy for farmlands. They are attacking farmers, killing people, destroying crops. We will not let this happen," he told AFP.

Gandhi, an Uttar Pradesh MP, was detained because of fears a rally he planned to hold on Thursday would turn violent, the local government said. He was escorted to the capital and freed at about 2:00 am.

Despite the public anger, Gandhi's smiling face as he was driven away by police was captured on most newspaper front pages Thursday and the arrest might further burnish his leadership credentials and popularity.

"You are not recognised as a political leader in India till you are arrested," said Sanjay Kumar, a political analyst at the Centre for the Developing Societies think-tank in New Delhi.

"Getting arrested is like receiving a medal for any politician. It is their dream to lead a popular movement, stage protests, garner mass support."

The Congress party, which still benefits from its legacy as India's independence-era political party, held protest rallies against Mayawati, a populist low-caste leader who has clashed before with the Gandhis.

Mayawati's government had sought to restrict access to the Bhatta and Parsaul villages on the outskirts of New Delhi where farmers and police battled at the weekend, leaving three people dead.

Gandhi, who has built his image as a champion of the poor, sneaked into the area riding pillion on a motorbike in the early hours of Wednesday. Before his arrest, he spoke with farmers and denounced the local government.

The rising political star is the great-grandson of India's independence prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, grandson of late former prime minister Indira Gandhi and son of late former premier Rajiv Gandhi.

The farmers have been agitating for more than 100 days to demand higher compensation for land acquired as part of a project to build a 165-kilometre (100 mile) expressway between New Delhi and Agra, home to the Taj Mahal.

The Yamuna Expressway aims to reduce driving time between the two famous Indian cities to 90 minutes from its current four hours.

"The entire episode is just a cheap stunt by the Congress. They are trying to disrupt law and order and they have no right to do so. Farmers have been given compensation," Mayawati told reporters on Thursday.

"Rahul Gandhi or rather the 'Yuvraj' (prince) of the Congress party is indulging in dramatics," she said.

Land acquisition for roads, factories or other development is a controversial issue across India.

An editorial in The Hindu newspaper Thursday noted that land acquisition was often exploited by opposition parties ahead of local polls.

"With just a year left for the assembly election, the opposition obviously wants to trip up chief minister Mayawati on the farmers issue, denting her image as a champion of social justice," it said.



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William Chan rocks a school with chest drum

 
 
William Chan Wai Ting, Ken Hung Cheuk Lap, Jonathan Wong Chi Hin and Ng Tung yesterday attended a school Basic Law 2011 event. They played games with students and also performed. Chan Wai Ting sang and danced, and even performed chest drum to make the students scream. Some even told him to "take it off".
 
William said that later he will work on the film DAI GUNG LEUK (BIG RAID). Recently he has been working out to turn his abdominal from six pack to eight pack. Next week he will head to Okinawa, Japan and Inner Mongolia for location shoots. He knew that Okinawa was under radiation threat, but he believed that the team would make arrangement and would not have any issue. Their primary goal was to keep from hindering local rescue work. Was his girlfriend Charlene Choi Cheuk Yin worried? He said not only her, everyone asked whether he had to go. In this film he would work with Siqin Gowa, Cheng Pei Pei and Japanese stars. With two veteran actresses, William said that his acting will be tested and inevitably will pale in comparison. However the chance to work with two elders will be a good opportunity. He thought about studying acting like Ah Sa, but he asked the Pang Brothers who thought that at this stage he was better off being himself. Thus for now he did not plan to learn acting.

Source: Takungpao
Translated by: hktopten

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Russia, Pakistan to join forces to fight terrorism (AP)

MOSCOW – Russian and Pakistani leaders have pledged to work together to fight terrorism and prevent drug-trafficking in Central and Southern Asia.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari were meeting in the Kremlin on Thursday.

The presidents signed a joint statement calling for broader economic and political ties. Russia also discussed Pakistan involvement in a pipeline from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, and expressed interest in helping it modernize a steel plant in Karachi and explore for gas.

Zardari's visit is his first major foreign trip since Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan earlier this month.



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China super rich set to propel luxury yacht sales (AP)

HONG KONG – With their sleek, modern lines and polished finish, the two yachts built by Samuel Wong's shipyard fit right in among the multimillion-dollar floating palaces moored at a tony Hong Kong yacht club.

Onboard, a disco ball, karaoke system and garish neon blue accent lighting in the living quarters are hints that the vessel is aimed at the luxury yacht industry's newest growth market: wealthy Chinese.

Yacht makers are hoping they will be the latest to benefit from China's booming economy, which is creating a growing class of wealthy tycoons splurging on luxury lifestyle pursuits. Rich Chinese are already known for spending lavish sums of money on flashy apartments, designer labels such as Louis Vuitton and high-end cars such as Porsches and Rolls-Royces.

"People in China first will buy houses. Then cars. Then the next step will be the yacht industry," Wong said hopefully at a recent boat expo in Hong Kong. His family-owned shipyard located in Zhuhai, across the border from Macau in mainland China, has been building fishing and house boats for 40 years.

Two years ago, it expanded into luxury yachts under the Accelera brand, a name chosen for its vaguely European sound. That illustrates another recent trend: Chinese companies are expanding into high-end boatbuilding, a field traditionally dominated by the Americans and Europeans. But in Wong's favor are high import duties for foreign yachts, part of China's strategy to help companies in a range of industries develop into global competitors.

About 20 companies in China, including 11 backed by foreign investment, are producing superyachts, which some define as longer than 24 meters (80 feet). Hong Kong-based Kingship Marine is building a 144-footer at its yard in Zhongshan in China's southern Guangdong province. The company hasn't found a buyer yet for the $27 million vessel, which is the biggest being built in China, but Managing Director Roger Liang believes there won't be any shortage of interest.

China is "just like Russia five years ago. Suddenly Russia became a very important player, so this could happen to China," he said, a reference to billionaires such as Roman Abramovich, who owns at least three yachts.

Yacht companies report that China sales started taking off two years ago, raising the possibility that some are being bought with improperly diverted stimulus money and bank lending that flooded the economy as part of government efforts to deflect the 2008 financial crisis. However, sailing experts say many are also being bought by young entrepreneurs who have made fortunes taking their companies public.

China's yachting industry is still in its infancy but local governments are hoping for rapid expansion.

The city of Tianjin is building a 9-billion yuan ($1.4 billion) yacht port that will be the country's largest, with 750 berths to accommodate luxury yachts up to 295 feet (90 meters) long, according to a report in the China Daily newspaper.

Hainan Island on the southern coast, meanwhile, is being positioned as the Chinese Riviera. Qingdao, Xiamen and other ports along China's 14,500-kilometer (9,000 mile) coastline are also being developed to attract the yachting crowd.

There's no shortage of wealthy Chinese with money to blow on luxury motor yachts, a notoriously expensive pasttime. China has 875,000 millionaires and nearly half of them want to buy a boat, according to a survey last year by the Hurun Report, China's version of the Forbes Rich List.

There is plenty of room for growth, with about 1,300 private yachts in China, according to figures cited by state media. In the U.S., the world's biggest yacht market, there are 17 million privately owned recreational boats, according to industry publication International Boating Industry.

However, some sailing enthusiasts are skeptical and say China still has a long way to go before it can rival the superyacht's natural habitats of the Mediterranean or Caribbean.

One problem is murky regulations that vary from province to province. Some cities have rules governing boat ownership and how and where they can be operated, while others don't. That makes it difficult for sailors to make longer journeys.

Poor sailing infrastructure is also a problem, with relatively few experienced staff at a small number of marinas, some of which are located in the middle of industrial areas.

Meanwhile, imported boats are subject to an import duty of at least 43 percent compared with about 15 percent for locally made watercraft. Some yachting experts believe the Chinese government is using the tax to help develop the country's fledgling yacht building industry.

"The Chinese really want to control it, up to the point where probably their own industry has developed to a level that it can run by itself," said Bart Kimman, who runs a yacht management company based in Hong Kong.

To get around red tape, Chinese yacht owners are buying and registering boats in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China with a separate legal system.

Albert Wu, general manager of the Gold Coast Yacht and Country Club, said an increasing number of his 220 berths are occupied by mainland Chinese-owned boats.

Stiff duties don't seem to be deterring status-conscious Chinese from buying ships from established American and European boatbuilders.

Frankie Chan, who traveled with his boss from Beijing to visit the show, was planning to buy five British-made Sunseeker boats.

Chan is vice president of Oursjia, which rents out luxury cars and high-end furniture to 500,000 clients in 60 cities around China. About 10 percent of them have been requesting luxury yachts.

The pair were inspecting two 60-footers that their company would take delivery of, including a sleek, black Predator model costing about 20 million Hong Kong dollars ($2.6 million). They also plan to buy three others that are at least 90 feet long, and come fitted with flat screen televisions, full size fridges and a rear "garage" hatch to stow dinghies, jetskis and other toys.

Chan and his boss plan to travel to Italy later in May to look for more boats to buy. Eventually, they want to have a fleet of 50 yachts from a range of brands based at marinas around China.

"You can't compare with the European boats. If you talk about high-end boats, European boats are the best," said Chan.

Gordon Hui, managing director of Sunseeker Asia Ltd., said that until two years ago, it had almost no sales to Chinese customers. Since then, he's sold about 25 boats to Chinese customers and the market now accounts for 8 to 10 percent of the company's annual production of about 200 yachts a year.

Chinese shipyards are hoping to compete with their foreign rivals by undercutting them on price. Wong's company sells three yachts under the Accelera brand, including a 98-footer that sells for HK$38 million ($4.9 million). Wong reckons that's a quarter of the cost of a comparable American or European model. The company equips its boats with imported generators and other equipment but benefits from lower labor costs at its shipyard in Zhuhai, just over the border from Macau.

Wong has sold some 10 vessels, including one to a company boss from China who paid his deposit of several million Hong Kong dollars in cash.

"We couldn't it count it quickly enough, so we had to go buy a cash-counting machine," he said.



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Communist rebels kill guard at Philippine mine (AP)

MANILA, Philippines – Communist rebels killed a security guard for an American-owned gold mining company in the southern Philippines on Thursday and took the weapons of three others, police said.

About 60 New People's Army guerrillas flagged down four motorcycle-riding guards on a remote mining road and seized three assault rifles and three radios from the group, police Chief Aaron Aquino of Compostela Valley province said.

Aquino said one of the guards working for Russell Mining & Minerals Inc. apparently resisted and was fatally shot.

The rebels fled after releasing the three others and were being pursued by soldiers, he said.

Private security guards are not authorized to carry assault rifles and police have repeatedly warned that such weapons attract rebels, Aquino said.

The rebels have warned that they will launch actions against mining and logging companies, accusing them of taking land from peasants and indigenous people, destroying the environment and not economically helping local people.

The insurgents have fought for a Marxist state for decades.

(This version CORRECTS in paragraph 3 that guard, not rebel, was killed)



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Greater than expected damage seen at Japan reactor (AP)

TOKYO – Nuclear officials say repairs to monitoring equipment have revealed greater than expected damage at one of Japan's troubled reactors that could delay a resolution to the crisis.

They said Thursday the findings indicate it is likely that partially melted fuel rods inside Unit 1 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant had fallen to the bottom of pressure vessel and possibly into the larger containment vessel soon after the March 11 quake and tsunami.

Nuclear Safety and Industrial Agency officials say that there was no danger that the chunks of fuel were still hot or that they could melt through the concrete base of the reactor.

They also said the water level in the unit's core was much lower than previously thought, although temperatures remained far below dangerous levels.



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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Charlene Choi food expert, Chilam Cheung's greatest opponent


Yesterday, Twins, Chilam Cheung and Jim Chim were guests on TVB game show All Star Glam Exam - Comebacks, where even the hosts Grasshopper participated in the games. Carol Cheng also served as a temporary host for the show.


Chilam expressed that he wants to battle his wife Anita Yuen the most: "I heard that if you win, you can come back on for the finals, my wife won earlier, so I have to win too. I want to battle to death with her! (Who is your greatest opponent?) Ah Sa! She really knows how to eat! She's a food expert!" Ah Sa heard this and was modest, she said she's not a food expert: "There are a lot of things I haven't had before! In fact, I don't have much confidence." Standing besides her, Ah Gil quickly supported her. Twins expressed that they fear the pose game the most because they have bad memory and have bad sense of direction. Later, Ah Sa got a perfect score, while Ah Gil got 7. They had excellent results!

Also, earlier Remus Choi was involved in a drinking and driving case and made it clear that he does not want to be interviewed. When he was recording the show, he appeared very active, interacting with fans and giving out his photos. Fans shouted loudly "Handsome Kit", which brought a smile on his face. It seems as if he has recovered from his emotions. As for Carol, who previously won the Jackpot, expressed she's very happy to be able to be the host: "The show has a special version, and asked me for the job, it's like sitting back and enjoying!"

Source: Oriental Daily
Translated by: aZnangel @
AsianEU


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Ella Koon tells Ron Ng not to be 'girl butcher'


Ella Koon and FAMA attended The 13th Hong Kong Wide Secondary School Students Cooking Competition opening ceremony. Regarding ex-rumored boyfriend Ron Ng labeled as 'girl butcher', Ella didn't care: "Most important balancing food and drink." Asked if she's telling Ron not to mess with girls and stop being a 'girl butcher'? She said: "Balancing food and drink is most important, first priority. Today I am here to promote healthy foods, I don't want to talk about other people. Whatever it is, most important is good health."

Source: Oriental Daily, Mingpao
Translated by: aZnangel @
AsianEU

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Matthew Ko breaks barrier, highest scoring player in basketball team


Mr. Hong Kong Matthew Ko, Otto Chan, Jack Hui along with artists Vincent Wong and Eddie Li, singers Alex Hung, Carlos Chan, Steven Cheung, Jonathan Wong, Bro5, Chrisse Chow's boyfriend Avis, DJ Ricky Fan and BEN participated the Panasonic Basketball Invitation Tournament 2011 as the 'Stars Invite Team'. They were against the 'Nam Chung Celebrity Invite Team' .

The group of youngsters faced the group of skilled basketball players on the 'Nam Chung' Team, at first they were helpless as they lost the opportunity to score 4 points. Fortunately the 'Star Team' got better and better as the game went on. Matthew opened the road and started a strong pursuit and got took the lead. His performance was outstanding from start to end, he personally scored 14 points and was the highest scoring player on the team. He also brought the 'Stars Team' score up to 44 points, putting pressure on the opponent team of 35 points.



Matthew's dream is to become an athlete

Scoring 14 points, Matthew expressed that the victory all resulted from team work, he said: "Becoming an athlete is my dream, unfortunately my family opposed to this dream. In the future, if my son is 6 feet, 6inches tall, I will let him become an athlete. Otto Chan, Jack Hui, Vincent Wong, Eddie Li and I do play basketball in our personal lives, so we have chemistry."

Vincent expressed that because of his job, he often misses out on playing ball and jokes that he will soon be 'foul' out of the basketball team. As for Otto Chan who contributed 0 points, expressed he will practice more. Jack reveals he participated in Strictly Come Dancing 3 and will need to start practicing his dance. In the future, he will set aside some time for basketball and feels that the most important in competitions is friendship, that comes first.


Source: Oriental Daily
Translated by: aZnangel @ AsianEU


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Steven Ma forbids female guests to touch kitchen utensils on 'Apprentice Chef'


TVB food show Apprentice Chef hosted by Steven Ma will soon be released. Yesterday he and a group of top chefs were at a shopping center in Olympian City promoting for the show. Yesterday morning at 5am, Steven went to slaughter cows and felt terrified: "Because we needed to get the cow's belly, when the cow was going to get slaughter, I touched the belly and it still moves." Asked if he tried weird food? He said: "I strongly oppose eating dog, but I know many people have this custom, rabbits, horses or eels I can't do either. I want to eat light to keep fit, can easily gain weight from this show. In every episode, there are also a lot of strange foods that I never heard of. For example, I never heard of alligator lungs."

Every episode, Steven will be inviting female guests to participate in his show. For the first two episodes, he invited Tavia Yeung and Myolie Wu. Steven laughed: "I will not let them come in contact with the dangerous kitchen utensils. I cannot afford beautiful girls getting hurt." It was said that if there was an accident, he is willing take them as a wife. Steven said: "Wah! There are 13 episodes, take 13 wives, that many?"


Source: Oriental Daily, Mingpao
Translated by: aZnangel @
AsianEU

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Sammul Chan Replaced by Raymond Lam in “Triumph in the Skies” Sequel

Sammul Chan ended his long-time employment at TVB and decided to focus his career in China instead. Sammul criticized TVB for compensating its artists poorly, citing its tendency to even bargain for $10 (HKD). Of course, TVB was unwilling to let one person sully its reputation and would retaliate! Since the successful broadcast of Triumph In The Skies "衝上雲霄" in 2003, TVB had wanted to film a sequel. Allegedly, TVB will film the Triumph in the Skies sequel at the end of the year, starring three members of the original S4 cast: Ron Ng, Bosco Wong, and Kenneth Ma. However, Sammul was ousted from the series and Raymond Lam will join the cast instead!

Adding in New Blood; Money Is No Problem

TVB regards the Triumph in the Skies sequel as an important drama for next year. TVB will film both a series sequel and a movie to boost the popularity of the Triumph in the Skies franchise. Aside from boosting its male lead cast, additional artists, such as Mag Lam and Cilla Lok will be added to the series. As for Francis Ng’s pilot character, TVB was considering seeking outside assistance. Not sparing production expenses, filming locations will include Europe and Southeast Asia.

Sammul’s manager was agitated in responding to news that he was ousted from the Triumph in the Skies sequel, “We no longer have a partnership with TVB. We decided to leave the company. When he still had a contract with TVB, Sammul had to film whatever role was offered to him. There’s no need to ask him to film the sequel now.” (Did TVB contact Sammul?) “Why would they contact us? Sammul still has three series to film. He has no spare time.”

Source: Orientaldaily.com
Translated by: JayneStars

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Middle class appetites drive China food inflation (AP)

BEIJING – Hunger was such a constant companion in Yao Qizhong's childhood that even now, at age 40, he'll stoop down to salvage a single clove of garlic that falls from his table at the Beijing market where he hawks fresh produce.

Life is less harsh these days, but China's fast-rising food prices have hit his family hard, making it increasingly difficult to save for his three kids' education — Yao's main goal.

Across town, Zhong Sheng rinses a still-twitching Mandarin fish and picks the stems from a handful of greens as he expounds on his philosophy of grocery shopping. Health and safety are his top concerns, ever since the architect became a father five years ago. Cost is a secondary consideration.

"You can buy cheap stuff," says Zhong as he and his wife cooked together and the smells of soy and scallion filled their cozy kitchen, "but if it makes you sick, you're going to end up paying more anyway in hospital fees."

The starkly contrasting fortunes of the Zhong and Yao families offer a glimpse into how soaring food prices are playing out in the developing world — home to more than three quarters of the globe's 6.9 billion people.

Prosperity and a fast-growing middle class have cultivated more sophisticated and exotic tastes. Such luxuries as blueberries, avocado, asparagus, and endive, recently unattainable to all but the wealthiest, are now widely available in China's big cities.

But rising affluence has taxed the ability of farmers to meet growing demand while the rural labor pool dwindles. The result: Rising food prices hit every level of society, not just those who can afford imported South American bananas or pricey mushrooms and herbs from China's remote Yunnan province. People on low or fixed incomes feel the pinch most.

"We don't dare to try and eat good stuff because we can't afford it," says Yao, whose four grandparents starved to death during China's 1960 famine. He was so poor growing up in rural Anhui province that his neighbors assumed he would end up a beggar on the streets.

"If I go to a supermarket," he says, "it's a novelty, like sightseeing."

In China, farm workers have flocked by the millions to factory and service jobs in coastal cities. Luring them back to till and weed by hand is proving a tough sell. The resulting supply pinch helped send food prices up 11.7 percent in March from the year before, adding to months of steep increases.

"You can't find (farm) workers and they're expensive, over a dollar (7 yuan) an hour," said Liu Li, a wholesaler hawking Napa cabbage and coriander at Beijing's Xinfadi, north China's biggest agricultural distribution center.

People in the countryside want factory work or a job in the service industry, where they'd get to stay indoors and have a warm place to sleep, said Liu. Farm work, she said, is "too dirty and too hard."

Even with sharply higher food prices, Zhong, who runs his own business and has a master's degree from a prestigious Beijing university, can afford to be picky. Besides he sees good reason to favor more expensive organically grown and imported foods after infant formula tainted with an industrial chemical killed six children and sickened 300,000 in China in 2008.

Zhong, his wife and daughter sit down to a typical dinner of steamed fish, two types of greens, mushrooms, pork, rice and sliced apples. Total cost, about 80 yuan ($12). Each month the family spends some 2,000 yuan ($307) on food — about 10 percent of their income.

Yao, who left the countryside more than two decades ago, still eats like a peasant, filling up on cheap steamed buns and noodles and pinching every penny so that he can put his kids through school. For him, meat is a once-a-week treat, though he tries to make sure his children eat it more often.

As a migrant laborer, Yao has been able to skirt China's strict birth limits, having three kids instead of the two most rural families are limited to. But his migrant status means he must pay school fees himself.

A recent and routine lunch for Yao and his wife and children was a bowl of simple noodles with greens. Yao's ginger and garlic stall earns him about 2,000 yuan ($307) a month, of which about 600 yuan ($92) goes on food for his five-person family.

"I need to save money but I feel like I am already scraping the bottom of the barrel," he said. "At the same time, I know we have to feed ourselves and eat enough, otherwise our health is going to be affected."

A host of other factors are also blamed for food prices hikes in China and elsewhere in Asia, including too much money sloshing about the economy after stimulus policies that warded off the global recession, rising oil prices and shrinking land for cultivation because of pollution and encroachment by industry.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Office's index of global prices for meat, cereals and dairy foods has surged 37 percent in the first three months of 2011. In many Asian countries, that has translated into a 10 percent increase in local food prices, which the Asian Development Bank estimates is enough to drag another 64 million people below the $1.25 a day poverty line.

Yet the changes in food and work preferences aren't all bad because they reflect the human and economic development taking place in China, said Scott Rozelle, an agricultural economist at Stanford University and an expert on China's food markets.

Rozelle says that China's scattered and small scale farms are becoming more consolidated and mechanized, which could eventualy raise productivity, but the changes probably won't stop food prices from rising. Economic development involves both increases in prices and incomes, he says.

Higher food prices have in fact lifted lagging rural incomes. The per capita net income for rural Chinese grew faster than urban incomes last year, jumping 10 percent to 5,919 yuan ($902).

Rural Chinese are "going from grinding poor to poor," said Rozelle, describing villages he's seen with new brick homes and gravel roads, where all the girls go to school and every family has a mobile phone.

But the changes feel painful for many urban dwellers, particularly retirees, civil servants and migrants, like Yao, whose incomes haven't kept pace. And the discontent that a widening gap between privileged and poor can generate deeply worries China's communist leaders, who are mindful that the anti-government protests that toppled Egypt's government earlier this year were triggered in part by discontent over climbing food costs.

Yao says he envies people who can eat what they like without concern for cost, but tries not to dwell on it.

"Yes, it's unfair," he said. "But I know I just have to keep going. I have to work hard and it will get better."

Even those benefiting from China's rising prosperity such as Zhong, the Beijing architect, are concerned.

"Their incomes are not rising as fast so for them this is difficult," he said. "I think the government needs to find a way to help them raise that sector's incomes too, and take care of them."



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Philippine customs agents seize endangered turtles (AP)

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine customs officials say they have seized more than 100 endangered green sea turtles intended to be smuggled to other countries.

Deputy customs commissioner Horacio Suansing says the dead turtles were found along with rare black coral in two containers shipped from southern Cotabato city. The contraband, valued at half a million dollars, was seized Wednesday following a tip.

Green turtles grow as long as 5 feet (150 centimeters) and weigh as much as 290 pounds (130 kilograms). They are endangered because of overharvesting of both eggs and adults.

Suansing says the illegal trade is fueled by demand from collectors and the curio trade.

He says the shipper will face charges of violating laws forbidding collection and sale of sea turtles and corals.



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Populist threatens to end Bengal's Communist era (AP)

KOLKATA, India – A statue of Vladimir Lenin draped in rose garlands looms over West Bengal's capital, circled by hammer-and-sickle flags hanging limp in the tropical damp. But the longtime Communist state in east India may be about to get a makeover.

West Bengal's poverty-weary people, hungry for change, have been captivated during recent elections by populist firebrand Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress party is predicted to unseat the Communist Party of India-Marxist for the first time in 34 years when voting results are announced Friday.

The Communists have been blamed for turning West Bengal into a land of labor strikes, industrial stagnancy and agricultural malaise, where India's cultural capital of Kolkata is crumbling and all progress but the creep of the jungle has stalled.

The Communists admit they have made some spectacular policy gaffes. For years, the party maintained a ban on computers in banks for fear they would take away jobs. And it eliminated English classes in schools — a humiliation for Kolkata, the city once called Calcutta that was home to the British Raj from 1772 to 1911, Nobel laureates Mother Teresa and poet Rabindranath Tagore, and internationally acclaimed novelists and film directors.

"We are conscious of our weaknesses, the lackadaisical approach, the arrogance," Mohammed Salim, a party leader, said. "We are learning from our mistakes."

But for many Bengalis, the time for soul-searching is over, and the Communist contrition comes too late. Kolkata today is a far cry from the sculptured gardens, marbled memorials and university campuses the British colonial rulers left in 1947.

Many Bengalis today feel ill-prepared for the 21st century and are fed up with a Communist-led administration beset by corruption and industrial strikes tacitly approved under the Communists' pro-worker policies.

In 2006, the entrenched Communists seized 235 of the 294 state assembly seats and tried to revive industry with a plan for Tata Motors to build its ultra-cheap Nano car in West Bengal.

But Banerjee helped stymie the plan by mounting violent protests against what she called arbitrary and forced land acquisitions by the government to secure land for the Tata factory. Once a small-time campaigner, Banerjee's popularity soared after she was beaten up while leading one such protest. Tata took its factory to another state.

Banerjee's simple white sari, rubber flip-flops and angry denunciations have helped make her an instant friend of the poor, who throng to her rallies in colorful campaign caps and affectionally refer to her as "Didi," or big sister.

What she is now promising West Bengal's 91 million people sounds otherworldly: five-star resorts along the mangrove-tangled coast, a second Switzerland at the foot of the Himalayas and development to turn decaying Kolkata into the London of the East.

She insists industry will be a priority — an apparent effort to calm investors after her protests drove Tata away. In her current job as national railways minister, she has showered the state with project funds and pledged to build factories, industrial parks and rails stations here.

"For the first time, I am inspired by politics. Bengal needs change," said Kolkata garbage forager Janeswar Bera, 64. "Didi wears sandals, she lives a simple life. She is like us."

But the 56-year-old Banerjee, who boasts of her poetry and paintings, also raised eyebrows by reportedly selling nearly 100 of her crude canvasses for more than $200,000 in just four days last month. Many were bought by wealthy businessmen, who insisted they were not trying to buy influence with the political front-runner. Her campaign, in cooperation with the nationally governing Congress Party, has also drawn Communist ire for using expensive helicopters to ferry big-shot politicians to remote rallies.

The Communists say their Left Front bloc will win the vote regardless, like the seven before, thanks to a strength that draws as much from India's own political legacy as from Karl Marx.

"Since we first won in 1977, the opposition has been harping on the Leftists going out," said Salim, the party leader. "The people know better. The future of India is not safe without the Left."

India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, expressed strong socialist leanings that were written into the Constitution and reflected in programs promising work and education to the poor. His daughter, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was staunchly pro-Soviet Union during the Cold War.

In earlier days in West Bengal, the Communists — who also run southern Kerala state — had delighted many by distributing land to the poor and providing the underprivileged a kind of social dignity they had never experienced.

"The land people received wasn't much, but it had a fabulous psychological effect," said economist Abhirup Sarkar of the Indian Statistical Institute.

The traditionally atheist Communists are also credited with nurturing communal peace — no small feat in a country divided by clan loyalties, caste divisions and religious animosities.

"Hindus and Muslims live here together with no religious bias and no riots. I worry there may be violence again if the Communists are voted out," said a Muslim shopkeeper in majority-Hindu Kolkata.

But in lieu of communal violence, there have been hundreds of political killings on both sides — especially as the economy foundered.

Agriculture suffered when national market reforms brought international competition, and industry crumbled amid a Communist-fostered culture of labor strikes. West Bengal's share in Indian manufacturing fell from 13 percent in the 1980s to just above 2 percent today, but it was still home to 60 to 80 percent of India's strikes between 2007 and 2009, the economist Sarkar said.

Society, meanwhile, became politicized with party workers swapping favors for support: taxi licenses for votes or bank loans to campaigners.

"The Communists are probably the least corrupt party nationally," said Suman Chattopadhyay, editor of Bengal's local newspaper "Ek Din," or "One Day." "But in West Bengal, absolute power corrupted absolutely."



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Most nuclear plans on track outside Japan, Germany (AP)

TOKYO – Japan and Germany are limiting or phasing out reliance on nuclear power after the Fukushima accident — moves that could raise petroleum prices — but most of the rest of the world is undaunted in its pursuit of nuclear energy.

Energy-hungry developing nations such as China, India, Mexico and Iran are moving forward on plans to build more nuclear plants, even as authorities around the world intensify safety inspections of existing plants after Japan's March 11 disaster.

Initial fears that erupted in the wake of the crisis, threatening to derail the nuclear renaissance of the last several years, have largely subsided. Many of the 30-plus countries with nuclear energy programs continue to promote them as a way to combat pollution and global warming — despite radiation risks and questions on what to do with nuclear waste.

"We're not going to stop eating for fear of choking," Chinese nuclear safety official Tian Jiashu was quoted in state media as saying after the Japanese disaster.

Chinese officials say they are revising their regulations to make sure no plants lack high exterior walls or access to emergency power — problems that contributed to the crisis unleashed at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi plant when a tsunami knocked out vital cooling systems. Ensuing radiation leaks have forced the evacuation of 80,000 residents.

Beijing has said it will forge ahead with an ambitious scaling up of nuclear power. China has 13 nuclear reactors in operation, more than 25 under construction and even more under consideration, according to the World Nuclear Association.

The expansion is necessary, officials say, to fuel an economy that is overwhelmingly dependent on coal and demands more energy as more Chinese enter the middle-class.

India, which has also stepped up safety measures, is championing nuclear power as a clean and environmentally friendly alternative to polluting coal-fired power plants. It aims to increase the share of nuclear energy from 3 percent to 13 percent by 2030.

"Many of them think that what happened in Japan is a one-off," said Ravi Krishnaswamy, an energy analyst with consultancy Frost & Sullivan in Singapore. "As long as they improve the safety structure and have a stringent regulation, they feel they should be able to manage it."

Many countries also want to ensure they aren't too dependent on any one kind of energy, he added.

In Britain, the government's climate advisory panel said this week that the country should considering investing more — not less — in nuclear power as it "appears likely to be the most cost-effective form of low-carbon power generation" in coming years.

The panel's report envisioned more than doubling Britain's dependence on nuclear energy to 40 percent, and played down risks of a Fukushima-like crisis.

"The likelihood of natural disasters of this type and scale occurring in the U.K. is extremely small," the report said.

After the Japanese crisis erupted, French Energy Minister Eric Besson launched an impassioned defense of nuclear power — which accounts for more than 70 percent of the country's energy — saying it "will stay in Europe and the world and be one of the core energies of the 21st century."

Germany's reaction was the opposite.

It is accelerating a 25-year plan to phase out nuclear energy. Now the country's leaders seem determined to reach that goal as early as 2020. Chancellor Angela Merkel, a previous proponent of nuclear energy, said Tuesday that Fukushima had changed her attitude.

Japan, like Germany, is a developed nation with strict safety rules, but "nevertheless there was a chain of events that wasn't expected," she said. And while Germany isn't prone to quakes or tsunamis, it could fall victim to events "we didn't previously view as likely or possible," Merkel said.

Elsewhere, anxiety over the Fukushima accident has contributed to anti-nuclear protests in India, Taiwan and Turkey.

The crisis has shaken Tokyo's faith in nuclear energy, which provided 30 percent of the nation's electricity.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced Tuesday that Japan will scrap its plans to raise that to 50 percent by 2030. He said the government also will promote renewable energy such as solar and wind and further step up conservation.

Japan — already grappling with electricity shortages with several nuclear plants taken off line — is likely to turn to oil and natural gas to meet the energy shortfall. That could mean higher energy prices globally, several experts said.

"They're not going to get the missing pieces from wind and air and other renewables and they're not going to get it from conservation," said Richard Samuels, head of MIT's Center for International Studies and the founder of its Japan Program. "They're going to have to fill in the missing pieces with liquefied natural gas and with oil. ... We should expect it to have an inflationary effect in Japan and maybe globally."

Samuels and Granger Morgan, head of the engineering and public policy program at Carnegie Mellon University, predicted that the Fukushima accident could slow but not stop the nuclear energy renaissance.

"I just don't see how the world continues without nuclear as part of the portfolio," Morgan said. "It looks like a few years until we get back on an even keel as a result of this."

In Mexico, Japan's crisis has not put a halt to plans being studied to add six new reactors to the two it has, said Ricardo Cordoba, deputy director of nuclear security at the Federal Electricity Commission. Nuclear energy should still be considered a clean source of power, he said.

And Iran says it is determined to build a 20-reactor nuclear network across the country, one of the most earthquake-prone in the world.

In the U.S., nuclear energy remains a key priority for the Obama administration as part of a "diversified energy mix" that includes solar and wind power, said Department of Energy spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller.

But the crisis in Japan did contribute to a decision last month by Princeton, New Jersey-based NRG Energy to write down its $481 million investment in two planned nuclear reactors in South Texas. One of NRG's partners was to be Tokyo Electric Power Co., the Japanese utility that owns the Fukushima complex and is likely on the hook for enormous compensation.

Top officials with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have said repeatedly in the wake of the Fukushima accident that — while inspections at the nation's 104 nuclear reactors have redoubled — operations are safe and no immediate changes are needed.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is continuing with its review of applications for licensing recently submitted for 12 nuclear power plants, said Gregory Jaczko, the commission's chairman.

"We are doing a very thorough review of the lessons from Japan. If there is information that comes out of that review, we will certainly apply it to the existing plants," he said.

___

Jahn reported from Vienna. Charles Hutzler in Beijing, Nirmala George in New Delhi, Seth Borenstein and Matthew Daly in Washington, Jim Fitzgerald in White Plains, New York, and other AP writers worldwide contributed to this report.



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Pakistan leader visits Russia after bin Laden death (AFP)

MOSCOW (AFP) – Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was expected in Moscow on Wednesday for talks with Russian leaders on his first major foreign visit since the killing of Osama bin Laden by US forces.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will host Zardari for talks on Thursday at the Kremlin where officials from the two countries were also expected to sign agreements on cooperation in agriculture, aviation and energy, a spokesman for the Pakistan Embassy in Moscow told AFP.

"Economics will be the focus of the visit," said the spokesman, Raja Abdul Qayyum.

The three-day visit to Russia will be Zardari's first high-profile trip abroad since the Al-Qaeda leader, the world's most wanted man, was killed in the raid by US forces on a compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan.

The Kremlin hailed the death of bin Laden as a "serious success... in the war against international terrorism" but Pakistan has expressed fury that US forces carried out the raid without informing Islamabad first.

Zardari visited Kuwait at the weekend for talks with its leaders and business executives while Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is due to visit China next week as Pakistan looks to bolster its alliances at a time of crisis.

Zardari's programme includes a tour of Skolkovo, a future high-tech centre outside Moscow billed as Russia's answer to Silicon Valley and a trip to the former imperial capital Saint Petersburg.

Speaking in an interview with Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency ahead of the visit, Zardari said he hoped his talks in Russia would breathe a new life into bilateral ties.

"I expect a lot from my upcoming visit to Russia," he was quoted as saying. "I hope that during this visit the relations between our countries will receive a new development impetus."

The Pakistani president also said ramping up economic and political ties was in the interests of both countries.

"Tsarist Russia was dreaming about getting access to southern seas," he was quoted as saying.

"Pakistan invites modern Russia to take advantage of its access to southern seas which will no doubt facilitate economic prosperity of the two countries."

Moscow is not usually seen as an ally of Islamabad, not least because of its historically close ties to Pakistan's traditional foe India.

Tensions also still linger over the Pakistani secret service's backing of mujahedeen insurgents against Soviet forces in Afghanistan during the 1980s.

But Russia and Pakistan called for the development of regional economic projects and the revival of cooperation that dated back to the Soviet era at a rare summit last year.

Medvedev hosted Zardari at his Black Sea residence in Sochi as part of the four-way summit -- which also included Afghanistan and Tajikistan -- last August when the participants agreed to pursue joint economic projects to help bring stability to the volatile region.

Citing a source close to the management of state conglomerate Russian Technologies, Vedomosti business daily said on Wednesday that the highlight of the Zardari visit would be a preliminary agreement to give Pakistan a $540 million loan to modernise the Soviet-built Pakistan Steel plant.

A delegation from Prominvest, a Russian Technologies subsidiary, has visited the plant and reached preliminary agreements, the source told the newspaper.

Russian Technologies could not confirm the report.



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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Ge You braves the rain to support Shu Qi

The film A BEAUTIFL LIFE two nights ago held its Beijing premiere and attracted several hundred fans to the venue despite the rain. Leads Liu Ye, Shu Qi and director Andrew Lau Wai Keung attended. IF YOU ARE THE ONE's Ge You also took time to support Shu Qi. When they saw each other they even entered into a passionate embrace.

Lau Wai Keung two nights ago entered with the film theme song performer Ivana Wong Yuen Chi and Tian Liang. Later Liu Ye and Shu Qi arrived. Suddenly Ge You appeared and surprised Shu Qi. Ge You in order to keep his appearance from stealing BEAUTIFUL's thunder, he declined the reporters' call for photos with him and Shu Qi.

After the ceremony the guests rested. Ge you and Shu Qi chatted closely, actually they were exchanging numbers. Although Shu Qi and Ge You worked together many times, she never got his number. During the premiere, Shu Qi and Liu Ye often whispered and laughed out loud. Full of expressions, Shu Qi was in great spirits. The event also arranged for the cast to distributed limited edition heart shaped pillows. A child rushed the stage and grabbed Shu Qi's, she was completely caught off guard. Later, the team will head to Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing and other Mainland cities to continue the promotion.

Sources: takungpao, mingpao
Translated by: hktopten

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Zhang Ziyi personally performs a bathing scene

Aaron Kwok Fu Sing and Zhang Ziyi have been continuously promoting their film LOVE FOR LIFE (JUI OI) in the Mainland. After Beijing, Chengdu and Shenzhen, two days ago on Mother's Day they went to Shanghai premiere press conference. Zhang Ziyi even revealed that in the scene in which she went naked into cold water to cool down she did not use a double. She honestly said that during the shoot she had no hesitation at all. She thought that this scene was worth her doing anything for. "If this happened to me personally I would do that too. It has no connection to sex and love, this scene is worth me doing anything for."

In addition, the film was cut from 150 minutes to 100 minutes. Director Gu Changwei admitted that he took the initiative to cut down to the current version as guest stars Jiang Wen, Lu Chuan and Feng Xiaogang did not appear in the actual film. He honestly said that one of the reason was this length was very popular with cinemas. He also said that he regretted the most about cutting many of Pu Cunxin's scenes. After promoting in Shanghai, Zhang Ziyi and Sing Sing returned to Beijing for a Beijing Satellite premiere ceremony special program taping. Sing Sing and Ziyi appeared with buckteeth look.

Source: singtao
Translated by: hktopten

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Charmaine Sheh denies marrying Mainland 'Hangbag King' at the end of the year

type='html'>After Charmaine Sheh changed her TVB contract to per-series, she will soon speed off to shoot Mainland series and earn the yuan. It was reported last year when she was in Mainland shooting a series, a friend introduced her to a Mainland 'Handbag King', who has a business in manufacturing hang bags. It is estimated he is a billionaire.

The two have been dating for 6 months (rumor), and recently the couple was spotting in HK having dinner. It was said they have met both parents and are talking about marriage. Charmaine even moved from a small house into a bigger one, planning to start her love nest in a 5,000 sq foot unit. She could get marry at anytime, and the earliest is at the end of the year.

Towards the dating and marriage rumors, Charmaine responded through her manager: "Thank you all for the concern. He is just a normal friend, my Mr. Right has not appeared yet."

Source: Oriental Daily
Translated by: aZnangel @ AsianEU

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