Daily Dose: 10/09/08
October 9, 2008
» AsianWeek Market Report
» Court Blocks Judge’s Order to Free Chinese Muslims
» Bay Area Could Be Saved by Asian markets
» Police Find Asian Man’s Body in Slough
» Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival Launches
» 2008 South Asian International Film Festival Announces ‘FIRAAQ’ as the Official Opening Night Premiere
» New Jersey Nets Aim to Reach Chinese Americans
» Yao Shines On and Off Court
» Affluent Asian American Segment Generates Opportunities in Market
» Thai Court Drops Treason Charges
» IAEA ‘Barred From Yongbyon Plant’
Compiled by Andrew Lee and Ellis Song
AsianWeek Market Report
| AsianWeek Market Report | ||||
| Asian Stock Indexes | ||||
| NIKKEI 225 | Tokyo | 9,157.49 | -45.83 | -0.498% |
| HANG SENG | Hong Kong | 15,943.24 | 511.51 | 3.32% |
| KRX | Busan | 2,730.32 | 23.54 | 0.87% |
| SSE IX | Shanghai | 7,559.27 | 182.43 | 2.47% |
| BSE | Bombay | 11,323.36 | -366.88 | -3.14% |
| HOSE | Ho Chi Minh | 397.68 | -3.65 | -0.91% |
| SET | Bangkok | 499.99 | 7.65 | 1.55% |
| Asian American Market Report | ||||
| Yahoo! | YHOO | 12.65 | -1.11 | (-8.07%) |
| Citigroup | C | 12.93 | -1.47 | (10.21%) |
| Amkor Technology, Inc | AMKR | 4.46 | -0.16 | (-3.46%) |
| Sybase | SY | 25.80 | -0.07 | (-0.27%) |
| UnionBancal Corp | UB | 73.39 | 0.08 | (0.11%) |
| East West Bank corp,Inc | EWBC | 12.00 | -0.33 | (-2.68%) |
NATION
Court Blocks Judge’s Order to Free Chinese Muslims
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Wednesday temporarily blocked a judge’s decision to immediately free 17 Chinese Muslims at Guantanamo Bay into the U.S.
In a one-page order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued the emergency stay at the request of the Bush administration. The three-judge panel said it would postpone release of the detainees for at least another week to give the government more time to make arguments in the case.
It comes after U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina on Tuesday made a dramatic decision ordering the government to free the detainees by Friday. Urbina said it would be wrong for the Bush administration to continue holding the detainees, known as Uighurs (pronounced WEE’gurz), since they are no longer considered enemy combatants.
— AP
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BAY/CALIFORNIA
Bay Area Could Be Saved by Asian markets
The reason the Bay Area has remained relatively insulated from 500-point stock market plunges and other recessionary omens is largely due to outsize contribution to the one remaining bright spot in the nation’s economy: exports. That may yet save us, says the author of a Bay Area Council report to be released today. But only if those markets on which the Bay Area depends remain upright.
“If Asia along with the rest of the world goes down, we go down with it,” says Sean Randolph, president of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.
— San Francisco Chronicle
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Police Find Asian Man’s Body in Slough
San Mateo police said Tuesday that they discovered the body of an Asian man floating in a slough near a pedestrian overpass on the east side of town.
Police received a call about 8:15 a.m. Tuesday from a jogger who reported seeing the body near J Hart Clinton Drive across from Anchor Road.
The Foster City and San Mateo fire departments worked together to pull the body from the water and took it to the San Mateo County coroner’s office. The coroner said the man appeared to be in his mid-60s to early 70s and likely had been in the water for less than 24 hours from the time he was discovered.
Anyone with information about the man’s identity was asked to call the San Mateo Police Department’s detective bureau at (650) 522-7650, its secret witness hot line at (650) 522-7676 or the coroner’s office at (650) 312-5562.
— San Jose Mercury News
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival Launches
On Oct. 9, Philly will join a dozen North American cities—from Vancouver, San Francisco and Los Angeles to Houston, Chicago and Pittsburgh—to offer an Asian American Film Festival.
It’s about time, say festival organizers Joe Kim and Franklin Shen, two young local filmmakers who will launch the inaugural Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival (PAAFF) at 7, Friday, Oct. 9, in University City. It starts with a screening of the critically acclaimed drama Far North, starring Dirty Sexy Money’s Michelle Krusiec and Hong Kong movie legend Michelle Yeoh at the Bridge movie theater.
The rest of the fest includes screenings of seven other feature films and 30 shorts, plus a film-industry panel discussion. It all takes place at the Asian Arts Initiative near the Convention Center in Center City tomorrow through Sunday.
— Philadelphia Inquirer
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2008 South Asian International Film Festival Announces ‘FIRAAQ’ as the Official Opening Night Premiere
The 2008 South Asian International Film Festival—presented by HBO—will be held from October 22–28 in New York City.
The festival will open with Nandita Das’s FIRAAQ at the famed Ziegfeld Theatre on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 7 p.m. The film, taking place over a 24-hour period one month after the communal violence in Gujarat during 2002, features a star studded ensemble cast portraying the emotional journeys of ‘ordinary people’—some victims, some perpetrators and some who watched silently.
— IndiaPRWire.com
SPORTS
New Jersey Nets Aim to Reach Chinese Americans
The New Jersey Nets are hoping Yi Jianlian, the 7-foot player from the Guangdong Province of Southern China entering his second season in the NBA, will help it to reach out to Chinese Americans.
The team is hoping that Jianlian will connect with almost 650,000 Chinese Americans in the New York area and create a strong fan base. The Nets are currently and carefully researching how to best reach this target demographic in a meaningful way.
Its website can now be viewed in simplified and traditional Chinese, with nearly 30 percent of its traffic originating in Southeast Asia.
— The New York Times
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Yao Shines On and Off Court
China’s NBA all-star center Yao Ming is once again in the domestic media spotlight as he finished training camp with the Houston Rockets and tipped off the preseason on Tuesday, just one day after he was listed as the richest sporting figure in China, according to the 2008 Hurun China Rich Report.
Yao ranked 987th with a personal wealth of 700 million yuan ($103 million). He earned $15 million from the ’08-’09 sports season, before advertising income, enough to make him the country’s most wealthy sports person.
— China Daily
COMMERCE
Affluent Asian American Segment Generates Opportunities in Market
NEW YORK — With buying power approaching $600 billion, the burgeoning Asian American market segment offers the most lucrative opportunities in the multicultural consumer market. And the trend isn’t expected to evaporate anytime in the foreseeable future. According to the all-new and updated Packaged Facts report, “Asian-American Market in the U.S., 4th edition,” the buying power of Asian Americans is projected to total $750 billion in 2013, a cumulative growth of 32 percent during the forecast period.
Asian Americans are on the cutting edge of the digital media revolution currently underway in American society. They are not only more likely to use online versions of traditional media such as magazines and news papers, but also display an enthusiasm for spending large amounts of money shopping online. Hunting for bargains is a key aspect of the Asian American consumer profile, yet they possess an above average penchant for shopping. Subsequently they aren’t shy about making lucrative purchases such as new cars or designer clothing.
— International Business Times
GLOBAL
Thai Court Drops Treason Charges
Thailand’s appeals court has thrown out insurrection charges against nine leaders of anti-government protests. The court ruling said the treason charges were groundless.
But arrest warrants on lesser charges remain in force, and reports suggest the leaders may be willing to surrender to police. Two are already in custody. Protesters have been occupying the grounds of government buildings for weeks, saying the government is a proxy for ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra. The protests turned violent on Tuesday, when two people were killed in clashes.
“Although the nine suspects have committed illegal acts, it’s unreasonable to issue an arrest warrant on insurrection charges, thus the court revokes insurrection charges for all nine suspects,” said the Appeals Court ruling.
Two leaders of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), Chamlong Srimuang and Chaiwat Sinsuwong, were arrested last week—helping to spark Tuesday’s violent protests.
A lawyer for the remaining seven has said they may be ready to surrender to police if the more serious charges were dropped—paving the way for a possible way out of this political stand-off, says the BBC’s Jonathan Head in Bangkok.
But he says the basic problem remains: the protesters’ loathing for Thaksin Shinawatra and those perceived as his allies.
— BBC News
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IAEA ‘Barred From Yongbyon Plant’
The UN’s nuclear watchdog says North Korea has banned its inspectors from entering the Yongbyon nuclear complex. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it could no longer monitor the reprocessing plant.
The U.S. State Department said the move was not positive or helpful and urged Pyongyang to reverse its decision.
Last month, Pyongyang announced it would reactivate Yongbyon because it said the U.S. had not fulfilled its part of an international disarmament deal.
In a statement, the IAEA said it had been informed by North Korea that “effective immediately, access to facilities at Yongbyon would no longer be permitted.”
The agency said its staff was permitted to remain on the site but only in their quarters and were “no longer allowed to carry out the monitoring and verification of any nuclear activity whatsoever.”
The IAEA also said it had been told by Pyongyang that disablement work on the facility had been stopped.
— BBC News
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