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Macau at 10: Can Asias Gambling Mecca Industry Stay on Its Hot Streak?

Danny — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:15:41 +0000

When Edmund Ho, Macau’s first chief executive, assumed office on December 20, 1999, the former Portuguese colony near Hong Kong was a very different place. Hong Kong business mogul Stanley Ho had a monopoly on the region’s sleepy gambling industry. The Triads, southern China’s organized crime conglomerates, killed openly in the streets, and the economy was shrinking fast.

But on Sunday, when his successor Fernando Chui officially takes over on the 10th anniversary of Portugal’s handover of its tiny holding to China, Ho will be leaving behind a place that’s been transformed into the world’s must lucrative gambling hub. Macau attracted nearly 18 million tourists and raked in over $12 billion in gambling revenue in the first 10 months of 2009 — not bad for a local population

Six More Sentenced to Death Over Riots in China

Danny — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:05:26 +0000

Six people were sentenced to death Thursday for their involvement in a deadly ethnic riot in western China in July, the official Chinese news agency reported. Three of the convicts had their sentences suspended for two years.

Three defendants were given life terms in prison and five others lesser jail sentences, the news agency, Xinhua, said.

The defendants were tried in three separate cases. In the first two, the defendants had ethnic Uighur names, while the ones in the third case had ethnic Han names. In that case, Han Junbo was sentenced to death and Liu Bo was given a prison term of 10 years, both for attacking two Uighur men “on rumors,” the report said. One of the victims was killed.

No more electroshock therapy for Chinese internet addicts

Danny — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:44:26 +0000

INTERNET addicts should stop receiving electroshock therapy because it doesn’t work, the Chinese Health Ministry says.

Nearly 3000 youths have undergone electroconvulsive therapy (ECT, or electroshock) at Linyi Mental Health Hospital, resident psychiatrist Yang Yongxin told the China Youth Daily.

The hospital, based in eastern Shandong, runs a four-month web rehab program which includes medicine and counselling for a monthly fee of 5500 yuan ($1025).

It claims to have stopped electroshock following the health ministry’s recommendation, the Associated Press reported.

China babies 'sold for adoption'

Danny — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:48:49 +0000

Dozens of baby girls in southern China have reportedly been taken from parents who broke family-planning laws, and then sold for adoption overseas.

An investigation by the state-owned Southern Metropolis News found that about 80 girls in one county had been sold for $3,000 (£1,800).

The babies were taken when the parents could not pay the steep fines imposed for having too many children.

Local officials may have forged papers to complete the deals, the report said.

Microsoft described as biggest hacker in China

Danny — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:13:32 +0000

Chinese internet users have reacted with fury after Microsoft launched an anti-piracy tool to combat the widespread sale of fake software.

China extends looser rules for foreign news media

Danny — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 10:39:26 +0000

In a modest move toward greater openness, China said Friday that it would permanently ease restrictions on foreign news media operating in the world’s most populous country.Under the rules, signed by Premier Wen Jiabao, foreign journalists won’t need special government permission to travel in the country or interview Chinese citizens. Similar rules, in place temporarily during the Beijing Olympics held in August, were set to expire Friday.

Child abductions plague China

Danny — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:46:46 +0000

Al Jazeera’s Tony Birtley reports on how China’s one-child policy and foreign adoptions are prompting tens of thousands of abductions every year.

BEIJING 2008: THREE GUARDS KILLED IN XINJIANG

Danny — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:20:39 +0000

With the Olympics in Beijing in full course there has been more violence reported in the western region of Xinjiang: three security guards were killed and a fourth wounded at a road block near Kashgar, the border city that was theatre to the assault in which 16 policemen lost their lives and as many reported injuries on August 4th. The aggression was reported by the Chinese press agency Xinhua, according to which the assailers jumped down from a vehicle that was passing through the road block and stabbed the agents.