» AsianWeek Market Report
» Evian Masters Will Always Welcome Michelle Wie
» Wie Ignores Critics Before PGA Tournament
» ASU, Asian/Pacific Islander Group To Team Up on Health Project
» Miss Asia USA 2008 – 20th Annual Cultural Pageant
» Beijing Olympics Promote Lost Arts in China
» Missing Elderly SF Woman Found Dead
» Michelob ULTRA Sponsors the 31st Annual Asian American International Film Festival
» Kearny Street Workshop Presents Second Annual Fashion Show of Emerging Asian American Designers
» Ha Jin Wants to Visit China
» Are Chinese Gymnasts Too Young For Olympics?
» Thailand’s New Foreign Minister To Lead Border Dispute Talks
» Should Indonesia Execute the Bali Bombers?

Compiled by Beleza Chan, Steffi Lau and Miriam Ling
AsianWeek Market Report

AsianWeek Market Report

Asian Stock Indexes

NIKKEL_225
Tokyo
13,353.78
19.02
0.14%

HANG SENG
Hong Kong
22,687.21
-53.50
-0.24%

KRX
Busan
3,289.00
-11.70
-0.35%

SSE IX
Shanghai
9,974.14
50.98
0.51%

BSE
Bombay
14,349.11
74.147
0.52%

HOSE
Ho Chi Minh
434.64
5.18
1.21%

SET
Bangkok
685.53
0.06
0.01%

Asian American Market Report

Yahoo!
YHOO
20.28
-0.85
(-4.02%)

Citigroup
C
17.92
-0.93
(-4.93%)

Amkor Technology, Inc
AMKR
11.59
-0.11
(-0.94%)

Sybase
SY
33.22
-0.26
(-0.78%)

UnionBancal Corp
UB
50.54
0.11
(0.22%)

East West Bank corp,Inc
EWBC
10.90
-0.02
(-0.18%)

NATION
Evian Masters Will Always Welcome Michelle Wie
EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France — As Michelle Wie’s playing options narrow in the United States, there is a place in Europe where she will always be welcome.
Organizers of the Evian Masters say they will keep inviting the 18 year old, who nearly recorded her first LPGA Tour win at Europe’s richest women’s tournament.
“We do believe that Michelle Wie belongs to the family of the Evian Masters,” tournament director Jacques Bungert told The Associated Press. “I have a great relationship with Michelle and her family because we have been talking about her future even before she became so famous.”
Without a Tour card and relying on sponsors’ invitations to play, Wie choose not to use an exemption to come to France and missed the tournament for the first time in five years.
Wie first played at the event in 2004 as an invited 14-year-old amateur. She tied for second the following year.
—Associated Press
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Wie Ignores Critics Before PGA Tournament
RENO, Nev. — Michelle Wie is set to play against the men on the PGA Tour again and doesn’t care that some people think it’s a bad idea.
Wie will compete for the eighth time on the PGA Tour in next week’s Legends Reno-Tahoe Open. She was asked during a news conference Friday about PGA Tour journeyman Jay Williamson saying to the Golf Channel that “it was a joke” when he heard Wie would play in the Reno tournament.
“I don’t know who he is. I don’t even read that stuff,” Wie said.
Wie said she was upset over her disqualification on the LPGA Tour last weekend but encouraged by her play.
She was a shot off the lead going into the final round of the State Farm Classic in Illinois when Tour officials discovered that she had left the scoring area without signing her scorecard after the second round.
—Associated Press
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ASU, Asian/Pacific Islander Group To Team Up on Health Project

MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. — The Center for Health Information & Research at Arizona State University has joined a coalition to improve the health of the Asian/Pacific Islander community in Maricopa County.
The center was awarded a subcontract to work with the Asian Pacific Community in Action, which received a four-year $600,000 grant from the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. This grant represents the first time a private national foundation has partnered with a national Asian and Pacific Islander organization to address health disparities, said Doug Hirano, APCA executive director.
Grant funding will be used to develop a data system to track the health status and needs of the Asian/Pacific Islander community and its use of health services. The Asian Pacific Community in Action, or APCA, also will develop and implement a cancer screening and prevention plan.
—Phoenix Business Journal
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Miss Asia USA 2008 – 20th Annual Cultural Pageant
Celebrating its 20th Anniversary as the premiere pageant for young Asian women in the USA, the Miss Asia USA 2008 Cultural Pageant once again played to another sold out audience on July 20. Thirty-one young Asian American women proudly represented various countries from around the Asian continent. Throughout the show, they wore national costumes, Scala eveningwear, Malibu Girl swimwear and evening gowns as they vied for the coveted title of Miss Asia USA 2008.
After five categories of intense competition, judges selected the stunning 26-year-old Diane Yoo representing Korea to be the Queen. Yoo earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Baylor University. She calls Houston, Texas, home, where she is vice president of Business Development of JDDA Concessions Management at the Houston Intercontinental Airport. Appointed as the Asian Community Liaison and Special Projects Director by the Houston City Council, Yoo successfully organized numerous volunteer and fundraising efforts within the Korean community as well as with members of many other minority communities.
BAY
Beijing Olympics Promote Lost Arts in China
SAN FRANCISCO — What will be presented at the Olympics opening ceremony has been kept under wraps in China, but U.S. scholars and students revealed that folk art will be performed in the most-looked-forward-to event ever in that country.
The folk art shows will open the door to a traditional China. The most famous folk artists in their fields are showing how to make dough figures, silk flowers, kites, masks and Bristle dolls in traditional clothing. Other artists will show how to carve wooden yo-yos, which were all a part of Chinese people’s daily lives not so long ago.
As the Games draw near, folk arts are once again being embraced. And these arts are, in turn, embracing the Olympics. Instead of dragons and phoenixes, yo-yo makers now carve the Beijing Olympics logo on to the faces of the wooden toys or the words: “Welcome to Beijing.”
. . . . . . . . . .
Missing Elderly SF Woman Found Dead
SAN FRANCISCO — A missing 77-year-old woman was found dead outside a casino in Brooks July 6, five days after leaving her home in San Francisco, Sgt. Wilfred Williams said.
Chee Tse, who was reported to be in the early stages of dementia, was found dead around 9:45 p.m. along a fence outside Cache Creek Casino on state Highway 16 in Brooks, Williams said.
Tse had last been seen leaving her residence at 1901 Larkin St. Tuesday morning.
Police said Thursday that she most likely took a tour bus around 8 a.m. from near Kearny and Clay streets in San Francisco to Cache Creek Casino in Brooks, Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln or River Rock Casino in Alexander Valley.
Police put out calls to those locations and learned that she had been captured on camera walking out of a building at Cache Creek Casino Resort, Williams said.
Williams said there were no obvious signs of trauma.
—CBS 5
ARTS
Michelob ULTRA Sponsors the 31st Annual Asian American International Film Festival
NEW YORK — Michelob ULTRA hosted the Official Hospitality Lounge at the 31st annual Asian American International Film Festival from July 10-19 at the Asia Society in New York City.
AAIFF 2008 kicked off with the East Coast debut of Princess of Nebraska, a new feature film from acclaimed director Wayne Wang. Closing the festival was the East Coast premiere of Academy Award winner Jessica Yu’s Ping Pong Playa. The festival also introduced a new program titled “New Landscapes: Media and Its Adaptations,” a series of panels examining Asian diasporas, the experiences of Asian female documentary filmmakers and a conversation about Asian aesthetics.
. . . . . . . . . .
Kearny Street Workshop Presents Second Annual Fashion Show of Emerging Asian American Designers
SAN FRANCISCO — Kearny Street Workshop (KSW), the nation’s oldest Asian Pacific American multidisciplinary arts organization, announced the date of its second annual fashion show, “APAture Runway II.” The show will be held on Thursday, August 7, 2008, from 7:30 — 10:30 p.m. at Gray Area Gallery, 1515 Folsom Street in San Francisco. Featuring the work of emerging APA fashion designers including Alice Wu and Moriah Carlson (FERAL CHILDE), Avi Jamdar and Mona Shah (suutra), Isabelle Le, Preston Loh (Lucio Montanta), and Yola Ng, the event will showcase eclectic works by some of the freshest local talent in fashion. The runway presentation will be followed by a live auction of designer goods. All proceeds from the event will benefit KSW’s 10th annual “APAture Festival,” a multidisciplinary arts expo that will take place September 18-28, 2008, at venues throughout San Francisco.

GLOBAL
Ha Jin Wants to Visit China
HONG KONG — On a trip that’s put him the closest to his homeland in 23 years, Chinese American author Ha Jin says he wants to visit China but expressed frustration with censorship of his books.
The 52-year-old National Book Award winner told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday at the Hong Kong Book Fair that if he has the chance, he would like to see his homeland again.
“I’d like to. I want to at least go back to take a look,” he said.
Ha Jin, whose real name is Jin Xuefei, went to the United States in 1985 to pursue a doctorate in English and decided not to return after the Chinese military’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989. He became a U.S. citizen in 1997.
He hasn’t visited China since moving to the U.S.
—Associated Press
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Are Chinese Gymnasts Too Young For Olympics?
BEIJING — Two female Chinese gymnasts, including a gold-medal favorite, might be too young to participate in the upcoming Beijing Olympics.
Several online records and reports show He Kexin, the host nation’s top competitor on uneven bars, and Jiang Yuyuan might not yet be 16, the minimum age for Olympic eligibility. Both were chosen for China’s team last week.
On the Web site of the Chengdu Sports Bureau—Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province in southwest China—a file dated January 2006 shows He Kexin was born Jan. 1, 1994.
Most recently, a May 23 story in the China Daily newspaper, the official English-language paper of the Chinese government, had He’s age as 14.
The New York Times raised questions about the athletes’ ages in a story Saturday. Chinese officials provided the newspaper with copies of passports indicating both gymnasts are 16.
—Associated Press
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Thailand’s New Foreign Minister To Lead Border Dispute Talks
BANGKOK, Thailand — Thailand named a new foreign minister Saturday and assigned him the delicate task of resolving a military standoff at an ancient temple near the border with Cambodia that led to his predecessor’s resignation.
Tej Bunnag, a career diplomat who has served as ambassador to the United States, France and China, was formally named foreign minister after King Bhumibol Adulyadej approved the appointment Saturday, national radio and television reported.
His first mission comes Monday when he will fly to Cambodia for talks aimed at resolving a tense dispute over land claimed by both countries near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said.
Tensions between the two countries over the 1.8 square miles (4.6 square kilometers) of land intensified earlier this month after UNESCO approved a Cambodian application to have the temple designated a World Heritage Site.
—Associated Press
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Should Indonesia Execute the Bali Bombers?
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia announced recently that the three Bali bombers, Imam Samudra, Ali Gufron alias Mukhlas and his younger brother, the “smiling terrorist” Amrozi Nurhasyim, will probably be executed before the month of Ramadan this year, which begins on September 2. The three are likely to face a firing squad in the high security prison island Nusakambangan where they are being held, just off the south coast of Central Java. The bombers have been on the death row since being convicted in 2003 for the October 2002 bombings that claimed more than 200 lives.
The news comes after the rejection of their third appeal, but lawyers of the condemned say that they are now pursuing a judicial review of the case, because the anti-terror law used to convict them was passed after the bombings. Analysts say that it is unlikely they will succeed because they have already lodged three appeals using the same argument. The last move open to them to escape the firing squad under Indonesian law is to plead for a presidential pardon.
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