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  • 8/10/2019 Asia Frontpage

    1/1

    . . .

    FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 2015

    TOSUBSCRIBE,CALL:

    (852)2922 1171E-mail: [email protected]

    &:HJKLNC=UVVUUV:?k@b@a@j@l

    NEWSSTANDPRICES

    HongKongHK$ 25.00

    ChinaRMB30.00 PhilippinesPeso110.00

    M acauP2 5 .0 0 T aiwanNT 1 2 0 .0 0

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    Street,TseungKwan OIndustrial Estate,

    TseungKwanO,NewTerritories,HongKong.

    NEWSSTANDPRICES

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    INTHIS ISSUE

    No.41,001

    Books 11

    Business 14

    Crossword 13

    Culture 10

    Opinion 8

    Sports 12

    HACKERS GATECONNECTEDHOMES AT RISKPAGE17 | BUSINESS ASIA

    NICHOLAS KRISTOFOF SATIRE, FANATICS,TERRORISM AND ISLAMPAGE9 | O PI NI O N

    AUCTION REPLAYTHE RETURN OFAN OLD GAMBLEPAGE10 | CULTURE

    URRENCIES STOCK INDEXES

    OIL

    NEW YORK, THURSDAY 10:00AM THURSDAY

    NEW YORK, THURSDAY 10:00AM

    PREVIOUS

    t Euro 1= $1.1790 $1.184 0

    t P ou nd 1= $ 1. 50 60 $ 1. 51 10

    t Ye n $ 1= 11 9. 53 0 1 19 .2 50

    t S. Franc $1= S F1.0190 S F1.0140

    The Dow 10:00am 17,584.52 unch.

    s FTS E 100 3pm 6,526.39 +1.66%

    Nikkei 225 close 16,885.33 unch.

    s Light sweet crude $48.49 +$0.15

    INSIDE TODAYS PAPER

    Strifeas AlQaeda stormsbackThepromise ofchangein Yemenis

    fadingfor a militiathatliberated the

    capitalfromthe group.WORLD NEWS,3

    ONLINE AT INYT.COMSamsungpredictsprofitwill plungeTheSouthKorean techgiantsaidthat

    itsoperatingprofitprobablyfell almost

    40percentin thequarterending in

    December. The forecastreflects

    continuingtroubles for the companysmobiledivision. BUSINESS, 14

    Frenchhumor, turned to tragedyTheeditors andcartoonistsgunned

    downin Parison Wednesdaybelonged

    toa generationthat believedforemostin

    thefreedomtoboldlysaywhateveryou

    think,writesAndrew Hussey. OPINION,8

    Bewaryof riskcreep in2015A small riskseemseasyto takewhen

    thingsare going well, butremembering

    thepainfullessonsof thepastcan rein

    inthe attraction,a financial planner

    writes.nytimes.com/business

    Obamato outline housingmeasuresAmong thepresidents proposalswill be

    lowerinsurance rateson federally

    issuedmortgagesfor first-timehome

    buyers. nytimes.com/us

    China aimsfor AfricanTV viewersAnemphasisin state newsreportson

    thepopularityof Chinesecultural

    productson the continentunderscores

    the importance Chineseleaders place

    on winninginfluence abroad.sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com

    TheN.F.L.s hottest commodityThemost coveted manin theN.F.L.right

    nowis Seattlesrespected defensive

    coordinator, eventhoughno teamcan

    signhimto bea head coachforpossibly

    another month.nytimes.com/football

    Fewerchildren reading for pleasureCuethe hand-wringing about digital

    distractions. A newsurveyfindsthat

    fewer childrenarereadingfrequently

    forfun.However,thosewhoare readto

    maypickup thehabit.WORLDNEWS,6

    JOHN MINCHILLO/ASSOCIATED PRESS

    At a rally in New York,supporters held up photosof Charlie Hebdo staffmembers killed in the attack.In recentyears, the staffhad weathered a firebombing,hacking and death threats.

    Paris attacklikely to addto anti-Islamsentiments

    From a pileof dirt, hopefor a strongantibiotic

    BY DENISE GRADY

    An unusual method for producing anti-biotics may help solve an urgent globalproblem: the rise in infections that res-ist treatment with commonly used

    drugs, andthe lackof newantibioticstoreplaceones thatnolongerwork.

    The method, which extracts drugsfrom bacteria that live in dirt, has yiel-deda powerfulnewantibiotic, research-ers reported in the journal Nature onWednesday. The new drug, teixobactin,was tested in mice and easily curedsevereinfections,withno sideeffects.

    Better still, the researchers said, thedrug works in a way that makes it veryunlikely that bacteria will become res-istantto it.Andthe methoddevelopedtoproduce the drug has the potential tounlock a trove of natural compounds tofight infectionsand cancer moleculesthat were previously beyond scientistsreach because the microbes that pro-ducethemcouldnotbe grownin thelab-oratory.

    Teixobactinhasnot yetbeentestedinhumans, so its safety and effectivenessarenotknown.Studiesin peoplewill notbegin for about two years, according toKimLewis, theseniorauthor ofthe arti-cle and director of the AntimicrobialDiscovery Center at Northeastern Uni-versity in Boston. Those studies willtake several years, so even if the drugpasses all the required tests, it still willnot be available for five or six years, hesaid during a telephone news confer-ence on Tuesday. If it is approved, hesaid, itwill probablyhaveto beinjected,nottakenby mouth.

    Experts not involved with the re-search said the technique for isolatingthe drug had great potential. They alsosaid teixobactin looked promising, butthey expressed caution because it hadnotyet beentested inhumans.

    Dr. William Schaffner, an infectiousdisease specialist at Vanderbilt Univer-sity in Nashville, called the researchingenious and said, Were in des-perate need of some good antibioticnews.

    Regarding teixobactin, he said: Itsatthe test-tubeandthemouselevel,andmice are not men or women, and somoving beyond that is a large step, and

    many compounds have failed. Headded, Toxicity is often the Achillesheel of drugs.

    Dr. David A. Relman, a professor ofmedicineat StanfordUniversity, saidbyemail, It illustrates the amazingwealth and diversity of as-yet-unrecog-

    nized, potent, biologically active com-pounds made by the microbial world some of which may have real clinicalvalue. He added, Weve been blind tothevastmajority ofthembecauseof thebiased and insensitive methods we useto discoverdrugs.

    The methods are flawed, he said, be-cause they miss microbes that will notgrowinthe lab,andsubjectothersto ar-tificial conditions that may alter the ar-rayof potential drugstheyproduce.

    Drug-resistant bacteriainfectat leasttwo million people a year in the UnitedStates and kill 23,000, according to theCenters for Disease Control and Pre-

    LONDON

    BY STEVEN ERLANGER

    AND KATRIN BENNHOLD

    The sophisticated, military-style strike

    on a French newspaper known for sati-rizing Islam staggered a continentalready seething with anti-immigrantsentiments in some quarters, feedingfar-right nationalist parties likeFrancesNational Front.

    This is a dangerous moment forEuropeansocieties,Peter Neumann,di-rectorof the International Centerfor theStudyof Radicalization at Kings CollegeLondon, said of Wednesdays assault.With increasing radicalization amongsupporters of jihadist organizations andthe white working class increasinglyfeeling disenfranchised and uncoupledfromelites,thingsare coming toa head.

    Olivier Roy, a French scholar of Islamand radicalism, called the Paris assault the most deadly terrorist attack onFrenchsoilsincethe Algerianwarendedin the early 1960s a quantitative andtherefore qualitative turningpoint, not-ingthetargetand thenumberof victims.This was a maximum-impact attack,hesaid.Theydid thistoshockthe pub-lic,andin that sensetheysucceeded.

    Anti-immigrant attitudes have beenon the rise in recent years in Europe,propelled in part by a moribund econo-my and high unemployment, as well asincreasing immigration and more por-ous borders. The growing resentmentshave lifted the fortunes of establishedpartieslikethe U.K.IndependencePartyinBritainandthe NationalFront,aswellas lesser-known groups like PatrioticEuropeans Against Islamization of theWest,which assembled 18,000marchersin Dresden,Germany, on Monday.

    In Sweden, where there have beenthree recent attacks on mosques, theanti-immigrant, anti-Islamist SwedenDemocrats Party has been gettingabout 15 percent support in recent pub-licopinion polls.

    Paris was traumatized by the attack,with widespread fears of another. Wefeellessand lesssafe, saidDidierCan-tat,34,standing outsidethe policebarri-ersat thescene. Ifithappenedtoday,itwillhappenagain, maybe evenworse.

    Mr. Cantat spoke for many when hesaid the attacks could fuel greater anti-immigrant sentiment. We are told Is-lam is for God, for peace, he said. Butwhenyousee thisotherIslam,withthe ji-

    PARIS

    BY DOREEN CARVAJAL

    AND SUZANNE DALEY

    In 2012, when Charlie Hebdo editors de-fied the governments advice and pub-lished crude caricatures of the ProphetMuhammad naked and in sexual poses,the French authorities shut down em-bassies, cultural centers and schools inabout20 countries.

    Is it really sensible or intelligent topour oil on the fire? asked Laurent

    Fabius,theforeignministerat thetime.But Charlie Hebdos editor, Stphane

    Charbonnier, who died in the attack onthe papers offices Wednesday, was notdeterred.

    Week after week, the small, strug-

    SUSPECTSALREADYKNOWN TOFRANCE

    Asthepolicelookfortwo brotherssuspectedin theattack, questions riseoverwhy planswerentdetected. PAGE 4

    Scientists say new drugcures severe infections inmice, with no side effects

    ANT IBI OTIC S, PAGE 6

    WILLIAM FO WLE/NORTHEASTE RN UNIVERSITY

    An uncultured bacterium, Eleftheria ter-

    rae, makes a new antibiotic, teixobactin.

    F.B.I. has high confidencethat North Korea hit SonyWASHINGTON

    BY MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT,

    NICOLE PERLROTH

    AND MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN

    The F.B.I.s director, James B. Comey,has said that the United States has con-cludedthat NorthKoreawasbehindthedestructive attacks on Sony Pictures

    partly because the hackers failed tomask their locationwhenthey broke in-to the companys servers.

    Mr. Comey said that instead of rout-ing some of the attacks and messagesthroughdecoy servers,the hackerssentthem directly from Internet addressesinNorthKorea.

    While Mr. Comey did not offer moredetails in a speech in New York onWednesday, senior government offi-cials said that Federal Bureau of Inves-tigationanalystsfoundthatthe hackersquickly recognized their mistake. Afterlogging into Sonys systems and web-sites like Facebook from North Koreanaddresses, the hackers quickly

    switched to software that camouflagedtheir whereabouts by sending their at-tacks through computers in countriesincluding Bolivia, Singapore, PolandandItaly, theofficialssaid.

    Beforethe attacksin November,SonyPictures was threatened in a series ofmessages postedto a Facebook accountset up by a group calling itself Guardi-ans of Peace. After Facebook closed

    that account in November, the groupchanged its messaging platform andbegan sendingthreats inemailsto Sonyand on the anonymous posting sitePastebin. Asfarbackas lastJune, NorthKorean officials wrote in a letter to theUnited Nations that The Interview, aSony comedy about two journalistshired to assassinate its leader, KimJong-un,wasan actof terrorism.

    Responding to critics who have ques-tioned why the United States thinksNorth Korea was the source of the at-tacks, Mr. Comey said on Wednesdaythat the hackers became sloppy asthey tried to cover their tracks. He ac-CYBERATTACKS, PAGE 5

    Newspaper had defiedthreats and violence inbreaking cultural taboos

    Assault at newspapercomes amid fear andresentment in Europe

    EURO PE, PAGE 5PAPER , PAGE 4

    2AT LARGEAFTERPARIS MASSACRE

    The Frenchauthoritieswere searchingfortwobrothers after a third suspectsurrendered tothe police. PAGE 4

    ERANGA JAYAWARDENA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

    High turnoutin SriLanka Voterscast ballotsinunusuallylarge numbersonThursdayin theSri Lankanpresidentialelec-tion,whichhadbecomea referendumonPresidentMahindaRajapaksa, whohasbeeninofficenearlya decade.PAGE 3

    Taking pride in offending one and all

    THIBAULT CAMUS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

    gling paper amused and horrified, tak-ing pride in offending one and all andcarrying on a venerable European tra-dition dating to the days of the FrenchRevolution, when satirewas usedto pil-loryMarieAntoinette, andlater tochal-lenge politicians, the police, bankersandreligionsof allkinds.

    Thisweeksissuewas noexception.Itfeatured a mock debate about whetherJesusexistsand a black-and-whiteNewYears greeting card from the leader ofthe Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Bagh-dadi, with the caption, To yourhealth.

    No subject was off limits. The paperoffered pages of colorful cartoons de-picting Frances top politicians and in-tellectuals as wine-swilling slackers in-dulgingin sexual acts, orsuggestingthe

    pope was stepping aside to be with hisgirlfriend.

    It is a brand of humor the French andother Europeans are attached to, but ithas prompted fury among both Muslimextremists and less radical Muslims

    whoseethe denigrationof their religionasprovocation,not foodforthought.

    The French like their satire, saidJean-Marie Charon, a sociologist whostudies the news media. The idea is tobe irreverent, that irony and criticismaregood things.Butit istruethatthisisperhaps not part of everybodys cul-ture.

    In recent years, the editors and car-toonists at Charlie Hebdo hadweathered a firebombing, computerhacking and death threats. Mr. Char-bonnierwas includedon a listpublishedby Al Qaedas magazine, Inspire, ofthosemostwanted forcrimes againstIslam. But Charlie Hebdos staff contin-ued to take on Islam with the same ir-reverence as it did other religions, astandthat gaveitstatureamongFrench

    journalists.In2006,for instance, thepaperrepub-

    lished the controversial cartoon carica-tures ofa weepingProphetMuhammadthat had appeared first in a Danish

    Full currency rates Page 17