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Fueled by fracas, Hsieh, Strycova make Open final

CZECH MATES?A line-call challenge fiercely disputed by Barbora Strycova led to an ill-tempered semi-final against her compatriots, which the world No. 1 called a ‘catfight’
Anett Kontaveit of Estonia serves against Simona Halep of Romania during their Australian Open women’s singles quarter-final at Melbourne Park yesterday.Photo: EPA-EFE
Barbora Strycova yesterday erupted at the umpire after a contentious line call in her women’s doubles semi-final, but the Czech and Taiwanese partner Hsieh Su-wei had the last laugh in an often heated match as they booked a spot in tomorrow’s final at the Australian Open.

However, there will be no Taiwanese showdown at Melbourne Park after the Chan sisters were ousted in the second semi-final at Margaret Court Arena.

Strycova berated chair umpire John Bloom in the first set of the top seeds’ semi-final against fellow Czechs Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova after he allowed the fourth seeds to challenge a line call, despite two more shots being played in the rally.

Strycova called for the tournament referee, yelling: “You know I am right,” but the benefit went with her opponents after Hawk-Eye showed that Strycova’s shot had gone long.

However, fueled by a sense of injustice Hsieh and Strycova then went on to complete a 6-2, 6-3 victory in a semi-final that featured several more heated moments between the Czech players — moments that Hsieh looked to stay out of.

“I tried not to get into the Czech fight,” Hsieh said after the match.

“At the end a little bit it was a catfight,” Strycova said. “This is how it is sometimes.”

“I’m very happy that we are through to the final,” she added. “It means so much to me, and especially to do it with a partner like Su-wei by my side makes it extra special that we are in another Grand Slam final.”

The reigning Wimbledon champions saved both break points they faced and converted four of 10, winning 81 percent of points on their first serve and hitting 14 winners to set up a final against second seeds Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic, who defeated Taiwanese seventh seeds Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan 7-5, 6-2 in the second semi-final.

The Hungarian-French duo did not concede a single break point and won 94 percent of points on their first serve to complete the comprehensive victory in 1 hour, 25 minutes.

WOMEN’S SINGLES

Simona Halep is back in the Australian Open semi-finals and Garbine Muguruza has made it for the first time.

The pair of two-time major winners are to play for a spot in the final of the season-opening major after world No. 4 Halep and unseeded Muguruza won their quarter-finals in straight sets yesterday.

Both have won Wimbledon, claimed the French Open and been ranked world No. 1. Now, they are bidding for their first Grand Slam title on a hard court.

“Any Grand Slam, it’s a priority. I will not just choose one,” Halep said. “But, of course, it’s going to be great if I will be able to win one on hard court.”

Halep has been close before, losing the final in three sets at Melbourne Park to Caroline Wozniacki in 2018.

The 28-year-old Romanian said that the tough loss was the main push for her breakthrough win that year at Roland Garros, where she beat Muguruza in the semi-finals.

Halep needed only 53 minutes to beat first-time major quarter-finalist Kontaveit 6-1, 6-1.

“Perfection doesn’t exist, but I’m very happy with the way I played. I felt great on court. I was moving great. I felt the ball, like, really, really good,” she said. “It was a great match.”

Muguruza took a little more than 1 hour, 30 minutes to eliminate world No. 30 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-3, with both players struggling with their serves in the sun from one end.


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Trump’s plan for peace favors Israel, angers Palestinians

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu take part in an announcement of Trump’s peace plan in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.Photo: AFP
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday released his long delayed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, promising “a new dawn,” but angry Palestinians called it biased and deserving to go in the “dustbin of history.”

Standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House’s East Room, Trump said his plan could succeed where decades of previous US attempts to intervene had failed.

“Together we can bring about a ... new dawn in the Middle East,” Trump said to an enthusiastic audience that included throngs of Israeli and Jewish American guests — but apparently no Palestinian representatives.

They are flat out rejecting the plan, which grants Israel much of what it has sought in decades of international diplomacy, namely control over Jerusalem as its “undivided” capital, rather than a city to share with the Palestinians.

The plan also lets Israel annex West Bank settlements.

Trump praised Israel for taking “a giant step toward peace” with the plan, which lays out a vision for future Palestinian statehood if a series of strict conditions are met.

These include requiring the future Palestinian state to be “demilitarized,” while formalizing Israeli sovereignty over settlements built in occupied territory.

Palestinians angrily rejected the entire plan.

“This conspiracy deal will not pass. Our people will take it to the dustbin of history,” Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said.

Trump promised a “contiguous” future Palestinian state, addressing the current situation where Israel controls broad territory separating the two main population centers of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Yet the map showed the West Bank remaining riddled with Jewish settlements linked to Israel and only a long road tunnel connecting the area with the seaside Gaza Strip.

The plan makes it clear that Israel is free to annex its settlements on Palestinian lands right away.

On the flashpoint issue of Jerusalem, Trump said Israel should retain control over the city as its “undivided capital,” Trump said.

Israeli Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett yesterday said that Trump’s plan created a window for applying Israeli sovereignty on nearly one-third of the occupied West Bank.

“Last night history knocked on the door of our home and gave us a one-time opportunity to apply Israeli law on all settlements in Samaria, Judea, the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea,” Bennett said, using the Hebrew names for areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Bennett said he had already given orders to form a special team within Israel’s security establishment to “implement the application of Israeli law and sovereignty on all Jewish settlements” in the West Bank.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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title: Bryant missed the most shots in NBA

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One regular-season Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, two Olympic gold medals, three consecutive championships, four All-Star MVP awards, five championships in total — over the past couple of days, we have seen these numbers in the papers, heard them on the news bulletins.

There are others, too: including 18 consecutive All-Star appearances; 20 years with the Los Angeles Lakers; 39,283 career points; 57,278 career minutes; 122 40-point games; 25 50-point games; six 60-point games; and one 81-point game.

Caught short by the suddenness of his death, journalists used the stats to underpin their first sketches of Kobe Bryant’s life: a shorthand to capture something of the magnitude of his achievements and make them comprehensible to those of us who do not follow basketball.

There are plenty of people who know them already; they are as familiar to them as Don Bradman’s batting averages are to cricket fans or Usain Bolt’s world records are to athletics geeks.

However, there are people, like me, who are really only just beginning to appreciate them.

There are plenty of experts who can explain his legacy for us, but I am not one myself — basketball is not my beat. What I am left is the regret that I did not pay more attention. There ought to be a word for the remorse you feel reading the obituaries of someone whose work you suddenly wish you had followed more closely.

What struck me, reading about his career now, was not how often Bryant succeeded, but how often he failed. That one stat really stood out from the rest. He missed more shots than any other player in history, 14,481 altogether, more than 1,000 up on the man in second place, the Boston Celtics’ John Havlicek.

Maybe if you know the sport better than I do, it makes more sense that a great player could get it so wrong so often.

They asked Bryant how he felt about the record right after he broke it, when he missed a jump shot from 14 feet in the fourth quarter of a loss against the Memphis Grizzlies in 2014. He smiled and shrugged, and told them: “Well, I’m a shooting guard that’s played for 19 years.”

Maybe all those misses were just a natural consequence of playing so long — or maybe there is more to it.

There is a famous story about a Lakers game against the Utah Jazz in May 1997, Game 5 of the second round of the playoffs. It was Bryant’s rookie season. In the final seconds of regulation, he tried a mid-range jump shot to win the game, but got it so wrong that he missed the rim entirely.

In overtime, he tried a three-pointer from out on the left, but it fell short, too. With 40 seconds left, he tried another from the top of the arc, but it fell short. Then, with four seconds left — and the Jazz leading by three — he did it again, from the left: four air balls in five minutes. The Jazz won 96-93.

When he landed back in Los Angeles, he spent the night practicing his shooting in the gym at Palisades High School. He was still at it when the sun came up. Years later, when they were writing up his legend, this would become one of the more important beats in the story.

Former Lakers general manager Jerry West called it a defining moment, while Bryant himself said that it shaped him: “It was an early turning point for me in being able to deal with adversity, deal with public scrutiny and self-doubt. I look back at it now with fond memories, but back then it was misery.”

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title: Zverev to enter first semi with Wawrinka win

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Germany’s Alexander Zverev serves against Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka during their Australian Open men’s singles quarter-final in Melbourne yesterday.Photo: AFP
German seventh seed Alexander Zverev yesterday recovered from a slow start to beat former champion Stan Wawrinka 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in the Australian Open to reach his first career Grand Slam semi-final.

Zverev was once considered one of the leading Next Gen contenders to break the Grand Slam hegemony of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer — who have shared the past 12 majors between them.

However, the German, who beat Federer and Djokovic on his way to the 2018 ATP Finals title, fell off the radar as he failed to get past the quarter-finals at the majors.

“It feels awesome. I don’t know what to say,” Zverev said. “I have done well in other tournaments. I have won Masters and I have won the World Tour finals, but I never could break that barrier in the Grand Slams. You cannot imagine what this means to me and I hope this will be the first of many.”

Zverev came to the year’s first Grand Slam lacking confidence after losing all three of his singles matches at the inaugural ATP Cup.

He totaled 31 double-faults during the three defeats, but his serve has been immaculate in the year’s first Grand Slam.

Yesterday, Zverev hit 13 aces and while his opponent struggled with his serves, the German got 80 percent of his first serves in.

“Thanks for reminding me. I thought I had forgotten about it,” Zverev said, when asked about what he did to improve his serve from the ATP Cup. “I worked very hard. I worked a lot on it. This is a Grand Slam. This is where you are supposed to play your best tennis and I am doing that.”

Swiss Wawrinka, who won the first of his three Grand Slams at Melbourne Park in 2014, broke Zverev twice early to breeze through the opening set, but the 22-year-old German came roaring back.

The opening set against Wawrinka was the first that Zverev lost in this year’s Australian Open, but he won the next three sets by breaking his 34-year-old opponent’s serve five times.

“I was getting ready to talk to the press about why I lost in straight sets to be honest,” Zverev said jokingly, adding that he needed time to adjust to the conditions as he had previously played at night. “Then I kind of turned it around and my energy picked up a little bit.”

Zverev converted his first match point when Wawrinka sent a forehand long. He next faces Austria’s Dominic Thiem for a place in Sunday’s final.

Yesterday, Thiem ended six years of Grand Slam frustration against Rafael Nadal with a seismic 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 7-6 (8/6) upset that booked his maiden Australian Open semi-final and rocked the old guard of men’s tennis.

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Scientists ‘first to grow’ coronavirus

FIGHTING AN OUTBREAK:The Australian lab plans to share the virus with other researchers to create antibody tests and vaccines, because China has not done so
Julian Druce, left, virus identification laboratory head at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, and deputy director Mike Catton pose for a photograph following a news conference at the institute’s offices in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday.Photo: EPA-EFE
Scientists in Australia have successfully replicated the deadly Wuhan coronavirus, in what they said would be a “game changer” in the fight against a deadly epidemic which has stricken thousands.

The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne yesterday announced that it had grown the novel coronavirus in cell culture from a patient sample, the first time the virus has been replicated outside China.

“Having the real virus means we now have the ability to actually validate and verify all test methods, and compare their sensitivities and specificities,” virus identification laboratory head Julian Druce said. “It will be a game changer for diagnosis.”

China was quick to sequence the genome of the coronavirus and make it public, allowing scientists around the world to develop diagnostic tools and winning praise for its efforts, in contrast to the SARS outbreak of 2002 to 2003.

However, China has not shared the virus itself with laboratories worldwide — which the Australian laboratory would now do via the WHO — although the WHO announced on Tuesday that Beijing had agreed to allow a team of international experts into the country to work with their Chinese counterparts.

Doherty Institute deputy director Mike Catton said the new finding meant scientists could now create an antibody test that would allow the coronavirus to be detected in patients who had not displayed any symptoms.

“An antibody test will enable us to retrospectively test suspected patients so we can gather a more accurate picture of how widespread the virus is, and consequently, among other things, the true mortality rate,” he said. “It will also assist in the assessment of effectiveness of trial vaccines.”

Governments, universities and medical corporations worldwide are racing to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus, which has spread to more than 15 countries.

The process could take months.

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title: Scientists ‘first to grow’ coronavirus


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The TAIEX is expected to fall today as it has yet to react to worries over a worsening coronavirus outbreak that scourged global markets during the week-long Lunar New Year holiday.

The benchmark rose 0.24 percent to 12,118.71 points on Tuesday last week, the final trading day for the Year of the Pig, and might open with a slump of 3 to 5 percent, in line with declines on Wall Street, market analysts said.

“It is unlikely for the TAIEX to buck the global trend, given many [Taiwanese] companies have operations in China,” where reported cases of 2019 novel coronavirus infections have risen sharply over the past week, Taishin Securities Investment Advisory Co (台新投信) vice president Tony Huang (黃文清) said.

Technology plays, especially semiconductor shares, could be hit hard due to their heavy exposure to Chinese clients, Huang said, adding that US semiconductor stocks weakened 4 percent during the holiday, boding ill for local names.

For every NT$1 drop in the heavily weighted Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) stock, the TAIEX falls 9 points, analysts said.

A 4 percent pullback in TSMC alone would take out 135 points from the main board, they said.

TSMC is the top pick among foreign players and tends to bear the brunt when they flee the market.

Prior to the outbreak, global capital has sought shelter in local shares, attracted by their strong earnings ability and generous dividend payouts, stock exchange officials said.

Technology names aside, the outbreak is expected to wreak havoc on travel, hospitality and restaurant sectors, as people stay away from travel and recreational venues, Taishin Securities said.

Tourism accounts for 2.3 percent of Taiwan’s GDP, lower than Singapore’s 5.5 percent and Hong Kong’s 11.5 percent, according to an estimate by Fitch Ratings Ltd.

Some have voiced concern that the new virus would cause damage similar to the SARS outbreak in 2002-2003, which caused the TAIEX to fall 11 percent over a short time.

Deputy Minister of Finance Frank Juan (阮清華), who oversees the National Stabilization Fund, said authorities are closely watching global bourses and would intervene to ward off a market crash, if necessary.

Small and open, the local bourse is susceptible to market volatility, but there is no need to panic, as Taiwan’s economic fundamentals remain healthy, Juan said.

Electronics supply realignment and Taiwanese companies returning home from China would shore up private investment and the overall economy this year and beyond, research institutes have said.

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title: VIRUS FEARS: TAIEX decline likely after today’s reopening


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Aston Villa’s Trezeguet scores their second goal against Leicester City in their EFL Cup semi-final at Villa Park in Birmingham, England, on Tuesday.Photo: Reuters
Trezeguet on Tuesday struck deep into stoppage time to send Aston Villa into their first EFL Cup final for a decade with a 2-1 win over Leicester City to progress 3-2 on aggregate.

Matt Targett’s early opener put Villa in front, but Leicester enjoyed the majority of the chances and finally found a way past Orjan Nyland when Kelechi Iheanacho leveled 18 minutes from time.

However, Villa snatched the victory and a trip to Wembley on March 1 to face Manchester City or Manchester United when Trezeguet connected perfectly with fellow Egyptian Ahmed Elmohamady’s cross three minutes into stoppage-time.

“It was emotional for everyone when that goal went in,” said Villa boss Dean Smith, a life-long fan of the club. “Taking this club to Wembley, I will be a very proud man.”

The defeat ended Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers’ unbeaten run in 31 straight domestic cup ties.

“I thought we were excellent in the game. We played with a nice control and composure, but their goalkeeper has made some outstanding saves,” Rodgers said. “I’m gutted for my players because we put so much into the game. I thought at the end there was only one team was going to win it, but we switch off at the last minute.”

The visitors started with top scorer Jamie Vardy on the bench, as he was eased back into action after a glute injury, but the Foxes still blasted out of the traps.

Iheanacho was denied in the first of a string of big saves by Nyland in the Villa goal inside the first three minutes.

James Maddison then had a hat-trick of efforts, two of which brought saves from Nyland.

However, it was Villa who struck first when the impressive Jack Grealish teed up Targett to fire across Kasper Schmeichel after 12 minutes.

Nyland might not even have played if Villa’s new No. 1 Pepe Reina had been fit, but the Norwegian was inspired, as he then produced his best save of the night to turn Youri Tielemans’ piledriver onto the bar.

“He [Reina] wasn’t fit, so I didn’t have to make that decision,” Smith said regarding who would have played. “I knew the quality Orjan has got.”

Maddison was furious that he was not awarded a penalty moments later when he saw another effort repelled by the arm of Marvelous Nakamba.

Mbwana Samatta was making his Villa debut after an ￡8.5 million (US$11.06 million) switch from KRC Genk, but his first experience at Villa Park is not one that the Tanzanian will remember fondly, as he somehow failed to turn home another brilliant Grealish delivery early in the second half.

That could have proved the knockout blow for Leicester, but they were instead very much back in the tie when an explosive burst from Harvey Barnes teed up Iheanacho to finish.

Just when both sides seemed to be preparing for extra-time, an Elmohamady cross was volleyed into the bottom corner by his compatriot.

Trezeguet had to be hauled from the field by Villa security personnel after he was mobbed in a pitch invasion following the final whistle, as home fans celebrated a famous win wildly after having spent the past three seasons in the EFL Championship.

“I love a trip to Wembley. We’re looking forward to it,” said Grealish, who has been instrumental to Villa’s improved form over the past few weeks. “It shows what character we’ve got in the team. We were in a sticky patch before Christmas — we couldn’t string four passes together, never mind win a game, but we have started the new year in great form.”

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title: Egypt’s Trezeguet leads Aston Villa to EFL Cup final


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UK approves 5G role for Huawei despite warning

‘NO SAFE OPTION’:The UK said the deal would not affect how it shares classified data, but a US official said there was no place for untrusted vendors on 5G
The UK on Tuesday gave the green light to a limited role for Chinese telecom giant Huawei in the country’s 5G network, in a decision that left the US “disappointed” after it called for a total ban.

Even though London decided that “high-risk vendors” would be excluded from the UK’s “sensitive” core infrastructure, a US official said that there was “no safe option for untrusted vendors to control any part of a 5G network,” which offers almost instantaneous data transfer.

Washington has banned Huawei from the rollout of the fifth generation mobile network because of concerns that the firm could be under the control of Beijing, an allegation it strongly denies.

The announcement came as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepared to meet British Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week for talks in London likely to focus on Huawei and as the UK looks for a trade deal with Washington after Brexit.

The US had threatened to limit intelligence-sharing with London in the event of Huawei winning a UK role.

British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Dominic Raab told parliament: “Nothing in this review affects this country’s ability to share highly sensitive intelligence data over highly secured networks.”

“GCHQ [the UK’s cybersecurity agency] have categorically confirmed that how we construct our 5G and full-fiber public telecoms network has nothing to do with how we share classified data,” he said.

Johnson spoke to US President Donald Trump and “underlined the importance of like-minded countries working together to diversify the market and break the dominance of a small number of companies,” the British government said.

London’s decision — following a meeting of the British National Security Council chaired by Johnson — came shortly after Brussels said it would also allow Huawei a limited 5G role in the EU.

Brussels and London are both grappling to find a middle way to balance Huawei’s huge dominance in the 5G sector with security concerns, as they look to improve connectivity.

British Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Nicky Morgan said: “High-risk vendors never have been and never will be in our most sensitive networks.”

However, that failed to convince Washington, where a senior administration official said that the US was “disappointed by the UK’s decision.”

Meanwhile, research group GlobalData said a limited role for Huawei allowed “the UK to bow in part” to the US.

“A total ban would have required massive amounts of infrastructure to be torn out at eye-watering expense, and would have set the UK’s 5G rollout back by years. It was simply never a practical option to ban Huawei completely,” it said in a note.

Unlike the US, the UK has been using Huawei technology in its systems for the past 15 years.

Analysts Fitch said that the US could look to retaliate.

“The US has been putting a lot of pressure on its allies to ban Huawei, and failure to do so will raise questions about its strategy, as we expect it will look to retaliate, with threats to stop intelligence-sharing already made,” Fitch said.

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title: Star-shorn sides back youth in new Super Rugby season

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Jaguares captain Jeronimo de la Fuente, left, is tackled by the Crusaders’ Owen Franks, second left, and Mitchell Dunshea in the Super Rugby final in Christchurch, New Zealand, on July 6 last year.Photo: AFP
The 25th Super Rugby season starts tomorrow, but the silver anniversary will lose its shine with the absence of many stars who lit up the World Cup only a few months ago.

In the final season of the cumbersome conference system and one that will say sayonara to the no longer wanted Japanese Sunwolves, the talent vacuum will be highlighted from the first game when the Auckland Blues host the Waikato Chiefs.

The Blues’ star signing from the off-season, Beauden Barrett — the All Blacks playmaker and double World Player of the Year — has an extended holiday written into his new contract and is not to be seen until the middle of April.

It is not just the Blues who are suffering, as the Chiefs’ Brodie Retallick, another former World Player of the Year, has been excused from Super Rugby so that he can play in Japan, but still be available for the All Blacks.

Most of the Springboks squad that lifted the World Cup in Japan are now scattered throughout Europe and Japan.

The powerful Crusaders forward pack, which laid the platform for their consecutive titles over the past three years, has been decimated with retirements and sabbaticals for Sam Whitelock, Kieran Read, Jordan Taufua, Owen Franks and Matt Todd, along with backline general Ryan Crotty.

However, coach Scott Robertson has taken a positive approach to the loss of talent.

“Obviously, a lot of those guys have been part of the furniture here for a long time, so there is a real fresh feel around the place,” he said. “It’s time for the next crop to come through and take a bit more on their shoulders.”

It is a view shared by ACT Brumbies head coach Dan McKellar who lost 157 Test caps with the departures of David Pocock, Christian Lealiifano, Henry Speight, Rory Arnold and Sam Carter after the World Cup.

Rather than buying big-name replacements, McKellar said he had confidence in his younger squad members to fill the void.

“We’ll back the young guys,” McKellar said. “They’re young guys, but we’re backing them because they’re ready to go and they’ll be ready to go on the 31st.”

The Brumbies open against the Queensland Reds who have picked up James O’Connor and Henry Speight to join Jordan Petaia and Samu Kerevi for a potent backline.

The Bulls play the Sharks who are without Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira, along with Ruan Botha and the Du Preez brothers, Dan and Jean-Luc.

The Sunwolves start their final season against the Rebels, while the Crusaders play the Waratahs.

The Stormers, who have kept Siya Kolisi and Pieter-Steph du Toit — while Eben Etzebeth and Damian de Allende have moved to France and Japan — play the Wellington Hurricanes and the Jaguares are at home to the Golden Lions.

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US develops ‘promising’ African swine fever vaccine

PROGRESS:While the vaccine does not yet meet regulatory requirements, it reportedly offers ‘complete protection’ against the strain that is affecting Asia and Eastern Europe
Government and academic experts in the US have developed a vaccine against African swine fever that has proved 100 percent effective, the American Society for Microbiology has said.

High and low doses of the vaccine, developed from a genetically modified prior strain of the virus, were effective in pigs when they were challenged 28 days after innoculation, the report said.

“This new experimental ASFV [African swine fever virus] vaccine shows promise, and offers complete protection against the current strain currently producing outbreaks throughout Eastern Europe and Asia,” said Douglas Gladue, the principal investigator at the US Department of Agriculture, which developed the vaccine.

The virus has been most devastating for China, the world’s biggest producer of pork, which first reported a case in August 2018.

Since then hog herds have been decimated, with its effects ricocheting across global agricultural markets.

Scientists from China to the US have been racing to develop a vaccine for the virus, which is deadly to pigs, but is not known to harm humans.

There is no commercially available vaccine against the disease, which was first discovered more than 100 years ago in Africa. In its most virulent form, the virus can be 100 percent lethal.

It infects pigs and wild boars, and outbreaks has been found in eastern Europe, Russia and across Asia, including Vietnam and South Korea.

Despite 50 years of research, scientists have not managed to develop a vaccine that is safe and effective against African swine fever.

In China, reports of unauthorized and experimental vaccines surfaced last year, raising fears that its use could compound the problem.

Research into the vaccine started after a 2007 outbreak of the virus in the Republic of Georgia, Gladue said.

More work needs to be done to meet regulatory requirements ahead of commercialization, he said.

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The former roommate of Mimi Haleyi, one of the women who has accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, on Tuesday took the stand in the former Hollywood mogul’s rape trial.

Elizabeth Entin told jurors that Haleyi, visibly upset, told her in the summer of 2006 that Weinstein forced oral sex on her.

“I said: ‘Miriam, that sounds like rape,’” Entin testified, using Haleyi’s full first name.

Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting Haleyi and Jessica Mann.

Since 2017, more than 80 women, including many famous actresses, have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct.

The accusations fueled the #MeToo movement, in which women have accused powerful men in business, entertainment, media and politics of sexual misconduct. Weinstein’s trial is widely seen as a key moment for the movement.

Weinstein, who reshaped the independent film industry with critically acclaimed pictures such as The English Patient and Shakespeare in Love, has denied the allegations and said any sexual encounters were consensual.

Haleyi, who worked as a production assistant on a Weinstein television show, on Monday told jurors that Weinstein invited her to his Manhattan home in July 2006 and attacked her, backing her into a bedroom and forcing oral sex on her.

Entin said that she and Haleyi shared an apartment in 2006.

She said that one evening Haleyi appeared unusually nervous, and told her Weinstein had assaulted her in his home.

“She said: ‘I’m on my period,’ and he said: ‘I don’t care,’ at which point he threw her down, pulled down her underwear, pulled out her tampon and went down on her while she was saying: ‘No,’” Entin said.

Entin testified that she urged Haleyi to speak to a lawyer, but that Haleyi did not want to.

Entin said that weeks before the alleged attack, Haleyi called her at work to tell her that Weinstein had barged into their apartment and begged her to travel to Paris with him.

At the time, Entin said, she saw Weinstein not as a threat, but as “a pathetic older man trying to hit on Miriam.”

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title: Ex-roommate backs Weinstein assault claim


title: US military warns South Korean staff of furloughs

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The US military has begun issuing furlough warnings to almost 9,000 civilian South Korean employees, as Washington and Seoul remain at loggerheads over US President Donald Trump’s demand that its ally pay more money for its hosting of US troops.

The notices inform workers at US military facilities in South Korea that they potentially face administrative furloughs as of April 1, US Forces Korea (USFK) said in a statement issued yesterday.

The two sides remain deadlocked, although US officials have said that they have backed off from Trump’s initial demand that South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s government pay about US$5 billion a year for US forces stationed there.

That is more than five times the US$900 million in a stopgap one-year agreement that expired on Dec. 31.

South Korea has said that there is quite “a big difference in principle” between the two sides.

“Without the Republic of Korea’s continued commitment to share the cost of employing our Korean National workforce, USFK will soon exhaust programmed funds available to pay their salaries and wages,” the notice said.

Trump’s push for South Korea to contribute much more money for what is known as the Special Measures Agreement has put the alliance under strain at a time when North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s regime has said that it would no longer be bound by its previous promise to halt testing of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles.

The union for the South Korean workers has said that operations at the bases would be paralyzed if there were massive furloughs.

Workers to be directly affected by such notices have offered to work without pay out of concern over how the situation could harm South Korea’s national defense, said Son Gi-o, a representative of the US Forces Korea Korean Employees Union, who called for a deal to be reached soon.

“You can’t put a pause in defending your own country,” Son said in an interview, adding that US government officials “wouldn’t have made such a decision if it had a direct impact on a military base in their own land.”

US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy John Rood told the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that he expected the alliance between the two countries to remain firm, despite the differences in funding, and said that the South Korean negotiators were “no pushovers.”

“We have to recommit ourselves to maintaining the ironclad nature of that alliance and try to manage that in a way where we can steer this to a successful conclusion,” Rood said.

Still, committee Chairman Adam Smith, a Democrat, said he worried that the Trump administration’s approach “could potentially jeopardize our relationship with South Korea.”

People familiar with the discussions have said that US negotiators have shifted their position as they seek to offer a justification for a far bigger price tag.

After initially suggesting South Korea could make more purchases of US defense equipment, the Trump administration is now focused on other elements, such as asking the country to pay more for temporary troop rotations.

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A group of RB Leipzig stars has been slammed as “decadent” by a senior Bundesliga figure for bringing a celebrity barber over from England to give haircuts before their shock defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt last weekend.

Ralf Rangnick, head of sport and development soccer for the club’s chief sponsors Red Bull, was left fuming after star hairdresser Sheldon Edwards was flown over by members of the squad to give haircuts at the team hotel in Frankfurt before Saturday’s 2-0 defeat.

Second-half goals by Almamy Toure and Filip Kostic in Frankfurt saw Leipzig lose for the first time since October last year.

Rangnick has ripped into the group of nine players — which German daily Bild reported included regulars Yussuf Poulsen, Christopher Nkunku and Patrik Schick — for the “decadent” prematch haircut.

“I would have bet 100,000 euros [US$110,012] that our players would not have had a star hairdresser flown in from England to have their hair done in a hotel,” Rangnick told reporters on Tuesday. “I would have lost that 100,000 euro bet. The 2-0 defeat was annoying enough, the hairdresser story leaves me stunned. That is decadent.”

Leipzig sports director Markus Kroesche told Bild that the issue of the celebrity haircuts had been addressed internally.

COPA ITALIA

AC Milan are to meet Juventus in the Coppa Italia semi-finals after beating Torino 4-2 in an enthralling encounter on Tuesday to continue their Zlatan Ibrahimovic-inspired revival.

Extra-time goals from substitutes Hakan Calhanoglu and Ibrahimovic sealed passage into the last four for a Milan side who have been reawakened by the return of the Swede last month.

They will be relishing the tie with the Italian champions, who thumped AS Roma 3-0 in their quarter-final last week.

The superstar striker’s second goal since returning to Milan came on a night that the club honored Milan fan Kobe Bryant — who spent much of his childhood in Italy — with the message “Legends never die” on the San Siro big screens.

COUPE DE FRANCE

Fourth-tier ASM Belfort on Tuesday made it through to the Coupe de France quarter-finals after knocking out Ligue 1 outfit Montpellier Herault in a dramatic penalty shoot-out, while holders Stade Rennais edged a nine-goal thriller with top-flight Angers SCO 5-4.

Montpellier are sixth in the French top division, but failed to find the net and missed two spot-kicks in an emotional shoot-out.

A red card for Montpellier goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli for making a save well outside the penalty area left substitute goalkeeper Dimitry Bertaud to face defeat against lowly opposition.

At the Stade Raymond Kopa, Brittany side Rennes were 3-1 ahead going into the final half an hour against regional rivals Angers, who struck twice in the last five minutes through Sada Thioub and Stephane Bahoken to take the match into extra-time.

However, the side who beat Paris Saint-Germain on penalties at the Stade de France in last year’s final emerged the winners when Jeremy Gelin fired home a long-range volley to make it 5-4.

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title: Leipzig stars slammed for flying in barber


content_text:
Foreigners leave virus epicenter, death toll at 132

Residents yesterday guard the entrance of a community on the outskirts of Beijing to prevent outsiders from entering as China is hit by a coronavirus outbreak.Photo: Reuters
Hundreds of Americans and Japanese yesterday escaped the quarantined Chinese city at the center of a coronavirus epidemic aboard charter flights, as the death toll soared to 132 and confirmed infections neared 6,000.

The scale of the deepening crisis was emphasized with the new infection number on the Chinese mainland exceeding that of the SARS outbreak in 2002 to 2003.

SARS, another respiratory coronavirus transmitted between people, went on to claim nearly 800 lives around the world, with most of those fatalities in mainland China and Hong Kong.

The new disease has spread to more than 15 countries since it emerged out of Wuhan late last year, although all the confirmed fatalities have so far been in China.

Authorities last week imposed transport bans in and around Wuhan in an unprecedented quarantine effort, leaving more than 50 million people effectively trapped.

“We were not able to move freely, so we only had partial information,” said Takeo Aoyama, a Nippon Steel worker who was among the Japanese nationals airlifted early yesterday. “The number of patients began increasing rapidly at a certain point. That was very worrying.”

China has taken other extraordinary measures to try and stop the disease spreading, including bans on tour groups traveling overseas, suspending schools and extending the Lunar New Year holiday.

Thousands of foreigners have been among those trapped in Wuhan, which has become a near ghost town with vehicle travel banned and residents staying indoors.

Countries have for days been scrambling to try and get their citizens out of Wuhan safely, but have faced huge logistical, medical and bureaucratic hurdles.

About 200 people were aboard the Japanese flight that landed in Tokyo yesterday morning.

Medical professionals were on the plane to carry out checks but the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said that there were no plans to quarantine the passengers.

They would instead be asked to remain at home and avoid crowds at least until the results of their tests are known.

A US charter flight also left Wuhan with about 200 Americans on board, including employees from the local US consulate.

The EU plans to fly its citizens out aboard two French planes this week, and South Korea is due to do the same.

Australia said it would evacuate about 600 of its citizens from Wuhan and quarantine them on Christmas Island, which is normally used to detain asylum seekers.

Meanwhile, the virus continued to spread and kill in China.

Authorities said the number of cases in Hubei Province, the epicenter of the virus of which Wuhan is the capital, soared by more than 800 from the previous day.

The number of confirmed cases across the country climbed to 5,974, while the death toll nationwide jumped 26 to 132.

All of those new reported deaths were in Hubei except for one, in a province just to the north.

Until Tuesday, all reported cases in more than a dozen countries had involved people who had been in or around Wuhan, but Japan and Germany then reported the first confirmed human-to-human transmission of the illness outside China. Vietnam is investigating another case.

Germany now has four confirmed cases, all of them employees at a Bavarian firm recently visited by a Chinese colleague, health officials said.

The United Arab Emirates yesterday announced its first case of the virus, in a family from Wuhan, in what is thought to be the first confirmed case in the Middle East.

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VIRUS FEARS: BA, other airlines scramble to cancel China flights

British Airways (BA) has suspended all direct flights to and from China, one of the biggest names in aviation to do so, as worries grow about the impact of a spreading coronavirus on global travel.

BA.com, the airline’s Web site, shows no direct flights to China are available to book this month and next, but the airline said in an e-mail to Reuters that the cancelations were in effect until tomorrow while it assesses the situation.

Direct flights to Hong Kong were unaffected.

BA’s move followed some flight cancelations to China by United Airlines Holdings Inc, which blamed a sharp fall in demand.

BA said customers due to travel to or from China in the coming days could find out more on its Web site.

“We apologize to customers for the inconvenience, but the safety of our customers and crew is always our priority,” BA said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

British Airways usually flies daily between London’s Heathrow Airport and Beijing and Shanghai.

The temporary suspension of flights comes days after BA had offered passengers the chance to cancel or rebook tickets to China next month, a move which could have resulted in its large long-haul jets flying half empty.

UK-based airline Virgin Atlantic said its flights to Shanghai would continue to operate as scheduled.

According to analysts, IAG, the group which owns BA and Iberia, is less exposed to the Asia-Pacific region on a capacity basis compared with rival European airlines such as Air France-KLM and Lufthansa.

Asia-Pacific last year accounted for about 19 percent of both Air France-KLM and Lufthansa’s available seat kilometers and 8 percent of IAG’s, Goodbody analysts said.

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (國泰航空) yesterday said it would cut capacity to China by 50 percent or more from today.

Several South Korean carriers have halted flights to Chinese cities, including Asiana Airlines Inc, Jeju Air Co and Jin Air Co, while Finnair Oyj and Air Macau Co are among others taking similar steps.

Bloomberg Intelligence analysts James Teo and Chris Muckensturm said China Southern Airlines Co (中國南方航空) could face the biggest blow among the country’s “big three” carriers as it controls 30 percent of Wuhan’s seat capacity, with routes to and from the capital of Hubei Province accounting for 3.6 percent of its seats.

That compares with 1.5 percent for Air China Ltd (中國國際航空), which is also vulnerable, the analysts wrote in a report.

Passenger traffic at airlines such as Cathay and China Southern plunged 32 to 37 percent in the first half of 2003, because of SARS, Teo and Muckensturm said.

This time, “international airports’ swift implementation of preventative measures can help blunt the impact,” they added.

China Southern shares fell as much as 6.7 percent as trading resumed in Hong Kong following the Lunar New Year break, while Air China slid 5.5 percent and China Eastern Airlines Co (中國東方航空) dropped as much as 7.7 percent.

Indonesia’s Lion Air Group, Southeast Asia’s biggest carrier by fleet size, is halting all its flights to and from China as of Saturday, spokesman Danang Mandala Prihantoro said yesterday, adding that dozens of flights would be affected on routes to 15 Chinese cities.

Russia’s Urals Airlines said it had suspended some services to Europe popular with Chinese tourists, such as Munich, Paris and Rome, as well as to Sapporo, Japan, until the end of winter, it said in a statement.

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Kristoffersen steals top finish in slalom

DISAPPOINTED:First-run leader Marco Schwarz let down the home crowd, as Austria searches for a new hero after last year’s retirement of record-setting Marcel Hirscher
Marco Schwarz of Austria descends in the first run of the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup men’s slalom event in Schladming, Austria, on Tuesday.Photo: EPA-EFE

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With 50,000 home fans ringing cowbells, burning flares and straddling the Schladming piste, first-run leader Marco Schwarz on Tuesday dashed home hopes as he missed a gate on his second run, while Henrik Kristoffersen won at the raucous, flood-lit World Cup slalom event.

Alpine skiing is Austria’s national sport and the nation is searching for a new slalom hero after the retirement last season of record-setting Marcel Hirscher, who won 67 World Cup races.

In fog and snow, the 24-year-old Schwarz had given the crowd great cheer and set pulses racing after nailing the first run to lead a tight field with a festive atmosphere on a Planai Mountain awash with color.

World Cup slalom leader Kristoffersen was breathing down Schwarz’s neck just 0.14 seconds adrift after the first run and, despite almost missing a gate on the icier second run, held on as he swooped through the tight gates for a comfortable win ahead of Alexis Pinturault.

“I’m sorry for Marco. I wanted him to fight all the way,” said the 25-year-old Norwegian, who trained for years in the region and lived in nearby Salzburg. “I used to live near here and it’s where I won my first World Cup race, so it’s almost like I was at home.”

France’s Pinturault came second at 0.34 seconds after crashing out in his previous two events, while Kitzbuehel slalom king Daniel Yule of Switzerland came third.

France’s Clement Noel produced an astonishing second run of 49.35 seconds to leap from 30th to fourth. That run was more than one second faster than any other racer in the top 10, in either of the two descents.

In the World Cup slalom standings, Kristoffersen now has 552 points, with Yule on 495 and Noel on 450.

In the race for the overall World Cup title, Kristoffersen also leads on 841, with Pinturault on 722 and Aleksander Kilde on 700.

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Premier Su Tseng-chang talks to reporters at the Central Epidemic Control Center in Taipei yesterday.Photo: CNA
The Executive Yuan yesterday urged Beijing to accept the nation’s request to evacuate about 300 Taiwanese stranded in Wuhan, China, after the city was locked down because of a coronavirus outbreak.

Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said that the Mainland Affairs Council and the Straits Exchange Foundation have so far received more than 200 telephone calls from Taiwanese barred from leaving Wuhan, requesting the government’s assistance in returning home.

The council has informed Beijing that it wants to charter a flight to evacuate Taiwanese in Wuhan, Kolas said, adding that the council was making the request out of humanitarian considerations.

So far, China has yet to agree to this arrangement, she added.

“We urge Beijing to refrain from making a decision on this matter based on political considerations,” she said.

The Taiwanese stranded in Wuhan are not businesspeople living in the city, but had traveled there for business trips or short tours, she said, adding that they are not being “properly looked after” as China’s Taiwan Affairs Office has claimed.

“We hope that Beijing will seriously consider our request to bring our compatriots back using a charter flight, considering that some of them have chronic diseases,” she said.

Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) said in a statement on Tuesday that, as of Monday it had not received any reports from its branch in Hubei Province — of which Wuhan is the capital — of any Taiwanese having contracted the virus.

He said that its staff members in Hubei have cared for the needs of Taiwanese in Wuhan and have instantly resolved their problems in accordance with its policy to contain the viral outbreak.

Ma said that China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits had received a request to evacuate Taiwanese from the Straits Exchange Foundation at 6pm on Monday, but denied that the two sides were negotiating any kind of arrangement.

“We have been deeply concerned about the welfare and health of our Taiwanese compatriots since we began our work of curbing the spread of the viral pneumonia and have been in close contact with relevant authorities in Taiwan,” he said.

“We will arrange for Taiwanese experts to arrive in Wuhan to observe the situation and offer instant updates on the situation,” Ma added.

However, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that the foundation has been trying to contact its counterpart in China as the government is very concerned about the well-being of Taiwanese in Wuhan.

“[From the statement] we can see that China does not contact us directly, but has said publicly that it would look into the situation and care for [Taiwanese]. We will keep trying to communicate” with China, Su said.

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people:
Kolas Yotaka
蘇貞昌

title: Cabinet urges Beijing to allow evacuation of Wuhan


content_text:
Boston Celtics forward Gordon Hayward, left, attempts a shot over Miami Heat guard Duncan Robinson in their NBA game at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday.Photo: EPA-EFE
The NBA Eastern Conference standings are not difficult to decipher: The Milwaukee Bucks are on top and then there is a five-team race for second place — and the Boston Celtics have made the mess even messier.

Gordon Hayward on Tuesday scored 29 points and Jaylen Brown added 25 to keep the Celtics ahead most of the game on the way to beating the Miami Heat 109-101.

“Every game is important,” Hayward said. “Every single one we play is important in the playoff race. We’re all so close together so ... each one we have to treat it like a playoff game. That’s just how tight it is.”

The Celtics became the first Eastern Conference team to visit Miami and win this season; the rest of the conference had been 0-13 on the Heat floor.

The Celtics held the Heat to 37 percent shooting, a season-worst at home and their third-worst effort in 47 games this season.

“Their defense really jammed us up,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after his team fell to 0-2 against the Celtics this season. “That’s two games that they’ve done it to us. We’re better than this ... and the little things matter against a good defensive team like this.”

Kemba Walker added 16 points and eight assists for the Celtics, who got 11 points from Marcus Smart and a 10-point, 11-rebound effort from Daniel Theis.

The Toronto Raptors moved into second in the East, a game up on the Heat. The Boston Celtics are a half-game behind the Heat, the No. 5 Philadelphia 76ers are a game behind the Celtics and the No. 6 Indiana Pacers are only a half-game behind the 76ers.

Goran Dragic led the Heat with 23 points, while Jimmy Butler scored 20, Bam Adebayo had 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Duncan Robinson scored 12 points.

The Celtics outscored the Heat 15-0 from the three-point range in the game’s first nine minutes, a big reason why the Celtics took control from the outset and built as much as a 13-point lead in the opening quarter.

The Heat went to a zone defense and slowed the Celtics down, but it was not enough.

“Guys did a really good job of attacking it,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “Once we got a comfortable rhythm against it, we were a little bit better. It’s hard to score on those guys.”

The Heat took the lead on a pair of occasions in the second quarter, but only for a span of a couple minutes.

The Celtics took a 53-48 lead into the half and watched the Heat score to repeatedly make it a one or two-possession game all the way down the stretch.

However, the Heat never held the lead in the second half. Every time they got close, the Celtics had the answer and Smart’s three-pointer with 1 minute, 50 seconds left put the Celtics up by eight points to all but seal matters.

The tributes to the life of Kobe Bryant continued, as Spoelstra, Stevens and their staff members wore Bryant’s signature sneakers — a gesture that other NBA coaches made on Tuesday as well.

“It’s about more than the player,” Adebayo said. “It’s about a lot more when you’re honoring Kobe.”

The Heat also displayed the numbers 8 and 24 — Bryant’s two jersey numbers in the distinctive Los Angeles Lakers purple and gold — on an electronic sign attached to the basket stanchions.

Also on Tuesday, it was:

‧ Bucks 151, Wizards 131

‧ 76ers 115, Warriors 104

‧ Raptors 130, Hawks 114

‧ Grizzlies 104, Nuggets 96

‧ Pelicans 125, Cavaliers 111

‧ Suns 133, Mavericks 104

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title: Boston Celtics beat Miami Heat 109-101


content_text:
By Ho Tsung-han and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer
CTW Logistics Corp chairman Huang Jen-an (黃仁安) has talked about his passion for documenting the history of local culture in Taiwan in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times).

Established in 1978 in the Pusin area (埔心) of Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅), CTW Logistics began as a container transport company before transforming into a modern logistics center.

Today, the company engages in international bonded logistics operations.

In 1988, Huang established the CTW Culture and Education Foundation in his late mother’s honor.

Huang said he started the foundation with the hope of giving back to his community.

“At seven, I moved to Pusin. Many old professions I remember from that time are already gone,” he said, adding that locomotive conductors, ox cart drivers and traveling hair stylists were once common occupations in the area.

Several years ago, he began to talk with elderly residents in the area to document the disappearance of the professions, Huang said, adding that many of the interviewees have since passed away.

After two years of research, he amassed 400 pages of notes about local history, which started him on his road toward publishing, which is a focus of the foundation, he said.

“I donated some of the company stock to the foundation, from which it can draw annual revenue. Otherwise, it would be unable to do anything,” Huang said.

As a Hakka, Huang said he felt it important to publish the works of fellow Hakka writers.

The foundation has published Chung Chao-cheng’s (鍾肇政) romance novel Written on the Wind (苦雨戀春風), the complete works of Cheng Huan-sheng (鄭煥生) — a Hakka farmer and writer — and the biography of female Hakka writer Huang Chuan (活出愛：黃娟傳).

In his published history of Pusin, Huang wrote about the resistance fighter Hu Chia-yu (胡嘉猷), who fought against Japanese forces when they invaded Taiwan in 1895.

Huang said he later read about the same battles written from the Japanese perspective in a book he found in an old bookstore in Tokyo.

“I immediately stopped the publication of my book and had the Japanese text translated to Chinese so I could add notations and give readers another perspective,” he said.

Huang provided copies of the Japanese book, titled The Whole Story of the Taiwan Expedition (征臺始末), to Taiwanese historians, who called the text an “invaluable source,” and agreed to translate it to Chinese and publish it, he said.

Japan’s strength at the time was unmatched by its neighbors, Huang said, adding that he was curious as to what gave Taiwanese at the time the will to fight against such a formidable adversary.

“From a legal perspective there was no problem with Japan handing Taiwan over to the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT], but many tragic things happened after that, such as the White Terror era,” he said.

Despite 124 years having passed since the Japanese invasion of Taiwan, Taiwanese still have not learned to see themselves as a nation and a people, he said.

“Do not talk about sharing a culture or ethnicity [with China], or how ‘blood is thicker than water.’ Look at Hong Kong. The Chinese Communist Party’s idea of ‘democracy’ — its ‘one country, two systems’ — is all under the party’s control,” he said.

Chinese translations of Charles Le Gendre’s account of southern Taiwan, and James W. Davidson’s The Island of Formosa, Past and Present were both published by the foundation, Huang said, adding that such texts served as historical references for older Taiwanese hoping to learn more about their origins.

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taiwan-subdivisions: 埔心 楊梅

title: FEATURE: Logistics boss grows taste for local history


content_text:
Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews celebrates after scoring a half-century against Zimbabwe during the third day of the second Test in Harare yesterday.Photo: AFP
Sri Lanka were counting on Angelo Mathews to steer them out of trouble after Zimbabwe off-spinner Sikandar Raza reduced the tourists to 226-5 at lunch on the third day of the second Test in Harare.

All-rounder Raza collected the three wickets to fall in an extended morning session, including that of a well-set Dhananjaya de Silva, for 42, in the over before lunch.

Mathews, who made his first Test double-century in the series opener, reached the interval unbeaten on 53, with wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella new to the crease.

Sri Lanka resumed on 122-2 after bad light and rain brought a premature close to the second day, and still trailed hosts Zimbabwe by 180 runs at lunch.

Raza made an early breakthrough to dismiss Kusal Mendis (22), but there was greater concern for Kevin Kasuza, who collapsed after he was struck on the helmet fielding at short-leg for the second Test in a row.

The ball looped off Kasuza’s helmet after a firm pull from Mendis and was caught by Carl Mumba at square-leg, although a stricken Kasuza had to be taken off the field on a stretcher.

Kasuza was then sent to hospital for scans.

He suffered a delayed concussion in the first Test and was eventually substituted out of that match after a similar incident.

Raza snaffled a return catch offered by Dinesh Chandimal (6) to leave Sri Lanka on 142-4 before an 84-run stand between Mathews and De Silva steadied the reply.

However, Raza bowled De Silva three balls before lunch, with a delivery that stayed low to give Zimbabwe renewed impetus.

Sri Lanka lead the two-Test series 1-0 after winning the first match by 10 wickets.

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title: Sri Lanka rely on Mathews after Zimbabwe rebound


content_text:
The nation’s three airlines said that they would cancel some flights to China due to the 2019-nCoV outbreak.

EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), and its affiliate Uni Air (立榮航空), would cancel a total of 232 flights to Chinese cities from Sunday to Feb. 16 for safety’s sake, EVA said in a statement on Monday.

“First-tier cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Ningpo, are among canceled destinations, with second-tier cities also included,” an EVA communications officer told the Taipei Times by telephone.

The canceled flights have lower rates of seats sold, the officer said.

EVA is to maintain flights with higher rates of seats sold, and it would help affected passengers change their tickets or transfer to other flights, the company said.

“We might delay the resumption of our normal flight schedule even after Feb. 16, depending on when the spread of 2019-nCoV is stopped or controlled,” the communications officer said.

State-owned China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) on Monday said that it would halt 10 flights to China between tomorrow and Feb. 10, with the affected destinations including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Xuzhou.

That was CAL’s second wave of cancelations after it last week halted direct flights to Wuhan, the epicenter of the 2019-nCoV outbreak, until Feb. 29.

StarLux Airlines Co (星宇航空), which began operations just last week, on Tuesday said that it would cancel part of its flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Macau.

Starlux, which planned to operate six flights between Taiwan and Macau, said that it would cancel two flights in the first phase from today to March 28 and another two flights in second phase from Feb. 16 to March. 28.

It would maintain only two flights between Taiwan to Macau during the period, it added.

“We have seen the booking rate for the flights to Macau drop recently due to the spread of 2019-nCoV, but we will not cancel all flights given that some passengers still need to fly to the territory,” Starlux communications officer Liwen Liu said by telephone.

Starlux’s cancelation period is longer than EVA’s and CAL’s, as it has only three jets and needs to adjust its schedules more carefully, Liu said.

In related news, Grand Ocean Retail Group Ltd (大洋百貨), which operates 17 department stores in second and third-tier Chinese cities, yesterday announced that it would halt operations at those department stores until Sunday, given that the Chinese government has extended the national Lunar New Year holiday to buy time for it to combat the outbreak.

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title: VIRUS FEARS: Local airlines cancel some flights to China


content_text:
Quake shakes Caribbean, prompting evacuations

PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES:The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially cautioned of waves of up to 1m above tide level, as aftershocks rocked the region
People in Miami, Florida, wait outside evacuated office buildings after an earthquake struck south of Cuba on Tuesday.Photo: AFP
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake on Tuesday struck in the Caribbean between Jamaica and Cuba, triggering a brief tsunami alert and sending hundreds of people pouring onto the streets of Havana.

The tremors were felt as far as the US mainland, where police in Miami evacuated some buildings as a precaution.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake hit at a depth of 10km at 2:10pm — 125km northwest of Lucea, Jamaica.

It estimated there was a low likelihood of casualties or damage, and there were no immediate reports of either. Hours later, a magnitude 6.1 aftershock hit off the coast of the Cayman Islands, part of a cluster of more than a dozen aftershocks which were mainly in the magnitude 4-to-5 range and lasted well into the evening, the USGS said.

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially warned there was a threat of tsunami waves reaching 0.3m to 1m above tide level for the coasts of Jamaica, Belize, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico and the Cayman Islands. However, it lifted the alert update about two hours later.

The first, bigger quake rattled several tall buildings in the Cuban capital, Havana, which were immediately evacuated.

The earthquake was felt in several provinces including Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba in the east, Cienfuegos in the center and Havana in the northwest, the official Cubadebate Web site reported.

There were no preliminary reports of damage or injuries.

“I felt the house trembling and realized that it was a quake,” Kingston, Jamaica, resident Jawara Rawjers said.

“It lasted about 20 seconds. I checked my watch and it was 2:12pm. I checked on my family, but they didn’t feel anything in their part of the house,” he added.

“I was on the second floor of a building and there was a sustained shaking of the building. I felt dizzy. The door was slamming consistently for a while,” Kingston doctor Machel Emanuel said.

Many Jamaicans took to social media in the immediate aftermath to post pictures, unverified, of swimming pools shaking violently.

In Miami, police said buildings were evacuated as a precaution after reports of tremors being felt in some areas of the city.

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content_text:
The US House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to authorize sanctions against Chinese officials who interfere in the process of determining the Dalai Lama’s successor, raising pressure as the Tibetan spiritual leader approaches 85.

Under the legislation, Washington would freeze any US assets and ban travel to the US of Chinese officials found to be involved in “identifying or installing” a government-approved Dalai Lama.

A total of 392 lawmakers voted for the bill with 22, all of them Republicans plus one conservative independent, opposed.

The act still needs approval from the US Senate, where Republican Marco Rubio has promised to lead efforts, before heading to US President Donald Trump for his signature.

The law would also prohibit China from opening any further consulates in the US until Washington can open a mission in Lhasa, the Himalayan territory’s tightly restricted capital.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime advocate for Tibet, said that the bill aims to encourage Beijing to resume dialogue with envoys of the Dalai Lama that broke off a decade ago.

“We are supporting the Tibetan people’s right to religious freedom and genuine autonomy by formally establishing a US policy that the Tibetan Buddhist community has the exclusive right to choose its religious leaders, including the 15th Dalai Lama,” Pelosi said.

It is the latest human rights bill passed in the US Congress, including an act in support of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters that angered China.

The 14th Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, has won a global following through his good-humored discourses on peace and compassion, helping fuel interest in his push for greater Tibetan autonomy.

Beijing, while officially atheist, has signaled that it could try to stage-manage his succession — a ritualistic search in which monks look for clues in a young boy — with the presumed goal of grooming a pliant Dalai Lama.

While brushing aside any worries about his health, the Dalai Lama has said he is open to breaking tradition by choosing a successor before he dies, including potentially a girl, or even declaring the institution finished with him.

In 1995, Beijing selected its own Panchen Lama — another influential Tibetan Buddhist position — and detained a six-year-old identified for the role, whom rights groups described as the world’s youngest political prisoner.

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title: US votes to warn China on Dalai Lama meddling


content_text:
Taipei office rents likely to grow next three years

SUPPLY CRUNCH:Less than 30,000 ping was free in the Neihu Technology Park last year, with the vacancy rate for premium space in the city dropping
With supply limited and vacancy rates declining, the cost of renting offices in Taipei is expected to grow for the next three years, Collier International said.

The average office rent in Taipei last year rose 2.05 percent from a year earlier to about NT$1,906 (US$63.52) per ping (3.3m2) per month, as the vacancy rate fell, data compiled by the multinational property market advisory firm showed.

Analysts said the increased rent for office space is an indication of rising demand at a time when a greater number of Taiwanese investors with operations overseas, in particular in China, are investing more at home to avoid the impact of additional tariffs imposed by the US on goods made in China.

The data indicates that rent of premium offices in Taipei rose 5.10 percent last year, with Xinyi District (信義) seeing rent of top-grade office space rise 5.53 percent, the highest growth in Taipei.

The average rent for office space in Xinyi stood at NT$2,405 per ping per month, about 17 to 35 percent higher than in other business districts in Taipei, Collier said.

The vacancy rate for premium office space in Taipei dropped sharply from 11.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 to 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

The data also shows that although the vacancy rate for Grade A and Grade B office space in Taipei remained at about 7.44 percent in the fourth quarter, the vacancy rate for other grades of office space fell to less than 4 percent.

Taiwan’s office rental market is expected to consume 23,000 to 30,000 ping in the rental market this year, pushing the vacancy rate lower, which would likely boost rent, and the momentum is expected to continue into next year and the year after, Collier said.

In Neihu Technology Park (內湖科技園區) in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), less than 30,000 ping was available, with a vacancy rate of 3.42 percent, and the average rent was about NT$1,200 per ping per month in the second half of last year.

In terms of commercial property, including land, office and factories, transactions totaled NT$410.5 billion last year, up 54 percent from a year earlier, Collier said.

Land sales to property developers reached 300,000 ping, equivalent to the size of almost four Daan Parks, it added.

Excluding land, sales of commercial property totaled NT$138.6 billion, up more than 70 percent from a year earlier with sales of industrial property, including factories and offices inside factories, accounting for NT$55.6 billion, about 40 percent of the total, as many Taiwanese firms plan to invest.

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taiwan-subdivisions: 內湖 信義


content_text:
UK must accept EU rules for full market access: Germany

FISH FIRST:Ending hopes the financial sector would be a trade talk priority, the UK is introducing a bill to end the right of EU ships to fish in the UK’s waters
Britain’s Union Jack flag lies with other EU member state flags outside the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, yesteday.Photo: Bloomberg
Britain is going to have to compromise on issues such as consumer rights and environment protection if it wants to maintain full access to the EU’s single market, German Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas said yesterday.

“By the end of the year, we need to be clear on the shape of our relationship,” Mass wrote in a guest article in German weekly Die Zeit in reference to the post-Brexit transition period.

“So let me say very openly: Yes, we all want zero tariffs and zero trade barriers, but that also means zero dumping and zero unfair competition. Without similar standards to protect our workers, our consumers and the environment, there can be no full access to the largest single market in the world,” Mass wrote.

Britain and the EU must therefore conduct the negotiations on their post-Brexit economic relations in a way that “won’t harm the European Union,” Maas said.

Britain and the EU needed to develop new forms of cooperation on security and defense, such as by creating a European Security Council that could help coordinate joint positions on strategic issues of European security and to respond more quickly to international crises, he said.

“We are working with France to flesh out this idea as quickly as possible in order to build a foundation for our future relationship,” Maas wrote.

He also suggested that the EU’s door would always remain open for Britain to come back.

Referring to the Beatles song Hello, goodbye, Mass said that both sides had sorted out the goodbye.

“But should this farewell ever turn out to be less final than anticipated, rest assured that we will always have a place for you at our table in Brussels and in our hearts,” he added.

Meanwhile, the British government said it would introduce a bill into parliament yesterday for legislation to end automatic rights for EU vessels to fish in UK waters.

Under the Fisheries Bill, Britain will leave the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy at the end of the 11-month Brexit transition period on Dec. 31, giving it the power to operate as an independent coastal state.

The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that would allow Britain to operate its fish stocks sustainably outside the EU.

“In future, access to fish in UK waters will be a matter for the UK to negotiate and we will decide on the rules that foreign vessels must follow,” it said.

Hopes were high that the government would prioritize the financial sector in trade talks, but bank sources last week said that a push by the EU for fishing access to UK waters and London’s stance that it would diverge from EU rules are prompting them to review for a hard Brexit.

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content_text:
B: At work yesterday I discovered lots of colleagues had taken sick leave.

A: Must be the flu that’s going around. With everyone returning home for the holidays and burning the midnight oil, viruses will get passed around easily.

B: Yes, that’s why I’ve been wearing a face mask these last two days.

B: 昨天我去上班的時候，發現好多同事請病假。

A: 一定是流感吧，過年期間大家團聚在一起，還經常熬夜，就可能發生群聚感染。

B: 嗯，所以我這兩天上班都戴著口罩。

English 英文:

Chinese 中文:

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title: EVERYDAY ENGLISH


content_text:
National Transportation Safety Board investigators Adam Huray, right, and Carol Hogan on Monday examine wreckage as part of its investigation of a helicopter crash near Calabasas, California. The crash on Sunday killed former NBA basketball player Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others.Photo: National Transportation Safety Board via AP
The tall hillside where Los Angeles Lakers basketball great Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others perished in a helicopter crash was cleared on Tuesday of all wreckage and human remains as the on-scene phase of the investigation drew to a close.

A US National Transportation Safety Board team carted a truckload of debris wrapped in large, white tarp bags to a secure location, while authorities said they had positively identified remains of four victims, including Bryant and the pilot.

Disclosing new details of Sunday’s tragedy, board member Jennifer Homendy also said the pilot of Bryant’s luxury passenger helicopter had tried to climb out of a cloud layer before the chopper banked sharply and plunged 610m per minute into the hillside.

“This is a pretty steep descent at high speed,” Homendy told a briefing in Calabasas, a town adjacent to the crash scene about 64km northwest of downtown Los Angeles. “The time from descent to impact was probably about a minute.”

Crash investigators have offered no explanation for what might have led the twin-engine Sikorsky S-76B to bank abruptly to one side and then plummet to the ground.

However, Homendy said the estimated rate of descent “wouldn’t be a normal landing speed.”

Homendy has suggested that clouds, fog and limited visibility in the area were a key focus of the investigation, having appealed to the public on Monday to come forward with any photographs and videos that might document weather conditions around the crash site at the time.

She said that many images had since been provided to the agency and would be analyzed in due course.

Bryant, 41, who retired from the National Basketball Association in 2016, was on his way to a youth sports academy with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna. Her team that he coached was due to compete that day in a girls’ basketball tournament, when the crash occurred.

Board officials gave a private telephone briefing to the families of the dead on Tuesday afternoon, but Homendy declined to say anything about what was discussed and who took part in the call.

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title: Site of Bryant’s fatal helicopter crash cleared


content_text:
NORTH KOREA

Quake due to nuke test

A small natural earthquake yesterday detected in the country was likely a result of seismic instability lingering in the area since Pyongyang conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test in 2017, the South Korean government said. A magnitude 2.5 earthquake was detected at 9:33am in Hamgyong Province, the location of the shuttered Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, the South Korea Meteorological Administration said. “It was a natural earthquake, presumably caused by the sixth nuclear test,” the administration said in a statement on its Web site. “The area is about 3km southeast of the sixth nuclear test site.”

HUNGARY

Migrants try forced crossing

A security officer early on Tuesday fired three warning shots after about 60 migrants tried to force their way through a checkpoint on the border with Serbia, and Serbian police said later that they had arrested 37 people for trying to cross the frontier illegally. No one was wounded in the incident, which took place at the Roszke/Horgos border crossing, Hungarian police spokeswoman Szilvia Szabo said. There are thousands of migrants stuck in Serbia, with more than 6,000 migrants living in government-operated camps. In the village of Horgos, on the Serbian side of the border crossing, a group of about two dozen migrants from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Morocco said that they were beaten up by Hungarian police and sent back to Serbia. Some showed cuts and bruises, but reporters were not able to verify their accounts.

CAR

Milita fighting kills about 40

Militia infighting in the Central African Republic (CAR) killed about 40 people over the weekend and forced several hundred from their homes, local authorities said on Tuesday. The bloodshed was some of the worst since armed groups agreed a peace deal in February last year. That was meant to bring stability to a country rocked by violence since 2013, when mainly Muslim rebels in the Seleka alliance ousted the then president, prompting reprisals from mostly Christian militia. The clashes broke out on Saturday in the eastern town of Bria between different ethnic factions of the former Seleka armed group FPRC, the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic said. Thirty-eight were killed based on a body count at the local hospital, but the death toll could be closer to 50, regional prefect Evariste Binguinendji said. “Parents have already started burying their dead, so it’s difficult to get an accurate figure,” Binguinendji said.

SYRIA

Army recaptures key town

Regime forces on Tuesday recaptured most of Maaret al-Numan, a semi-deserted town of symbolic and strategic importance in Syria’s last major rebel-held bastion, state media and a war monitor said. “The Syrian army has retaken most neighborhoods in Maaret al-Numan” and is now combing recaptured areas, the Syrian Arab News Agency said, shortly after Damascus loyalists entered the town in the northwest province of Idlib for the first time in eight years. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that most rebels had pulled out after regime forces stormed the town from multiple fronts earlier in the day. It said regime forces were left battling the few fighters that remained holed up in the area, which has been under opposition control since 2012.

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title: World News Quick Take


title: US Republicans lack votes to block trial witnesses

content_text:
Republicans lack the votes to block witnesses at US President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said late on Tuesday, a potentially major hurdle for Trump’s hopes to end the trial with a quick acquittal. Earlier, Trump’s lawyers concluded his defense with a plea to move on.

Even after sitting through days and late nights of argument, several Republicans apparently are ready to join Democrats in considering in-person testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton and perhaps others.

Trump’s lawyers on Tuesday made their closing case for a speedy acquittal, but to no avail.

McConnell told colleagues in a private meeting that he did not yet have the votes to block Democrats from summoning witnesses. That outcome would prolong an election-year trial that Trump and his legal team had hoped was on track, as one lawyer said, to “end now, as soon as possible.”

McConnnell’s statement, in a closed-door meeting of senators, was an acknowledgment of the extent to which revelations from Bolton have scrambled the trial’s schedule and the desire for testimony.

Bolton wrote in a forthcoming book that Trump told him he wanted to withhold military aid from Ukraine until it helped with investigations into Democratic rival former US vice president Joe Biden. That assertion, if true, would undercut a key defense argument and go to the heart of one major article of impeachment against the president.

Trump complained anew at a rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, focusing on Democrats rather than Republican senators.

“While we are creating jobs and killing terrorists, the congressional Democrats are obsessed with demented hoaxes, crazy witch hunts and deranged partisan crusades,” he said.

There are still several days before any potential witness vote would be taken. A decision to call more witnesses would require 51 votes to pass. With a 53-47 majority, Republicans could only afford to lose three. If senators agree they want more witnesses, they would then have to vote again on whom to call.

McConnell convened the private meeting shortly after Trump’s legal team concluded their arguments in the trial, arguing forcefully against the relevance of testimony from Bolton and insisting that nothing Trump had done amounted to an impeachable offense.

While scoffing at Bolton’s book manuscript, Trump and the Republicans have strongly resisted summoning him to testify about what he saw and heard as Trump’s top national security adviser.

A day after the defense team largely brushed past Bolton, attorney Jay Sekulow addressed the controversy head-on by dismissing the book — said to contradict a key defense argument about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine — as “inadmissible.”

“It is not a game of leaks and unsourced manuscripts,” Sekulow said.

A night earlier, Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz said that nothing in the manuscript — even if true — rises to the level of an impeachable offense.

Sekulow also sought to undermine the book’s credibility, saying that US Attorney General William Barr has disputed comments attributed to him by Bolton.

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content_text:
US drops record number of bombs on Afghanistan

CASUALTIES OF WAR:UN data showed that the US accounted for half the 1,149 civilian deaths attributed to pro-government forces from January through September
The US last year dropped more bombs on Afghanistan than any other year since the Pentagon began keeping a tally in 2006, reflecting an apparent effort to force concessions from the Taliban at the negotiating table.

According to new figures released by US Central Command, US warplanes dropped 7,423 bombs and other munitions on Afghanistan, a nearly eightfold increase from 2015.

CIVILIAN DEATHS

The increasing intensity of the air campaign has been accompanied by an increase in civilian casualties attributed to US forces.

The US accounted for half the 1,149 civilian deaths attributed to pro-government forces in Afghanistan over the first three quarters of last year, UN data showed.

The Taliban and other insurgent groups were responsible for 1,207 civilian deaths, the data showed, as the Taliban also stepped up its attacks over the summer.

In July last year, the UN recorded the highest number of civilian casualties in a single month since it began documenting civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2009.

The surge in bloodshed came as the US and Taliban were conducting sustained peace talks, which were led on the US side by special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.

US President Donald Trump abruptly called off the talks in September last year, blaming a Taliban suicide attack in Kabul, which killed a US soldier.

The president said that Taliban leaders were on the point of traveling to Camp David to sign an agreement — a claim the Taliban denied.

After making his first visit to Afghanistan in November last year, Trump said that he had reopened talks with the rebel group.

‘CONSIDERABLE RISK’

“This is the US military mistakenly thinking that they’re somehow going to change the political dynamics by dropping more ordnance on Afghanistan,” said Laurel Miller, former US acting special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who is now director of the International Crisis Group’s Asia program.

“The argument that is made in favor of what they’re doing is that this will somehow change the political dynamics and in a way that makes the Taliban more likely to come to favorable terms at the peace table, but I have no expectation that this is going to have that kind of effect,” Miller said.

“It also poses the considerable risk of blowback in the sense that inevitably this increase in use of air power results in an increase in civilian casualties,” Miller added.

After the administration of former US president Barack Obama tightened the criteria for carrying out aerial attacks, there was a significant decrease in bombing in 2015, but at the same time, the Taliban made territorial gains, leading to calls in Washington for the rules to be loosened again.

Trump relaxed the criteria, giving more authority to commanders in the region to call in airstrikes, contributing to the surge in bombing.

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content_text:
VIRUS FEARS: Production at PRC factories halted until Feb. 10, Yageo says

Yageo Corp (國巨) yesterday said it would not resume production at its Chinese factories until Feb. 10, due to the spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and the rising death toll in China.

The decision by the world’s third-largest supplier of multilayer ceramic capacitors, follows new Chinese regulations on controlling the virus, it said.

Local governments in Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces have announced they would extend the Lunar New Year holiday by 10 days to Feb. 9 in an effort to contain the spread of the disease.

Yageo’s Suzhou and Dongguan factories would suspend some operations until then, although employees who work two shifts during the holiday would not be affected by the move, it said.

“The company will take necessary steps to reduce the impact on operations,” Yageo said. “It will take more active measures to boost capacity in order to satisfy customers’ demand. The company remains cautiously optimistic about its outlook.”

The supply of passive components has been under constraint over the past few months, as Yageo said it could not recruit enough labor to boost factory utilization from as low as 25 percent.

To cater to improving demand, Yageo launched a hiring campaign in China ahead of the holidays and encouraged employees to work overtime to increase production.

Operations in Taiwan would not be affected, it added.

Other Taiwanese companies that have facilities in the three coastal provinces — including Apple Inc’s iPhone casings supplier Catcher Technology Co (可成), memory chip testing and packaging service provider Walton Advanced Engineering Inc (華東科技), adapter maker AcBel Polytech Inc (康舒科技) — also said they would stop production during the period.

The list of local companies halting production in China to meet regulations is expected to grow as the outbreak spreads.

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content_text:
A selection of iPhones are displayed on Tuesday at an Apple store in suburban Boston, Massachusetts.Photo: AP
The iPhone is back.

Apple Inc on Tuesday reported sales and profits for the holiday shopping quarter above Wall Street expectations, powered by a rise in iPhone sales for the first time in a year and soaring demand for add-ons like AirPods wireless headphones.

The strong performance outweighed concern about the coronavirus in China, a major market as well as manufacturing hub for Apple, and a slight revenue miss in the company’s closely watched services business, which includes the new Apple TV+ streaming offering.

Shares of Apple rose 2 percent in after-hours trade.

Apple gave a revenue forecast for the quarter ending in March above Wall Street expectations.

Chief executive Tim Cook told Reuters that the company was using a wider-than-normal prediction range because of the uncertainty created by the coronavirus outbreak in China.

Cook told CNBC that Apple has shut one store in China and is restricting employee travel due to the virus.

“Apple also is forecasting a stronger Q2 than analysts predicted, but the fact that the coronavirus is spreading in unpredictable ways in China, where Apple has most of its hardware built, could upset this optimistic forecast,” eMarketer principal analyst Yoram Wurmser said.

The number of active iPhones, computers and other devices owned by customers, called the installed base, grew by 100 million to more than 1.5 billion over the past year, and Apple executives set a new target of 600 million paid subscribers for music, TV, gaming and other services by the end of this calendar year.

Apple’s share price has more than doubled since Cook said a year ago that the company was likely to miss financial targets for its biggest sales quarter of its fiscal 2019.

In the year since, Apple slashed prices in China, one of its most important markets, to rekindle sales there.

The company also made a push into paid services, rolling out a credit card with Goldman Sachs,and subscription gaming and television services last year.

“Services are important, but the trajectory is heading on target. I feel they’ve made good progress on that front,” said Hal Eddins, chief economist for Apple shareholder Capital Investment Counsel. “It’s easier to take a small miss like that in context when they also lift the Q2 revenue figures higher.”

Apple posted US$91.8 billion in revenue for the quarter that ended on Dec. 28 last year, compared with analyst estimates of US$88.5 billion, IBES data from Refinitiv showed.

The company forecast US$63 billion to US$67 billion in revenue for the quarter ending in March, ahead of estimates of US$62.4 billion, showing it believes that its phones and other devices such as AirPods wireless headphones will continue to sell well during what is often a slow time of year.

Apple reported services revenue of US$12.7 billion, below analyst estimates of US$13 billion, and up from US$10.9 billion the year before.

Many investors think that services revenue eventually will boost Apple’s gross margins, which were 38.35 percent in the December quarter compared with estimates of 38.06 percent.

However, the shift toward services depends on Apple continuing to grow its base of users and sign them up for recurring subscriptions that analysts view as potentially more lucrative than hardware sales, which can be inconsistent because they are large purchases that consumers make only every few years.

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title: Apple see growth after year’s slump