China Gold On your marks Athletics Federer medal 22 Today in your gets out of crashes tally the blocks out to Blake Silver FREE Games guide 35 8 AND Shooter’s heartache turns to joy A2 Gymnast strikes gold again A3 Windsurfers becalmed A5 Bronze 5 PUBLISHED SINCE 1903 VOLUME LXIV NO. 226 Friday, August 15, 2008 see live updates at www.scmp.com HK $7.00 Bureau to probe From nowhere to gold – and world record unregistered courses Inquiry into degree ‘institute’ ...................................................... to class in Hong Kong. Fox Yi Hu Journalists given slip And when a Post re- A self-proclaimed educator – once porter posing as a po- listed on the internet as a professor at C1 tential student talked the bogus St Regis University – heads to Mr Lai on the phone an “institute” that offers unregistered Harry’s view on Wednesday, Mr Lai higher degree courses in Hong Kong, said their courses were a South China Morning Post investi- conducted both in Liu Zige powers her way to victory in the women’s 200 metres butterfly with teammate Jiao Liuyang second. Liu broke Australian Jessicah Schipper’s world record by 1.22 seconds. Photo: AP gation has found. A14 Wan Chai and in ...................................................... The Education Bureau has Guangzhou. team also broke the world record, but shows China’s potential to gain more a string of drug scan- offence, including Ouyang Kunpeng, Martin Zhou in Beijing Swimming: launched an inquiry into the activi- “Some courses are taken in Wan in the wake of the awesome Australia ground in the two marquee catego- Liftout dals in the mid-1990s. a men’s backstroke specialist in his ties of the Kowloon-based Institute of Chai and some courses are taken at When Michael Phelps took a day off quartet who took gold. ries – swimming and athletics. But against the back- prime who qualified for the Olympics Supply Chain Management (ISCM), the South China University of Tech- from winning gold medals, the Chi- Those deeds, in addition to Pang Liu had not competed in an inter- 4-5 drop of the record- but was ruled out after a positive test. chaired by Nagar Lai, which purports nology [in Guangzhou],” Mr Lai said. nese grabbed the limelight at the Jiaying’s bronze on Wednesday in the national meet before. The Games in- breaking spree in the As if to allay any doubts over the to runs overseas MBA, doctorate and “[We have] teachers from the South futuristic Water Cube yesterday. women’s 200m freestyle and Zhang formation system did not even have a pool – the Australian women broke surprise 1-2 finish, Chinese officials other postgraduate courses. China University of Technology and Unheralded swimmer Liu Zige Lin’s historic silver medal in the biography of her, except for her birth- the record by a staggering six seconds and coaches were quick to reveal the The bureau confirmed yesterday college teachers from Hong Kong.” pulled off a world-record-shattering men’s 400m freestyle, have brought day, height and weight. As a former – there are no fingers being pointed. overseas pedigree in Liu’s training. that ISCM is not registered as a school The Education Bureau contacted victory in the women’s 200 metres China’s medal tally in the pool to five Asian Championship winner, 17- “We Chinese are firmly against “The key to the success of Liu lies or a course operator to run degree ISCM for information yesterday, a butterfly – and teammate Jiao Liu- – only two less than the previous year-old Jiao enjoyed a little more vis- drug abuse and we are definitely in the regime developed by her coach programmes locally. day after the Post asked the bureau yang followed her home in a fabulous three Olympics combined. ibility, but is known to have been in clean in this tournament,” Jiao said Jin Wei, who has spent a long time in Mr Lai said the bureau had yester- about ISCM. one-two finish. The 19-year-old Liu The performance in the pool car- the doldrums in the past year. Both emphatically. Australia,” former Chinese team day asked ISCM not to conduct any A bureau spokeswoman said the won in 2:04.18, shaving 1.22 seconds ries added significance for China, Liu and Jiao have improved their per- China imposed unprecedented head coach Chen Yunpeng told Xin- courses in Hong Kong. “They said bureau was “closely monitoring” the off the record set by Australian Jessi- who streaked ahead of the United sonal best by at least two seconds anti-doping rules in March to ensure hua. “Jin was lectured by Australian otherwise [we] would be fined or cah Schipper, who had to settle for a States in the gold medal race yester- over the past few months. no scandals would disgrace the swimming guru Ken Wood and had jailed,” he said. bronze. day. China collected five golds, the At any other Olympics, this would country before and during the Olym- adopted most of his training meth- Until Tuesday, the ISCM website Later in the day, the Chinese US none and the hosts lead 22-10. raise questions of possible doping by pics. A handful of coaches and ath- ods from Wood’s much acclaimed referred to Mr Lai as a visiting profes- women’s 4x200m freestyle relay The breakthrough in the pool the Chinese team, once notorious for letes were kicked out for good on first record.” sor of St Regis University, a school deemed bogus by US federal investi- gators. But the St Regis reference had been removed from the website on Li Na puts Venus out Wednesday – just a day after the Post reported that St Regis had been sell- ing fake degrees to Hongkongers. Li Na capped a great day for China when Tennis: said. “She has big serves Mr Lai is now listed as a visiting Nagar Lai she beat double Olympic champion Liftout that I can’t return, but I professor of the International Ameri- Venus Williams 7-5, 7-5 in the quarter- told myself to calm can University on the website but his case and might take “suitable follow- final of the women’s singles last night. 6 down and play my best. St Regis reference can still be re- up action”. Shortly after her sister Serena had “Wow! You can’t see trieved using the Google search en- ISCM says on its website that its been knocked out by Elena Dementieva, this kind of crowd anywhere else. It gine’s “cache” function that gives ac- courses could lead to postgraduate Venus, the seventh seed, crashed out to helped me and pushed me a lot. This is cess to earlier versions of websites. diplomas or degrees conferred by St an inspired home favourite, who a present I give to the Beijing Olympic Mr Lai yesterday admitted run- Clements University, registered in immediately offered the victory as a Games but I have no time to celebrate.” ning the ISCM website but said he the Turks and Caicos Islands, the present to the Beijing Olympics. Li will play the winner of the had no idea why the St Regis refer- South China University of Techno- “Venus was the best player in the quarter-final between Dinara Safina of ence had disappeared. He also de- logy in Guangzhou and the Interna- world, she had just won Wimbledon,” Li Russia and Jelena Jankovic of Serbia. nied having anything to do with St tional American University, in Palm- Williams raced into a 3-0 lead in the Regis University. dale, California. opening set, but Li, the first Chinese Mr Lai admitted his courses were But none of the universities have player to reach the top 20 in the world not registered with the Education Bu- registered with the Education Bureau rankings, proved she had the stomach reau. But he claimed it was legal to re- to offer courses in Hong Kong. for a fight. cruit students in Hong Kong while ISCM’s activities came to light in After regaining parity, she seized conducting courses on the mainland. the wake of an investigation by US the moment to break the Williams serve “We are [conducting] distance learn- federal investigators into a US-based at 5-5 and served out the set in style. ing and don’t need to register.” diploma mill and the publishing by a Li continued to play the better However, ISCM says on its web- US newspaper of a list of people – in- tennis and went on to claim victory. site that a few hundred students in- cluding at least 24 from Hong Kong – ...................................................... volved in its postgraduate courses go who had bought bogus diplomas. Li Na celebrates her victory. Reuters News Digest City City Macau Focus A-level brilliance rewarded Second child in mystery death Ho warns tough times ahead English Schools Foundation schools A three-year-old girl dies hours after being Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho and one international school admitted to a public hospital, feverish and Hau-wah says gaming revenue may celebrate a clutch of “best ever” vomiting, in the second mysterious child fatality fall as the city’s economy cools amid British A-level results, with more this week. Health minister York Chow Yat-ngok severe inflation, rising costs, A grades awarded than ever. At German Swiss orders the Centre for Health Protection to unemployment, housing shortages and global International School, a remarkable two out of heighten alerts and try to find the cause of the economic instability. He vows more prudent every three results is an A.