San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)

NEWS OF THE DAY

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_1 It’s tapped: The first keg has been tapped and the beer is flowing as the 185th Oktoberfes­t gets under way in Munich. Mayor Dieter Reiter inserted the tap in the first keg on Saturday with two blows of a hammer and the cry of “O’zapft is” — “it’s tapped.” As tradition demands, he handed the first mug to Bavarian governor Markus Soeder, who declared that “the Oktoberfes­t is perhaps Bavaria’s biggest and best calling card in the world.” Around 6 million visitors are expected at the festival grounds in Munich before the Oktoberfes­t ends on Oct. 7. As in previous years, backpacks and large bags are banned for security reasons. _2 Winning bid: Comcast has emerged as the top bidder for European broadcaste­r Sky after a rare auction held by British regulators. After three rounds of secret bidding on Friday and Saturday, Comcast offered the higher price of $22.58 per share for Sky, the equivalent of nearly $39 billion. Rival 21st Century Fox offered $20.47 per share. Sky shareholde­rs must now decide whether to sell their shares to Comcast. The company said it hoped to complete the sale by the end of October. Britain’s regulator, the Takeover Panel, set up the auction to reduce uncertaint­y for Sky after months of offers and counteroff­ers from the American media giants. Sky is Europe’s largest pay-television operator, with 22.5 million customers in seven countries and popular programmin­g including English Premier League soccer and “Game of Thrones.” Fox owns 39 percent of Sky. It now must decide whether to sell its stake or remain a minority shareholde­r. _3 Uneasy election: Police in Male, Maldives, raided the main campaign office of the opposition presidenti­al candidate on Saturday, the eve of an election viewed as a referendum on whether democracy will survive in the country. Police said they had obtained a warrant to search the office based on police intelligen­ce that it may have been used to coordinate vote-buying, opposition spokesman Shauna Aminath told the Associated Press, adding that a senior campaign official had been named as a suspect. The opposition’s presidenti­al candidate, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, was not in the office at the time of the raid, Aminath said. The move is a sign of a government crackdown against the opposition that has raised more fears that Sunday’s election may be rigged to favor President Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s party. _4 Diplomatic tensions: Chinese officials have summoned the U.S. ambassador in Beijing to denounce the United States for imposing economic sanctions this week on a Chinese military organizati­on for buying equipment from Russia, according to Chinese state news reports Saturday. The move came as China pressed the United States to withdraw the sanctions. The sanctions were “a flagrant breach of basic rules of internatio­nal relations” and “a stark show of hegemonism,” said Wu Qian, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, according to the state news agency Xinhua. The diplomatic dispute adds to rising tensions between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies. Foreign Ministry officials raised objections to the U.S. ambassador, Terry Branstad, according to People’s Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper. The State Department confirmed Saturday that Branstad met with Chinese officials but declined to comment further.

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