USA Football is leasing space on the seventh floor of the One North Penn building at Pennsylvania and Washington streets to house its national offices, a spokesman said.
Originally posted here: USA Football moving offices from Virginia to Downtown
A ski patrol member has been killed in an avalanche at Squaw Valley USA ski resort near Lake Tahoe.
The Squaw Valley Fire Department says 41-year-old Andrew Entin was working on avalanche controls Tuesday when he was caught in a slide and partially buried.
Fire spokesman Pete Bansen says another member of the ski patrol dug him out while emergency crews responded to the scene, but Entin later died at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno. The cause of death is under investigation.
More than 4 feet of snow have fallen at upper elevations of the region over the past 24 hours. Nearly a 100-mile stretch of U.S. Interstate 80 is closed west of Reno.
source: AP The Associated Press via google.com
The top U.S. military official said Sunday that Iran has sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon, declaring it would be a “very, very bad outcome” should Tehran move forward with a bomb.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered the assessment when questioned in a broadcast interview about a recent report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog on the state of Iran’s uranium enrichment program, which can create nuclear fuel and may be sufficiently advanced to produce the core of warheads.
Mullen was asked if Iran now had enough fissile material to make a bomb. He responded, “We think they do, quite frankly. And Iran having a nuclear weapon I’ve believed for a long time is a very, very bad outcome for the region and for the world.”
State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said Sunday that it was not possible say how much fissile material Iran has accumulated.
“There are differing view not only outside government but also inside the government” on how far Iran has gone, Wood said. He added that while he was not suggesting Mullen was incorrect, “We just don’t know” exactly how much fissile material Iran now holds.
“We are concerned they are getting close” to having enough to build a nuclear weapon, he added. Wood spoke to reporters traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Egypt.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran has processed 2,222 pounds (1,010 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium. But the report left unclear whether Iran is now capable, even if it wanted, of further processing that material into a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium to arm one weapon.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who like Mullen appeared on the Sunday talk shows, did not go as far as Mullen. The Iranians, Gates said, are “not close to a weapon at this point and so there is some time” for continued diplomatic efforts.
Plants cool 3 million square feet of rooftops throughout the city. Wind, hydropower and biofuels provide one-fifth of its energy. And last year, the mayor announced one of the country’s most ambitious plans to slash greenhouse-gas emissions.
So when Chicago promises to host the greenest Summer Olympics ever if it’s awarded the 2016 games, organizers say it’s not a gimmick. It’s an extension of efforts that have been transforming this former Rust Belt city for years.
“We’ve got a real opportunity to take the best aspects of our city, the parks, the lakefront and the environmentalism and bring a real asset to the table,” Chicago 2016 spokesman Patrick Sandusky said. “It’s certainly one of the great strengths of the city of Chicago that we have to offer.”
In Chicago’s official Olympic bid book, released earlier this month, organizers tout a low-carbon “blue-green” event, with most venues along Lake Michigan, which is lined with parks, and a focus on environmentalism.
Organizers say vehicles provided by the games would run on low-carbon fuels or electricity and event sites would be powered by renewable energy. Storm water would be collected for reuse; the venues would use recyclable or reusable products. And sites would adhere to green building standards and coexist with natural habitat.
more at: usatoday.com
The UN Security Council has passed a resolution urging an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, with the US alone abstaining.
The UK-drafted resolution also calls for a full Israeli withdrawal, unimpeded humanitarian access and intense diplomatic efforts for peace.
After 13 days of war, an estimated 770 Palestinians and 14 Israelis are dead.
Israeli bombing killed at least six Palestinians overnight, medics and Hamas officials say.
In a report which could not be verified independently, Hamas said a bomb had flattened a five-storey apartment block in northern Gaza.
Israeli warplanes made 30 new air strikes after dark.
The UN’s relief agency halted aid operations in Gaza on Thursday after one person was killed and two hurt when a fork-lift truck on a UN aid mission came under Israeli tank fire at Gaza’s Erez crossing.
US waits
It is the first time the Security Council has acted since the Israeli offensive in Gaza began on 27 December.
Explaining America’s abstention, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the resolution was a step forward but her government wanted to see the outcome of mediation efforts.
“The United States thought it important to see the outcomes of the Egyptian mediation efforts, in order to see what this resolution might have been supporting and that is why we chose to abstain,” she said.
At least 40 people were killed and 55 injured when Israeli artillery shells landed outside a United Nations-run school in Gaza, UN officials have said.
A number of children were among those who died when the al-Fakhura school in the Jabaliya refugee camp was hit, doctors at nearby hospitals said.
Israel said its soldiers had come under fire from militants inside the school.
Earlier, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned of a “full-blown humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.
Speaking on the 11th day of the Israeli assault, a senior ICRC official, Pierre Kraehenbuhl, said life in Gaza had become intolerable.
Palestinian health ministry officials say 595 people have been killed since the attacks began, 195 of them children. Mr Kraehenbuhl said much more needed to be done to protect civilians.
The UN Security Council is set to resume debate on a ceasefire call in New York, with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, several Arab foreign ministers, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice among those attending.
At least 125 Palestinians and five Israeli soldiers were killed on Tuesday.
One soldier was killed in an exchange of fire with militants in Gaza City, while four others were killed by shellfire from their own tanks earlier in the day, Israeli military officials said.
Israel says its offensive is stopping militants firing rockets, but at least five hit southern Israel on Tuesday, with one reaching the town of Gedera, about 40km (25 miles) from Gaza, and injuring a baby.
Four Israeli civilians have been killed by rocket fire from the Gaza Strip since the offensive began.
In other developments:
* Israeli forces push further south in the Gaza Strip and clash with militants near Gaza City
* Skirmishes are reported on the edges of the Deir al-Balah and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza
* Witnesses say Israeli tanks and soldiers are advancing on the southern town of Khan Younis
* Venezuela orders the expulsion of Israel’s ambassador in protest at the offensive and its “flagrant violations of international law”
Many claims cannot be verified. Israel is refusing to let international journalists into Gaza, despite a Supreme Court ruling to allow a limited number of reporters to enter the territory.
‘Mortar fire’
The UN aid agency in Gaza, Unrwa, said three artillery shells had landed close to the al-Fakhura school on Tuesday afternoon, spraying shrapnel on people both inside and outside the building.
About 350 people had sought refuge at the school in an effort to escape the fighting between Israeli soldiers and militants on the outskirts of the Jabaliya refugee camp, to the east of Gaza City.
Television footage showed bodies scattered on the ground amid pools of blood.
The UN officials said they regularly provided the Israeli military with exact co-ordinates of their facilities, and that the school was in a built-up area.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “deeply dismayed” that despite these efforts, three UN-run schools had been hit by nearby Israeli strikes.
The Israeli military said that, according to initial checks, its soldiers had come under mortar fire from militants inside the al-Fakhura school.
“The force responded with mortars at the source of fire,” it said in a statement. “Hamas cynically uses civilians as human shields.”
It later reported that two well-known members of a Hamas rocket-launching cell had been among those killed at the school, naming them as Imad and Hassan Abu Askar.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the incident was a “very extreme example of how Hamas operates”.
“If you take over – I presume with guns – a UN facility. If you hold the people there as hostages, you shoot out of that facility at Israeli soldiers in the neighbourhood, then you receive incoming fire – I think that’s a war crime under international law,” he told the BBC.
A Hamas spokesman, Fauzi Barhoun, said allegations that fighters had used the school to attack Israeli forces were “baseless”.
“There was no fire of any kind from the school,” he told the BBC.
Two unnamed residents who spoke to an Associated Press reporter by phone said a group of militants had been firing mortar shells from near the school.
Earlier in the day, at least three Palestinians were killed when another school was hit in the Shati camp, UN officials said.
Ten people were also injured at a UN health centre in the Bureij refugee camp.
Maxwell Gaylard, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for the Palestinian territories, described the incidents as tragic and demanded an independent investigation.
The director of operations for Unrwa, John Ging, told the BBC that conditions in Gaza were “horrific” and that nowhere was safe for civilians there.
Mr Ging said international leaders had a responsibility to act to protect civilians, some 14,000 of whom are sheltering in UN buildings.
‘Immediate ceasefire’
Diplomatic efforts to try to end the violence are gathering pace.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he had asked his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, to help convince Hamas to co-operate with efforts to end the Israeli offensive. Syria is regarded as a main backer of Hamas.
Asked about the deaths at the UN school in Gaza, Mr Sarkozy said: “It reinforces my determination for all this to stop as quickly as possible.”
He later held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh, who offered to hold talks with Israel and the Palestinians on border security without delay.
US state department spokesman Sean McCormack said the US would like to see “an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
US President-elect Barack Obama, meanwhile, broke his silence about the conflict, telling reporters that “the loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern for me”.
However, he also reiterated his principle that only President George W Bush would speak for US foreign policy at this time.
The BBC’s Laura Trevelyan in New York says the contours of an agreement are taking shape – international monitors along the Egypt-Gaza border to stop Hamas smuggling weapons and firing rockets at Israel, and the creation of a humanitarian corridor in southern Gaza to ensure that aid reaches the Palestinians.
The question now is whether Hamas will accept such a deal and if a call for a ceasefire will be heeded by Israel, our correspondent says.
Hamas has said that Israeli attacks on Gaza must stop and the crossings into the territory, which Israel controls, must be fully opened, before it agrees to a ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Miniser Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday that the military campaign in Gaza would continue until Israel had completely wiped out Hamas’s ability to fire rockets into Israel.
source: bbc.co.uk
Israel has halted military operations in Gaza for three hours in the first of a daily, planned ceasefire, it says.
An Israeli spokesman said it would allow Gazans to “get medical attention, get supplies… whatever they need“.
There were at least two air strikes on Gaza in the first few minutes of the ceasefire, and correspondents say it is unclear if it covers all of Gaza.
Israel’s move came as pressure built on it and the Palestinian militant group Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal.
The plan, backed by the UN and the US and proposed by Egypt and France, calls for an immediate ceasefire.
Responding to the proposal, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel viewed talks with Egypt “positively”. Israel’s security cabinet is meeting to consider the deal, but ministers are also expected to discuss expanding operations in Gaza.
Blockade
Israel’s military said the three-hour pause in operations to create “humanitarian corridors” for supplies and fuel would happen every day.
A Hamas spokesman told Al Arabiya television that the group would not launch any missiles at Israeli targets during the lull.
Israel has been criticised by aid agencies who have warned of a mounting humanitarian crisis for the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, who are unable to escape from the conflict because of Israel’s blockade.
However Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the UN relief agency Unwra, said the move did not go far enough.
“When you are trying to feed 750,000 people a day in Gaza as we are, you need a permanent ceasefire. You can’t do that in a three-hour window,” he said.
It follows one of the deadliest days since the offensive began last month, with more than 130 people killed on Tuesday.
Overnight, Israeli forces launched 40 fresh air strikes in Gaza, while Israeli media reports say nine rockets were fired into southern Israel from Gaza early on Wednesday.
Little official detail has been given about the French-Egyptian ceasefire proposal, but diplomats say it centres around measures to halt weapons smuggling from Egypt into Gaza, coupled with moves to ease the blockade.
A Palestinian official said Gaza’s Hamas rulers, who want an end to Israel’s blockade of the enclave, were debating the proposal, the Reuters news agency reported.
Israel wants to stop rocket attacks on southern Israel and to stop Hamas smuggling weapons into Gaza via Egypt, while Hamas says any ceasefire deal must include an end to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
More than 600 Palestinians are now believed to have been killed since Israel began its offensive on 27 December.
Palestinian health ministry officials say at least 195 children were among those killed.
An Israeli attack on Tuesday on a UN-run school building, being used to shelter people who had fled their homes, killed 40 people, UN officials say.
The Israeli military said its soldiers had come under mortar fire from Hamas militants inside the school.
However, Unwra’s Christopher Gunness said the agency was “99.9 per cent certain” that there were no militants or militant activity in the school compound, and called for an independent investigation into the incident.
A spokesman for Hamas denied there had been any hostile fire coming from the school.
Since the start of its military operation in Gaza, Israel has lost seven soldiers on the ground. Four people within Israel have been killed by rockets.
At least five hit southern Israel on Tuesday, one of them injuring a baby.
Support for truce
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice welcomed the French-Egyptian plan, saying the US was “pleased by and wish[es] to commend… that initiative”.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, did not say whether Israel would accept the proposal but said it would take it “very, very seriously”.
The contours of a possible diplomatic agreement are in place, the BBC’s Laura Trevelyan reports from the UN.
However, if Israel continues to control the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and can choose to stop it at any time this seems unlikely to command the support of Hamas, our correspondent notes.
Casualty claims in Gaza cannot be independently verified. Israel is refusing to let international journalists into Gaza, despite a supreme court ruling to allow a limited number of reporters to enter the territory.
source: bbc.co.uk
John Daly smashed one tee shot off the top of a beer can during a pro-am. At another tournament, he returned from a rain delay with Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden as his caddie. And his most memorable photo this year came in an orange jail suit, eyes half-closed.
Daly said Wednesday that such unwelcome publicity is why the PGA Tour suspended him for six months.
The two-time major champion confirmed his suspension to The Associated Press, calling this the low point of an 18-year career during which he has made as much news off the course as he has with his prodigious game.
“Is it fair that I got suspended?” he said. “It’s not fair in reality, but it’s probably fair in perception.”
Daly said he wanted to go public to let fans and tournaments know that he wasn’t abandoning them by taking his game to the European tour. At least until the spring, he simply didn’t have much of a choice.
“I’m not sure this is the smartest thing to do, but I’d rather be honest, especially with the fans,” he said. “It’s hard for me not to play on the West Coast. I love it out there.”
PGA Tour spokesman Ty Votaw declined comment, even after seeing Daly’s remarks, citing the tour’s longtime policy of not discussing fines or suspensions.
This is the second time the tour has suspended Daly, along with at least two other times when he agreed to sit out the final few months of a season to get his life in order.
He has not played on the PGA Tour since he missed the cut Oct. 17 in Las Vegas. Ten days later, police in Winston-Salem, N.C., said he appeared intoxicated outside a Hooters restaurant, and Daly was taken to jail to sleep it off. That led to his photo in the orange jail suit, which became an Internet sensation.
The economic crisis has forced the U.S. Olympic Committee to cut its administrative costs by 10 percent in 2009, although athletes will see their funding increased by the same amount a year ahead of the 2010 Winter Games.
The proposed 2009 budget will be presented to the USOC board on Saturday, when new chairman Larry Probst runs his first meeting since succeeding Peter Ueberroth in October.
The USOC hopes to reduce its 450-member staff through attrition and by not filling open positions, chief executive Jim Scherr said Friday. He would not provide a specific number of positions to be cut.
Staff travel, meetings and professional training also will be curtailed to achieve the necessary cost reduction, USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said.
“We’re also looking at a reorganization throughout the U.S. Olympic Committee to make us more effective and that reorganization will result in a few less people,” Scherr said.
A company that will play a key role in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games ended rampant speculation about its financial well-being Thursday by completing a deal to refinance a $1.7-billion loan – just hours before deadline.
Intrawest ULC owns and operates major tourism venues across the country but is best known for its Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort, one of the main venues for the Winter Games.
The destination-resort company received unanimous support from its existing lender group Thursday to refinance.
Intrawest CEO Bill Jensen said he’s pleased to have reached an agreement with Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:FIG), “particularly given the challenges of the global credit markets.”
Ministers have had to make a £95million contingency payment to keep the London Olympics on track as the credit crunch worsens.
The payment will ensure building work continues on the 2012 Olympic village as fears grow that funding is drying up.
Developer Lend Lease has struggled to raise its share of the cost and has had to slim down its plans for the Olympic media centre.
A £40million leisure pool and fitness centre in the Olympic Park will be scrapped due to financial pressure. The complex, which was to be an extension of the aquatic centre after the Olympics, would have been paid for by local councils.
But both Newham and Tower Hamlets have frozen the plans over concerns that they will not receive funding which has been promised by private developers.
The councils were to contribute £5.5million and £1.5million respectively.
A surcharge of $4 to $18 will be added to all tickets to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic events to cover public transit and administration costs, organizers said Friday.
People attending events in Whistler from Vancouver will be required to buy a $25 round-trip bus pass on top of the surcharge because there will be no parking at venues.
The return-trip pass using the Olympic bus network will be $12 for people going to events at Cypress Mountain.
There will also be a delivery fee for all tickets.
“Most ticket holders will need to use public transportation to get to Olympic events as there will be no parking at venues,” said Caley Denton, vice-president of ticketing and consumer marketing of the Vancouver Organizing Committee.
“One of our goals is to see the increased use of public transportation, walking and cycling as one of the legacies of hosting the Games,” Denton said in a release on Friday.
The surcharges are less than those usually applied to high-profile event tickets and the cost to travel between Vancouver and Whistler is about half that of taking a commercial bus service, he said.
The first phase of ticket sales for the Games begins on Oct. 3, but the transportation passes will be sold separately next year.
“With an Olympic ticket in your hand, you will have access to public transportation on the day of your event in Metro Vancouver, including buses and Skytrain, and in Whistler,” Denton said.
TransLink, the company that operates the public transit system throughout the Lower Mainland, said it is gearing up for the extra ridership.
“One way or another we were prepared for the fact that there’s going to be an awful lot of extra people on transit during the Games time, primarily because there will not be parking at or near most of the venues if not all of them,” TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie told CBC News Friday.
Hardie said by 2010 the Canada Line will be in service, 200 new buses will be added to the transit system and another 200 buses will be put into service especially for the Olympics.
The Canada Line is a $1.9-billion expansion of Vancouver’s SkyTrain elevated rapid-transit system that will run completely separated from traffic to and from downtown Vancouver and Vancouver International Airport in Richmond. It’s expected to be in operation in 2009.
At this point Olympic organizers said they aren’t planning to restrict access on the Sea-to-Sky Highway between Vancouver and Whistler to only Olympic business.
“The highway will essentially be able to operate as open,” said Maureen Douglas, director of community relations for the organizing committee.
“We will certainly provide the public with guidelines as to the best time to travel. There will be more efficient times to travel south and more efficient times to travel north,” he said.
from: cbc.ca
Oscar Pistorius, the South African “Blade Runner,” won his second gold medal of the Beijing Paralympics with a victory in the 200-meter sprint on Saturday, but the day was marked by controversy as the Iran wheelchair basketball team pulled out of the Games ahead of a possible matchup against Israel.
The Iran team was scheduled to play the United States on Saturday in a quarterfinal-round match but withdrew before the game. The winner would go on to meet the winner of the Canada-Israel game.
A spokesman for the Iranian delegation denied that Iran pulled out because of the possibility of playing Israel. The country has had a longstanding no-contact policy with Israel, and Iranian athletes have pulled out of events rather than meet Israelis in sports events.
The spokesman said that the Iran wheelchair basketball team withdrew because the Beijing organizers had swapped the starting times of the US-Iran and Canada-Israel matches. That swap had been made without explanation.
“Each match should be done one after another,” Iran deputy chef de mission Iran Doust said. “But unfortunately, concerning our match they didn’t observe the order and that’s the reason” for the pullout.
As it happened, Canada defeated Israel. The Canadians will face the Americans on Sunday.
TRACK AND FIELD: Pistorius won his second gold at the Bird’s Nest before a crowd of more than 50,000, taking the 200 meters by nearly a full second over the silver medalist, Jim Bob Bizzell of the U.S.
“This race is definitely going down as one of my best ever races,” Pistorius said. “I’ve never run in front of a crowd this big and just the crowd, the athletes, it was an awesome race and I couldn’t have hoped for anything better.”
He has one race to go, the 400 meters on Sunday.
China won five gold medals at the stadium on Saturday. Eighteen-year-old Yang Sen won the men’s 100-meter T35 in a world record 12.29 seconds, while Wang Fang retained her crown in women’s 200-meter T36. Yu Shiranwon the men’s 200-meter T53, and Xia Dong (men’s shot put) and Jimisu Menggen (women’s discus throw) won gold medals with world-record performances.
Xinhua’s wrapup of the day’s action is at this link.
The International Paralympic Committee’s “Sixty Seconds” YouTube show for Friday/Saturday (see window below) begins its highlights package with Friday’s Canadian sweep of the women’s 200-meter medley (SM13). Chelsey Gotell of Antigonish, N.S., finished first in a world record 2 minutes 28.15 seconds, followed by Winnipeg’s Kirby Cote of Winnipeg and Valerie Grand’Maison of Montreal. That’s followed by early Saturday road racing action, including American Oz Sanchez’s gold medal in the 12.7-kilometer hand-pedaled cycle time trial with an average of 23.35 mph, and the victory by Heinz Frei of Switzerland in another HC category. There’s also football seven-a-side (S9) action, with Russia taking on Brazil:
Universalsports.com’s re-stream of its coverage of Saturday’s track and field events is available at this link. The site’s one-hour-20-minute highlight package from Saturday’s early events are at this link.
SWIMMING: At the Water Cube, Erin Popovich finally didn’t win a gold medal — she won a silver. Popovich finished second to Huang Min of China in the women’s 50-meter butterfly (S7). “She took it out fast and had a better race than me,” Popovich said. “Hats off to her. China is having a phenomenal meet.”
Popovich, who has won 4 golds at these Games and 14 in her Paralympic career, has one more race in Beijing: the 50-meter freestyle on Sunday.
Justin Zook of the U.S. won gold in the men’s 100-meter backstroke (S10) after setting a world record in the preliminary heat of the event.
Countryman Jarrett Perry also set a world record during a preliminary heat of his event, the 100-meter backstroke (S9), but the final was won by Australian Matthew Cowdrey, his third of the Beijing Games to go along with two more from Athens 2004. Perry took the bronze.
WHEELCHAIR RUGBY: The American team had its hands full with a tough Japan team, winning by 44-37. Will Groulx led the U.S. with 12 goals and four steals, while Bryan Kirkland pitched in 11 goals and four assists.
The murderballers’ final group-stage game is Sunday against Canada, the team that beat the Amerks in the semifinal at Athens four years ago.
WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL: While the U.S. men’s advanced through forfeit, the women’s team advanced to the gold medal game by beating Australia, 60-47, in the semifinal.
With less than five minutes to go, the U.S. was clinging to a 46-45 lead after fighting back after trailing for most of the third quarter. But the Americans pulled away at the end.
Christina Ripp and Stephanie Wheeler led the U.S. with 18 and 15 points, respectively.
The Amerkas will play Germany for the gold medal on Monday.
WHEELCHAIR TENNIS: Nick Taylor and David Wagner won the quad doubles gold with a three-set victory over Boaz Kramer and Shraga Weinberg of Israel. Taylor and Wagner overpowered the Israelis in the first set, 6-0, lost the second by 4-6, but won the third, 6-2, to defend their gold from Athens four years ago.
TABLE TENNIS: The U.S. duo of Mitch Seidenfeld and Tahl Leibovitz lost, 3-2, to Ukraine’s Yuriy Shchepanskyy and Vadym Kubov in the Class 9-10 teams tournament to end American participation in the table tennis competition at the 2008 Paralympics.
Seidenfeld, who won a gold and bronze in the 1992 Games and a silver and bronze in 1996, lost his singles match while Leibovitz, of Ozone Park, won his. But the Ukranians won the doubles match to prevail over all.
source:olympics.blogs.nytimes.com
Police in China shoot dead 6 suspects in Xinjiang
Chinese police investigating a spate of attacks this month in western Xinjiang province shot dead six suspects and arrested three others, state media reported.
An exile group, meanwhile, accused police Saturday of gunning down the suspects, members of the Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, after they surrendered.
Police encountered nine suspects in a corn field near the far western city of Kashgar on Friday evening, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The suspects had knives and tried to resist arrest, putting up a “desperate struggle,” it said late Friday.
A policeman and a local militia man were wounded in the clash, the report said.
Initial investigations linked the suspects to attacks on Aug. 12 and Aug. 27, Xinhua said. The report gave no other details.
Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uighur Congress, said armed police surrounded the corn field and asked the Uighur men through a loudspeaker to surrender themselves, promising to provide them with lawyers.
The suspects did not resist arrest and police with submachine guns opened fire after they had surrendered, Raxit said in a statement Saturday, citing accounts by local Uighurs.
An official from the Xinjiang government — speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media — said six suspects were shot dead. But he denied the men had been shot after surrendering and called the allegations “nonsense.”
The predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang saw three deadly attacks blamed on Uighur separatists before and during and the Beijing Olympics. Videos appeared online with self-professed Uighur militant groups threatening the games.
On Aug. 12, attackers jumped from a vehicle and stabbed civilian guards, killing three at a roadside checkpoint in Yamanya town, near Kashgar. The assailants escaped. Two Chinese policemen died and seven more were wounded after a clash Wednesday in a village in Jiashi county.
No one has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks. Government officials have blamed Uighur militants.
China has long said that insurgents among the region’s dominant ethnic Uighurs are leading an Islamic separatist movement in Xinjiang — an oil and gas-rich region on the border with Afghanistan, Pakistan and six Central Asian nations.
The Uighurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims with a language and culture distinct from the majority of Chinese.
Critics accuse Beijing of using claims of terrorism as an excuse to crack down on peaceful, pro-independence sentiment and expressions of Uighur identity.
source: ap.google.com
A day after a spectacular fireworks display brought down the curtain on the Beijing Olympics, politics is once again at the forefront, with the US strongly criticizing Chinese authorities after eight American pro-Tibet activists were deported.
Washington said it was disappointed the Olympics did not bring more “openness and tolerance” to China.
The US said the eight were deported by Chinese authorities at 9pm on Sunday – while the Olympics closing ceremony was taking place – on a flight to Los Angeles.
A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Beijing called on China “to take positive steps to address international and domestic concerns about its record on human rights and religious freedoms”.
‘Irreversible path’
Tokyo also called for China to open up more on Monday.
“Holding the Olympics was good in terms of China taking a more democratic path. We believe this is an irreversible path,” Nobutaka Machimura, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, said.
“While the reformist, open-door policy is said to be making progress in China, it is not always leaping forward,” the spokesman for the government said.
The Olympics should allow Chinese people to “realise how normal, or abnormal, what they are doing is from an international point of view”, he added, responding to a question from a reporter about China’s treatment of ethnic minorities.
Detention
The eight Americans were detained last week for staging a pro-Tibet protest in Beijing and given 10-day sentences, triggering pressure from Clark Randt, the US ambassador, for their release.
They were let go before completing their jail terms.
In addition to the eight Americans, a Briton and a Tibetan-German who were also detained last week, were reportedly also deported.
Activists group Students for a Free Tibet welcomed the news of the release but suggested China was motivated mainly by propaganda concerns.
“After two days of negative publicity over its extra judicial detention of ten Tibet supporters, the Chinese government is seeking to suppress a story that would have cast a shadow over the closing ceremony of these Olympic Games,” said Lhadon Tethong, the group’s executive director.
Pro-Tibet campaigners carried out at least eight public protests in Beijing in the run-up to the Olympics and during the games, despite tight security.
No rallies were held throughout the games in three parks designated as protest zones after Chinese officials declined to issue permits to 77 applicants, and detained some of them.
The authorities expelled foreign activists within a day or two after the early protests, but then appeared to toughen their approach by announcing punishments of 10 days in detention.
A British mother of two arrested over a free Tibet protest in Beijing faces the possibility of being jailed as the Chinese authorities get tough on demonstrators.
Amanda McKeown, 41, was one of four Tibet activists detained by police outside the Bird’s Nest National Stadium early on Thursday.
Three had raised their fists and unfurled a Tibetan flag and shouted “Free Tibet” while Ms McKeown shot a video of the protest.
They were watched by up to 50 plain-clothes police, according to Students for a Free Tibet. They were then detained and driven away in a police car.
There was no news of their whereabouts during the day, but unlike similar arrests in the days leading up to and in the first week of the Olympic Games they were not immediately deported.
A British embassy spokesman said consular offices had tried to make contact with the authorities over Ms McKeown’s arrest but had been given no information.
But late in the evening, it became clear that a previous group of six free Tibet campaigners who were detained earlier in the week and from no news had also been heard had been jailed without trial for ten days.
A statement faxed by police to news bureaus in Beijing said that six foreigners, one named “Thomas”, had been detained for “upsetting social order” on Tuesday. “Beijing police decided to give the six 10 days of administrative detention,” it went on.
One of the six, who were detained on Tuesday and are all American, was named Thomas Grant.
In advance of the Games, police warned that a range of penalties were available for police to use against foreigners who broke Chinese laws such as those banning illegal protests, including “administrative punishments” which include imprisonment without trial.
Foreigners are usually held in a detention centre near the airport usually reserved for those unable to pay fines for breaches of visa rules.
Han Shan, a spokesman for Students for a Free Tibet to which both groups were attached, said it would be “ridiculous” if the government were going to send both groups to prison.
“Detention for ten days would be absolutely preposterous,” he said. “I hope the Chinese authorities realise how insecure it makes them look as the Games come to a close to be holding six, maybe ten activists who have done nothing other than to come peacefully and hold up Tibetan flags.”
The three men arrested with Mr McKeown were a German of Tibetan ethnic origin and two Americans.
Ms McKeown lives in Bristol with her two children and husband, Dan Carey. Mr Carey said he had been told his wife had been detained but had heard nothing further from her.
He said he had been expecting her to be detained and then deported, but understood there were “different reactions to different protests”.
“I have no idea what the upshot is going to be,” he said. “We are just waiting to hear.”
He said his wife had been involved in the Tibet campaign for ten years. “It’s one of her great passions,” he said.
from:telegraph.co.uk
Two elderly Chinese women who applied to hold a protest during the Olympics were ordered to spend a year in a labor camp, a relative said Wednesday. Police later squelched a pro-Tibet demonstration.
The women were still at home three days after being officially notified they would have to serve a yearlong term of reeducation through labor, but were under surveillance by a government-backed neighborhood group, said Li Xuehui, the son of one of the women.
Li said no cause was given for the order to imprison his 79-year-old mother, Wu Dianyuan, and her neighbor Wang Xiuying, 77.
“Wang Xiuying is almost blind and disabled. What sort of re-education through labor can she serve?” Li said in a telephone interview. “But they can also be taken away at any time.”
Meanwhile, swarms of plainclothes police set upon four foreign activists early Thursday as they tried to stage a protest against Chinese rule over Tibet — the latest in a series of unsanctioned demonstrations to occur during the Olympics.
Beijing announced last month that it would allow protests in three parks far from the Olympic venues during the games but they had to be approved in advance. Of the some 77 applications lodged so far, none have been approved, and rights groups have called the zones a charade.
The four unfurled a Tibetan flag and shouted “Free Tibet” south of the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium, the New York-based Students for a Free Tibet said. It put the number of police at 50; a spokeswoman for the Beijing Public Security Bureau declined comment.
“The fact that there were so many undercover police following them it just made them go with the action urgently,” said Kate Woznow, the group’s campaigns director.
Two Associated Press photographers were roughed up by plainclothes security officers, forced into cars and taken to a nearby building where they were questioned before being released. Memory cards from their cameras were confiscated.
The four activists — whose whereabouts were not known — were identified by Students for a Free Tibet as Tibetan-German Florien Norbu Gyanatshang, 30; Mandie McKeown, 41, of Britain; and Americans Jeremy Wells, 38 and John Watterberg, 30.
The rough treatment and intimidation being meted out to foreigners and elderly Chinese underscore the authorities’ determination to prevent any protests during the Olympics, even though Beijing Olympic organizers last month said demonstrations would be allowed in designated areas.
The elderly women, Wu and Wang, small and gray-haired, make unlikely activists. Wang, who used to sell ice cream, walks with a wooden cane, one hand holding onto Wu for support. But Li said they have been fighting since being kicked out of their Beijing homes in 2001 to make way for redevelopment.
They complained to district officials, then to city authorities, and finally demonstrated 16 times this year in two of Beijing’s most sensitive areas — Tiananmen Square and Zhongnanhai, the compound where China’s leaders live and work.
After Beijing announced the Olympic protest zones, Wu and Wang applied repeatedly for a permit but failed to get one.
The cases of Wu and Wang “show that while China has now proven it is able to host international events to perfection, it still has a long way to go before it respects even minimal international human rights standards,” said Nicholas Bequelin of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
“China is riding roughshod over its promises to allow lawful protests during the games,” he said.
The reeducation system, in place since 1957, allows police to sidestep the need for a criminal trial or a formal charge and directly send people to prison for up to four years to perform penal labor.
Giselle Davies, spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee, said past Olympic hosts have designated protest areas and that the body hoped Beijing would stick to its promise of allowing demonstrations.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang declined to discuss the specifics of the protest policy at a regular news conference Wednesday. “In China, like in other countries, to apply for a demonstration, you have to obey the law,” he said.
Tibet supporters have been among the most dogged groups trying to break Beijing’s apparent ban on protests.
Five American bloggers writing about Tibet have been detained since early Tuesday in Beijing, said Students for a Free Tibet.
Also Tuesday, another five Americans who unfurled a “Free Tibet” banner near an Olympics venue were detained along with U.S. graffiti artist James Powderly, who planned to use laser beams to flash a similar message on buildings in Beijing, said Woznow. Powderly was still in detention, though the others have been released, she said.
from: ap.google.com
Chinese officials defended their decision to pass off the voice of a 7-year-old songbird as that of another girl at the Olympic opening ceremony, calling it a simple casting choice. Critics said it was a step too far in China’s obsession with the perfect Olympic Games.
Beijing organizers of the games faced tough criticism Wednesday after a whistleblower revealed that the 9-year-old who performed a song during the spectacular opening ceremony was lip-synching to another girl’s vocal track.
Yang Peiyi, a 7-year-old with bright eyes and a smile made crooked by the stubs of her first grown-up teeth, was heard by an audience estimated in the billions during Friday night’s ceremony, singing “Ode to the Motherland.”
But they never saw her face.
Organizers passed the song off as being sung by Lin Miaoke, another perky schoolgirl who donned a sparkly red dress and soared on wires above the 91,000-strong crowd at the Bird’s Nest stadium.
Beijing officials on Wednesday defended the decision to use both girls, saying the artistic directors could cast whoever they saw fit. And they were unapologetic about keeping the lip-synch a secret.
“There were a number of candidates to sing that song and at the end of the day the artistic directors picked the best voice and the best performer,” Beijing organizing committee spokesman Sun Weide said.
Wang Wei, executive vice president of the organizing committee, said the job of the ceremony’s directors was “to achieve the most theatrical effect.”
“I don’t see there is anything wrong with it if everybody concerned agrees,” he said.
But the world’s press ridiculed the move on front pages from Romania to Australia.
“The counterfeit Games: designed to look good from every angle,” said a headline in The Times of London. The Daily Telegraph urged organizers of the 2012 London Games to “bring some sanity and proportion back to both the opening ceremony and the games themselves.”
In Spain, one newspaper called it “Olympic karaoke.” A commentator for The Age newspaper in Australia called it “the great Beijing lip-synch switcheroo” and news on the incident was headlined “China’s wrong child policy.” The Romanian daily 7Plus ran this on its front page: “Hoax! Made in China.”
Baltimore Sun reporter Jill Rosen said the switch was hardly the first case of lip-synching, but was “possibly the cruelest.”
New York Magazine called on record executives to give Peiyi a record deal, saying “She’s 7! She has buckteeth! She is adorable!”
The Chinese leadership consider the Beijing Olympics a matter of national prestige and the opening extravaganza, attended by a host of leaders including President Bush, was intended to wow the world.
“Our president may have gone there just to watch the games. The Chinese leadership does not take that view,” said Andrew Nathan, political science department chairman at Columbia University. “They want to send a message … the message of flawless execution.”
He said reports that a top official from China’s highest decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, demanded Miaoke’s voice be dubbed at the last minute “shows once again how political the sponsorship of the Olympics is for the Chinese.”
The secret of Peiyi was revealed Sunday by the ceremony’s musical director Chen Qigang in a radio interview. He said a senior Politburo member had said after the final dress rehearsal that Miaoke’s voice was not good enough and that Peiyi did not look right.
Chen, a French national, told AP Television News he felt compelled to “to come out with the truth.” Peiyi was “a magnificent singer” who “doesn’t deserve to be hidden,” he said, declining to comment further.
The parents of both girls said separately Wednesday they did not want their daughters to speak to the media, and said each felt privileged just to have taken part.
But many Chinese said Peiyi deserves the spotlight, and some suggested organizers find a place for her in the games closing ceremony Aug. 24.
“This is pretty unfair for the girl who was not picked to perform live,” said Cui Fengsi, a Beijing driver-for-hire in comments typical of several people who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday, and of numerous blog posts. “This girl has a great voice and they should recognize that she deserves to be seen. She should definitely perform at the closing ceremonies.”
Officials sought to avoid the idea that Peiyi did not appear because she was judged to be not cute enough, suggesting instead that the two girls were a sum greater than their parts.
One International Olympic Committee member, Gilbert Felli, likened the decision to a coach benching one player in favor of another.
“If your son is playing on a football team, suddenly the coach may decide that he’s not playing, he’s going to stay on the bench,” Felli said. “That’s what it is in sport, and in life.”
But he added, “The right information has to be given to the people.”
Wang Liping, one of Peiyi’s tutors, posted photos of the girl on her blog because she wanted the world to know the face behind the voice.
One photo shows a pretty girl in a white dress with a pink clip in her hair. She appears to be losing her milk teeth, and her new front teeth are only partially grown, and angled slightly. Another shows her rosy-cheeked with fluffy pink toy bunny ears.
Wang said Peiyi was backstage during the opening ceremony and recognized her voice when she heard the song.
Miaoke’s father, Lin Hui, said both girls are cute but he agreed that Peiyi’s voice was “a bit better” than his daughter’s. He said both girls played important roles, but the organizers should have made clear who was singing.
“Letting everybody know is a must,” he told the AP.
from: ap.google.com
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