Category Archives: Asia Pacific

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China elated as Guangzhou Evergrande wins big

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Guangzhou, CHINA – The world's most populous nation celebrated a breakthrough victory Saturday night in the world's most popular sport. Guangzhou Evergrande defeated FC Seoul from South Korea to become China's first ever winner of the AFC Champions League, Asia's foremost club soccer competition.
 
Bursting with relief and patriotism, over 40,000 fans in the Tianhe Stadium, in the south China metropolis of Guangzhou, formed a roaring red sea of team shirts, Chinese national flags and face stickers, all in China's lucky red color.
 
Some fans even dared to hope the result will kick-start improvements at the national team level, where China has long disappointed the many millions of citizens for whom success in soccer matters more than any Olympic triumph.
 
But grassroots coaches warned that without changes to China's educational and sporting systems, to develop a genuine sports culture here and get more kids playing soccer, years more heartbreak lie ahead for those following Team China.
 
Backed by a real estate giant, Guangzhou Evergrande, a private soccer club in the city also known as Canton, has spent big in recent years to hire players from South America, and top Italian coach Marcello Lippi. These expensive imports, dubbed the "Three Amigos" delivered Saturday in the second leg of the final when they drew 1-1 with FC Seoul in the second leg on to take the title on away goals after a 3-3 aggregate tie.
 
Belting out a patriotic song that rang around the packed stadium, salesman Chen Jing savored the rare taste of victory. "We have waited so long, and often felt hopeless, but now Evergrande have won glory for Chinese football," said Chen 29, who traveled from southwest Chengdu city for the game.
 
"The victory will give more confidence to our national team and show Chinese parents that (soccer) is also a good route for their children," he said. In ten years, China can produce a player like Lionel Messi, widely considered the world's best, and will reach the World Cup Finals again, Chen confidently predicted.
 
China's sole World Cup appearance was aided by the fact that 2002 co-hosts Japan and South Korea, China's major rivals in East Asia, did not need to compete in regional qualifying games.
 
"The national league will get better and better as the other top six teams will now keep investing and get more top players," said sports marketing executive Kevin Ding.
 
Liu Lifen, an executive at the Yida Soccer Base, a coaching academy in Guangzhou's southeast suburbs, was more cautious. "Evergrande reaching the final gives a dream to Chinese kids, but practical steps by government are necessary to capitalize on their success," she said.
 
Buying expensive foreign players does not tackle China's fundamental problems such as the need for educational reforms that allow kids more time for sports and more places to play them, said Liu. Few children play soccer in China, which translates into limited resources for the national team, she said.
 
Several soccer academies in Guangzhou have gone bust in recent years.
 
"China is a strong Olympic country but not a strong sports country, as few people play sports here" said Liu. Parents and schoolmasters often discourage sports for fear of injury and the academic pressure to pass the all-important college entrance exam, she said. "Chinese people still think 'if a kid plays soccer, then it's definitely because his studies are bad'."
 
At the Qingsheng Elementary School, coach P.K. Tresser, 26, put 18 kids through their paces Saturday morning.
 
"China could become a football power, they have the talent and these kids train well," he said. "But I see some Chinese people don't feel (soccer) is good for their kids, so it takes a long time to change," said Tresser.
 
Some trainees live full time at the Yida academy, including schoolgirl Chen Chongyi, 11, who has already spent three years there. Chen misses her parents but loves soccer and dreams of being a forward for the national women's team, she said.
 
Back at the stadium, enjoying the post-victory concert and celebrations, Dr. Zhou Chaoyang, 44, praised Evergrande for playing soccer of a quality still far beyond the national team's ability.
 
Online, fans adapted a stock phrase of China's ruling Communist Party. Instead of 'only socialism can save China', some posted 'only real estate can save China'.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Will act against Nigerian’s killers, Goa tells Centre

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 PANAJI: The Goa government, in its report submitted to the Union ministry of external affairs (MEA) on Wednesday, assured the Union government that action will be taken against the murderers of Nigerian national Obado Uzoma Simeon. The murder and its aftermath that led to the arrest of 53 Nigerians for rioting and attempt to murder, straining India-Nigeria relations.

The report also says that the state government is willing to withdraw cases against all the arrested Nigerians, who do not have valid travel documents, if they are willing to leave the country. The state government has highlighted three key issues in its report-murder of the Nigerian, rioting by Nigerians at Porvorim and foreigners staying illegally in the state.

Speaking to TOI, chief minister Manohar Parrikar said the government has informed MEA that they have identified the perpetrators in the murder of Nigerian and action will be taken.

Regarding the rioting and attempt to murder case against 53 Nigerians at Parra and Porvorim, Parrikar said, "Police have verified their documents, except for a very few, most of them do not have proper documents and if these are ready to be deported then the state government is ready to drop the charges against them." Cases will continue against those arrested and whose travel documents are valid.

On the crackdown on foreigners staying illegally in the state, the Goa government report stated that such foreigners should be deported from the country. The Nigerian consular official's statement that Indians in Nigeria might face repercussions, if Goa doesn't stop "evicting Nigerians" from the state and does not immediately arrest the assailants of the Nigerian national who was murdered in Parra last week, also figures in the report.

"We have brought this statement to the notice of the central government and it is for the central government to act on the Nigerian consular official's statement," Parrikar said.

He also said that the state government has filed cases against locals but action would be taken only against those involved in criminal activists and not against those who had just come out on the road. The Centre on Tuesday had leaned on the Goa government to submit a fresh report shortly on the death of a Nigerian national in Goa that has sparked a diplomatic incident.

Goa assures Union government of action against the murderers of the Nigerian national

State willing to drop charges if arrested Nigerians without valid documents willing to leave country

Government says foreigners staying illegally in state should be deported

Brings to notice of Union government statement made by Nigeria's consular official

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Super Typhoon Haiyan wreaks havoc in Philippines

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Super Typhoon Haiyan, among the most powerful storms ever recorded, crashed across the central islands of the Philippines Friday, killing at least four people and forcing nearly 750,000 people to flee from their homes.
 
Widespread power outages were reported. But because communications in the Philippines were cut-off, it remained difficult to determine the full extent of casualties and damage. Still, the nation appeared to avoid major disaster as it blew away from major population areas before wreaking more damage.
 
Haiyan had sustained winds of 155 mph with gusts as high as 235 mph, according to the U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The center of the storm was moving away from the Philippines and into the South China Sea, but high winds were still battering the country.
 
By early Saturday morning local time, the center of the storm was located to the west of the Philippines, about 700 miles from Da Nang, Vietnam. It's expected to hit Vietnam on Sunday with winds of about 125 mph, which is the strength of a Category 3 hurricane.
 
Haiyan, known as Yolanda in the typhoon-prone Philippines, affected a huge sweep of the country. At least two people were electrocuted in storm-related accidents, one person was killed by a fallen tree and another was struck by lightning, official reports said.
 
Southern Leyte Gov. Roger Mercado said the typhoon triggered landslides that blocked roads, uprooted trees and ripped roofs off houses around his residence.
 
The dense clouds and heavy rains made the day seem almost as dark as night, he said.
 
"When you're faced with such a scenario, you can only pray, and pray and pray," Mercado said in a telephone interview, adding that mayors in the province had not called in to report any major damage.
 
"I hope that means they were spared and not the other way around," he said. "My worst fear is there will be massive loss of lives and property."
 
The category-5 storm made landfall Friday morning at Guiuan, a small city in Samar province in the eastern Philippines.
 
Over 12 million people live in the storm's path, including Cebu City, with a population of about 2.5 million, and Bohol island, where a major earthquake last month killed over 200 people and left thousands homeless and highly vulnerable in tents. The typhoon was expected to skirt central Manila and fully exit the Philippines by Saturday morning local time, en route for the South China Sea, Vietnam and China.
 
President Benigno Aquino said Thursday his administration had made war-like preparations, with air force planes, helicopters and navy ships on standby. Over one million people fled their homes ahead of the storm as the government announced evacuation plans in many areas. With at least 20 typhoons hitting the Philippines every year, its people are familiar with nature's power, but none have experienced what some meteorologists have called the most powerful typhoon ever to make landfall.
 
The affected areas include islands loved by travelers around the world. Last month, Conde Nast Traveler magazine named Cebu and Bohol in its list of the Top 5 Islands in Asia. In Cebu city Friday evening, the wind and rain had eased, electricity had been restored and residents were emerging to assess the damage, said Sarah Adlawan, a saleswoman at the Cebu Northwinds Hotel.
 
Haiyan was be the fourth typhoon to hit the Philippines this year and the third Category 5 typhoon to make landfall in the Philippines since 2010, says meteorologist Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground. Just last year, Super Typhoon Bopha killed more than 1,900 people in the Philippines when it hit on Dec. 3, the deadliest typhoon in Philippine history.
 
"The Philippines lie in the most tropical cyclone-prone waters on Earth, and rarely escape a year without experiencing a devastating typhoon," says Masters A tropical cyclone is an all-encompassing term that includes typhoons, hurricanes, and cyclones, which have different names depending on where they form.
 
Since 1970, the Philippines has been hit by more tropical cyclones than any country on earth, except for China, according to the National Hurricane Center.
 
On average, about 30 tropical cyclones form in the western Pacific Ocean each year, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center reports. According to data from the warning center, an October record of seven typhoons developed in the western Pacific Ocean last month.
 
That doesn't include Cyclone Phailin, which became the strongest system to make landfall in India since 1999, coming ashore in the eastern state of Odisha in October, killing at least 44 people. Storms that form in the Indian Ocean – a separate "basin" from the Western Pacific — are known as cyclones.
 
Rowena Pinky Jumamoy, a member of the Filipino Association in Richmond, Va. (FAACV) and a native of Inabang, Bohol, one of the provinces hit the hardest by Haiyan, made contact with Tian Cempron, a conservation fellow of the marine sanctuary project. "As of this morning, the news is that In one coastal village alone at least 30 houses were wiped out," Jumamoy said.
 
Imelda Hofmeister, of Oshkosh, Wis., spent Friday morning on the phone with family in Illinois that had reached her parents in Lianga, a southern Filipino city in Surigao del Sur. They were spared from the typhoon's path, but still had not had any contact from family further north in Tacloban, Cebu and Ormoc which were harder hit.
 
"We haven't heard anything – good or bad news from our cousins. Normally we let the family know that status through Facebook messages and we know that my parents and immediate family is OK," Hofmeister said. "But further north and we know there will be a ton of damage since most of the houses are built so close to the water."
 
Though she hoped her family is physically safe, Hofmeister said the lightweight pole buildings and tin roofs are not built to sustain the winds that hit the islands.
 
"I checked into our hotel with my family Thursday night as we live by the coast, and were worried because we heard on the radio this would be the strongest ever typhoon," she said. "The winds did not feel too strong today, but I have no idea if my home is okay," said Adlawan, who planned to return there Friday night.
 
"The government was well-prepared for this typhoon and informed the people," so many could evacuate low-lying areas, she said. "Thank God, all my family are okay."
 
In this strongly Catholic country, clergy nationwide have been praying to reduce the storm's expected devastation. Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, also the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, asked bishops and priests to lead the people in praying the Oratio Imperata, or Obligatory Prayer, used when calamity threatens.
 
It paid off, said Hildren Mallete, receptionist at the Casablanca Hotel in Legazpi City, Albay province. While Legazpi suffered a blackout early Friday morning, the wind and rain were not as strong as residents had feared, said Mallete. "The priests have been saying prayers from yesterday to today, and that helped our city. The power of prayer, it helped a lot."
 
Contributing: Korina Lopez, USA TODAY, Nick Penzenstadler, The Post-Crescent in Appleton WI., and Associated Press.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Tantalizing test results raise key issue: Who killed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat?

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New test results on the remains of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat "moderately support" the proposition that he died of Polonium-210 poisoning, but avoids the most tantalizing question of all: If it was murder, who did it?
 
Arafat died in November 2004 in a French hospital after falling ill, with vomiting and stomach pains, after eating at his headquarters in Ramallah, on the West Bank. The official cause of death was a massive stroke, but no autopsy was carried out.
 
The tests were conducted by 10 experts at the Vaudois University Hospital Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, on remains extracted from Arafat's grave in Ramallah, on the West Bank, in 2012.
 
Similar tests were also carried out by Russian and French experts.
 
The Russian findings, Al Jazeera reported Friday, were "inconclusive," finding "radioactive background" on only one of four fragments.
 
The multiple tests were triggered by a year-long investigation by Al-Jazeera, including a forensic examination of some of the Palestinian leader's clothing, that suggested a suspicious cause of death, prompting France to open a murder investigation.
 
The Swiss experts this week carefully hedged their findings, which included at least 18 times the normal levels of radioactive polonium in Arafat's remains.
 
On the other hand, the degradation of Polonium-210 over eight years and the quality of the forensic samples made a definitive conclusion difficult.
 
"Our observations are coherent with a hypothesis of poisoning, in any case more consistent than with the opposite hypothesis (of no poisoning)," Patrice Mangin, director of the hospital's center of legal medicine, told reporters.
 
The head of the Swiss team, Francois Bochud, said on Thursday: "Was polonium the cause of the death for certain? The answer is no, we cannot show categorically that hypothesis that the poisoning caused was this or that."
 
Here is what the official report, posted by Al Jazeera, concluded:
 
"Taking into account the analytical limitations aforementioned, mostly time lapse since death and the nature and quality of the specimens, the results moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-210."
Although the French report is being withheld pending the outcome of the French murder investigation, the Russian report was leaked to Al Jazeera, which published its findings on Friday.
 
While Al-Jazeera said the findings were "inconclusive," the news agency's source quoted lab personnel as saying they had received clear instructions from the Russian Foreign Ministry on how the final report should look.
 
The source tells Al Jazeera, "Russia's goal was to fulfill the Palestinian Authority's request, not offend Israel by helping the PA, and not create a new hotbed in the Middle East."
 
Arafat's widow Suha, has little doubt that murder was involved, telling Reuters in Paris, "We are revealing a real crime, a political assassination."
 
If Arafat's death was indeed intentional, the list of possible culprits is narrow:
 
1) Arafat's inner circle. As leader of the Palestinian Authority, he had control over vast sums of money, particularly aid from foreign governments. Arafat's widow tells Reuters the polonium must have been administered by someone "in his close circle" because experts had told her the poison would have been put in his coffee, tea or water. She did not accuse any country or person, and noted that he had many enemies.
 
2) Israel. Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister at the time of Arafat's death, viewed him as a terrorist and an obstacle to peace. Sharon had stated publicly he regretted not "eliminating" Arafat during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
 
Tawfik Terawi, the head of the Palestinian committee, told reporters in Ramallah on Friday, that he directly blames Israel for Arafat's death. "It is not important that I say here that he was killed by polonium,'' he said. "But I say, with all the details available about Yasser Arafat's death, that he was killed and that Israel killed him." He offered no proof to support his charge.
 
The counter argument is that Arafat's influence had greatly waned by the time of his death, which would have complicated relations in the region if he had been killed.
 
In any case, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told the BBC this week, "I will state this as simply and clearly as I can: Israel did not kill Arafat, period. And that's all there is to it,"
 
3) Russia. This theory has less to do with motive than means. Moscow is clearly adept at the use of Polonium-210 as a poison. A defecting Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko, drank a fatal cup laced with the radioactive material in London in 2006. A dying Litvinenko accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder. The Soviet Union was still a key supporter Arafat at the time of his death, but conspiracy theorists could easily envision a rogue agent aiding one or more faction.
 
Dave Barclay, a renowned British forensic scientist and retired detective, told Al Jazeera that after the latest tests, he is fully convinced that Arafat was murdered.
 
"Yasser Arafat died of polonium poisoning," he said. "We found the smoking gun that caused his death. What we don't know is who's holding the gun at the time."

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Man sues wife over ugly kids and wins

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Remember the saying “a face only a mother can love.” Well in China that saying has taken on an entirely new meaning.

Jian Feng a Chinese man sued his wife over what he called “an extremely ugly baby girl,” the newspaper Irish Times reported.

Though Feng insisted that his wife had to have an affair because there is no way he could have fathered such an ugly child, DNA tests proved that the girl and all of his kids were in fact his.

Here’s where it gets good.  Feng sued his ex-wife on the grounds of false pretenses, she had undergone over $100,000 in plastic surgery while in South Korea before they met and never told Feng about the procedures “duping him into thinking she was beautiful.”

Sit down for this part, he won! A judge agreed with Feng’s argument and ordered his ex-wife to pay Feng $120,000!  “I married my wife out of love, but as soon as we had our first daughter, we began having marital issues,” Feng told the Irish Times. “Our daughter was incredibly ugly, to the point where it horrified me.”

I have enough of a hard time getting beaten up by angry mommies.  From here, DAD will let you comment on Feng, the lawsuit and his ugly babies and what work has to be done to spend $100,000?

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About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Several explosions kill, injure commuters in Chinese city

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BEIJING – A series of small explosions killed one person, and injured at least 8 others, one seriously, in front of a major Communist Party building in the north-central Chinese city of Taiyuan Wednesday morning, reported police and state media.
 
The bomb blasts occurred around 7:40 a.m. near the Communist Party headquarters of Shanxi province, said Taiyuan police on its Sina Weibo micro-blog, Taiyuan is the capital of Shanxi, a coal-rich region, and lies 310 miles southwest of Beijing.
 
Photos on Sina Weibo and other social media platforms showed at least one man lying prone in the road, several vehicles with smashed windows and punctured tires, and scattered metal ball-bearings of different sizes, including some as big as a thumb-nail. From the ball-bearings, "it is suspected that improvised bombs exploded," said Xinhua, the state news agency.
 
Police said Party leaders had quickly rushed to the scene, and traffic on the affected road was back to normal by 10:30 a.m. An investigation is underway, said Xinhua, but authorities offered no clue as to who they suspect carried out the explosions.
 
Bomb attacks remain relatively rare but not unheard of in China, despite massive official spending on 'stability maintenance'. Wednesday's blasts come during a period of heightened security across China as the nation prepares for a closely watched Party meeting that starts Saturday in Beijing, and may give the green light to new economic reforms.
 
They also follow the suicide attack with a car nine days ago near Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Three members of an ethnic Uighur family from northwest China drove an SUV onto the sidewalk, killing two tourists and injuring 40, before crashing and setting the car on fire. Authorities have blamed a separatist organization fighting for the independence of the mostly Muslim Xinjiang region. Overseas Uighur groups urge caution before accepting Beijing's account and accuse China's government of decades of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
 
China's heavily state-controlled media, with a clear stress on political stability and positive news, likely won't dwell on the apparent attack. Thestate broadcaster CCTV only issued a short report on Taiyuan Wednesday morning.
 
Social media offered citizens more information and images, plus a chance to share their emotions. "My son goes on Yingze Bridge daily at this time, it scared me to death, just spoke by phone, he said the road ahead is blocked, he'll take a detour," Jue Yu, a 55-year-old Taiyuan mother, posted on Sina Weibo.
 
Other Internet users said the blasts highlighted how urgently the nation's rulers must make changes. "The reason for the Shanxi explosions is not clear, but one thing is for sure, it's a result of social conflicts that have constantly accumulated," wrote Beijing lawyer Fu Mingde. "In the new round of reforms, fairness and justice must be given the first priority," he said.
 
"Although the people who did the explosions are bitterly hated, some officials in the provincial party commission and government who are rigid in their heads also must reflect on the in-depth reasons behind this tragedy," posted Hai Kuo, a Beijing finance writer. "We must immediately carry out many essential and major operations on the political and economical system!"
 

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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6 tourists killed in ferry accident in Thailand

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BANGKOK (AP) — An overcrowded tourist ferry capsized and sank near a popular Thai seaside town, killing six tourists, including two Russians and a Chinese, police said. The rest of the roughly 200 people aboard were rescued.
 
The double-decker ferry, carrying Thai and foreign tourists, left Lan island for the 30-minute trip to the resort town of Pattaya on Sunday evening, said police Col. Suwan Cheawnavinthavat. Shortly after the boat departed, an engine problem sent the passengers on the first deck rushing to the second floor, causing the ferry to flip on its side and eventually sink.
 
"Witnesses said there were neither enough tubes nor life vests on the ferry. Some of those who cannot swim had to cling onto coolers or ice containers until rescuers came," Suwan said by phone.
 
He said the foreigners who died were a Russian man, a Russian woman and a Chinese man. Three Thais — two women and a man — also were killed. The rest of the passengers were rescued, including a 12-year-old Russian boy who was in intensive care at a hospital. None of the others were hospitalized.
 
Suwan said the ferry was operating over its capacity of about 130 to 150 passengers. He said police were looking for the ferry driver to investigate the cause of the accident.
 
Pattaya, which is about 60 miles southeast of Bangkok, has had several fatal boat accidents this year. Last month, an Indian tourist celebrating her wedding anniversary was killed in a parasailing accident off the town's coast. In August, two Chinese tourists were killed in a speed boat accident near Pattaya's main pier.
 
Lan island is a popular daytrip destination among tourists near Pattaya.
 

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Beijing: Muslim family led Tiananmen suicide attack

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BEIJING — A deadly terror attack not far from Mao's tomb shows that China may not be prepared for terror attacks that Western nations have been trying to counter for years.
 
"China's counterterrorism capabilities are rudimentary, they lack high-grade, high-quality intelligence to fight terrorism," said Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based terrorism expert who has researched terrorism in China.
 
On Wednesday, Chinese police for the first time said that the Monday car crash into a crowd of people was an act of terror. The identities of the attackers released Wednesday indicates they are members of a repressed Muslim ethnic group in China.
 
The incident involved a Jeep with a driver and two passengers that plowed through pedestrians at lunchtime before it crashed and burned at an historic bridge close to the portrait of Chairman Mao on Tiananmen Gate. The gate is near the compound where China's current crop of Communist Party leaders live and work.
 
The attack killed the car's three occupants and left two tourists dead and 40 others injured.
 
Police said the "carefully planned, organized and premeditated," attack was done by Usmen Hasan, his mother Kuwanhan Reyim, and his wife, Gulkiz. Police said the trio lit gasoline to start the fire that killed them.
 
Police found gasoline, gasoline containers, a steel stick and a flag with "extremist religious content" inside the Jeep, and long knives and "jihad", or "holy war", flags in the temporary residence of five suspects who were detained 10 hours after the incident with the help of police in Xinjiang, reported Xinhua, the state news agency.
 
The names of the alleged attackers sound like those of the predominantly Muslim Uighur ethnic group in northwest China's Xinjiang region.
 
Beijing police led a city-wide manhunt for suspects as they issued notices to hotels for information on first two and later eight suspects, all Xinjiang-based and Uighur-sounding apart from one Han Chinese, China's dominant ethnic group, who was born in Sichuan but lived in Xinjiang.
 
A huge area of desert, mountain and mineral wealth in Chinese Central Asia, Xinjiang has witnessed regular unrest and many fatalities in recent years involving the indigenous Uighurs and the Han immigrants who have arrived in large numbers from elsewhere in China in recent decades.
 
The Uighur have long complained about repressive rule by Beijing that restricts their freedom of movement and religious belief. The Chinese government argues it has brought badly-needed development, and says violent incidents there are fomented by 'hostile foreign forces'.
 
Monday's incident marks a successful escalation of tactics by Xinjiang separatist groups seeking to form an 'East Turkestan' independent of China, said Gunaratna, who has researched terrorism in Xinjiang.
 
"The only group with the intention and capability to mount this attack is the East Turkestan Islamic Movement," or ETIM, a shadowy organization, based in the Afghan-Pakistan border, that some say does not exist.
 
"ETIM is no longer confined to Xinjiang, and it will continue to build those capabilities," he said. "It is a very successful attack and will inspire and instigate more attacks. Those Western countries that were reluctant to believe the ETIM was a terrorist group should now believe it is a terrorist group," that has been aided by al-Qaeda, said Gunaratna.
 
Uighur exile groups have urged caution before China rushes to judgment on this incident.
 
"Today, I fear for the future of East Turkestan and the Uyghur people more than I ever have," said World Uyghur Congress president Rebiya Kadeer, in a statement from Washington Tuesday. "The Chinese government will not hesitate to concoct a version of the incident in Beijing, so as to further impose repressive measures on the Uyghur people."
 
Beijing authorities have already arrested 93 Uighurs without reason and stepped up monitoring of all Uighurs doing business and studying outside of Xinjiang, said Dilxat Rexit, a Sweden-based spokesperson for the Congress, an international organization of exiled Uighur groups.
 
"This Beijing incident will become the new excuse for China's crackdown," he said Wednesday.
 

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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https://www.codewit.com
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China probes terror links in Tiananmen crash

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BEIJING — Chinese authorities named a pair of suspects from a heavily Muslim western region of the country as suspicions grew that a deadly car crash and fire near Tiananmen Square was a terror attack.
 
Five people were dead after the vehicle plowed through dozens of pedestrians and police at the center of the capital city at lunchtime Monday.
 
Strengthening suspicions it was an act of terror by Muslims from China's northwest, the Beijing police issued a notice late Monday to hotels in the Chinese capital that named two suspects from the Xinjiang region, according to the text of the notice posted online by some Chinese Internet users, and reported Tuesday by the Global Times, a Communist Party-run newspaper.
 
Xinjiang, a huge area of desert and mountain in Chinese Central Asia, has witnessed regular unrest in recent years involving the Muslim Uighur ethnic group, now only a slim majority of Xinjiang's population after decades of immigration by China's majority Han people.
 
The Uighur have long complained about repressive rule by Beijing. The Chinese government argues it has brought badly-needed development, and says violent incidents there are fomented by 'hostile foreign forces'.
 
The two named suspects are both male, with Uighur-sounding names. One is aged 25 from Pishan county, and the other is 43 from Shanshan county, where Chinese authorities said rioters killed 22 civilians and 2 policemen in June. The notice told hotel management to watch out for "suspicious" people and vehicles dating back to October 1, and gave four license number plates from Xinjiang, perhaps suggesting further incidents are feared.
 
The Beijing police confirmed to the Global Times that they had issued the notice to hotels, but did comment on the "major case" itself.
 
Killed were the driver, two passengers, a female tourist from the Philippines and a male tourist from South China's Guangdong province, and 38 people were injured, reported Qianlong.com, a Beijing government news website. Authorities cleared Tiananmen Square, home to Mao's tomb, after the crash.
 
An official investigation is underway, reported Xinhua, the state news agency. The unusual nature of the incident, and the way the vehicle had been driven some distance along the sidewalk, injuring and scattering pedestrians, quickly led to speculation online that the vehicle was used in a deliberate attack.
 
Photos posted online showed the vehicle ablaze beside the historic bridges that lead visitors under the famous portrait of Chairman Mao and into the Forbidden City, the former residence of China's emperors.
 
Tiananmen Square is not only a big tourist draw but also the political heart of China, and therefore one of the most sensitive areas in the country. Leaders of the ruling Communist Party live and work nearby. Major party and government events take place at the adjacent Great Hall of the People, where a national women's congress was underway Monday.
 
Most famous abroad for the 1989 democracy protests, put down by force, the square still draws occasional and isolated protests that are quickly snuffed out by uniformed and plainclothes security officers who patrol the square and its environs.
 
Fire extinguishers are positioned in several areas to stop attempts at self-immolation.
 
Just as the square itself is often closed before and during sensitive political anniversaries or events, even the Chinese characters for Tiananmen Square sometimes trigger China's wide array of Internet censorship tools. Although some Internet comments were deleted Monday, many posts and pictures remained available.
 
From 1999 to 2001, followers of Falun Gong, a spiritual group banned in China, staged protests at the square, including some self-immolations. More common in recent years are occasional petitioners, sometimes distributing leaflets describing their grievances at the hands of local authorities. But the apparent use of a car as a battering ram, followed by a possibly self-started fire, would represent a deadly, new tactic.
 
"I was shocked when I heard the news from colleagues," said a traffic warden surnamed Chen, who works close to Tiananmen Gate, where all traces of the incident were swiftly removed Monday afternoon. "I thought this must be the safest place in China."

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Gang rape, burning of teen stir outrage in India

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NEW DELHI — The death of a 13-year-old girl who was gang-raped and set on fire in central India has fueled new outrage over the frequency of sexual assault in India, and the difficulty victims have in bringing their attackers to justice.
 
"I don't go out after dark," said Natasha Shah, a 26-year-old writer from New Delhi. "You don't feel so great going to a club, you don't really enjoy it and your parents will be calling you all night to check you're safe."
 
The attack took place Tuesday night in Orai, in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The victim was returning from a trip to a local farm with her older sister when she was raped by three young men, according to the Times of India. Villagers identified one of the assailants as a "local goon," the newspaper says.
 
They set her on fire after she threatened to report them, the newspaper reports. She suffered burns over 80% of her body and died in a hospital.
 
Local police officials told the Indo-Asian News Service that the girl's family had not filed an official complaint, but that officers acting on other information were raiding several locations in search of the assailants.
 
In a separate incident Wednesday, a 13-year-old girl in Meerut, also in Uttar Pradesh, was abducted, raped and murdered by three youths. The girl went missing after she left her house. Her body was found with strangulation marks around her neck, the Times of India reported.
 
Two of the victim's classmates and a male friend have been detained in the case.
 
The cases are only the latest in a series of high-profile sexual attacks in India. Last December, the gang rape of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi set off a nationwide series of protests and garnered worldwide attention after the victim died of her injuries.
 
In September, four of her attackers were sentenced to death.
 
Still, Jacqueline Bhabha, director of research for the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, said such cases — in which alleged perpetrators are actually put on trial for their crimes — are rare.
 
"These cases that come to light are the tip of the iceberg," she said. "It's a problem that many people have known about for decades but it's been really ignored."
 
She said attitudes toward sexual violence need to come a long way. "People still seem to think it's acceptable in a lot of contexts," Bhabha said.
 
Kavita Krishnan of the Shakarpur-based All India Progressive Women's Association said the tendency to scrutinize victims rather than perpetrators is a persistent obstacle.
 
"Victim blaming is a huge problem is India," she said. "It's rampant — politicians do it, the police do it, lots of influential people in society do it. But it's not like it only happens in India."
 
Krishnan said that there's been little accountability of police, who often refuse to adequately investigate rape accusations.
 
"Essentially, it's a pressure tactic to get the family to withdraw the case," Krishnan said, in some cases because "the perpetrators of such offenses may be locally known, they may be powerful."
 
The good news, said Bhabha, is that India has no shortage of groups that have been studying this issue for decades.
 
"This is not a new issue," she said. "They don't need outsiders to come in and tell them what to do."

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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