Chinese Class: March 2008

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Learn Chinese online - Bombers strike at Iraqi army, civilians

WORLD / Middle East

Bombers strike at Iraqi army, civilians

(AP)
Updated: 2007-04-27 09:27

BAGHDAD - Bombers struck an Iraqi army post northeast of Baghdad and
civilian targets in the city as violence across Iraq killed at least 72
people Thursday, including the bullet-riddled bodies of 27 men dumped in
the capital - apparent victims of sectarian death squads.

A US soldier secures the scene following a car bomb explosion in Baghdad,
Iraq, Thursday, April 26, 2007. [AP]

Still, the top American military spokesman insisted the US command felt
"very comfortable" that it is making "steady progress" in restoring order
in Baghdad.

"We are seeing those initial signs of progress being made," Maj. Gen.
William C. Caldwell told Associated Press Radio.

The violence came as the Democratic-controlled US Senate adopted
House-passed legislation calling for US troops to begin leaving Iraq by
Oct. 1. President Bush pledged to veto the measure, and neither body
passed the measure with enough votes to override a veto.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Oct. 1 was too soon for a
withdrawal to start and criticized the Senate vote, saying it "sends
wrong signals" to armed militants.

The deadliest attack occurred about 9 a.m. when a suicide car bomber
killed 10 Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint in Khalis, a longtime flashpoint
city about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad. Ten other soldiers and five
civilians were wounded, police said.

The city is in Diyala province, which has seen some of Iraq's worst
violence recently. Mostly Sunni Arab insurgents are thought to have fled
to the area to escape the security crackdown in Baghdad that US and Iraqi
troops launched Feb. 14.

In the capital, a car bomb exploded near Baghdad University, killing
eight civilians and wounding 19, including some students, police said.

Associated Press Television News footage showed an elderly woman
screaming, "Oh, my son," as she sobbed beside twisted debris.

Ahmed Jassim, who works in a nearby hotel, said he rushed outside after
hearing the explosion and helped carry the wounded to ambulances.

"The insurgents were surely targeting civilians because there was no
military presence in the area," he said. "I saw small pieces of flesh and
a small blood pool."

Four other civilians were killed and nine wounded when a roadside bomb
exploded near a market in central Baghdad, police said. The blast missed
its intended target - a passing police patrol.

In the city's sprawling Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Sadr City, US
troops killed three militants during a gunbattle, the military said.
Later in the day, a funeral procession was held in the district for an
Iraqi who residents said was killed in the fighting.

Two suicide bombers attacked an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party
of Massoud Barzani, leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern
Iraq.

The blasts killed three security guards and wounded five, police said.
Casualties could have been worse if guards had not opened fire on the two
attackers, forcing them to detonate their explosives at least 50 yards
from the office, police said.

The bombing in Zumar, a town 45 miles west of Mosul, capital of Ninevah
province, was the second suicide attack this week aimed at the party in
that area.

In other violence, four insurgents were killed as the US targeted
suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militants near Taji, a US air base 12 miles
north of Baghdad, the US command said.

It said two women and two children were also believed to have been killed
during the fighting. "Unfortunately al-Qaida in Iraq continues to use
women and children in their illegal activities," US spokesman Christopher
Garver said.

Two civilians were killed and 12 wounded when mortar shells exploded in
the southern Baghdad district of Dora, police said. One civilian died and
four were wounded when a car bomb exploded in the Baiyaa district of
southwestern Baghdad.

At least 30 tortured bodies were found, including 27 who had been shot to
death and left in different parts of Baghdad and three decapitated bodies
found south of the capital.

In Tikrit, police said the wife and daughter of a Saddam Hussein cousin
were found slain at their home. The wife of Hashim Hassan al-Majid had
been shot and the daughter strangled, police Capt. Samir Mohammed said.
Their names were not released.

Al-Majid's brother is Ali Hassan "Chemical Ali" al-Majid, one of the most
notorious figures of Saddam's regime, who is on trial for his alleged
role in gassing Kurds and other abuses during a crackdown on Kurds in the
1980s.

Hashim Hassan Al-Majid, who held various posts in Saddam's government,
was arrested after the regime fell, Tajik residents said.

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Chinese language - Grieving parent: Remember our children

WORLD / America

Grieving parent: Remember our children

(AP)
Updated: 2007-04-20 06:34

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Peter Read wants you to make a choice.

He asks that you turn away from the face of the deranged gunman glaring
at the camera. Gaze instead at the face of a bright and bubbly brunette
who smiled even when she was unhappy, a face always in the middle of a
crowd.

Peter Read of Annandale, VA., and his wife Cathy look at photos of their
daughter, Mary Karen Read, during an interview with the Associated Press
in Blacksburg, Va., Thursday, April 19, 2007. [AP]

It is the face of Mary Karen Read, the daughter he will now see only in
scrapbooks.

Hers is just one of 32 promising lives cut short at Virginia Tech - the
life of a musician, an aspiring schoolteacher, a doting big sister to
five siblings. A 19-year-old freshman who had just filed her first tax
return and learned, the day before she died, how to make a pumpkin pie.

When you think of the massacre that befell this quiet college town, those
are the memories Peter Read wants you to remember.

"We want the world to know and celebrate our children's lives, and we
believe that's the central element that brings hope in the midst of great
tragedy," Read said Thursday, with his wife, Cathy, at his side. "These
kids were the best that their generation has to offer."

As the Reads left Blacksburg on Thursday for their home in Annandale,
they were exhausted, pale, heartbroken - and furious. On television, the
overwhelming image of the tragedy was the face of Cho Seung-Hui - a
killer whose name Peter Read cannot bring himself to speak.

"I want to issue a direct personal plea, to all the major media," he told
The Associated Press. "For the love of God and our children, stop
broadcasting those images and those words. Choose to focus on life and
the love and the light that our children brought into the world and not
on the darkness and the madness and the death."

Several networks have already heard Read's message loud and clear - from
disgusted viewers. Fox News Channel announced it would no longer run the
disturbing audio and images of the gunman. NBC, which aired the material
first, and cable outlet MSNBC said they would "severely limit" their use.

Read hopes the focus will swing back to the children. Children such as
Paul Turner's daughter Maxine, a 22-year-old chemical engineering major
from Vienna who loved beaches, swing dancing and her close-knit circle of
friends. She would have graduated soon, and she had already lined up a
job in Elkton, Md.

At Virginia Tech, Maxine Turner co-founded a sorority and earned a red
belt in Tae Kwon Do. She loved the German band Rammstein and signed up
for a language class to understand the lyrics.

It was there that she died.

On Thursday, her body rested at a morgue in Roanoke, where state and U.S.
flags were lowered and access was heavily guarded by police. A hearse
will arrive sometime this week to carry her home, a scenario that will be
repeated many times as parents hold funerals.

Like so many today, the Read family is blended: Peter Read, a 44-year-old
Air Force veteran, married Yon Son Yi, of Palisades Park, N.J., who gave
birth to Mary Read. But the couple later divorced.

Yi remarried and had a second daughter, Hannah, 4 1/2. Read remarried
too, and he and wife had four children: Stephen, 11; Patrick, 4 1/2;
Brendan, 2 1/2; and Colleen, 10 months.

The Reads live in a quiet cul-de-sac in Annandale, where they moved in
2001 from Virginia Beach.

Mary Read made friends fast. She joined the French honor society, the
National Honor Society and the marching band. She played lacrosse for two
years and moved easily between the cliques that fill high school hallways.

She wanted to teach math and science to elementary school students, and
she enrolled at Virginia Tech.

In her dorm room were scrapbooks filled with hundreds of photographs - at
summer band camp, at Myrtle Beach, on the arm of her father as part of
the homecoming court.

The end of her freshman year was just weeks away, and she had planned to
spend the summer at home, working at a deli and helping care for her
siblings.

She came home Easter weekend, staging practice egg hunts for her
brothers. Then, the weekend before her death, she came home again.

She divided her time between her friends and her family those two days
but was inseparable from her laptop. She sat on the stairs, where the
wireless reception was best, to instant message and e-mail her friends. A
brother sat nearby, toy computer on his lap.

"He wanted to be like Mary," Peter Read recalled.

On Sunday, Read's wife showed his daughter how to make her favorite
dessert, a pumpkin pie. And when Read took her to the bus stop at 4:30
p.m., she had a slab of the pie and a container of Cool Whip in a plastic
bag.

Mary Read never called to check in when she reached Blacksburg, but her
parents know what she did that night: She had recorded her favorite TV
show, "House," on DVDs and watched them on her laptop during the 4
1/2-hour ride.

The next morning, she had French class in Norris Hall, where gunman Cho
Seung-Hui took her life.

When news of the shootings broke, Peter Read started calling his
daughter, hoping she would pick up. Then he called her roommate. The
hours wore on, without word.

When Read learned that the parents of his daughter's longtime friend
Danielle Waters were driving to Blacksburg late that afternoon to find
their daughter, he asked to ride along.

On the drive, Olga and John Waters learned their daughter was alive.
Around 9:30 p.m., Read's cell phone rang. It was his wife, and the state
police were at their door.

The Reads won't talk about their grief over these past few days. It's too
painful, too personal. The time is not yet right.

But they share the photos and drawings from their daughter's dorm room,
which was just as she had left it.

In a plastic bag was the empty container that had held her pie. And on
her desk was a calendar Mary Read's grandmother had given her years ago,
each day offering a quote from a famous woman.

On April 16, the words were from a teacher, Helen Keller:

"When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our
life, or in the life of another."

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� Yang Jiechi named new FM, replacing Li Zhaoxing

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Chinese School - US shooting puts gun control back on the agenda

WORLD / US Gun Policy

US shooting puts gun control back on the agenda

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-04-18 08:58

Gun control surged back onto the US agenda after the deadliest school
shooting in US history, but with few politicians willing to take up the
sensitive issue, chances of major change look remote.

With an estimated 40 percent of American households owning a gun and some
200 million weapons in private hands, according to surveys, challenging
the constitutional right to bear arms is potentially a hugely unpopular
move.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Tuesday that while President
George W. Bush would contribute to the inevitable debate about gun
ownership in the wake of Monday's shooting, now was not the time to
discuss the issue.

"We understand that there is going to be and there has been an ongoing
national discussion, conversation, debate about gun control policy," she
told reporters. "We will participate in that but today is not the day."

House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (voting record) said in
Washington that lawmakers would discuss the issue but that there were no
immediate plans for legislation.

"Yes, there will be discussions -- as there properly ought to be," he
said, adding: "I don't want to get into the debate with reference to what
we need to do less than 24 hours after this incident has occurred," he
told reporters.

Two major advocates of gun control said that while full details of
Monday's shooting were not clear, the tragedy still showed how much of a
problem gun violence posed in American society.

Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said that while
it was still not clear what motivated South Korean student Cho Seung-Hui
to go on the rampage, it was simply too easy to get hold of a gun in
America.

The mass shootings came almost eight years to the day after two teenage
students ran amok in Colorado, at Columbine High School, killing 13
people and themselves on April 20, 1999, and six months after a lone
gunman shot dead five girls at an Amish school in Pennsylvania on October
2.

"Since these killings, we've done nothing as a country to end gun
violence in our schools and communities," said Helmke. "If anything,
we've made it easier to access powerful weapons."

"It is long overdue for us to take some common-sense actions to prevent
tragedies like this from continuing to occur," he said.

Ladd Everitt of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence said that while it was
not known whether Cho legally owned a gun, the shooting highlighted how
much of a problem gun violence had become, with a spate of recent
shootings.

"We still live in a society where gun violence is an overriding concern,"
he said. "We've had a series of these high profile, very violent
shootings that have taken a lot of victims.

"We continue to lose more than 30,000 people every year in this country
to gun violence," he said, calling for the introduction of "sensible" gun
laws.

"The illegal gun market in this nation is really fed by a number of
loopholes in existing laws that allow criminals and children and other
prohibited purchasers persistently and easily to get guns," he told AFP.

More than 30 states have yet to close loopholes allowing convicted felons
to buy weapons at gun fairs, for example, without background checks, he
said.

"It's loopholes like that (which) really feed the illegal gun market and
which we should be targeting."

The National Rifle Association, a leading US pro-gun lobby group that
says the constitutional right to bear arms extends to individuals,
declined to comment on the shooting but offered its condolences to the
families of the victims.

Newspapers joined the call for tighter restrictions on gun ownership.

The New York Times called Monday's carnage "another horrifying reminder
that some of the gravest dangers Americans face come from killers at home
armed with guns that are frighteningly easy to obtain."

"What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons
that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss."

The New York Daily News called for laws to be tightened, deriding one of
the pro-gun lobby's favorite phrases. "Right, sure, guns don't kill
people, people with guns kill people. We've heard it already," the paper
said in an editorial.

"This is insanity, and this must stop. We agree, frankly, that if guns
are outlawed, as they say, only outlaws will have guns," it added.

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Learn mandarin - Maradona to leave hospital soon

Sports / Soccer

Maradona to leave hospital soon

(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2007-04-10 08:33

Former World Cup winner Diego Maradona is due to leave hospital next week
after 10 days of treatment for excessive alcohol consumption, a medical
source said.

The 46-year-old was admitted to hospital on March 28 after suffering a
decompensation, the result of too much drinking.

"If all goes well he will be out next week," said Hector Pezzella, the
director of the hospital where Maradona is staying.

Pezzella said the former star of Argentine football, whose famous 'Hand
of God' goal helped defeat England in the quarter-finals of the 1986
World Cup in Mexico, will need to rest and recuperate when he leaves.

"The most important day will be the day he leaves. He needs to realise
that he needs to follow treatment for his problem (with alcohol)."

It was not the first time Maradona, who used to play for Barcelona and
Napoli in Europe, has been hospitalised due to his excessive lifestyle.

In 2000 he was admitted to hospital in Uruguay after suffering from a
heart problem related to excessive drug consumption.

Four years later he was back in hospital after a cardio-vascular problem.

And last year, when seriously overweight, he had his stomach stabled to
try to limit the amount of food and drink he could consume.

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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Chinese School - Blair warns Iran standoff could escalate

WORLD

Blair warns Iran standoff could escalate

(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-28 10:30

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Tuesday that his government
could make public evidence that a British navy crew was in Iraqi waters
when it was captured by Iran, saying he was prepared to take the standoff
to a "different phase" if diplomacy fails to win their release.

A supporter of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, stands with a
placard outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, during a
demonstration calling on Britain to stand firm against Tehran, and to
accept the ruling of the European Court of Justice to remove People's
Mujahdeen Organisation of Iran from the European Union terror list,
Tuesday, March 27, 2007. [AP]

Iran said the 15 British sailors and marines were being treated well, but
refused to say where they were being held, or rule out the possibility
that they could be brought to trial for allegedly entering Iranian waters.

"I hope we manage to get them to realize they have to release them,"
Blair said in an interview with GMTV. "If not, then this will move into a
different phase."

Blair's spokesman said the prime minister was not hinting either at the
possible expulsion of Iranian diplomats or military action, but that
Britain may have to make public evidence proving the Britons were seized
in Iraqi - not Iranian - waters, if there is no swift release of the
sailors.

Releasing such evidence could have "an upside and a downside" because it
could show the Iranian ships strayed into Iraqi territory and provoke a
diplomatic row between the neighbors, the spokesman said on condition of
anonymity in line with policy.

Britain and the United States have said the sailors and marines were
intercepted Friday after they completed a search of a civilian vessel in
the Iraqi part of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the border between
Iran and Iraq has been disputed for centuries.

There were fears in Britain that the fate of the 15 could get caught up
in the political tensions between Iran and the West, including the
dispute over Iran's nuclear program and accusations of Iranian help to
Shiite militants in Iraq.

On Tuesday, the US Navy began its largest demonstration of force in the
Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with warplanes from two
aircraft carriers flying simulated attack maneuvers off the coast of Iran.

Related readings:
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Iran seizes 15 British sailors

US commanders insisted the exercises were not a direct response to the
seizure of the British sailors and marines, but they also made clear that
the flexing of the Navy's military might was intended as a warning to
Iran.

Meanwhile, the US military denied reports Tuesday that Iran fired a
missile at a US ship in the Persian Gulf. The rumors of an attack had
sent oil prices soaring more than 8 percent in after-hours trading. Lt.
Cmdr. Charlie Brown of the US Navy 5th Fleet said all ships in the Gulf
had been checked and the rumors were untrue.

The British government on Tuesday also denied it was involved in any
action in the region.

"There have certainly been no developments on our side in the last few
hours," a Foreign Office spokeswoman in London said, on condition of
anonymity in line with government policy.

Also Tuesday, the Foreign Affairs Committee in the US House of
Representatives approved a resolution demanding the release of the
British soldiers.

In London, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett called Iran's foreign
minister for the second time and demanded the Britons' swift release in
"very robust terms", the Foreign Office said.

Blair's spokesman did not specify if Britain had set a deadline for the
naval crew's release but said negotiations would not be "indefinite."

He also refused to say if satellite images or GPS coordinates had been
shown to Iranian authorities and declined to reveal which territorial
boundaries in the waterway Britain recognizes.

Iran has said it is questioning the British sailors and marines to
determine if their alleged entry into Iranian waters was "intentional or
unintentional" before deciding what to do with them - a sign Tehran could
be seeking a way out of the standoff.

The dispute helped drive up international oil prices Monday, but they
fell Tuesday, reflecting hopes of a peaceful resolution.

1 2

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Chinese School - Small tsunami hits Japan after quake

WORLD / Asia-Pacific

Small tsunami hits Japan after quake

(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-25 10:05

TOKYO - A strong earthquake struck Japan early Sunday, violently shaking
buildings and triggering a small 6-inch tsunami which hit the coast,
officials and media reports said. No major damage or injuries were
immediately reported.

The quake hit shortly before 10 a.m. off the north coast of Ishikawa
prefecture (state), Japan's Meteorological Agency said. It had a
preliminary magnitude of 7.1. A small tsunami of 6 inches hit shore
around 10:18 am, public broadcaster NHK said.

Television footage from the quake zone showed buildings swaying violently.

Immediately after the quake struck, authorities issued a tsunami warning
for the country's northwestern Sea of Japan coast and broadcasters urged
people near the sea to seek higher ground. The Meteorological Agency said
seismically triggered waves of up to 25 inches were possible.

Calls to police and local officials in the region were not immediately
answered.

The United States Geological Service said the epicenter of the earthquake
was 225 miles northwest of Tokyo. The USGS gave a preliminary magnitude
of 7.3.

Japan sits atop four tectonic plates and is one of the world's most
earthquake-prone countries.

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Chinese Mandarin - US troop deaths show Sunni resilience

WORLD / Middle East

US troop deaths show Sunni resilience

(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-19 08:21

A U.S. soldier of the Alpha 2-17 Field Artillery 2nd Platoon is seen
through a night vision device as he aims his rifle on top of a roof
before a night raid in a mainly Shi'ite area in southern Baghdad March
18, 2007. [Reuters]

BAGHDAD - Sunni insurgents, resilient despite the five-week security
crackdown in the capital, killed at least six more US troops over the
weekend. A Sunni car bomber hit a largely Shiite district in the capital
Sunday, killing at least eight people.

Special coverage:
Violence continues in Iraq

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The American military said four US soldiers died and one was wounded when
the unit was struck by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad. During the
ongoing security sweep in the capital and surrounding regions, the
battalion had found eight weapons caches and two roadside bombs and
helped rescue a kidnap victim, the military said.

A fifth soldier was killed in an explosion in Diyala, an increasingly
volatile province just northeast of the capital. A Marine died in
fighting the same day in Anbar province, the vast, largely desert region
that sprawls west of Baghdad to the Saudi Arabian, Jordanian and Syrian
borders. The regions are controlled by the Sunni insurgency.

All of the US victims were killed on Saturday, the military said in a
series of statements that also reported that a seventh soldier died from
non-combat injuries but gave no other details. While US and Iraqi troops
have flooded the Baghdad streets and a heavily armored American column
was sent north to adjacent Diyala province, attacks on American and Iraqi
forces have been robust.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the success of the mission, which was
starting well, could not be measured for months and that it was designed
to give the Iraqis more time to settle political and sectarian
differences.

"The issue that we're all trying to figure out is how best do you get the
Iraqis to reconcile their differences -- because after all, this is not
going to be solved by the military. It has to involve political
reconciliation in Iraq, among Iraqis," Gates said on CBS's "Face the
Nation."

"We're basically buying them time," he said.

The latest deaths raised the American military death toll in Iraq to
3,217 since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press
count.

In Shiite-controlled eastern Baghdad, a US Bradley fighting vehicle was
hit by a roadside bomb Saturday evening, set afire and destroyed, said
spokesman Maj. Steven F. Lamb said. There were no casualties.

Across Iraq, at least 20 people died Sunday, a sign that violence
continued to abate as US and Iraqi forces press ahead with what many view
as a last-chance bid to quell the sectarian violence in Baghdad and
central regions of the country.

At least 12 of those killed died in Baghdad and eight of them were slain
in the car bombing in a predominantly Shiite district, police said. The
attack targeted people grilling meat along the street to offer as charity
on a Shiite Muslim holiday marking the death of the Prophet Muhammad.
Police said 28 people were wounded.

Police said the bodies of 16 people, most shot in the head and showing
signs of torture, were found dumped nationwide, just five of them in
Baghdad.

A US official, meanwhile, blamed al-Qaida in Iraq for chlorine bomb
attacks that struck villagers in Anbar province earlier this week but
said tight Iraqi security measures prevented a higher number of
casualties.

Three suicide bombers driving trucks rigged with tanks of toxic chlorine
gas struck targets in the insurgent stronghold including the office of a
Sunni tribal leader opposed to al-Qaida. The attacks killed at least two
people and sickened 350 Iraqi civilians and six US troops, the US
military said Saturday.

US military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said at least one of the
attackers detonated his explosives after he was blocked by an Iraqi
police checkpoint in Amiriyah, just south of Fallujah, killing only
himself. Fox conceded that many Iraqis were exposed to the chemical fumes
but insisted that steps Iraqi security forces were increasingly effective.

"Insurgent attempts to create high-profile carnage are being stopped at
checkpoints across the country," he said.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh appealed to Iraqis in the bid
to curb violence.

"Opportunity is still available to all honest Iraqis to rescue this
country from the criminals," he said at a joint news conference with Fox.
"The chlorine attack was a kind of punishment against the people who
stood against terrorist organizations."

American forces are seeing some progress in their bid to drive a wedge
between insurgents in Anbar province and more mainstream Sunnis who
oppose them. The insurgent chlorine bombings were viewed as part of the
building power struggle between those factions.

A US Senate delegation let by John Sununu, R-N.H., met Iraq's parliament
speaker in Baghdad.

"The most important challenge Iraq faces right now is security,"
parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said in a statement afterward,
"and all Iraqis need to come together with support from the international
community to achieve stability and impose law."

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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Chinese School - US officials admit FBI broke law

WORLD / Top News

US officials admit FBI broke law

(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-10 09:00

WASHINGTON - The nation's top two law enforcement officials acknowledged
Friday the FBI broke the law to secretly pry out personal information
about Americans. They apologized and vowed to prevent further illegal
intrusions.

FBI Director Robert Mueller gestures during a news conference at FBI
headquarters in Washington, Friday, March 9, 2007, to discuss the
gathering of personal information. (AP Photo)

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales left open the possibility of pursuing
criminal charges against FBI agents or lawyers who improperly used the
USA Patriot Act in pursuit of suspected terrorists and spies.

The FBI's transgressions were spelled out in a damning 126-page audit by
Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. He found that agents
sometimes demanded personal data on people without official
authorization, and in other cases improperly obtained telephone records
in non-emergency circumstances.

The audit also concluded that the FBI for three years underreported to
Congress how often it used national security letters to force businesses
to turn over customer data. The letters are administrative subpoenas that
do not require a judge's approval.

"People have to believe in what we say," Gonzales said. "And so I think
this was very upsetting to me. And it's frustrating."

"We have some work to do to reassure members of Congress and the American
people that we are serious about being responsible in the exercise of
these authorities," he said.

Under the Patriot Act, the national security letters give the FBI
authority to demand that telephone companies, Internet service providers,
banks, credit bureaus and other businesses produce personal records about
their customers or subscribers. About three-fourths of the letters issued
between 2003 and 2005 involved counterterror cases, with the rest for
espionage investigations, the audit reported.

Shoddy record-keeping and human error were to blame for the bulk of the
problems, said Justice auditors who were careful to note they found no
indication of criminal misconduct.

Still, "we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious
misuses of national security letter authorities," the audit concluded.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said many of the problems were being
fixed, including by building a better internal data collection system and
training employees on the limits of their authority. The FBI has also
scrapped the use of "exigent letters," which were used to gather
information without the signed permission of an authorized official.

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Chinese Mandarin - Athlete and actress give New Year blessing

Sports / Celebrity

Athlete and actress give New Year blessing

(sina)
Updated: 2007-02-14 11:16

Shuttler Bao Chunlai (L) and actress Liu Tao pose for a group of photos
for Power Sports, a Chinese language sports newspaper before the Chinese
Lunar New Year comes to give readers New Year blessing. [sina]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

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� US trade deficit hits new record high

� 100,000 officials punished in 2006

� Parents pick lucky year for "piglets"

� Graft prevention body to be set up

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Chinese School - Kim Kye-gwan in Beijing for nuclear talks

WORLD / Photo

Kim Kye-gwan in Beijing for nuclear talks

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-02-08 13:30

North Korea's negotiator for the six-party talks Kim Kye-gwan speaks to
the media after arriving in Beijing's airport February 8, 2007. Six-party
talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear programme resume in
Beijing on Thursday with the top U.S. envoy denying a Japanese media
report that North Korea had signed a deal with Washington. [Reuters]

1 2

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� N.Korea talks resume amid report of US deal

� Shooting erupts on Israel-Lebanon border

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� Iraq PM urges start to Baghdad crackdown

� Suspects questioned over Pakistan airport attack

Today's Top News

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� President Hu: We are forces for peace

� Astronaut suffered 'mental anguish'

� Security crackdown in Baghdad

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Chinese School - Casey: Only half of troop boost needed

WORLD / America

Casey: Only half of troop boost needed

(AP)
Updated: 2007-02-02 08:46

WASHINGTON - The outgoing top US general in Iraq diplomatically aired his
differences with the commander in chief on Thursday, telling lawmakers
that President Bush has ordered thousands more troops into Iraq than
needed to tamp down violence in Baghdad.

US General George Casey, top US commander in Iraq, testifies before the
Senate Armed Services Committee during a hearing on his nomination as
Army Chief of Staff, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. [AFP]

Gen. George Casey quickly added he understood how his recently confirmed
successor, Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, could want the full complement of
21,500 additional troops that Bush has ordered to Iraq. Casey said they
could "either reinforce success, maintain momentum or put more forces in
a place where the plans are not working."

As the general spoke at a Senate confirmation hearing into his nomination
to become Army chief of staff, the full Senate lurched toward a widely
anticipated debate on the administration's policy, the first since
midterm elections in which opposition to the war helped install a new
Democratic majority.

One day after critics of Bush's revised war strategy merged two competing
Senate measures, the White House worked to hold down the number of GOP
defections while two liberal Democrats attacked the compromise as too
weak.

"It is essentially an endorsement of the status quo, an endorsement I
simply cannot make in light of the dire circumstances in Iraq and the
need for meaningful action now," said Sen. Christopher Dodd of
Connecticut, who is seeking the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

Casey endured occasional sharp criticism as he appeared before the Senate
Armed Services Committee.

"I do not in any way question your honor, your patriotism or your service
to our country, I do question some of the decisions and judgments you
have made over the past two and a half years as commander of
Multi-National Forces in Iraq," said Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz. "During
that time, things have gotten markedly and progressively worse, and the
situation in Iraq can now best be described as dire and deteriorating."

So far, no senators have announced plans to oppose Casey's elevation to
chief of staff, although McCain, as well as Sens. Lindsey Graham , R-S.C.
and Joseph Lieberman , I-Conn., said they were undecided how to vote.

In the peculiar politics surrounding the Iraq War, the three lawmakers
are among the strongest critics of the nonbinding legislation. It would
criticize the president's decision to increase troop levels as a way of
stabilizing Baghdad nearly four years after Saddam Hussein was forced
from power.

They said they intend to advance an alternative measure setting out the
goals that should be met by the Iraqi government, and pledging whatever
resources Petraeus requests. "We've come to the conclusion that the
Petraeus strategy ... to buy some time for political reconciliation is
our best chance for victory," said Graham.

Critics of the war, including most Senate Democrats and several
Republicans, appeared to be coalescing around a revised measure advanced
by Sen. John Warner , R-Va., and a group of lawmakers of both parties. It
says the Senate "disagrees with the `plan' to augment our forces by
21,500, and urges the president instead to consider all options and
alternatives."

Many Democrats had been supporters of a stronger measure, one declaring
that Bush's plan for more troops was "not in the national interest."

That criticism was jettisoned Wednesday night when the revised measure
was unveiled, as Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada maneuvered to pick
up Republican votes. Additionally, the new measure says Congress "should
not take any action that will endanger United States military forces in
the field, including the elimination or reduction of funds for troops in
the field," a provision that Republicans said was designed to outflank
Democrats eager to rein in Bush's policy.

Several officials said Reid told a closed-door caucus during the day that
lawmakers would have an opportunity to vote for binding restrictions on
Bush's war policy in the coming months.

"For me it was a reassurance" that the Senate's hands would not be tied
to end the war but troops would still be protected, said James Webb , a
Virginia Democrat elected last fall as a critic of the war.

1 2

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Monday, March 24, 2008

Learn Chinese online - Bush stresses need to succeed in Iraq

WORLD / Middle East

Bush stresses need to succeed in Iraq

(AP)
Updated: 2007-01-24 08:45

President Bush speaks at the White House in Washington in this, Nov. 6,
2002, file photo. The president will deliver his first State of the Union
address to a Democratic-controlled Congress, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2007,
trying to balance a rebuke of his Iraq policy already promised by
lawmakers with a high-profile invitation to cooperate on vexing domestic
problems. [AP]

WASHINGTON - US President Bush, confronting a skeptical Congress and
American public, struck back Tuesday at opponents of sending more troops
to the war. He asserted that "America must not fail in Iraq" and insisted
his plan offered the best chance of success.

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Facing a major political showdown over his strategy, Bush said in remarks
prepared for his State of the Union address that "the consequences of
failure would be grievous and far reaching." Democrats - and even some
Republicans - scoffed at his policy.

"They don't have a plan," said freshman Sen. Jim Webb, picked by the
Democrats to deliver their response to Bush. "What they have put on the
table is more a tactical adjustment." Webb, a former Vietnam veteran,
opposed Bush's invasion of Iraq.

Republican Sen. Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record) of Minnesota,
also took issue with Bush. "I can't tell you what the path to success is,
but it's not what the president has put on the table."

In his address, Bush sought to revive his troubled presidency with
proposals to expand health insurance coverage and slash gasoline
consumption by 20 percent in 10 years. But the war was issue No. 1.

Bush was hampered by his lowest approval ratings in polls as he prepared
to speak before the first Democratic House and Senate in 12 years.

"Congress has changed but our responsibilities have not," the president
said. "We are not the first to come here with government divided and
uncertainty in the air. Like many before us, we can work through our
differences and achieve big things for the American people."

The White House released excerpts in advance of Bush's prime-time address
to the nation. His speech came as key Republicans joined Democrats in
drafting resolutions of opposition to the plans he announced two weeks
ago to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq.

Bush said he had reviewed the decision with military commanders and had
considered every possible approach. "In the end I chose this course of
action because it provides the best chance of success," he said. "Many in
this chamber understand that America must not fail in Iraq - because you
understand that the consequences of failure would be grievous and far
reaching."

Despite widespread opposition to his policies, Bush said that "both
parties and both branches should work in close consultation."

The war in Iraq - nearly four years old with more than 3,060 US deaths -
remains the top issue in the polls and dominates Washington's political
debate. The president's speech came just three days after 25 US troops
were killed, the deadliest day in two years for the US military in Iraq.

With public support for the war at a record low, Americans overwhelmingly
oppose his decision to send additional troops. Even some of Bush's most
loyal Republicans allies have abandoned him to stand with Democrats in
Congress on resolutions opposing the buildup. Sen. John Warner (news,
bio, voting record), R-Va., who was chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee until the Democratic takeover, worked with other lawmakers
Tuesday on a resolution voicing disapproval.

In his speech, Bush said that the war on terror "is a generational
struggle that will continue long after you and I have turned our duties
over to others. That is why it is important to work together so our
nation can see this great effort through."

Bush was not calling for timetables on troop withdrawals or tying US
support to better performance by the Iraqi government.

"We're not doing ultimatums," presidential spokesman Tony Snow said.

Unlike the friendly Republican-dominated Congress of the past six years,
Bush faced a dramatically different audience this year after the
Democratic takeover of the House and Senate. To be seated over his
shoulder was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), the
Democratic leader who has called Bush dangerous and incompetent. A dozen
members of the House and Senate have announced they are running for
president or are considered possible contenders.

"Our citizens don't much care which side of the aisle we sit on - as long
as we are willing to cross that aisle when there is work to be done,"
said Bush, who for six years ignored Democrats' demands to be included in
decisions.

The administration sought to make Bush's energy initiatives - in
particular a 20 percent cut in gasoline usage by 2017 - an eye-catching
centerpiece of his address, the one major element not revealed until
hours before the speech. "It is in our vital interest to diversify
America's energy supply, and the way forward is through technology," Bush
said.

The cut would be achieved primarily through a sharp escalation in the
amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels that the government
mandates must be blended into the fuel supply. The rest would come from
raising fuel economy standards for passenger cars, a plan that Bush has
proposed in the past but failed to win from Congress.

Acknowledging that some would say such a drastic increase in alternative
fuels is unrealistic, the White House argued that the new mandate - which
would need approval from Congress - would spur investments in the
industry and give technological research a boost.

While setting cutback goals, the president spurned appeals from
environmentalists and some major corporations to impose mandatory
ceilings on US greenhouse gas emissions in hopes of slowing climate
change.

The other major initiative in Bush's speech called for making
employer-financed health care benefits taxable income after a deduction
of $15,000 for families and $7,500 for individuals. The White House said
80 percent of workers with health insurance through their jobs would see
a tax cut as a result of the change. But about 20 percent would see a tax
increase - those workers whose health insurance cost more than the
standard deduction.

The White House argues that "unfair subsidies" in the tax code make it
harder for many Americans to afford health insurance.

Another change would take some federal money now going to hospitals and
other facilities and give it to states for programs to reduce the number
of uninsured.

Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., chairman of a key health subcommittee in the
House, said he would not even consider holding hearings on the plan.

Other proposals in Bush's speech concerned:

-Education: He would allow poor children in struggling schools to
transfer to private schools - a move sure to be derided by critics. The
No Child Left Behind law allows children in the worst schools to move to
better public schools, but not private ones.

-Immigration: He wants an overhaul that would toughen border security and
create a temporary worker program allowing employers to hire guest
workers for jobs Americans have not taken.

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Learn Mandarin online - Tsunami advisories for Alaska, Hawaii

WORLD / Asia-Pacific

Tsunami advisories for Alaska, Hawaii

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-01-13 14:27

Anchorage, Alaska - A tsunami warning was issued Friday for Alaska's
western Aleutian islands and a tsunami watch was issued for Hawaii after
an 8.3-magnitude earthquake in the northern Pacific.

If waves reached Alaska, the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center
said they could be expected to hit Dutch Harbor around 11:41 Alaska
Standard Time.

In Hawaii, waves could arrive about an hour later, the Pacific Tsunami
Warning Center said.

The warning for the western Aleutians Islands was from the villages of
Nikolski to Adak. The center warned people in low-lying coastal areas to
remain alert and to wait for instructions from local emergency officials.

Adak is a community of 167 about 1,300 miles southwest of Anchorage.
Nikolski is a village of 31 about 900 miles southwest of Anchorage.

The warning center issued a tsunami watch for the rest of the Aleutians
and coastal areas along south-central Alaska to Seward.

Japan's Meteorological Agency issued tsunami warnings following the
quake. The agency said waves as high as 3.3 feet could hit the
northeastern coast of Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. The tidal
level fell 4 inches in Nemuro in northeastern Japan, a sign that a
tsunami could hit later, the agency said.

Officials in towns along Japan's Pacific coast issued evacuation orders
to flee to higher ground.

The quake struck about 310 miles east of the Etorofu islands between
northern Japan and Russia, the agency said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the quake.

Tsunami waves, generated by earthquakes, are often barely noticeable in
the ocean but can rise to great heights once they arrive at shore.

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Chinese School - One woman, two wombs, three babies

WORLD / Europe

One woman, two wombs, three babies

(AFP)
Updated: 2006-12-22 14:35

LONDON - A British mother could get into the record books after she gave
birth to twins and a single baby at the same time -- from two wombs -- in
what is believed to be a world first.

The hand of a newborn baby. A British mother could get into the record
books after she gave birth to twins and a single baby at the same time --
from two wombs -- in what is believed to be a world first. [AFP]

Hannah Kersey, 23, gave birth to the rare triplets -- identical twins
Ruby and Tilly, and singleton Gracie -- by Caesarean section seven weeks
prematurely in September.

She was born with a condition called uterus didelphys, which means she
developed two wombs, but doctors had warned her that she was unlikely to
become pregnant in both.

After their early birth the triplets had to stay in hospital for nine
weeks, but are now doing fine at home with Hanna and her partner Mick
Faulkner, 23, in Devon in southwest England.

"We are just over the moon at how healthy and happy the girls are," she
said. "They are three lovely and incredible children, all with very
different personalities.

"Gracie seems to be the ringleader -- maybe because she grew up in her
own womb. She is very determined and independent, always wanting her food
before the others and to do things first," she said.

Doctors say there are only 70 women in the world known to have become
pregnant in two wombs, and this is the first reported case of triplets.

"This is so rare you cannot put odds on it," said Ellis Downes,
consultant obstetrician at Chase Farm Hospital in London. "I have never
heard of this happening anywhere ever before - it is quite amazing.

"Women with two wombs have conceived a baby in each womb before but never
twins in one and a singleton in the other. It is extremely unusual."

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Learn Chinese online - US Army chief seeks more forces, reserves

WORLD / Middle East

US Army chief seeks more forces, reserves

(AP)
Updated: 2006-12-15 09:17

WASHINGTON - As US President Bush weighs new strategies for Iraq, the
Army's top general warned Thursday that his force "will break" without
thousands more active duty troops and greater use of the reserves.

The US Army's chief Peter Schoomaker, seen here in February 2006, said a
bigger army and recurrent access to reserve forces are needed to keep
pace with deployments that will otherwise break the active force. [AFP]

Noting the strain put on the force by operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and
elsewhere in the global war on terrorism, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker said
he wants to grow his half-million-member Army beyond the 30,000 troops
already added in recent years.

Though he didn't give an exact number, he said it would take significant
time and commitment by the nation, noting some 6,000 to 7,000 soldiers
could be added per year.

Officials also need greater authority to tap into the National Guard and
Reserve, long ago set up as a strategic reserve but now needed as an
integral part of the nation's deployed forces, Schoomaker told a
commission studying possible changes in those two forces.

"Over the last five years, the sustained strategic demand ... is placing
a strain on the Army's all-volunteer force," Schoomaker told the
commission in a Capitol Hill hearing.

"At this pace ... we will break the active component" unless reserves can
be called up more to help, Schoomaker said in prepared remarks.

Schoomaker's comments come as Bush continues his assessment of the Iraq
war. Bush held three days of urgent meetings with top generals and other
advisers. Over that time, Bush gathered advice from former and current
commanders, including those in Iraq, as well as chiefs of the military
services and other top Pentagon leaders.

White House spokesman Tony Snow declined to characterize Bush's response
to Schoomaker's suggestion, but said Bush "takes seriously any of the
requests from the service branch chiefs."

Speaking to reporters afterward, Schoomaker said Gen. George Casey, the
top commander in Iraq, is looking at several military options for the
war, including shifting many troops from combat missions to training
Iraqi units. However, Schoomaker said, the military is more interested in
getting the Iraqi security forces up to speed than anything.

Above all else, the military is looking at "how we generate Iraqi
output," he said.

The Army in recent days has been looking at how many additional troops
could be sent to Iraq, if the president decides a surge in forces would
be helpful. But, officials say, only about 10,000 to 15,000 troops could
be sent and an end to the war would have to be in sight because it would
drain the pool of available soldiers for combat.

Further, many experts warn, there is no guarantee a surge would work to
settle the violence.

"We would not surge without a purpose," Schoomaker told reporters. "And
that purpose should be measurable."

He even heard from outside advisers who suggested he remove Marine Gen.
Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to an
official familiar with the meeting who asked not to be named because the
discussions were private.

A number of administration officials have suggested privately that -
while Bush has considered the possibility of a short-term troop increase
- there is no consensus from the military on the wisdom of injecting a
large number of additional troops.

Another option under discussion is increasing the number of US troops who
are placed inside Iraqi army and police units as advisers, providing a
kind of on-the-job training that the senior military spokesman in
Baghdad, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, told reporters is already paying
notable dividends.

The military has said that any adjustments in troop levels would be
fruitless without accompanying improvements on the political and economic
fronts, to reconcile the rival sectarian factions and to put young people
to work.

Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, meanwhile, called on the Bush
administration to set a timetable for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
At a news conference in Washington, al-Hashemi, a Sunni leader who met
with Bush earlier this week, said the timetable should be "flexible" and
depend on development of a capable Iraqi security force.

"You've done your job," he said at the United States Institute of Peace,
a US-financed think tank.

Currently, however, he said, "There is across-the-board chaos in my
country," with roaming bands of murderers.

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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Learn Mandarin online - Bosnian soccer club plays for more than the game

Learn Chinese online - N.Korean envoy Kim Kye-gwan arrives in Beijing

WORLD / Photo

N.Korean envoy Kim Kye-gwan arrives in Beijing

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-11-28 11:15

North Korean envoy Kim Kye-gwan boards a car upon arrival at Beijing
airport November 28, 2006. North Korea is ready to return to talks on
ending its nuclear weapons programme but still had difficult issues to
iron out with the United States, Kim said on Tuesday. [Reuters]

1 2 3 4

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Learn Chinese - O.J. Simpson book, TV special canceled

WORLD / America

O.J. Simpson book, TV special canceled

(AP)
Updated: 2006-11-21 08:53

NEW YORK - After a firestorm of criticism, News. Corp. said Monday that
it has canceled the O.J. Simpson book and TV special "If I Did It."

This undated promotional photo, released by Fox Television, shows O.J.
Simpson during an exclusive interview with publisher Judith Regan (not
pictured) about how the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman
would have taken place had he actually committed the crimes. [AP]

"I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an
ill-considered project," said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman. "We
are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman
and Nicole Brown Simpson."

A dozen Fox affiliates had already said they would not air the two-part
sweeps month special, planned for next week before the Nov. 30
publication of the book by ReganBooks. The publishing house is a
HarperCollins imprint owned - like the Fox network - by News Corp.

In both the book and show, Simpson speaks in hypothetical terms about how
he would have committed the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife Nicole and her
friend Goldman.

Relatives of the victims have lashed out at the now scuttled publication
and broadcast plans.

"He destroyed my son and took from my family Ron's future and life. And
for that I'll hate him always and find him despicable," Fred Goldman told
ABC last week.

The industry trade publication Broadcasting & Cable editorialized against
the show Monday, saying "Fox should cancel this evil sweeps stunt."

One of the nation's largest superstore chains, Borders Group Inc., said
last week it would donate any profits on the book to charity.

Related readings:
US former football star Simpson to discuss killings

Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of murder in a case that became its own TV
drama. The former football star and announcer was later found liable for
the deaths in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Goldman family.

Judith Regan, publisher of "If I Did It," said she considered the book to
be Simpson's confession.

1 2

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Learn Mandarin online - Bomber kills 33 at police centre

WORLD / Middle East

Bomber kills 33 at police centre

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-11-12 16:38

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a police
recruiting center in Baghdad early Sunday, killing at least 33 people and
wounding 56, police said.

One of the casualties is rushed for medical help in Baghdad, Iraq,
Sunday, Nov. 12, 2006. A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a police
recruiting center in Baghdad early Sunday, killing at least 33 people and
wounding about 50, police said. [AP]

Crowds of recruits were gathering outside the center in western Baghdad's
Nissur Square when the bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body,
police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razaq said.

He said the death toll was expected to rise because many of the injuries
were extremely serious.

The attack was one of several on Sunday in the capital, where sectarian
violence kills scores each week. Just south of the city, police were
searching for gunmen who killed 10 Shiite travelers and kidnapped about
50 others Saturday night along a notoriously dangerous stretch of highway.

Earlier Sunday, a pair of roadside bombings targeting police patrols in
Baghdad killed at least six civilians and wounded six others, said police
Cap. Mohammed Abdul-Ghani.

A car bomb outside a market in Baghdad's primarily Shiite downtown
Karradah killed at least one person and wounded five others, while a
similar bomb killed two people and injured 13 in the mainly Sunni
neighborhood of Radhwaniyah, Police 1st. Lt. Thaer Mahoud said.

Unknown gunmen also shot and killed police Brig. Abdul-Mutalib Hassan as
he was leaving his Karradah home for work. Hassan had been head of a
police unit in charge of registering vehicles that is widely seen as a
source of corruption.

Five people were killed in drive by shootings in different parts of
Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. The victims included a teacher,
taxi driver, laborer, truck driver and phone company worker, provincial
police said.

Patrols were looking for the Sunni gunmen who ambushed a convoy of
minibuses at a fake checkpoint near the volatile town of Latifiyah, about
20 miles south of Baghdad in the so-called Triangle of Death.

The gunmen murdered 10 Shiite passengers before taking their captives to
an unknown location, said the spokesman, who asked that his name not be
used because he wasn't authorized to speak to media.

A leading Shiite politician warned that local tribes had armed themselves
and were headed to the area to join in the search, a move likely to set
off even greater bloodshed.

In an address to parliament, Abdul-Karim al-Anzi said the kidnappers had
worn Iraqi army uniforms. He complained that security forces were doing
little to capture the hostages.

"We demand that the government take quick action to send troops there in
order to know the fate of those kidnapped," al-Anzi said.

Along with those killed, five bodies �� all blindfolded and bound at the
wrists and ankles �� had also been recovered in various parts of eastern
Baghdad early Sunday, police said. All had been mutilated by torture,
marking them as victims of death squads that regularly kidnap rivals from
Iraq's Muslim Sunni and Shiite sects.

Three more bodies were pulled from the Tigris River in Suwayrah, 25 miles
south of Baghdad, morgue official Maamoun al-Ajili said.

U.S. forces, meanwhile, said they detained 10 people suspected of having
links to al-Qaida in a raid in Baghdad early Saturday.

The military said no one was killed or wounded in the raid, and that
those detained were "associated with terrorists who are involved in the
housing, movement and enabling of foreign fighters, to include the
organization of suicide operations within Baghdad."

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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Chinese Mandarin - Ronaldinho no longer world's best

Sports / Soccer

Ronaldinho no longer world's best

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-11-08 08:57

Brazilian soccer player Ronaldinho signs an autograph during an interview
after a video game presentation in Barcelona, November 7, 2006.Ronaldinho
was elected FIFPRO World Player of the year for a second time. [Reuters]

Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said on Tuesday that Ronaldinho had
not been as good as the last two years in recent months.

The Brazilian, who coached Portugal's national soccer team, said in Sao
Paulo that he had voted for French player Thierry Henry as 2006 player of
the year, whose goal knocked Brazil out of this year's World Cup in the
quarter-finals.

He also chose Brazil midfielder Kaka and England defender John Terry

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Chinese language - 98 feared dead in Nigerian plane crash

WORLD / Africa

98 feared dead in Nigerian plane crash

(AP)
Updated: 2006-10-30 06:26

People look at the wreckage of a Nigerian airliner in a field in Abuja,
Nigeria Sunday, Oct. 29, 2006. [AP]

ABUJA, Nigeria - A Nigerian airliner with 104 people on board slammed
into the ground moments after takeoff on Sunday - the third deadly crash
of a passenger plane in less than a year in this West African nation
known for its notoriously unsafe air industry. Six people survived, and
the rest were believed dead.

Among those killed was the man regarded as the spiritual leader of
Nigeria's Muslims, and thousands of people gathered at a regional airport
to receive his body.

The Boeing 737 crashed one minute after taking off from Abuja airport,
said Sam Adurogboye, an Aviation Ministry spokesman. President Olusegun
Obasanjo ordered an immediate investigation into the cause of the crash,
his spokeswoman Remi Oyo said.

Rescue workers found debris from the smashed plane, body parts and
luggage strewn over an area the size of a football field. The plane went
down inside the sprawling airport compound about two miles from the
runway. Smoke rose from the aircraft's mangled and smoldering fuselage.
Its tail hung from a tree.

Emergency workers pulled blackened corpses from the wreckage, then
covered the bodies with white sheets and hauled them away in stretchers.
An Associated Press reporter counted at least 50 cadavers, though other
bodies had been transported earlier to local morgues.

Through the day, airport security officials kept back anxious people
seeking information about friends or loved ones.

Adurogboye said 104 passengers and crew had been aboard the doomed
flight, and he knew of six survivors who had been taken to a hospital.
"Obviously the rest are feared dead," he said.

The plane was bound for the northwest city of Sokoto, about 500 miles
northwest of Abuja, state radio said, adding that it had gone down during
a storm. Witnesses said there was a rainstorm around the time the
aircraft took off, but rains later subsided, giving way to overcast skies.

In an announcement broadcast on state radio, the Sokoto state government
announced the sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Maccido, died in the crash.
Maccido headed the National Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in
Nigeria. The panel determines when Muslim fasts should begin and end, and
decides policy for Nigeria's overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims.

Maccido was immediately flown to Sokoto, where thousands of people were
at the airport to receive his body. He was buried Sunday in accordance
with Islamic custom, and the Sokoto state government declared six days of
mourning.

Mustapha Shehu, spokesman for the Sokoto state government, had said
earlier that the sultan's son, Muhammed Maccido, a senator, also was
aboard the flight, along with Abdulrahman Shehu Shagari, son of former
Nigerian President Shehu Shagari, who was in office between 1979 and
1983. Their fates were not immediately known.

About half of Nigeria's 130 million people are Muslims. The country is
the most populous in Africa and the continent's leading oil exporter.

Oyo said Obasanjo was "deeply and profoundly shocked and saddened ... he
offers condolences to all Nigerians, especially family, friends and
associates of those who may have been on board."

The 23-year-old aircraft, a Boeing 737-2B7 owned by Aviation Development
Co., a private Nigerian airline, was manufactured in 1983, Adurogboye
said. ADC last suffered a crash in November 1996, when one of its jets
plunged into a lagoon outside Nigeria's main city, Lagos, killing all 143
aboard.

Last year, two planes flying domestic routes crashed within seven weeks
of each other in Nigeria, killing 224 people.

On Oct. 22, 2005, a Boeing 737-200 belonging to Bellview airlines crashed
soon after takeoff from the country's main city of Lagos, killing all 117
people aboard. On Dec. 10, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 plane operated by
Sosoliso Airlines crashed while approaching the oil city of Port
Harcourt, killing 107 people, most of them schoolchildren going home for
Christmas.

Earlier this month, authorities released a report blaming the Sosoliso
crash on bad weather and pilot error. The investigation of the Bellview
crash is still continuing.

After last year's air crashes, Obasanjo vowed to overhaul Nigeria's
airline industry, blaming some of the industry's problems on corruption.
Airlines were subjected to checks for air-worthiness and some planes
considered unworthy were grounded.

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Sunday, March 23, 2008

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Saturday, March 22, 2008

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Chinese language - 98 feared dead in Nigerian plane crash

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