Afghans turn to Taliban in fear of own police

By Peter Graff, Reuters

Sunday, July 12, 2009 9:57 AM

PANKELA, Afghanistan (Reuters) - As British troops moved into the village newly freed from Taliban control, they heard one message from the anxious locals: for God's sake do not bring back the Afghan police.

U.S. and British troops have launched a campaign to seize control of Helmand province, about half of which was in Taliban hands, and restore Afghan government institutions.

But as they advance, they are learning uncomfortable facts about their local allies: villagers say the government's police force was so brutal and corrupt that they welcomed the Taliban as liberators.

"The police would stop people driving on motorcycles, beat them and take their money," said Mohammad Gul, an elder in the village of Pankela, which British troops have been securing for the past three days after flying in by helicopter.

He pointed to two compounds of neighbors where pre-teen children had been abducted by police to be used for the local practice of "bachabazi," or sex with pre-pubescent boys.

"If the boys were out in the fields, the police would come and rape them," he said. "You can go to any police base and you will see these boys. They hold them until they are finished with them and then let the child go."

The Interior Ministry in Kabul said it would contact police commanders in the area before responding in detail.

When the Taliban arrived in the village 10 months ago and drove the police out, local people rejoiced, said Mohammad Rasul, a toothless elderly farmer who keeps a few cows and chickens in a neatly tended orchard of pomegranate trees, figs and grape vines.

Although his own son was killed by a Taliban roadside bomb five years ago, Rasul said the fighters earned their welcome in the village by treating people with respect.

"We were happy (after the Taliban arrived). The Taliban never bothered us," he said.

Before the Taliban arrived, the police had come to his house with a powerful landlord he called a "tyrant," who put a rifle in his face, searched through his compound and demanded money.

"If (the British) bring these people back, we can't live here. If they come back, I am sure they will burn everything," Rasul said.

MINES, SNIPERS

The British effort, Operation Panther's Claw, has focused on the Babaji district north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, an area of lush fields, vineyards and orchards, watered by carefully tended streams and canals fed by the Helmand river.

Taliban fighters have sown the area with homemade mines and sniper nests, inflicting the worst casualties of the war. At least 15 British soldiers have been killed in the past 12 days.

Further south, some 4,000 U.S. Marines have met less resistance after seizing three districts of the lower Helmand River valley in an air and ground assault.

The aim is to impose Afghan government control over most of the province in time for an August 20 presidential poll.

But commanders say holding the area for the longer term will depend on bringing in credible local security forces.

The United States has spent lavishly in the past eight years to build up the Afghan National Army (ANA).

But it left training the Afghan National Police (ANP) to Germany, which spent a fraction as much, sending a small number of civilian instructors.

The result is a police force that is widely acknowledged to be unprepared for work in a combat zone: the ANP suffered three times as many deaths as the ANA last year.

Washington is rushing to make up the gap, sending 4,000 military trainers to Afghanistan this year to focus mainly on professionalizing the police.

Entire police forces are being removed from districts and sent to remote locations for intensive eight-week training.

Major Al Steele, commander of Bravo Company of 3 SCOTS, the Black Watch, who met elders in Pankela, acknowledged their concerns but said foreign forces were working on it.

"We have heard a lot of complaints about the ANP, but the Coalition Forces and the ANA are working together well, and the ANP are getting better," he told Gul Mohammad, squatting outside the elder's mud-walled compound.

The elder shrugged and flipped his prayer beads.

"Every time we heard that new ANP would come. But the old ANP would come back and it would be just like in the past."

"The people here trust the Taliban," he said. "If the police come back and behave the same way, we will support the Taliban to drive them out."

Hamas Haneya ready to quit, if his resignation helps achieve reconciliation deal

Deposed Prime Minister of Hamas government in Gaza Ismail Haneya stated on Monday that he is ready to leave his post if this would help in reaching an inter-reconciliation agreement with rival President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party in Cairo on July 28.

Haneya told the official governmental pro-Hamas newspaper al-Ra'ei in an interview published on Monday that the Palestinian people had elected him and designated him as prime minister over the past three years "to achieve their national interests and keeptheir legitimate rights."

Right after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007and routed the pro-Abbas security forces, the Palestinian National Authority chairman deposed in an official decree Haneya and his national unity government, which was formed after the two rival groups reached an agreement in Mecca in February 2007.

Haneya and Hamas movement rejected Abbas's decree and considered his decree to form a caretaker government headed by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad illegal. Haneya continued running his post as prime minister, and enlarged his Gaza government with moreHamas ministers.

Asked if he will be clinging to the Prime Minister post whatever reconciliation agreement is reached, Haneya replied "we consider this post as an assignment, I won't be one day an obstacle before reaching any reconciliation agreement."

Rival Haneya and Abbas movements still face difficulties in overcoming their differences related to security, government and electoral system, in order to reach an agreement that ends more than two years of political rifts between Gaza and the West Bank.

Egypt has been mediating between the two groups to help them reach an agreement as soon as possible. Egypt informed the two rivals that they have to eliminate their differences before coming to Cairo on July 25 to hold the last round of talks which should end up with an agreement to be signed on July 28.

Meanwhile, a senior Islamic Hamas leader in Gaza announced on Monday that a meeting with the representatives of rival President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party is expected to be held in Cairo on July 18.

"The meeting between Hamas and Fatah leaders in Cairo is scheduled to evaluate the outcomes of the senior Egyptian delegation's contacts held with Palestinian leaders on the weekend," said Ismail Radwan in a press statement.

A high-ranking Egyptian delegation, headed by Gen. Mohamed Ibrahim, an aide to Egypt's intelligence chief, went back to Cairoon Sunday after holding three-day talks and meetings with various political representatives.

"In the meeting to be held in Cairo on July 18, we will tackle all the unresolved outstanding issues that obstruct reaching a reconciliation agreement, in particular, the political prisoners issue," said Radwan.

He noted that the July 18 meeting "will be an evaluation meeting and preparation for positive atmosphere for the upcoming round of dialogue due in Cairo on July 25."

"One of the major obstacles that obstruct a reconciliation deal is the continuation of arrests against Hamas members in the West Bank and the security coordination with Israel," Radwan said.

Khalil al-Hayya, a top Hamas leader in Gaza, said his movement had expressed great flexibility during the previous rounds of dialogue, adding "the only thing remained between us and Fatah movement is to hear from them that they accept reaching an agreement."

"We are really eager to reach a real final result that will end the rift and sign a reconciliation agreement to be able to challenge the Israeli occupation policy. We really don't regret for the flexibility we had shown before," said al-Hayya, who accused Fatah that "it doesn't have the desire to reconcile."

However, a senior official in Palestine Liberation Organization(PLO), who spoke on condition of anonymity, told a local Gaza-based news website that Abbas is studying the idea of asking the Egyptian mediators to postpone the upcoming round of inter-dialogue with Hamas movement until August.

Abbas is to hold talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman during the Non-aligned Movement summit that will be held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday.

"Abu Mazen (Abbas) will discuss with the Egyptian leaders the possibility of postponing the upcoming seventh round of inter-dialogue due in Cairo on July 25 until August," said the PLO official.

The official said the reason Abbas will ask to postpone the seventh round of dialogue "is that Fatah movement will be busy in holding its sixth General Assembly due to be held in Bethlehem in the West Bank on August 4."

Haneya: Hamas' resistance "political innovation"

Deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haneya Monday said the Hamas' adoption of resistance is "a political innovation."

"The resistance is not only a rifle or an explosive device, it is a concept, culture and personality and we are running a government that protects and defends the program of resistance," Haneya said in statements published Monday by his government's media office.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fired Haneya's government in June 2007 after the Islamic movement routed his forces and took control of the Gaza Strip.

In spite of being sacked, Haneya said his government remained functioning "to run the daily life matters of the Palestinian people without falling in the peril of political concessions," implicitly slamming the West Bank-based Palestinian National Authority for liaising with Israel.

The international community boycotts Hamas government since the Islamic movement vowed to destroy Israel.

Haneya said U.S. President Barack Obama's speech in June "reflected a desire to change in the U.S. policies towards the region in general and the Palestinian cause in particular."

"What is important for us is that the words are matched with deeds to restore the Palestinian people's rights and establish their independent statehood," Haneya said.

He added that Hamas "will not be an obstacle to achieve security, stability and peace in the region." Earlier, Hamas' politburo chief Khaled Mashaal said his movement accepts a Palestinian statehood alongside Israel.

On the other hand, Haneya slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who also delivered a speech in June raising a series of conditions to accept a Palestinian statehood.

"Netanyahu's speech reflects the nature of the Zionist mentality which rejects giving back any minimum Palestinian right," according to Haneya.

As for the Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation talks between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement, Haneya said he "will not be an obstacle in the face of the reconciliation."

But he blamed Fatah for delaying the agreement, accusing it of being subject to U.S. and Israeli conditions and orders.

Israel rejects EU call for Palestinian state deadline

13 July 2009

JERUSALEM - Israel on Monday rejected a European Union call for the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state by a certain deadline even if Israel and Palestinians fail to agree on a peace deal.

“A peace agreement can come only following direct negotiations and cannot be imposed,” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told public radio.

Lieberman was commenting on a speech by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in London on Saturday in which he called for the international community to set a deadline for recognizing the state of Palestine.

“The mediator has to set the timetable,” Solana said, according to a transcript of his speech. “If the parties are not able to stick to it, then a solution backed by the international community should ... be put on the table.

“After a fixed deadline, a UN Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two-state solution. This should include all the parameters of borders, refugees, Jerusalem and security arrangements,” he said.

“It would accept the Palestinian state as a full member of the UN, and set a calendar for implementation. It would mandate the resolution of other remaining territorial disputes and legitimize the end of claims.”

A spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said UN recognition would be “one option if Israel derails the efforts of US President Barack Obama’s administration and its vision of a two-state solution.”

“Europe, as a member of the international Quartet, must continue in its efforts to apply pressure to Israel to freeze the settlements and stop wasting time,” Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.

But the Israeli foreign ministry blasted Solana’s call, which would effectively impose a solution to the decades-old Middle East conflict.

“Any approach that calls for an artificial deadline undermines the prospects of actually reaching a bilateral agreement,” it said in a statement.

Israel has come under increasing pressure from its closest ally Washington to take steps in the stalled peace process, such as freezing all settlement activity on occupied land, but the right-leaning government led by hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to do so.

Israel and the Palestinians revived peace negotiations at an international conference in November 2007, but the talks were put on ice after Israel launched its war against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in December.

The Palestinians have said they will not return to the negotiating table unless Israel freezes all settlement activity, one of the main obstacles in the hobbled peace process.

On Sunday, Netanyahu called on Abbas to meet him to restart talks. “I say to the leader of the Palestinian Authority, let’s meet to reach a political and economic peace,” he said at Israel’s weekly cabinet meeting.

Netanyahu has said he will not allow new settlements to be built but will permit construction in annexed east Jerusalem and existing settlement blocs that Israel intends to keep in any future peace deal.

The premier has spoken on the phone with Abbas since being sworn into office on March 31, but he has yet to meet the Palestinian leader.

Nabucco pipeline finds backers

ISTANBUL, Turkey, July 13 (UPI) -- Russia's hold on the European natural gas market is being challenged by a consortium of interests intent on building a pipeline from Turkey to central Europe.

Officials from six countries are meeting in Turkey to sign an agreement to construct a pipeline that would run from Turkey to Austria, crossing through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, CNN reported Monday.

The $11 billion project called Nabucco has U.S. support and would challenge the proposed South Stream pipeline Russia intends to build under the Black Sea connecting Russia with Italy.

The Nabucco pipeline would rely on natural gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 field, CNN said. Officials said natural gas from Turkmenistan and Iraq may also find its way through the pipeline.

Interest in the Nabucco project received a boost last winter, when a dispute between Russia and Ukraine resulted in a supply line shutdown that left many in Europe scrambling for alternative fuel sources.

Pakistan's displaced families begin to return home

by S.H. Khan

JALOZAI CAMP, Pakistan (AFP) – Only a fraction of nearly two million Pakistanis displaced in an onslaught against the Taliban went home on Monday, the first day of an organized return even though many are still fearful about security.

Pakistani offensives against Islamists in the northwest have forced 1.9 million people to flee their homes since last year -- the vast majority seeking refuge with relatives and in schools, and the rest packed into sweltering camps.

The latest assault was launched in April under US pressure to flush out Islamists that Washington branded an existential threat, but Pakistan said last week the military had "eliminated" extremists in and around the Swat valley.

The government laid on buses and trucks to return displaced families on Monday, the first day of large-scale organized returns, but only a fraction of the families earmarked for voluntary return actually left the camps.

Azam Khan, a senior official in the government's emergency response unit said 192 families out of an estimated 2,680 left three camps on Monday.

"We expect an increase in coming days," Khan told reporters at Charsadda, where 22 out of a planned 247 families left for the northwest Swat district.

Dozens of displaced people blocked a road outside one Charsadda camp vowing not to return until they received ATM bank cards on which they can draw 25,000 rupees (300 dollars) of financial aid to rebuild their lives.

Crops were left to rot during the two-month offensive and the local economy has been shattered by a two-year uprising to enforce sharia law in Swat.

"Some people did not receive their ATM cash cards and they refused to go until they got this card," said Khan.

At Jazolai, where about 4,000 families have been sheltering in a camp near the town of Nowshera, 50-year-old Shireenzada said he was unsure whether peace had returned to his home town of Barikot in Swat.

"I'm going back home voluntarily and nobody forced me to leave... But I'm really uncertain and don't know if peace has actually returned to my area," he told AFP as he and 10 of his relatives stepped into a bus.

Pakistan launched the offensive in the northwest districts of Buner, Lower Dir and Swat after armed Islamist militants advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Islamabad last April in defiance of a peace deal.

Pakistan says more than 1,700 militants were killed but official death tolls are impossible to confirm independently and many suspect that the Taliban simply melted away into the mountains as after past operations.

The government says it has worked hard to restore electricity and running water in main towns since the fighting but analysts warn that much needs to be done to sustain the returnees.

"They will start living a normal life if the environment is secure and their fundamental needs are addressed. Secure environment means army, police and civil administration," said independent analyst Imtiaz Gul.

AFP reporters said they saw just over 200 people leaving Jalozai and the nearby camp of Charsadda but officials swept aside concerns.

"Twenty-four buses reached Swat. These are full of displaced people," Bashir Ahmad Bilour, a senior provincial cabinet minister told reporters.

"We hope the situation will improve in the coming days and that people will come back with the passage of time," he said.

Government officials say services are up and running, that soldiers will remain in the area and every effort will be made to protect civilians.

"The number of police stations will be doubled in the affected areas -- 7,000 community police will be employed," Amir Haider Khan Hoti, the North West Frontier Province chief minister, told returnees at Charsadda.

But Shamsher Ali, a 55-year-old shopkeeper, also said he was worried after previous military operations failed to crush the Taliban.

"The army promised us twice before that they cleared the area but then Taliban came again and again to Swat. Perhaps this time the Taliban will come again to Swat," he said.

Death toll at 3 in ambushes near mine in Indonesia

By IRWAN FIRDAUS, Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia – A policeman's body was found at the bottom of a ravine near the Indonesian operations of U.S. mining conglomerate Freeport on Monday, raising the death toll from a series of weekend ambushes in restive Papua province to three.

A 29-year-old Australian mining expert and a security guard also were killed and seven others wounded in three weekend shootings within a 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) radius near the Grasberg mining complex, police said.

It was the worst violence in the militarized zone since two American schoolteachers and an Indonesian colleague were murdered in 2002.

A police patrol came under heavy fire Saturday on an island just off Papua's northern coast hours after suspected separatists were detained, said local police spokesman Nurhabri, who uses a single name.

Indonesian authorities have blamed the Free Papua Movement for the latest attacks, but police say they recovered bullet casings of standard military and police grade from the scene, casting doubt on that claim.

The policeman was reported missing Sunday after a gunfight broke out with assailants in hills surrounding the Grasberg mining complex and may have fallen to his death while seeking cover, said Papua police chief Bagus Ekodanto.

About 120 police reinforcements were called in from the capital, Jakarta, to help hunt for the attackers in the dense jungle, he said. Additional forces were also deployed around Freeport's sprawling facility in the Papuan highlands, and employees were warned to be alert.

The escalation of tension in Papua, a resource-rich but impoverished region on the western half of New Guinea island, is an unwelcome development for Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was re-elected just last week to a second five-year-term. It also raised questions about the military capabilities of Papua's secessionist movement, which until recent months had shown few signs of life.

The Grasberg mine is one of the world's largest single producers of both copper and gold. The rebels see PT Freeport as a symbol of Jakarta's rule and a reminder that foreign investment in the area has failed to lift their standard of living.

The Australian mining expert was shot and killed on Saturday while traveling in a vehicle in the same area where the three schoolteachers were killed in an ambush in 2002.

Yorris Raweyai, a Papuan lawmaker in the national parliament, dismissed claims that the separatist movement, known by its Indonesian acronym OPM, was responsible for the deaths.

"We know the OPM has been labeled as a troublemaker in Papua for four decades," he said. "But we also know that they have no guns and fight for their struggle peacefully."

No arrests have been made in connection with the ambushes despite a massive security operation, police said.

Indonesia's House Speaker Agung Laksono called for a comprehensive probe into the attacks to determine the motive and put the perpetrators on trial.

The mine, which employs roughly 20,000 mostly local workers and is one of Indonesia's largest taxpayers, is majority owned by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. of Phoenix, Arizona, which posted revenue of nearly $18 billion in 2008. The Indonesian government holds a minority stake in the Grasberg mine.

The low-level insurgency for an independent Papua has been a source of clashes with government troops since the region was transferred from Dutch to Indonesian rule in the 1960s. West Papua was taken over through a stage-managed vote by community leaders called the "Act of Free Choice," which has been widely dismissed by international scholars as a sham.

Since then, about 100,000 Papuans — the equivalent of a sixth of the current population — have died in military operations in the resource-rich mountain area.

The Indonesian government does not allow foreign media to freely report in Papua, where it has tens of thousands of troops. The site of Saturday's shooting was inaccessible to local reporters.

Fresh aftershock hits China quake region: USGS

BEIJING (AFP) – A fresh aftershock jolted China's southwest Monday, three days after an earthquake in the same area killed one person, injured hundreds and directly affected two million people, state media said.

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 4.9 quake struck a minute after midnight (1601 GMT) and was centered 95 kilometres (60 miles) east northeast of the tourist city of Dali in Yao'an county, a mountainous area of remote Yunnan province.

The quake was recorded at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres, it said.

Official news agency Xinhua said there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries from the aftershock, which lasted about 10 seconds.

More than to 250,000 people in several counties in Yunnan were displaced after a 5.7-magnitude quake struck Yao'an on Thursday evening.

Authorities have recorded one fatality -- a 50-year-old woman who was buried in the debris of collapsed houses and died later in hospital from serious blood loss, according to Xinhua.

The quake, which was centered on a relatively sparsely populated area 98 kilometres (61 miles) northeast of Dali, saw more than 30,000 houses collapse, Xinhua said early Monday, updating the previous figure of 18,000.

Another 625,000 were damaged, it said.

Up to 367 people were injured, including 31 critically, the report said.

Xinhua said that by Sunday rescuers had finished relocating 255,000 people considered to be in danger to tents, makeshift houses or homes of relatives.

The operation involved over 1,000 soldiers and policemen, including about 300 from neighboring Sichuan province, who helped residents to safety, Xinhua said in a previous report.

Last year in Sichuan, nearly 87,000 people were left dead or missing when a 8.0-magnitude earthquake shook the province in China's mountainous southwest.

The deadliest earthquake to strike China in over 30 years flattened entire cities and towns, destroying schools, hospitals, homes, buildings and factories in nearly 50,000 villages.

Quake strikes eastern Indonesia: seismologists

JAKARTA (AFP) – A strong 6.4-magnitude quake struck Indonesia's remote eastern Sumba island on Monday, the geophysics agency said.

The quake struck at 7:52 pm (1052 GMT) with an epicentre 107 kilometres (67 miles) northwest of the main island town of Waingapu, the Jakarta Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said.

It was measured at a depth of 86 kilometres.

The United States Geological Survey measured the quake at a magnitude of 6.1.

Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the earthquake-triggered Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004 that killed more than 220,000 people, including over 168,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province and Nias island.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.

Nearly 700 homes as well as office buildings, schools and health clinics were damaged when a 7.2-magnitude quake struck the remote Talaud Islands in North Sulawesi province in February.

Two shot dead in renewed unrest in China's Xinjiang

By David Gray

URUMQI, China (Reuters) – Chinese police shot dead two people on Monday in renewed unrest in the far northwestern region of Xinjiang, state media said, after at least 184 people died in riots last week.

The official Xinhua news agency said the two people killed in the regional capital Urumqi were Uighur. Police were trying to stop them attacking another Uighur when the security forces opened fire, the report said. Another Uighur was injured.

"An initial investigation found that the three people were attacking the fourth person with clubs and knives at 2:55 p.m. near the People's Hospital at Jiefang Nanlu," Xinhua said. "Police on patrol fired warning shots before shooting at the three suspects."

Of the official death toll from the July 5 riots, 137 were Han Chinese, who form the majority of China's 1.3 billion population, and 46 were Uighur, a Muslim people native to Xinjiang and culturally tied to Central Asia and Turkey.

Uighurs attacked Han Chinese in Urumqi that day after police tried to break up a protest against fatal attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in south China. Han Chinese in Urumqi launched revenge attacks later in the week.

State media said earlier in the day that demonstrations against Chinese consulates in Europe and the United States showed that ethnic riots were orchestrated.

Demonstrators threw eggs, Molotov cocktails and stones at several Chinese embassies and consulates, including in Ankara, Oslo, Munich and the Netherlands, Xinhua news agency said.

"Supporters of the East Turkestan separatists started well-orchestrated and sometimes violent attacks on Chinese embassies and consulates in several countries soon after the riots occurred," Xinhua said.

"The attacks against China's diplomatic missions and the Urumqi riots seemed to be well-organized."

While security forces blanketed the city, more and more businesses are reopening.

"In general, things are slowly getting back to normal. I think the situation is getting better and under control," said one Han resident. But some Uighur residents remained wary.

A Uighur security guard, who declined to give his name, said that while he did not support the violence, he understood people's frustration.

"Look around you -- 90 percent of all the businesses are owned by the Han," he said, standing in Urumqi's main bazaar.

"All I can do is get a job as a security guard," complained the university graduate. "The Han here can't even speak Uighur."

Beijing cannot afford to lose its grip on Xinjiang, a vast desert territory that borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is China's largest natural gas-producing region.

In another sign the government is not going to relax its grip in Urumqi anytime soon, Xinhua said police will take in for questioning anyone who cannot produce an identity card or driving license.

People are also banned from "shouting slogans, posting banners, distributing leaflets or gathering for lectures in city streets or public venues," the report cited a police notice as saying.

"Police will immediately disperse gatherings and confiscate the propaganda materials and take away key members for interrogation according to law," Xinhua added.

China has blamed Rebiya Kadeer, an exiled Uighur businesswoman, for instigating the unrest.

Xinhua also blamed the World Uighur Congress, an umbrella group for organizations of exiled or overseas Uighurs, for the demonstrations at the embassies.

Deadly riots in Lhasa in March 2008, and a subsequent Chinese crackdown across the Tibetan plateau, also spurred a series of demonstrations at Chinese embassies in countries with significant exiled Tibetan populations.

Chinese miners freed after 25 days in flooded mine

By HENRY SANDERSON, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING – Three miners survived 25 days trapped in a flooded mine in southern China by drinking dirty water and chewing coal before rescuers burrowed through a collapsed tunnel to reach them, a local official and state media said Monday.

The men and 13 others became stuck when the Xinqiao Coal Mine flooded June 17. On Sunday, rescue workers digging into the mountainside cleared a path to the miners and saw their lights, which still gave off a dim glow, said Wang Guangneng, a Communist Party spokesman in the Guizhou province county of Qinglong.

The miners stayed alive by drinking water that seeped through the earth, Wang said. The official Xinhua News Agency cited a rescuer saying that oxygen was also able to get into the tunnel easily.

They also chewed on coal to stave off their appetite, the Guiyang Evening News, based in the provincial capital, reported.

It was not clear whether the men had any information on the others still missing. Rescuers had found the body of one miner a week after the flooding, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

A Xinhua photo showed one of the rescued miners, Wang Kuangwei, his bones prominent through his skin, getting medical attention Sunday, with his eyes covered to protect them from the light. The party spokesman said the three men were in stable condition.

During an interview with Shenzhen Media Group television, one of the miners, 36-year old Zhao Weixing, who was lying down with his eyes and face covered, told reporters: "I feel OK."

The miners' rescue after 604 hours underground was a rare tale of survival in China's coal mines, the world's deadliest, where an average of 13 workers are killed every day. Most accidents are blamed on failures to follow safety rules, including a lack of required ventilation or fire control equipment.

In August 2007, two brothers were forced to chew on coal and sip their own urine from discarded water bottles after nearly six days in a mine tunnel. They even managed to crack jokes during that time about their wives remarrying after they were declared dead.

In Sunday's rescue, the miners — all of whom were from central Henan province — were found 500 to 600 yards (meters) from the entrance to the mine shaft, on a level intersection that protected them from the flood, the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper reported. The ceiling had collapsed, blocking a path to the tunnel opening.

The county's head of work safety, Li Xingwei, was digging a channel into the mountain and found an unblocked pathway, then noticed the miners' lights, the newspaper said.

"We crept along the tunnel in excitement," Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

Rescuers shouted to the men to remain calm, the Beijing Youth Daily report said.

Once rescued, it said, the miners did nothing but ask for water.

Demjanjuk charged in Germany over WWII killings

By ROLAND LOSCH, Associated Press Writer

MUNICH – German prosecutors formally charged John Demjanjuk on Monday with 27,900 counts of being an accessory to murder at a Nazi death camp during World War II.

The charges against the 89-year-old retired auto worker, who was deported from the U.S. in May, were filed at a Munich state court, prosecutors in the city said in a brief statement.

Doctors cleared the way for formal charges earlier this month, determining that Demjanjuk (dem-YAHN'-yuk) was fit to stand trial so long as court hearings do not exceed two 90-minute sessions per day.

The court must now decide whether to accept the charges — usually a formality — and set a date for the trial. Court spokeswoman Margarete Noetzel said the trial was unlikely to start before the autumn.

Demjanjuk lawyer Guenther Maull had no immediate comment on the charges, saying he had not yet seen them.

Charges of accessory to murder carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison in Germany.

Prosecutors accuse Demjanjuk of serving as a guard at the Sobibor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1943.

Demjanjuk, a native of Ukraine, says he was a Red Army soldier who spent the war as a prisoner of war and never hurt anyone.

But Nazi-era documents obtained by U.S. justice authorities and shared with German prosecutors include a photo ID identifying Demjanjuk as a guard at the Sobibor death camp and saying he was trained at an SS facility for Nazi guards at Trawniki, also in Nazi-occupied Poland. U.S. and German experts have declared the ID genuine.

Demjanjuk gained U.S. citizenship in 1958. The U.S. Justice Department moved to revoke the citizenship in 1977, alleging he hid his past as a Nazi death camp guard, and it was revoked in 1981.

Demjanjuk was tried in Israel over accusations that he was the notorious "Ivan the Terrible" at the Treblinka death camp in Poland. He was found guilty in 1988 of war crimes and crimes against humanity but the conviction was overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court.

That decision came after Israel won access to Soviet archives, which had depositions given after the war by 37 Treblinka guards and forced laborers who said "Ivan" was a different Ukrainian named Ivan Marchenko.

Demjanjuk's U.S. citizenship was restored in 1998. However, a U.S. judge revoked it again in 2002 based on fresh Justice Department evidence showing he concealed his service at Sobibor and other Nazi-run death and forced-labor camps from immigration officials.

A U.S. immigration judge ruled in 2005 he could be deported to Germany, Poland or Ukraine. Munich prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for him in March.

They accused him in that warrant of being an accessory to murder in 29,000 cases. However, that number was reduced in the charges because, of the people transported to Sobibor, "many did not survive the journey," said Anton Winkler, a spokesman for Munich prosecutors.

Efraim Zuroff, the top Nazi-hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, welcomed the filing of formal charges.

"This is obviously an important step forward," Zuroff said by telephone from Jerusalem. "We hope that the trial itself will be expedited so that justice will be achieved and he can be given the appropriate punishment."

"The effort to bring Demjanjuk to justice sends a very powerful message that the passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of the perpetrator," Zuroff said.

China says police kill 2 Uighur men, wound third

URUMQI, China – China's government says police shot dead two Uighur men and wounded a third after the men attacked officers who were breaking up "a violent incident."

A government official in the western city of Urumqi who would give only his surname Fan said Monday that police were attacked after they stopped the three men from assaulting another man with knives and rods.

The incident in front of frightened residents broke a relative calm in Urumqi still tense from more than a week of ethnic violence that has left more than 180 people dead.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

URUMQI, China (AP) — Frightened Urumqi residents watched Monday as police in bulletproof vests carrying pistols, shotguns and batons chased down a man and kicked and beat him, shattering a relative calm in the tense city in western China.

Gunfire was heard before and during the brief incident in Urumqi — where recent ethnic unrest left 184 dead — near one of the city's main Uighur neighborhoods. Some bystanders threw themselves to the ground and others fled.

One policeman was seen raising his rifle to strike the man. Beaten, the man in a blue shirt with blood on his right leg lay on the ground. Police formed a ring around him, pointing their guns up at surrounding buildings as if worried about retaliation.

Hong Kong's radio RTHK reported on its Web site Monday that at least two police officers were shot and three Uighurs killed near a Uighur neighborhood. It did not give any more details. The Urumqi police telephone line rang busy all Monday.

The incident came as authorities try to impose a sense of normality on Urumqi after the July 5 riots and subsequent unrest that also left 1,680 wounded. The death toll in China's worst ethnic violence in decades could rise as 74 of the more than 900 people still in hospitals have life-threatening wounds, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

People ran into their homes and shops, slamming their doors. An armored personnel carrier and paramilitary police arrived on the scene, and police waved their guns and shouted for people to get off the streets.

Security vehicles previously deployed on People's Square were no longer there Monday but helmeted riot police remained in the area. Small groups of paramilitary police with riot shields stood guard on street corners and helicopters flew over the city.

Most roads leading to the Grand Bazaar market were reopened and in Uighur districts, more shops lifted their shutters, vendors pushed carts full of peaches and watermelon sellers sliced up their wares. Restaurant staff set up tables under trees next to the road.

Xinhua said police manned checkpoints and searched buses for any suspects involved in the violence, and people were ordered to carry identification for police checks when traveling in Urumqi.

It quoted the Urumqi Public Security Bureau as saying anyone without proper identification would be taken away to be interrogated.

"Citizens are strictly banned from holding dangerous articles including batons or knives in urban streets or public venues," the notice said.

The move was to "prevent a tiny number of individual criminals from the riot who were still at large from seeking revenge," it said, according to Xinhua.

The violence began when Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gers) who were protesting the deaths of Uighur factory workers in a brawl in southern China clashed with police in Urumqi. Crowds scattered throughout the city, attacking ethnic Han Chinese and burning cars.

Government officials have yet to make public key details about what happened next, including how much force police used to restore order. In the following days, vigilante mobs of Han Chinese ran through the city with bricks, clubs and cleavers seeking revenge.

Of the dead, the government has said 137 Han Chinese and 46 Uighurs died, with one minority Hui Muslim also killed. Uighurs say they believe many more from their ethnic group died in the government crackdown.

Since last week, tens of thousands of Chinese troops have poured into Urumqi (pronounced uh-ROOM-chee) and other parts of Xinjiang to impose order. A senior Communist Party official vowed to execute those guilty of murder in the rioting.

The Uighurs, who number 9 million in Xinjiang, have complained about an influx of Han Chinese and government restrictions on their Muslim religion. They accuse the Han of discrimination and the Communist Party of trying to erase their language and culture.

Han Chinese, many of whom were encouraged to emigrate here by the government, believe the Uighurs should be grateful for Xinjiang's rapid economic development, which has brought new schools, highways, airports, railways, natural gas fields and oil wells to the sprawling, rugged region.

Uighurs favor independence or greater autonomy for Xinjiang province, which takes up one-sixth of China's land mass and borders eight Central Asian countries. The Han — China's ethnic majority — have lately been flooding into Xinjiang as the region becomes more developed.

US military deaths in Afghanistan region at 657

By The Associated Press

As of Sunday, July 12, 2009, at least 657 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.

Of those, the military reports 489 were killed by hostile action.

Outside the Afghan region, the Defense Department reports 68 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, three were the result of hostile action. The military lists these other locations as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; and Yemen.

There were also four CIA officer deaths and one military civilian death.

2 US Marines die in S. Afghanistan bomb blasts

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – A bomb blast killed two U.S. Marines in Afghanistan's dangerous south, where thousands of American troops have deployed in a massive operation to oust Taliban fighters from the country's opium poppy region, officials said Sunday.

Some 4,000 Marines moved into Helmand province this month, the largest Marine operation in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S. invasion. They have met little head-on resistance but remain vulnerable to guerrilla tactics like suicide and roadside bombs.

"These terrorist attacks are hard to prevent, can be carried out by a few individuals, and do not require a military force capable of confronting the Marines," said Arturo Munoz, an expert on the tribal environment in Helmand province with the Washington-based RAND Corp.

"I would expect the Taliban to avoid pitched battles with the Marines in order to avoid a large number of casualties," he said. "This does not mean they will avoid violence."

The two Marines were killed Saturday in Helmand. Military officials did not release any other details nor give a specific location. The military initially reported four Marines had died but later corrected the figure, saying the deaths were mistakenly double-counted.

The American casualties come after eight British deaths in Helmand in a 24-hour period ending Friday, triggering debate in Britain about its role in Afghanistan. Britain has now lost more troops in Afghanistan than in Iraq.

In an interview broadcast Sunday, President Barack Obama called Britain's contribution critically important and said U.S. and British troops face a difficult summer ahead of elections in Afghanistan late next month.

"We've got to get through elections," Obama told Sky News. "The most important thing we can do is to combine our military efforts with effective diplomacy and development, so that Afghans feel a greater stake and have a greater capacity to secure their country."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan will help keep extremist groups from launching attacks inside Britain. And he told Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a telephone call Sunday that Britain would stand "shoulder-to-shoulder with the people of Afghanistan for the long haul," according to a statement by the Afghan presidency.

The embattled prime minister told his troops in an interview Sunday with the British military radio network that it was proving to be a "difficult summer" in Afghanistan but that operations in Helmand were making "considerable progress" toward defeating the Taliban.

But in an editorial Sunday, The Observer newspaper predicted the British public will soon decide the war is not worth the casualties.

"Lives saved by bringing soldiers home will seem a surer benefit than the unproven hypothesis of preventing terrorism with a war thousands of miles away," the newspaper said.

Another American service member died Friday in the U.S. of wounds suffered in Afghanistan in June, said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, who confirmed the deaths of the two Marines.

The three deaths bring to 104 the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year, a record pace. Last year 151 U.S. troops died in the country. Overall, 193 international troops have died in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press count based on official announcements.

Obama ordered 21,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan earlier this year to help put down an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency. Some 10,000 Marines and 4,000 soldiers from the Stryker Brigade — the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division based in Fort Lewis, Wash. — are deploying in the south, the Taliban's spiritual birthplace and stronghold.

The troops will help provide security for the Aug. 20 election, when Afghans will choose a president and provincial councils, and help train army and police units that the U.S. hopes one day can provide security for the country. By fall, a record 68,000 U.S. troops will be in Afghanistan.

Violence flared elsewhere around the country over the weekend, illustrating again that security is deteriorating. At least 22 people were killed, including seven police officers, officials reported on Sunday.

• In southern Uruzgan province, international troops and Afghan police killed 12 militants in a gunbattle Saturday, police spokesman Mohammad Musa said.

• In Logar, four policemen died when a roadside bomb hit their car in Charkh district Saturday, said provincial police chief Gen. Mustafa Mosseini.

• In Helmand, two police were killed in a roadside bombing in the Helmand provincial capital of Lashkar Gah late Saturday, said Dawood Ahmadi, the governor's spokesman.

• In a gunbattle in eastern Paktia province between insurgents and Afghan police, two militants and one police officer were killed, said Rahullah Samon, a spokesman for the governor.

• In eastern Kunar province, one civilian was killed and five wounded when shells from a gunbattle between insurgents and Afghan and coalition forces hit a house. Provincial Police Chief Gen. Abdul Jalal Jalal said it was unclear which side fired the shots that hit the house.