Endangered Sumatran rhino dies at Cincinnati Zoo

CINCINNATI – An endangered Sumatran rhino has died at the Cincinnati Zoo, a setback to a program that successfully produced the first calves born in captivity in more than a century.

Emi, a 21-year-old Sumatran rhino that had been at the zoo for 14 years, died Saturday after appearing less energetic for several weeks, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden announced Sunday.

Emi produced three calves at the zoo, including Andalas, born in 2001, the first Sumatran rhino bred and born in captivity since 1889. Emi was the only captive Sumatran rhino bred successfully, said zoo director Thane Maynard.

"Naturally it's always devastating when an animal reaches the end of its life, but certainly one as beloved as she is — it's a big loss," Maynard said.

The zoo said Emi had appeared less energetic and had a diminished appetite since March.

Veterinarians performed a complete physical exam with blood work in early April and found some subtle changes in her liver. She appeared to improve in May but her condition then continued to deteriorate, the zoo said.

The zoo conducted a necropsy Saturday on Emi to try to determine exactly why she died.

Zoo researchers also removed eggs from Emi's body in hope of using them someday to produce a calf through in-vitro fertilization or other means.

"With a species so endangered it's important to save anything that you can," Maynard said.

The zoo has two remaining Sumatran rhinos: Emi's mate, Ipuh, and Suci, a calf that Emi birthed in 2004.

The zoo's breeding program grew out of an international recognition in the early 1980s that the Sumatran rhinos were disappearing at a rapid pace, due to poaching and dwindling rain forest habitat in Malaysia and Indonesia.

But little was known about caring for them, let alone how to successfully breed them.

Zoo researchers directed by Dr. Terri Roth used ultrasound, monitoring of hormone levels, observation and trial-and-error to learn how to breed the animals, the zoo said.

"Our fond hope is that by building on that, Emi certainly won't be last Sumatran rhino to breed in captivity and that the program will grow and continue from here and be one that helps a great deal," Maynard said.

Sumatran rhinos are considered the most endangered of the five living rhino species. Only nine Sumatran rhinos live in captivity worldwide and fewer than 200 animals exist in the wild, in isolated pockets of Sabah, Malaysia and the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. They can live for as long as 40 years.

Uighur group reports new deaths in China, appeals for UN observers

Beijing - Three more people were killed and more than 20 injured after Han Chinese residents attacked Uighurs in China's far western city of Urumqi, a Uighur exile group reported Monday as it appealed for UN observers to investigate the ethnic conflict there. The latest attack by about 100 "Chinese migrants" came late Sunday in a Uighur area near Urumqi's Xingfu Road and Jiefang South Road, the Munich-based World Uighur Congress said in a statement.

The group said two Uighur men and a 40-year-old woman died in the attack, but the report could not immediately be confirmed.

State media reported no new attacks on Sunday in Urumqi, where migration has made Han Chinese the dominant ethnic group in the capital of China's vast Xinjiang region.

"We are extremely worried about the current situation in Urumqi," Dilxat Raxit, the spokesman for the World Uighur Congress, said in the statement.

"Now it is very difficult for Uighurs and Han to continue living in the same city," Raxit said.

"For the safety of both sides and to avoid the continued suppression of Uighurs by China's paramilitary personnel, I appeal for the United Nations to send observers immediately," he said.

He also appealed for China's ruling Communist Party to hold talks with exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, who is accused by China of organizing rioting on July 5 that, according to government tallies, left 197 people dead and about 1,600 injured.

Kadeer denied the charges and has claimed that up to 800 people died in Urumqi in early July, many of them Uighurs shot or beaten to death by police.

Uighurs have long said they face discrimination at the hands of China's Han majority.

Security remained tight in Urumqi Sunday, one day after several top government officials were dismissed over the continuing unrest in the city.

Five people died after tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets Thursday and Friday, criticizing local city and regional leaders for failing to ensure security in Urumqi.

The city's Communist Party secretary, Li Zhi, was removed from his post Saturday along with Xinjiang's police chief, Liu Yaohua, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Although the Han are China's dominant ethnic group, in Xinjiang, the Uighurs are the largest, but the balance is tipping as Han move to the region. In Urumqi, they now outnumber the Uighurs.

The latest unrest there was touched off by reports of attacks by Uighurs using hypodermic syringes, the first of which surfaced in mid-August.

The regional government said city hospitals had dealt with 531 victims of needle stabbings, most of them Han Chinese, with 106 people showing "obvious signs" of needle attacks.

According an unconfirmed report by a Han resident of Urumqi, a mob of Han passengers beat to death one Uighur who was discovered with a needle and syringe on a public bus.

The government's official Xinhua news agency said police had detained 25 people suspected of involvement in the needle attacks.

"Four suspects, three men and one woman, have been prosecuted for endangering public security," Wutkur Abdurahman, the city's procurator general, was quoted as saying.

Two suspects threatened and robbed a taxi driver using a syringe, another stabbed a woman at a roadside fruit stall and a police officer was stabbed with a drug-filled needle while dealing with a man who was resisting arrest, Xinhua reported.

Meanwhile, more than 2,000 officials and police officers have been sent to Uighur and Han communities in Urumqi to "help solve public disputes," Xinjiang's regional Communist Party leader Wang Lequan was quoted as saying Sunday.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/284499,uighur-group-reports-new-deaths-in-china-appeals-for-un-observers.html.

Charity: US troops stormed through Afghan hospital

By KAY JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – A Swedish charity accused American troops Monday of storming through a hospital in central Afghanistan, breaking down doors and tying up staff in a search for militants. The U.S. military said it was investigating.

The allegation that soldiers violated the neutrality of a medical facility follows the reported deaths of Afghan civilians in a U.S. airstrike in the country's north last week.

Nearly eight years after the U.S.-led coalition invaded to oust the Taliban, foreign forces are working to persuade the population to support the Afghan government. But civilian deaths and intrusive searches of homes have bred resentment.

The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan said the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division entered the charity's hospital without permission to look for insurgents in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, according to the charity's country director, Anders Fange.

"This is simply not acceptable," he said.

The U.S. troops came to the hospital looking for Taliban insurgents late at night last Wednesday, Fange said. He said they kicked in doors, tied up four hospital employees and two family members of patients, and forced patients out of beds during their search.

When they left two hours later, the unit ordered hospital staff to inform coalition forces if any wounded militants were admitted, and the military would decide if they could be treated, Fange said.

The staff refused, he said. "That would put our staff at risk and make the hospital a target."

The charity said on its Web site that the troops actions were not only a violation of humanitarian principles but also went against an agreement between NATO forces and charities working in the area.

"We demand guarantees ... that such violations will not be repeated and that this is made clear to commanders in the field," a statement said.

Navy public affairs officer Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker confirmed that the hospital was searched last week but had no other details. She said the military was looking into the incident.

"We are investigating and we take allegations like this seriously," she said. "Complaints like this are rare."

Violence has surged across much of Afghanistan since President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 more U.S. troops to the country this year. Two foreign troops were killed Sunday when their patrol hit a roadside bomb in the country's south, NATO said without giving their nationalities. Three civilians also died in a militant rocket attack on the capital.

NATO was also investigating reported civilian deaths in a U.S. airstrike last week. Afghan officials said up to 70 people were killed in the early morning airstrike Friday in the northern province of Kunduz after the Taliban hijacked two fuel tanker. After the trucks became stuck in the mud on the banks of a river, villagers came to siphon off gas and some were reported killed when an American jet dropped two bombs on the stolen tankers.

The increasingly violent Taliban have killed more Afghan civilians in bombings and other attacks. On Monday, the government said three insurgent rockets landed in the capital, Kabul, killing three people when one of them hit a house.

A United Nations report in July said the number of civilians killed in conflict in Afghanistan has jumped 24 percent this year, with bombings by insurgent and airstrikes by international forces the biggest single killers. The report said that 1,013 civilians were killed in the first half of 2009, 59 percent in insurgent attacks and 30.5 percent by foreign and Afghan government forces. The rest were undetermined.

Venezuela plans gasoline exports to Iran

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Venezuela said on Sunday it had agreed to export 20,000 barrels per day of gasoline to Iran, which imports a large part of its needs, Iranian state media reported.

"Based on a strategic decision, it has been decided to export 20,000 barrels a day of gasoline from Venezuela to Iran," Iran's news agency IRNA quoted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as saying at the end of a visit to Iran.

Iran is a leading oil exporter but its refineries lack the capacity to meet domestic fuel demand, so it imports up to 40 percent of its gasoline.

Tehran, in a face-off with the West over its nuclear program, may face sanctions on its gasoline imports if a diplomatic solution is not found.

Chavez said the gasoline exports would help pay for Venezuela's imports of machinery and technology from Iran, IRNA said.

Iran's state television quoted Chavez as saying the gasoline exports would start in October.

U.S. President Barack Obama has given Iran until later in September to take up an international offer of talks on trade if it shelves uranium enrichment, or face harsher punitive measures.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier met Chavez and called for the two countries to boost cooperation and be steadfast in their anti-U.S. stand.

"America's repeated defeats and its declining grandeur and power are proof of an undeniable change in the world," state media quoted Khamenei as saying.

The West suspects Iran of trying to build nuclear bombs. Iran says its program is for peaceful power generation and has repeatedly rejected demands to halt sensitive atomic activity.

SKorea seeks NKorean explanation about flash flood

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea pressed North Korea to explain Monday what caused a sudden surge of water in a river flowing across the border from the North after the flooding left three South Korean dead and three others missing.

Six South Koreans camping and fishing along a river flowing from North Korea were swept away Sunday when it suddenly doubled in height. Seoul officials believe a sharp rise in Imjin River's water level was because a new North Korean dam just north of the border discharged an estimated 40 million tons of water without notice.

On Monday, the South Korean government sent a message to North Korea, expressing regret over the incident and requesting an explanation from Pyongyang, according to Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung.

"The government feels very sorry for the occurrence of the massive damage," Chun told reporters. He said South Korea also "strongly urged" North Korea not to repeat similar incidents.

South Korean officials have raised concerns that the Hwanggang Dam could cause water shortages or flooding in the South, with some saying the North could use it as a weapon. Unification Ministry officials said South Korea conveyed such concerns to North Korea during talks in 2006 and 2007, but the North hasn't responded.

Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told reporters Monday that South Korean and U.S. officials were analyzing why the North funneled such a large amount of waters to the South. Won, however, said there hasn't been any particular signs that North Korea would use waters held in dams to attack the South.

Construction of the dam, believed aimed at channeling water to a hydroelectric plant and for crop irrigation, was about 95 percent complete early last year, according to South Korean government estimates. The dam is believed to be able to hold up to 400 million tons of water.

North Korea has four other small dams north of Imjin River and they are reportedly capable of holding only about 35 million tons of water each.

Local Gyeonggi Province official Choi Kwon-rak said the river's water level jumped from 7.5 feet (2.3 meters) to 15.1 feet (4.6 meters) Sunday morning. He said there was no other apparent cause since it had not rained in the area for several days

Rescuers found the dead bodies of three of the six missing people early Monday and were searching for other victims, local fire official Hwang Tae-geun. Hwang said about 2,500 rescuers and army soldiers were mobilized for a search mission Monday.

Choi said the area is less than six miles (10 kilometers) from the Korean border — one of the world's most heavily fortified. The two Koreas are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

China threatens punishment for rumor-mongering

Royston Chan, Reuters

URUMQI, China (Reuters) - China's troubled far-western city of Urumqi has spelt out potential punishments for spreading rumors after days of sometimes deadly unrest and panic about reported syringe attacks that fanned ethnic tensions.

Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, has been struggling to return to order after days of panic and protests over claims that Muslim Uighurs used syringes to attack residents, especially members of China's Han ethnic Chinese majority.

Officials have said five people died in the protests, but they have not said how they died.

Security forces used tear gas to break up a crowd of Han Chinese on Sunday, after a fresh needle scare near a wholesale market. Witnesses said three Uighurs were beaten.

The government has cast the alleged syringe attacks as a separatist plot by Uighurs, who call Xinjiang their homeland. Many Uighurs resent government controls on their religion and culture, as well as the growing presence of ethnic Han Chinese.

The Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday that Urumqi authorities said anyone found guilty of injecting others with dangerous substances could face a long prison term or even the death penalty.

The full notice from the law-and-order authorities, reported in a later Xinhua report, also warned residents they face possible jail terms for rumor-mongering.

"Those who deliberately concoct and spread false information about innocent members of the public being stabbed with needles," could be tried and sentenced to up to five years in jail, said the notice, according to Xinhua.

The announcement appeared to be another step in government efforts to restore its authority in Urumqi, where thousands of Han Chinese residents took to the streets to demand the ousting of Wang Lequan, the Communist Party secretary of Xinjiang for 14 years.

In China, Communist Party secretaries are the most powerful officials at each level of government.

Wang appears likely to survive the tumult for now at least, but the Communist Party chief of Urumqi and the Xinjiang police chief were both dismissed over the weekend.

Some Han Chinese residents of Urumqi said they were still not satisfied.

"I felt the government should have been able to control the situation very well. But in reality, the situation is not under control," said one Urumqi resident, who gave only his surname, Feng.

Despite the threat of possible capital punishment over syringe attacks, the four suspects indicted so far face lesser charges of endangering public security.

They included two drug users accused of trying to rob a taxi driver by threatening him with a syringe, a man who resisted arrest while apparently preparing to inject himself with drugs, and a 19-year-old who jabbed a fruit seller with a needle.

China's top police official, Meng Jianzhu, said on Sunday there was more than petty crime behind the trouble.

"This is not an ordinary public security case or criminal case," Meng, the minister for public security, said in comments reported by the official Legal Daily on Monday.

"This is a struggle between separatism and anti-separatism, between wrecking ethnic unity and protecting ethnic unity," he said.

Signs of normal life in Urumqi amid heavy security presence

A fleet of six flower-decorated wedding cars passed a downtown street in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on Sunday, where police have eased traffic restrictions imposed in wake of public protests.

Such a scene was impossible in the past several days when protesters took to the street after hundreds of residents reported that they were stabbed by syringes needles. Five people were killed and at least 14 people hospitalized over injuries in the protests.

Ba Bayisilong, a Uygur student in Xinjiang Education Institute, came back to school on Sunday, after a two-month summer vacation.

"I come from my home in southern part of Xinjiang. All students in my class have returned," said the student who majors in computer sciences.

China Mobile, China's largest telecom carrier, opened a sales booth on the school campus. A large crowd of students, including both Han and Uygur students, patronized the stall to buy phone cards.

Vehicles and streams of people were also back in the streets in the city's downtown area. The difference was that people were shopping, instead of protesting. Tianshan Shopping Mall and Carrefour Supermarket at downtown streets were thronged, while public security staff asked customers to open their bags for security checking.

Affected by the public uneasiness, small businesses in Urumqi were still in doldrums. A shoe shop owner said although there were some customers, the shop's revenue fell to 1,000 yuan a day from over 7,000 yuan before the riot.

A jade store at Jiefang Road put on a "sacrifice-sale" notice on its front door.

A one-meter long jade dragon boat laid at the doorway was priced at 400 yuan, down from its full price of 5,800 yuan.

"The business has been slack since July, when the monthly sales was only 600 yuan. I plan to clear the stock and leave Xinjiang," said the shop owner, a native from east China's Jiangsu Province.

However, not all businesses were slack. Zhang Jian, a sales staff in Giant Bicycle Shop on Xinmin Road, said the store's business has never been so good.

"We sold more than a dozen bikes a day recently, compared to three to four before the unrest," he said.

He assumed that the recent traffic control caused inconvenience to car drivers, and many opted for bicycles in commuting.

Security presence in the city remained heavy on Sunday. Hundreds of Armed Police were seen in the People Square at the city center. Police were still blocking Xinmin Road, which links to a viaduct leading to the southern part of the city, an area densely populated by Uygur people.

Military vehicles and patrolling police cars used loud-speaker to blare the currently-imposed security measures taken for the public safety.

Xinjiang regional governor Nur Bekri said Sunday that the regional government would send thousands of officials to communities in Urumqi to help solve grassroot disputes and maintain social order.

Qian Jun, director of Disease Control and Biological Security Office with China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences, said Sunday that among 531 victims of hypodermic syringe stabbings reported by local hospitals, 171 showed obvious signs of needle attacks.

Qian said he, along with other five medical experts from the military, had examined medical records of more than 200 victims since Friday.

Newly-inaugurated secretary of the Urumqi Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Zhu Hailun, said Saturday his top priority was to restore public security.

"I will lead cadres and residents of all ethnic groups in the city to conquer all difficulties, and mobilize all social forces to maintain stability," he said.

He told civil servants to go door to door to help solve grass-root disputes and allay public uneasiness.

Zhu's predecessors Li Zhi was removed from his post, along with the police chief Liu Yaohua of the regional government on Saturday.

The replacements came after the July 5 riot in Urumqi which left 197 people dead and following syringe attacks in the city that caused panic among the public.