Saudi prince charged with rape

Thu Sep 15, 2011

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of King Abdullah, has landed in hot waters as a Spanish court reopens a three-year-old rape case against him.

The court started a probe into allegations that the Saudi multibillionaire raped a model on a yacht in the Mediterranean Sea in August 2008, according to a ruling seen by AFP Wednesday.

The case concerns Prince Talal, who is being asked to respond to a complaint of sexual assault against him by a model who was 20 at the time.

The prince denied the allegations and said he only heard of them on Tuesday.

A May 24 ruling by a court in the Balearic Islands said the complainant, who was not named, believed a drug was added to her drink in a nightclub on the island after she met the Saudi prince.

A judge in the Balearic island of Ibiza in May 2010 had ordered the case closed for lack of evidence, but the provincial court of the Balearic Islands overturned that ruling on May 24 and a court in Ibiza on July 27 reopened the proceedings to formally request assistance from the Saudi authorities to take a statement from the accused.

The 56-year-old prince has holdings in Citibank and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Forbes magazine lists him as the 26th richest person in the world with assets of $19.6 billion.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/199217.html.

Four Sentenced to Death

2011-09-14

Courts in Xinjiang sentence four Uyghurs to die for their alleged role in bloody attacks.

China has sentenced four ethnic Uyghurs to death in connection with a series of July attacks in the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region which left dozens of people dead, state media reported Thursday, drawing condemnation from overseas groups.

Abdugheni Yusup, Ablikim Hasan, Muhtar Hasan, and Memetniyaz Tursun were handed the death sentence while two other men—Abdulla Eli and Pulat Memet—were sentenced to 19 years in prison and a five-year suspension of their political rights for their part in the attacks, according to tianshannet.com, a state-run website.

The mainly Muslim Uyghur minority has long chafed against Chinese rule in Xinjiang, and authorities have accused "terrorists" of operating in the region.

Tianshannet said that the defendants were convicted of “forming and participating in a terrorist organization, the illegal manufacture of explosives, premeditated homicide, arson, and several other related crimes” over an attack on a police station in Hotan and two separate attacks in Kashgar.

The verdicts were handed down Wednesday by intermediate courts in the two Silk Road cities, the report said.

It said the Hotan court convicted Abdugheni Yusup of leading a group of men carrying axes, machetes, and Molotov cocktails in a July 18 attack on the Nawagh Police Station in the city.

During the attack, the report said, the group killed one member of a security team, injured two bystanders, and took two hostages. The group also set fire to the police station and surrounding commercial property, it said.

When confronted by police, the report said, the group killed one armed police officer and injured a SWAT officer and another security team member.

Tianshannet said the Kashgar court convicted Ablikim Hasan of carrying out a July 30 attack on the Kashgar Fragrant Food Street, an alley of Chinese-owned restaurants, along with Urayim Memet, a Uyghur who was later killed by police.

During the attack, the report said, the two men killed a truck driver and rammed his vehicle into a group of bystanders. They then attacked onlookers with knives, it said, leaving a total of eight people dead and 31 injured.

The court also sentenced Muhtar Hasan who, along with four others, Tianshannet said, detonated an explosion in a vehicle and slashed bystanders with knives at another location in Kashgar, killing five people and injuring 13, including three police officers.

Memetniyaz Tursun was sentenced for training the perpetrators of the Kashgar attacks, the report said.

Sentence condemned

Rebiya Kadeer, president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, strongly denounced the sentencing in statement Wednesday.

"Any country in which the court and press are not free makes it impossible to expect a fair and just verdict."

She called the court decision, which was handed down barely two months after the events took place, "motivated by hatred and politics," accusing the government of "trying to comfort some people in Chinese society with Fascist ideas" and "encouraging Chinese migrants" to Xinjiang.

Kadeer said that the Chinese government's policy of harshly punishing or crushing dissent has been used for decades without success, and that by handing down the sentence, authorities were only increasing tensions in the region.

"[The authorities] talked about how the incident was carried out, but they never talked about why they happened and never investigated the cause of the events, which was ethnic discontent," she said.

"What should be investigated are the unjust policies and who should have been brought to justice were the people who wrote these policies and carry them out ... Instead, they became the judges of the people."

Kadeer said that the Chinese government should be working to create "peaceful and equal living conditions" among China's ethnic nationalities.

"This should be achieved not through the power of guns, but through the power of civilization and justice."

Many of Xinjiang’s estimated 8 million Uyghurs complain of strict controls on their religion and culture that China enforces and resent influxes of Han Chinese migrant workers and businesses.

Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness despite China's ambitious plans to develop its vast northwestern frontier.

Source: Radio Free Asia.
Link: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/death-09142011181933.html.

Deportation Based on Bogus Claim

2011-09-07

Chinese officials may have falsified evidence to repatriate a Uyghur from Thailand.

Chinese authorities made a false claim to convince the Thai government to extradite a Uyghur last month for his alleged involvement in ethnic riots, according to a Uyghur exile group.

Nur Muhemmed was arrested by local police on Aug. 6 for illegally entering Thailand and was handed over to Chinese authorities in the capital Bangkok, making him one of the most recent of a number of Uyghurs who have been repatriated following pressure from Chinese authorities.

Reports by Japanese media suggest that Muhemmed may have fled Urumqi after Chinese authorities accused him of participating in ethnic unrest in the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in July 2009. At least 200 people were killed in the riots.

The Chinese Embassy in Bangkok also told Thai Immigration Bureau officials that Muhemmed was part of a Uyghur “terrorist” network responsible for bomb attacks and riots in Xinjiang.

But according to new evidence provided by Ilshat Hasan, vice-president of the Washington-based Uyghur American Association (UAA), Muhemmed had already been living in Thailand for nearly nine years as an illegal immigrant after moving to the country to escape religious persecution in China.

“As an illegal immigrant with no travel documents, and as a father of two children he had after marrying a local woman, Muhemmed had never left Thailand until his deportation,” Hasan told RFA.

Hasan said that Muhemmed moved to Thailand at the end of 2002, living in Chiangmai, in northern Thailand, for several months before relocating to the capital to apply for political asylum with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

While in the process of applying for asylum, Hasan said, Muhemmed met a Thai woman named Fatima whom he married in 2004. The couple had a daughter, named Sekine, in 2005.

“His application for asylum was denied by the UNHCR in 2006, and after the decision the family moved back to Chiangmai, where Muhemmed struggled to support his family,” Hasan said.

“When the July 5 [Urumqi] incident occurred, he was watching the events unfold on a television at the restaurant where he was working as a dishwasher.”

Escape from persecution

Hasan said that Muhemmed had left Urumqi for Thailand years earlier after a religious class he attended in his neighborhood was broken up by police who accused attendees of holding an illegal gathering.

Not long after the class was targeted, state security forces began to monitor Muhemmed and the other students, prompting him to leave the country without a passport.

“As an illegal immigrant, Muhammed always had difficulty finding a job. Most of the time, his family had to rely solely on Fatima’s business hawking goods on the street,” Hasan said.

In January this year, the family moved back to Bangkok after Muhemmed heard that he could obtain a Thai passport through the black market.
In March, the couple had a second daughter.

“When he was accused of being a terrorist and sent back to China, his daughter Sekine was five years old and his daughter Sayida was only three months old,” Hasan said.

At the time, Dolkun Isa, general secretary of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC), had called on Thailand to ignore pressure from the Chinese to repatriate Muhemmed, where Isa said he could face torture and even death upon his return.

“It is no secret how dangerous the current situation in East Turkestan [Xinjiang] is after the Hotan and Kashgar incidents,” Isa said, referring to deadly attacks in the two Silk Road cities by Uyghur groups against Chinese security personnel in July.

“It is easy to imagine what the fate of a Uyghur refugee might be in the case of a deportation at this time,” he said.

Chinese alerted

According to a Uyghur friend in Thailand who asked to remain anonymous, Muhemmed rarely called his parents unless there was an urgent need.

Several months ago, he said, Muhemmed had received information that his father was sick and had begun calling his family regularly.

“The telephone calls likely aroused the suspicion of the Chinese intelligence service and they decided to arrest him,” the friend said.

“This is the only reason I can imagine why he would have been targeted by China.”

Another Uyghur, a student in a Southeast Asian country, said that Muhemmed’s long disappearance would have alerted the attention of Chinese authorities.

“Disappearing for nine years without official knowledge—of course that would create a big question mark in the minds of China’s state security officials,” the Uyghur student said.

“For Uyghurs these days, everything is a crime, including disappearing, speaking your mind, or even thinking something deeply. This shows how tense relations have become between the Uyghur people and the Chinese state.”

Regional influence

China has used its economic influence in the region to detain and repatriate a number of Uyghurs authorities said were wanted in connection with deadly rioting that gripped the Xinjiang capital Urumqi in 2009, although they did not publicly provide any evidence of their involvement.

In the months that followed the violence in Urumqi, hundreds of Uyghurs were detained and at least nine were executed.

Aside from Thailand, Malaysian authorities in mid-August turned over 11 Uyghurs to Chinese authorities they had accused of involvement in a human trafficking ring, drawing criticism from two senior U.S. lawmakers.

Pakistan deported five Uyghurs to China weeks before the Malaysian extradition. The country had previously deported “Xinjiang separatists” to China on at least three occasions.

Cambodia deported the majority of 22 Uyghurs who sought refuge status there through the UNHCR shortly after they fled China in the aftermath of the 2009 ethnic violence in Urumqi.

In recent years, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos have all repatriated the Muslim Uyghurs, allegedly following pressure from Chinese authorities.

Many of Xinjiang’s estimated 8 million Uyghurs chafe at the strict controls on their religion and culture that China enforces and resent influxes of Han Chinese migrant workers and businesses.

Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness despite China's ambitious plans to develop its vast northwestern frontier.

Source: Radio Free Asia.
Link: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/claim-09072011163035.html.

Pet hotel thrives as Koreans seek canine companions

By Nam You-Sun | AFP
(8th of July 2012 Sunday)

Checking into one of Seoul's newest luxury clinics just because your companion needs a shower may seem extravagant, but Cho Hang-Min said he had no other choice.

"Other places won't do it," said Cho, a student, explaining why he and his Border Collie have stopped off at Irion.

The two-storey establishment in the city's wealthy Gangnam district is a luxury hotel and clinic for pampered pets -- a rising trend in South Korea where dogs were once treated as guard animals or as something to eat.

These days younger Koreans are spending more on their pets, enabling the rise of a high-end industry out to ensure that canine companions are just as pampered as their style-conscious owners.

Irion, which means "Come here" in Korean, opened in February 2011 as a one-stop complex offering a veterinary clinic, grooming salon, cafe, shop, daycare center, an exercise area and "hotel" rooms for dogs and cats.

"I opened Irion because I saw the demand in the industry, to keep pace with the growing animal companion culture in Korea as the economy develops," Park So-Yeon, head of the DBS company which runs the facility, told AFP.

"These facilities are necessities, not luxuries, for people raising animals. Unfortunately I couldn't find facilities good enough to feel safe and satisfied before I opened Irion."

Irion offers 36 rooms of varying sizes and high-end clinical equipment including computer tomography, X-ray and ultrasound machines. At the front door a shop sells everything from snacks to pet strollers.

Hotel fees range from 40,000 won ($35.26) to 200,000 won a night.

"People say it's nonsensical to spend all that money on animals, but we provide daily health checkups, a hygienic environment, large hotel rooms and an exercise area and I'm pretty sure this is not a high price," said Park.

"And as for the clinic, we have vet specialists for different body parts, even a herbal medicine vet and high-technology equipment that smaller hospitals don't possess."

Despite the price, Park said about 2,000 dogs and cats come to Irion every month for all sorts of services. During the summer vacation season, rooms are booked out.

Cho, 19, was not quibbling about cost after reclaiming his newly fragrant pooch. "The hospital is big and clean...I like it here and plan to come here once every two weeks to shower my dog," he said.

Another patron, Lee Ji-Hyun, said price was not a problem in return for good care. "Services are great and my babies love the place," she said of her two Maltese terriers and a Yorkshire terrier.

Increasingly affluent and urbanized South Koreans in recent decades have been cherishing dogs as companions.

The state-run Rural Development Administration estimates the pet dog industry was worth 1.8 trillion won ($1.58 billion) as of 2010 and growing at an average annual rate of 11 percent.

Nearly 20 percent of households have pets, according to official statistics, with about 95 percent of them owning dogs. But Park thinks the country still has some way to go.

"Korea is relatively slow in pet industry growth because it has unique traditions, such as raising animals out of the house, and some other extreme ones," she said, referring to eating dogmeat.

"But those are changing nowadays."

Eating dogs is a longstanding custom. But growing numbers of Koreans oppose the practice and consider it an international embarrassment.

In June last year the Korea Dog Farmers' Association cancelled a planned dogmeat festival following protests from animal rights activists.

The Rural Development Administration said Koreans have begun seeing dogs as partners for life rather than toys and started treating them as family members.

Park said there is still room for improvement in petiquette (pet etiquette) such as always using a lead outdoors and training dogs to behave.

"Owners still need to learn petiquette because I don't think we are quite there yet in terms of animal culture compared to other countries like the US and Japan," she said.

"What's so sad is that even up to now the largest number of dogs and cats are being adopted at Christmas and Children's Day...people must consider whether they are responsible enough to raise animals."

Park now operates four Irion multi-complexes and four which provide only veterinary treatment. She says she plans to open more in coming months.

Lucky baby golden eagle survives Utah wildfire

(July 8th 2012, Sunday)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A baby golden eagle is recovering at a wildlife rehabilitation facility after officials say it miraculously survived a Utah wildfire last month.

Kent Keller told The Salt Lake Tribune he feared the worst when he returned to the nest site west of Utah Lake to retrieve a leg band he had attached to the male eaglet June 1.

But the veteran Utah Division of Wildlife Resources volunteer found the burned bird alive on June 28 behind a charred tree, about 25 feet below the nest that was burned to a crisp in the 5,500-acre Dump Fire near Saratoga Springs.

"I thought there was no chance he would be alive. I was stunned when I saw him standing there," Keller said. "I thought maybe I could rebuild the nest a little bit, but I took a good look at him and realized that was not going to happen."

The 70-day-old eaglet had suffered burns on his talons, beak, head and wings. His flight feathers were melted down to within an inch or two of his wing and tail. He's very underweight at just over five pounds.

Keller realized the eagle would not fly for at least a year and that the parents eventually would stop providing food. Not a stick from the nest was left after the fire sparked by target shooters swept through

"I've seen nests burn before, but this is the first year I have seen one burn with young in it," he told the Tribune. "They are usually long gone and flying when fire season starts."

After permission was secured from state and federal wildlife agencies, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah in Ogden assumed care of the eaglet this week.

"I wasn't sure he was going to make it," said DaLyn Erickson, executive director of the center. "He kind of had that look like he may have given up."

But the eagle named Phoenix has since taken to eating beef heart and venison. He's treated several times a day for his burns and seems to be gaining strength.

"He looks good now," said Amber Hansen, a member of the center's board of directors. "But we think if he had been there (at the nest site) another day, he probably would not have survived."

What seems to have saved his life during the fire was the insulation offered by his down feathers and once-thick body, according to the wildlife rehabilitation center.

Officials hope the bird can be released back into the wild next year, but say it's too early to tell about its future. Volunteers will work to keep him as wild as possible.

"It depends on how much follicle damage there is to his wings," Hansen said. "If they are not too burned, he should be able to molt into new feathers next year and hopefully be able to fly."

Romania president impeached amid EU, US concern

July 06, 2012

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romanian lawmakers impeached President Traian Basescu in an overwhelming vote Friday, paving the way for a national referendum that could see the divisive and increasingly unpopular leader ousted from the powerful position he's held for eight years.

The vote of 256-114 in parliament came as Basescu and Prime Minister Victor Ponta have engaged in a bitter power struggle in the eastern European country of 19 million, which emerged from communism in 1989. The machinations, especially attempts to sideline the judiciary, have led the United States and the European Union to issue statements of concern about Romania's democracy.

Basescu's opponents accused him of overstepping his authority by meddling with the prime minister's office and trying to influence judicial affairs. The 60-year-old former ship captain also was accused of making racist remarks about Gypsies and disabled people.

Senate Speaker Crin Antonescu, who will serve as interim president now that Basescu has been effectively suspended from the role, said a popular referendum on Basescu's fate will be held July 29. Basescu was impeached in 2007 but survived a referendum. Still, his popularity has declined steeply, and he faces tougher odds this time.

One major reason is that the Ponta-led government changed the law this week to make it easier to oust Basescu from office. Now, a simple majority of votes cast is needed to push him out. Before, a majority of all voters in Romania was required.

Upon hearing of the impeachment, hundreds of Romanians rallied in downtown Bucharest to cheer the news, while others gathered to express their disappointment. Basescu vowed late Friday to use "all constitutional resources" to stay in office for his full five-year term, which ends in 2014, and called his impeachment "an abuse."

He denied abusing his power, but defended his outspokenness and active participation in political life. He had earlier defended himself against the allegations of making racist and disparaging comments by saying he has the right to free speech.

"The elected president cannot be a mute," Basescu said in a speech at the presidential palace. "He has to assume responsibilities." Unlike presidencies in some European nations, Basescu's position is not merely ceremonial. He is elected in a popular vote and is in charge of foreign policy, the powerful intelligence services and the country's defense policies.

Basescu claims that he steered Romania through the financial crisis that engulfed it in 2008, has improved ties with Moldova, which was part of Romania until 1940, and has made Romania a reliable partner of NATO and of the United States.

Basescu is a center-right politician, though as president he is not allowed to be a member of any party. Ponta, 39, heads the left-leaning Social Democratic Party, and became prime minister on May 7. He is the third Romanian premier in four months, and, unlike those who have held the role over the past decade, Ponta has not been deferential to the president. Instead, he has move quickly to sideline Basescu allies.

Earlier this week, Romanian lawmakers ousted the speakers of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies — the two houses of parliament. Both were allies of the president, and they were replaced with supporters of the prime minister, including Antonescu.

Also this week, Ponta issued a decree reducing the powers of the Constitutional Court with regard to its ruling on parliamentary laws. Also in recent weeks, Ponta ignored the Constitutional Court's ruling that Basescu, not he, should represent Romania at a European Union summit.

Those actions and others have prompted statements of concern from world powers. The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, on Friday called on the Ponta's government to respect the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law, calling them "the cornerstones of European democracy" and essential for "mutual trust" within the EU.

U.S. Ambassador Mark H. Gitenstein, also has expressed concern about threats to the "independence of democratic institutions" in Romania. In apparent reference to these concerns, Ponta said authorities would ensure that the referendum on Basescu was organized in a legal manner.

Elite counterdrug units proposed for Mexico

July 07, 2012

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The top security adviser for Mexico's next president said Friday that he is recommending the creation of elite units of police and troops who will target not just major drug traffickers but also lower-level cartel hitmen as a way of swiftly reducing violence.

The proposal newly retired Colombian police director Gen. Oscar Naranjo explained in an interview with The Associated Press offers a glimpse of how President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto might fulfill his promise to slash the number of murders and kidnappings by 50 percent during his six years in office.

Similar to the approach that Naranjo employed against Colombian traffickers, the proposal raises the question of whether the widely respected general can reproduce his success in a very different country.

More than 47,500 people have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched a military-led offensive against Mexico's cartels nearly six years ago. Pena Nieto has pledged to reduce violence by refocusing law-enforcement efforts away from the current administration's heavy reliance on the military to capture drug-cartel leaders and seize their product. He says he wants to better protect ordinary citizens from criminals.

He provided few specifics during his three-month campaign, leading to speculation he would ease pressure on traffickers as long as they throttled down violence. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, who has held a series of meetings with the president-elect and his advisers, told the AP this week that Pena Nieto has discussed a new offensive against the smaller, local gangs that have cropped up in many Mexican states and earn money through kidnapping and extortion in addition to drug dealing.

Naranjo's proposal of small, elite units dovetails with that idea. Such units have specific goals and typically work in isolation. The better a unit performs, the more resources it gets. Information is compartmentalized to prevent leaks. The model worked in Colombia and Naranjo said it could also be effective in Mexico.

Such units, which Naranjo said could be comprised in Mexico of the Army, Navy and police, should pursue not just of "high-value targets" such as Sinaloa and Zeta cartel bosses, said Naranjo, who retired June 12 after five years atop his country's 170,000-member police.

"It's good to go after drug dealers in order to capture them. But it's not good not to have elite groups going after killers in order to impose the law, those squads of hitmen," he said. "You also have to put a lot of importance on these groups of hitmen to control the violence."

The idea has been discussed by Mexico's security experts, and makes sense as a component of a broader strategy to reduce violence, said Eric Olson, associate director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

"If you want to really stop the violence, don't focus on the kingpins, focus on the killers, it kind of eliminates this middle range of actors," he said. Naranjo also proposed setting violence-reduction targets for Mexico.

"In the first 100 days (of Pena Nieto's government) the goal should be set for reducing violence. It could go badly. It could go well. But it should be put in play," he said. "I think it's possible to tell the Mexicans, 'Look, in 100 days we want to cut the violence we have in half.'"

It's feasible, he said, because Mexico's violence "is really concentrated. If you look at the map of violence there it's in six places. It's impossible that in six cities you can't have some control."

The 55-year-old Colombian said he does not believe it wise to use Mexico's military against drug traffickers, criticizing Calderon's sending of 10,000 troops into Ciudad Juarez at the end of last year.

It neither reduced deaths nor intimidated criminals, he said. Naranjo, aided by his U.S. allies, had been advising Calderon's government since 2007. Colombian police have in the interim trained more than 7,000 Mexicans in investigative techniques.

A top foreign policy adviser to Pena Nieto said the president-elect is focused on fighting crime by swiftly spurring economic growth and job-creation with reforms that include bringing private investment into Mexico's state-owned Pemex oil company, developing massive shale gas deposits on the Texas border and building alternative supplies including wind energy projects in southern states like Oaxaca and Baja California.

Emilio Lozoya said Pena Nieto's transition team wants to forge consensus among the lawmakers when Mexico's next congress convenes in September, three months before Pena Nieto takes office. "Our aim is to have an energy bill that is clear and gives absolute clarity to local and foreign capital to co-invest along the state in developing these energy sources," Lozoya said. The importance of economic growth to security, he said, is that "you won't get one without focusing on the other."

"The best weapons against organized crime and insecurity is jobs," he said. He said a focus on developing infrastructure projects and agriculture would also be important for the new administration. Lozoya also said Pena Nieto's administration would want more intelligence-sharing from the U.S., particularly to combat money-laundering, and that Mexico would seek a bigger role in building stability in Central America, which he called a major source of the problems afflicting Mexico, drug-trafficking among them.

Despite major security gains under Naranjo, rural Colombia remains turbulent. Thousands of hired guns in the service of rival drug gangs continue to plague it as well as leftist rebels who are deeply engaged in cocaine trafficking.