CHINA: Researchers: No Evidence Linking China Quakes

(AP Photo/Xinhua)

April 16, 2010

Disastrous China Earthquake Not Related to 2008 Sichuan Quake, Geologists Say

(Discover) A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck China’s southern Qinghai Province this week. The death toll now stand at more than 600, and rescuers pulled more than 1,000 people from the rubble alive. But, geologists say, this quake doesn’t seem linked to the massive one that shook the nearby province of Sichuan two years ago.

"It’s not the same fault, it’s a consequence of the same bit of global tectonics, which is the collision of India with Asia. That’s the only link I’d make," said Dr David Rothery.

The May 2008 Sichuan earthquake resulted from a thrust fault, which happens frequently in the region near the Himalayas where India and Asia collided long ago. But although this week’s quake happened not far from there, Rothery says it was a strike-slip event, which happens when there is sideways movement along a fault line. That’s the type of event that caused the January earthquake in Haiti.

The results have been devastating in the rural region of Qinghai. As many as 70 Buddhist monks were reported dead in the collapse of one monastery, Thrangu, about six miles outside of Jiegu. Some of the worst casualties occurred at local schools, where Xinhua reported at least 66 students and 10 teachers dead, including 32 at an elementary school and 22, 20 of them girls, at Yushu Vocational School.

As in Haiti, poorly built structures worsened the death toll. And rescuers continue to be hampered by a number of difficulties: Qinghai is difficult to reach, cold, and at an altitude of approximately 13,000 feet.

With so much shaking going on in 2010-including major earthquakes already in Haiti, Chile, Japan, and elsewhere-the question on many minds is whether the planet is becoming more prone to earthquakes. For geologists, a few months are less than the blink of an eye compared to the timescales with which they work. But, they say, there is natural variation in seismic activity.

“Relative to the 20-year period from the mid-1970’s to the mid 1990’s, the Earth has been more active over the past 15 or so years,” said Stephen S. Gao, a geophysicist at Missouri University of Science & Technology. “We still do not know the reason for this yet.”

2010’s quakes aren’t “unusual” activity, the U.S. Geological Survey says. But, they have been so clustered and so deadly that they’ve created the unshakable impression of an increasingly-shaky planet. What happens is when a lot of people get killed there’s a lot of reporting of it, and if an equally big event occurs somewhere out in the middle of nowhere it doesn’t attract the attention,” said G. Randy Keller, professor of geophysics at the University of Oklahoma.

View article…

NARA, JAPAN: Media get glimpse of Nara's 1300th anniversary celebrations

Saturday, April 17, 2010

By ERIC JOHNSTON

Staff writer

NARA — A press preview of the celebrations for the 1,300th anniversary of the founding of Heijyo-kyo as Japan's ancient capital, which officially begin son April 24, was held Friday, as Nara officials scramble to put the final touches on an event they hope will boost the area's appeal as a tourist destination.

The Heijyo-kyo capital, the site of which is located just west of downtown Nara, has been partially re-created.

A number of modern facilities, including museums featuring high-tech displays of Nara's historic role as the far eastern end of the Silk Road in the eighth century, have been built for the anniversary event, which ends in November.

Art exhibits, concerts and cultural events spotlighting both ancient Nara and its connection to East and Central Asia via the Silk Road are also planned throughout the year.

Two of the more prominent re-creations are the throne of the ancient Heijyo-kyo emperor, who welcomed delegations from China and the Korean Peninsula, and the ship that carried 12 to 20 diplomatic missions between Japan and China from 710 to 794, when the capital was moved to Kyoto.

While Heijyo-kyo was Japan's capital, Buddhism, Chinese calligraphy, and the art, culture and political and economic systems of China's Tang Dynasty were imported into the country.

Two years ago, Nara officials predicted nearly 13 million visitors from Japan and abroad would visit Heijyo-kyo and Nara Prefecture this year, and Nara sees the celebrations as a way to build its tourism industry.

Officials expect many foreign tourists, especially from China and South Korea. While much of the information explaining Heijyo-kyo's history is only in Japanese, there are also some explanations in English, Chinese, Korean and French, as French tourists now constitute the largest number of non-Asian visitors to the city.

View article…

SHANGHAI, CHINA: World's Fair: Shanghai Expo 2010

On May 1, 2010, a sensational showcase of global architecture, science and technology will open in Shanghai, with tens of millions of visitors expected over six months. The first international exposition was held at London's Crystal Palace in 1851. The Paris world's fair in 1889 introduced the Eiffel Tower, and the first major showing of television came at the New York fair in 1939.

View Photo Slideshow

CHINA & TRAVEL: China Eastern joins SkyTeam

Chairman of the SkyTeam governing board Leo van Wijk (left) and China Eastern Airlines Chairman Liu Shaoyong shake hands at a signing ceremony of the carrier's membership in SkyTeam yesterday.

2010-4-17

By Winny Wang

CHINA Eastern Airlines will join the SkyTeam alliance in the first half of next year to gain access to the grouping's global network, the carrier said yesterday.

The Shanghai-based carrier yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with the alliance, which includes China Southern Airlines and Air France-KLM. The membership will give China Eastern access to 856 destinations in 169 countries across world.

"Joining an international airline alliance is China Eastern Airlines' strategic deployment to continuously strengthen core profitability and boost market competitiveness," said Liu Shaoyong, chairman of the carrier.

"The participation will help us improve (our) main business, especially business-class and first-class seats on international routes. It will support us to achieve the target to break even this year and make profit next year for the main business," Liu said.

The carrier will begin cooperation with alliance members during the 2010 World Expo, such as on flight connections.

Liu also said the carrier still welcomes airlines of other alliances to become its strategic investor. SkyTeam groups nine members and two associate airlines.

View article...

CHINA & US: Chinese factory in Microsoft probe

2010-4-17 

By Wang Xiang

MICROSOFT Corp is investigating allegations that one of its Chinese suppliers is exploiting staff and making them work in inhumane conditions.

KYE Systems Corp's factory in the southern city of Dongguan, which produces Microsoft mice and Xbox controllers, allegedly hired underage workers and made them work as long as 80 hours a week for less than 60 US cents an hour, according to The National Labor Committee, a workers-rights organization based in the United States.

A team of independent auditors is in the facility for a complete and thorough investigation, said Microsoft's vice president of manufacturing and operations for the entertainment and devices division, Brian Tobey, in a statement.

He said the company will take "appropriate action" if the investigation found the factory is not "adhering to its standards."

The labor committee report, which followed three years of undercover investigations, showed pictures of workers asleep at their desks and of their cramped dormitory.

Taiwan-based KYE reportedly hid underage workers in off-site facilities during previous inspections.

The report quoted a KYE worker as saying he felt like a prisoner. Workers spent 15 hours a day at their desks and were not allowed to leave their post, not even to go to toilet, the report said.

"My work is to put plastic pieces together, day and night, that's all," the report quoted one worker as saying.

Another was required to make 2,000 optical mice a day but as soon as he finished, the managers would raise the bar. The report also said the workshops were swelteringly hot in summer.

Tobey said Microsoft receives weekly reports from KYE and had seen no incidence of child labor or unpaid overtime.

KYE official Li Jiongliang said the factory's management was legal in all aspects and inspections would not scare him, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

Li said the report was produced without understanding China's reality. He said salaries were about 1,500 yuan (US$220) a month, as the report said, but that was 50 percent higher than Dongguan's minimum wage.

View article...

SHANGHAI, CHINA: Port success

2010-4-17

Source: Shanghai Daily

YANGSHAN Deep-Water Port has handled more than 21,390 international shipping services since December 2005 when the port opened.

Maritime officials at the port said yesterday that there were 1,752 international shipping services so far this year, a 5.99 percent rise compared with last year.

The port has also handled 27.88 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) since 2005. This year there were 2 million TEUs, 25.1 percent more than last year.

View article...

SHANGHAI, CHINA: 1990 - 2010 Twenty years of Pudong

 

The Pudong New Area is a symbol of China's reform and opening-up.

2010-4-17  

By Wang Jie and Yao Minji  

TWENTY years ago tomorrow, China proclaimed the development and opening-up of Shanghai's Pudong, then vast stretches of farmland and villages.

Today, the Pudong New Area is a forest of high-rises, a center of finance and possibilities and the symbol of China's reform and opening-up.

Even Disneyland is coming.

The place where the Yangtze River meets the sea is sometimes called the miniature of modern construction in Shanghai.

On April 18, 1990, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council announced the opening-up of Pudong, today called the Pudong New Area.

In the past two decades, Pudong accelerated its reform and development -- and established a model of seaport industry development by combining international thinking and local characteristics.

The dramatic change of the Pudong New Area can be seen not only in its spectacular appearance and financial industry, but also in the lives of ordinary people.

"Ten years ago, life was not that convenient," she says. "I often envied my colleagues in Puxi who could go shopping so easily, but there were few big shopping malls in Pudong."

-Christine Wu
35, female, white-collar worker

Wu is known as "New Shanghainese," referring to those out-of-towners who have made the city their home.

Born in Hefei, Anhui Province, Wu was drawn to the glamor of Shanghai and decided to go to Shanghai University.

Wu is now pregnant and says she is satisfied with her life.

Today Wu is proud that Pudong is in no way inferior to Puxi in terms of fashion and trendy living.

"I don't have to cross the Huangpu River for something special," she says.

The only thing that troubles her is the rising property price in the Pudong New Area.

"Because of the coming baby, I want to purchase a bigger apartment so my parents can live with us," she says. "But that' really hard to achieve."

Ten years ago, when Lelakul first arrived in Shanghai from Bangkok, she saw only the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and open land. There were no other tall buildings.

Lelakul is assistant vice president at Lotus Supercenter and since 2000 she has lived in the 22-story Haifu Garden community at Yanggao and Lancun roads.

"The changes over the past 10 years have been very dramatic. My apartment building was literally the only one in the area when I first moved in, but you can see all kinds of tall buildings in every corner of the area now," says Lelakul. "It has been changing all the time and suddenly accelerated after 2007."

-Rojanee Lelakul
36, female, corporate executive

Lelakul enjoys the increasingly more convenient life in Pudong with modern facilities -- nice restaurants, tall office buildings, luxurious bars, spas and other venues.

"It has also got cleaner and more organized as it gets close to the upcoming World Expo 2010 Shanghai," she says.

I enjoy my life pretty much thanks to the reform and opening-up of Pudong."
Sun Shengnan,
46, female, civil servant

Sun was born in a small rural village in Pudong. Puxi, on the other side of the Huangpu River, was too far away back then.

"I would be so excited if my parents took me to Puxi," she recalls.

At that time, it took almost half a day to get from Pudong to Puxi.

"I had to walk 20 minutes to the bus station, where there was only one bus that connected with the ferry to Puxi," she says.

The bus took an hour, the ferry took another an hour, and then she took another bus to her destination in Puxi.

View article...

JAPAN & US: Toyota Recalls 60,000 Sienna Minivans

April 16, 2010

by The Associated Press

Toyota Motor Corp. is recalling 600,000 Sienna minivans sold in the United States to address potential corrosion in the spare tire carrier cable in the latest safety problem to strike the beleaguered automaker.

The recall came as House investigators said they planned to hold another congressional hearing in May to review potential electronic problems in runaway Toyotas. The Japanese automaker has recalled more than 8 million vehicles because of faulty accelerator pedals, humbling a car company long known for its quality and safety.

Company leaders vowed to respond quickly to the safety concerns.

Toyota says the recall affects the 1998-2010 model year Siennas that have been operated in cold-climate areas.

The automaker says rust from road salt could cause the carrier cable to break. The spare tire could become separated from the vehicle and cause a road hazard for other vehicles.

Toyota said it was unaware of any accidents or injuries. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had received six complaints of spare tires falling off Siennas.

Toyota says it is working on a fix. In the meantime, customers will get a notice telling them to bring their vehicle to a dealership for an inspection.

The recall involves two-wheel-drive Sienna minivans in the District of Columbia and 20 states: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

"Toyota is listening to its customers attentively, and we want to make sure their voices are heard," said Steve St. Angelo, Toyota's chief quality officer for North America.

St. Angelo said the company was providing free inspections of the spare tire carrier cable across the nation, including states not included in the recall. Owners can call (800) 331-4331 for more information about the recall.

Lawmakers remain focused on the spate of recalls affecting the company. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., a subcommittee chairman, said they plan to hold a May 6 hearing to look into potential electronic causes of sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles.

Toyota has said it has found no evidence of electronic problems, attributing the issues to sticking gas pedals and accelerators that can become jammed in floor mats.

Toyota said in a statement Friday it was "more than willing to meet with the committee and discuss the ongoing testing related to our electronic throttle control system, as well as the steps we are taking to improve our quality assurance processes. Nothing is more important to us than the safety and reliability of the vehicles our customers drive."

The Transportation Department has fined the company $16.4 million for failing to promptly notify the government about defective gas pedals among its vehicles. Toyota has until Monday to agree to the penalty or contest it. The fine is the largest civil penalty ever issued to an automaker by the government.

Transportation officials have not ruled out additional fines. The department is reviewing whether Toyota delayed for six weeks the late January recall of the 2009-2010 Venza in the United States to address floor mats that could entrap the accelerator pedal after making a similar recall in Canada.

Toyota recalled the Venza in Canada in December and reported to the U.S. government on Dec. 16 that the floor mats could move forward while the vehicle is in use and "may interfere with the accelerator pedal." Toyota told U.S. authorities at the time that the floor mats in question were not imported into the U.S. but the Venza was added to the floor mat recall in late January.

Automakers are required to notify the U.S. government within five business days when they find a potential safety defect.

Waxman and Stupak, meanwhile, have asked Toyota and outside consulting firm Exponent Inc. to provide documents detailing a review of possible electronic problems in its vehicles. Exponent, which was hired by Toyota, said in an interim report it could find no evidence that electronic malfunctions had caused sudden unintended acceleration.

Committee investigators said in February that the Exponent testing was flawed because it studied only a small number of Toyota vehicles and consumer groups have said electronics could be the cause of the acceleration problems. Reviews of some high-profile crashes in San Diego and suburban New York have failed to find either mechanical or electronic problems.

View article...

CHINA: Priceless Coin Collection Returns Home To China

More than 100 items from U.S. numismatic enthusiast Howard Bowker's coin collection were presented to the Shanghai Mint Museum on April 16. Some of the items are so rare that experts say they are literally priceless. Shen Cichen/NPR

April 16, 2010

by Louisa Lim

In China, paramilitary police drill outside the Shanghai Mint. They're stationed there because it's literally a moneymaking plant.

It's also a museum and, on Friday, it received a new, welcome donation, hand-carried from the U.S. with far less security.

The Sun Yat-sen copper dollar, issued in 1932, was China's first national coinage.  Shen Cichen/NPR

Gordon Bowker, one of the founders of Starbucks, and his cousin Carolyn Bowker packed up part of their grandfather's priceless coin collection in their luggage, brought it to China and donated it to the Shanghai Mint Museum.

"There really is no better place for the coins to be," says Gordon Bowker. "They would have much less interest to scholars and to the public anywhere else in the world. So it's a natural thing for them to be in Shanghai where they originated."

Collection Reflects 2,000 Years Of History

Gordon and Carolyn Bowker's grandfather Howard Bowker joined the U.S. Navy when he was 19 years old and was stationed in Hankou, China, in 1923. He taught himself Chinese, Japanese and Korean. He also began collecting coins, a hobby that Gordon Bowker says married two of his grandfather's greatest passions.

"He was fascinated by Chinese history. And he had a big background in money: He was a purser, and a paymaster, and he liked money. I think he liked to count it," Bowker says.

Shen Cichen/NPR

The oldest item in the collection is a coin mold that produces more than one coin at a time. It dates back to 200 B.C. and the reign of China's first emperor. Experts say items such as this one are considered "national treasures" and cannot be valued.

The resulting coin collection reflects the past 2,000 years of Chinese history. Its earliest piece is a coin mold dating back to 200 B.C., during the reign of China's unifier and first emperor, Qin Shihuang.

Michael Chu from the iAsure Group, which runs an auction house specializing in Asian coins, has been researching the collection for two years. He describes how the coin mold produces multiple coins.

"They pour very hard metal into this mold and then a coin tree comes out of this coin mold, and then they break off the coins from the tree individually. So when someone tells you money doesn't grow on trees, it actually does in China," Chu says.

Like A 'Mother Reunited With Her Child'

Chu says it's impossible to value much of the collection, since the objects are so rare, they seldom are sold on the open market. He says items such as the 2,000-year-old coin mold would be considered a "national treasure" in China.

Every coin in the collection is a tangible slice of China's history. One item with immense historical significance is a copper dollar featuring a sailing junk over three flying birds on one side and Sun Yat-sen on the other.

When it was issued in 1932, the Sun Yat-sen dollar was the first national coinage for the whole of China; until that point, coins had been issued regionally.

It's a testament to the chaos of China's recent history -- and the flow of valuables beyond its borders -- that the Shanghai Mint Museum didn't have a single example of this historic coin, which was designed in the U.S. by the Philadelphia Mint.

Zhang Yueqin is deputy general secretary of the Shanghai Mint's Coin Institute. When asked about the significance of this coin, his voice thickens and he becomes visibly emotional.

Shen Cichen/NPR

Another item donated to the Shanghai Mint is this mold for a bank note from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

"We had the mold, but we didn't have a coin," he explains. "The coin has finally come home. It's as if after 80 years a mother is reunited with her child. It's a miracle. The friendship between China and America is embodied in this coin."

Only First Installment Of Collection

The bequest, including a library, was originally left to the Smithsonian, where Howard Bowker had worked as a curator. But his descendants decided the collection would be better served -- and more accessible -- elsewhere.

"There's no curator of Asian coins at the Smithsonian," Gordon Bowker explains. "Without the staff and the ability to display the coins, it would display much less interest in having that collection."

The restitution of valuables to their point of origin is an increasing trend, although in this case, the coins were bought legitimately, not looted.

"Americans could lose out in that they don't get a broader sense of world history by the coins not being in the U.S.," Carolyn Bowker says. "I don't think there's a passion in American history for learning about some of the ancient, whether it's coins or artifacts. And so to have them returned to where the passion is, it just makes total sense to me."

The Bowkers handed over more than 100 coins Friday. But the entire collection consists of more than 5,000 coins, and the bequest to the Shanghai Mint Museum marks just the beginning of a longer process of return: The family plans to make other donations to a variety of Chinese museums.

View article…

CHINA & THE US: China has all their eggs in our basket

James Fallows and Damien Ma discuss China’s enormous dollar assets and how they make both countries vulnerable.

(Part 2 in a Series)

CHINA: China quake toll 'passes 1,000'

The number of people known to have been killed by a massive quake in China's Qinghai province has risen to 1,144, officials say.

Another 417 are still missing in the remote mountainous region and 11,744 have been injured, a rescue spokesman told the Xinhua news agency.

Thousands have been left homeless, with many having to sleep outdoors in freezing temperatures.

Premier Wen Jiabao has promised "all-out effort" to rebuild the area.

Heavy lifting equipment began arriving on Friday in the remote Himalayan region by road from hundreds of kilometres away.

Food, tents and medical supplies are arriving too but rescue workers say there is a critical need for further supplies.

An estimated 15,000 houses have been destroyed in Yushu county, leaving thousands of people homeless people and casualties waiting for help.

Rescue joy

Soldiers, civilian rescue workers and Buddhist monks have been using pickaxes, shovels and their bare hands to pick through the rubble for survivors.

"For us monks, the most important thing is life," said Danchujiasi, a monk who travelled to the scene from neighbouring Sichuan province.

"We have come here to help rescue people. So many people have died, and we want to save the ones still living."

A teacher at a school in Yushu county said he and other staff members had been digging students out of the rubble with their bare hands.

"We didn't have any kind of tools. We couldn't lift the bigger rocks so we found some ropes and pulled them," Chen Guangming told the Associated Press news agency.

"This way we were able to pull out five. Three of them are still alive."

Tens of thousands of people were injured in the quake, and one doctor in Jiegu said he had lost track of how many people he had treated.

"They just keep coming one after the other," said Myima Jiaba, working at a makeshift hospital in the town's sports stadium.

"Right now, what we need is a lot of medicine. We need antiseptics and antibiotics. And overall, we need more tents and food, and sanitation."

Power down

The monks have also been helping to collect bodies and prepare them for funerals.

At a foothill under the main monastery of Jiegu township, monks chanted Tibetan Buddhist mantras in front of piles of dead, Reuters news agency said.

"I'd say we've collected a thousand or more bodies here," said Lopu, a monk.

"Many of the bodies you see here don't have families or their families haven't come looking for them, so it's our job to take good care of them."

Rescuers in Yushu, which lies at about 4,000m (13,000ft), are facing freezing weather and high altitude.

Ninety-seven percent of Yushu's population is ethnic Tibetan, and state media said that 500 interpreters were being sent to aid rescuers.

The quake, which struck on Wednesday morning at the shallow depth of 10km (six miles), knocked out phone and power lines, and triggered landslides, blocking vital roads.

Premier Wen Jiabao visited the affected area on Thursday and Friday, promising "all-out efforts" to rebuild the devastated region.

He said the people would "overcome the disaster and improve national unity in fighting the calamity".

View article...

CHINA: Official and grassroots relief groups rally in wake of China earthquake

China earthquake: Tibetan monks help search for students believed to be trapped at a school which collapsed after an earthquake in northwest China's Qinghai Province.  Andy Wong/AP

The official death toll from 6.9-magnitude earthquake in China rose above 1,100 Friday. Thousands of Tibetan Buddhist monks joined Chinese soldiers to distribute food and clothes in the devastated town of Jiegu.

April 16, 2010

By Jonathan Landreth, Correspondent

Chinese, Tibetan, and international aid groups rallied in both official and grass-roots relief efforts Friday to help the 100,000 people left homeless in western China by a devastating earthquake.

The official death toll from the quake that leveled the high mountain town of Jiegu in Qinghai Province rose to 1,194, with more than 11,000 people seriously injured, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Survivors of the quake, which struck Yushu County just after dawn on Wednesday, spent a second night outdoors in below-freezing temperatures at 13,000 feet.

IN PICTURES: Earthquake in China's Qinghai Province

The Yushu quake was recorded at 6.9 on the Richter scale by the US Geological Survey, less powerful than the 8.0 seismic event that rocked neighboring Sichuan Province in May 2008, killing 90,000 people in and around Wenchuan County.

On Friday, thousands of Tibetan Buddhist monks wearing traditional crimson robes joined Chinese soldiers to distribute food and clothes in Jiegu. Medical rescue teams gathered in a makeshift center to treat the nearly 1,000 people who were seriously injured.

Chinese state television broadcast a few live rescues throughout the day, including that of a 13-year-old girl from a collapsed hotel. Premier Wen Jiabao, in Yushu late Thursday, pledged continued rescue efforts in remarks translated into the local Tibetan language.

Most of Yushu County's 100,000 people live in Jiegu, home to the Tibetan Buddhist Gyegu Monastery, loyal to the exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who Beijing deems a "splittist."

Lijia, director of the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Friends of Rural Communities, based in the provincial capital of Xining, 600 miles away, said that his group would travel to Yushu to work with five other NGOs serving Tibetans.

With money raised via an English-language e-mail campaign, Lijia, himself a Tibetan who goes by only one name, said the NGOs would purchase food and water, tents, clothes, and medicine for delivery to numerous small communities outside Jiegu over the next three weeks.

"Then we will shape a long-term plan to help locals reconstruct their homes," he says. "The local government has its own plan, but we also believe in individual action. We will focus on those not served by the government. If we can fill that gap, we are doing our job."

A spokesman for the Chinese Red Cross who gave only his surname, Yang, said rescue teams had arrived in Yushu to investigate the disaster and deliver money, food, and supplies.

"Rescue work at Yushu is different from our work in Wenchuan two years ago. The government responded very quickly. We learned from our experiences and worked our best in Yushu," Yang said.

US Ambassador Jon Huntsman on Thursday donated $100,000 to the Chinese Red Cross on behalf of the US Embassy in Beijing.

Ramsey Rayyis, Beijing-based regional representative for the American Red Cross, said the Chinese government and the Chinese Red Cross had done a "commendable job in Sichuan," and "appear swifter in their response in Yushu due to lessons learned and contingencies put in place."

"The challenge in any disaster zone around the world is to maintain momentum once the cameras have gone away," Mr. Rayyis says.

Two years after the Sichuan quake, much of the outpouring of aid has yet to have its intended effect, says Francis Markus, information officer for the American Red Cross.

Speaking on Friday by cellphone from earthquake-hit Guangyuan, in Sichuan, Mr. Markus says: "It's a mixed picture here, because a lot is rebuilt and up and running, but many of the students we're talking to today are still living in tents."

Funds for rebuilding collapsed Sichuan homes have come partly from government grants, supplemented by low-interest bank loans, usually of about 20,000 yuan ($3,000), Markus says.

"The rest came from the Chinese Red Cross," he adds. "Their assistance, capped at about 15,000 yuan, is helping to bridge the gap, reducing the amount of debt people take on, letting them get back to their lives."

Zhang Yajun contributed to this report.

View article...

THE KOREAS: Why South Korea hesitant to blame North Korea in Cheonan ship sinking

The stern of the South Korean Cheonan ship is docked on a barge off Baengnyeongdo island near the maritime border with North Korea, northwest of Seoul, Friday.  Lee Jung-Hoon/Yonhap/Reuters

April 16, 2010

By Donald Kirk, Correspondent, Seoul, South Korea

South Korean investigators cited an 'external explosion' in the sinking of the Cheonan three weeks ago. The government is moving cautiously toward blaming North Korea, though it appears keen to avoid an escalating crisis.

Top South Korean officials moved inexorably Friday toward blaming North Korea for the sinking of a Navy ship three weeks ago, in a case in which many see the government's integrity and judgment in the balance.

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young, right, delivers a speech to the nation about the sunken South Korean Cheonan ship at the Defense Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Friday.   Lee Jin-man/AP

Related Stories

• Blog: North Korean, South Korean navies trade fire on disputed border
• South Korean ship sinking: Was North Korea involved?
• South Korea's Cheonan ship sinking mystery: A North Korea mine?
• Impatience deepens in South Korea over Cheonan ship sinking

While South Korea’s defense minister warned of “a grave national security issue,” the government clearly hoped to avoid an escalating crisis that might jeopardize economic success as well as the ability of President Lee Myung-bak to govern effectively.

The government “keeps saying there will be a firm response,” says Han Sung-joo, a former foreign minister and ambassador to the United States, “but that doesn’t mean a military reaction or an eye-for-eye response.”

Defense Minister Kim Tae-young sought to end suspicions among South Koreans of a cover-up as investigators sifted through the wreckage of the stern of the ship in which dozens of sailors were trapped. The bodies of most of the 46 victims were recovered from that section, which broke off in the explosion, while 58 others in the forward portion escaped.

Yoon Duk-yong, one of the lead investigators, said the ship seemed to have been sunk by “an external explosion,” not by ammunition or fuel blowing up.

A former South Korean submarine captain, Jung Sung, wrote in a newspaper here that it was “highly likely that a torpedo fired from a submarine or mine destroyed the ship.”

Mr. Kim promised to make public the results of the investigation “without leaving a dot of suspicion” – and then “work out the next step in a clear and stern manner.”

Unease over 'next step'

It’s that “next step,” however, that leaves many Koreans suspicious and wary.

“The South Korean government faces a dilemma,” says Ryoo Kihl-jae, professor at the University of North Korean Studies here. “We want countermeasures, but now we have just tensions. Maybe the government is in a very narrow space and doesn’t have lots of choice.”

Mr. Ryoo cites a long history of North Korean provocations. These range from a raid in early 1968 by North Korean troops on the Blue House, the center of presidential power in Seoul, to the assassination of 16 South Koreans and three Burmese by a bomb intended for South Korea’s former president, Chun Doo-hwan, on a visit to Burma in October 1983.

“We did not take any action,” he says. “I do not think the government can have such a response. The government cannot do a lot.”

Ryoo acknowledges, though, that South Koreans are angry at the failure of South Korean forces to have been able to prevent whatever it was that blew up the vessel, a 1,200-ton corvette named the Cheonan. That vessel, and others like it, have been on constant patrol for years just south of the Northern Limit Line in the West or Yellow Sea, below which the South insists all North Korean vessels are banned.

He expects government will try to fend off popular outrage by upgrading defenses.

“The government will be willing to supplement the current military defense system in a crisis situation,” he says. “This incident can be a useful opportunity to improve the system. It is a very serious lesson.”

Don't disrupt economic progress

A major consideration, though, is that no South Korean leader can afford to jeopardize the country’s steady economic progress. While much of the rest of the world has been writhing in economic malaise, the South Korean economy continues to grow. The gross national product this year is now expected to increase by 5 percent over that of last year.

“In the past decades after the Korean War, we have had many provocations,” says Ryoo, “but we still achieved rapid economic growth.”

Given that accomplishment, however, the sense among many Koreans is the Lee government will find a reason not to hold North Korea definitively responsible for the Cheonan incident. Investigators, for instance, may conclude that the wreckage still does not offer irrefutable evidence that the vessel was torn apart by a North Korean mine or torpedo.

“Of course President Lee is trying to cover up,” argues Jung Han-jin, a businessman. “I don’t think he’s going to expose the real trouble. It will have too much impact on his popularity. It’s not only embarrassing, it’s a serious hole in our defenses.”

Lee Chong-chang, a retired ambassador, believes Lee has wanted to play down the explosion for the sake of his role as a global leader.

“He’s worried about the G-20 summit,” says Mr. Lee, referring to the gathering of the leaders of the leading 20 economic powers that Lee will host here in November.”That’s a big mistake. This is nonsense.”

View article...

CHINA: China jails 'rape case' activists

Three men have been jailed in China's Fujian province after posting material online on behalf of a woman trying to investigate her daughter's death.

Fan Yanqiong, Wu Huaying and You Jingyou were found guilty of slander and harming state interests, in a trial which attracted protests outside court.

They had posted videos online in which the woman said her daughter died after being raped by thugs linked to police.

The police had said the woman died due to complications with a pregnancy.

Fan was given a two-year jail term while Wu and You received one year each at the trial in Fuzhou city, said their lawyer, Liu Xiaoyuan.

'Laughable'

Mr Liu said the three men had been helping Lin Xiuying to put pressure on the authorities to reopen the investigation into her daughter's death in 2008.

Ms Lin had accused the police of protecting a criminal gang she believed had gang-raped her daughter.

It was not clear who the three were accused of slandering.

"The court said the three people's actions have seriously affected the interest of the state, which is laughable," said Mr Liu.

"It infringes on the people's freedom of speech, which is the legal right of citizens," he told the Associated Press news agency.

Hundreds of internet users from across China had travelled to Fuzhou to show their support for the activists.

Witnesses said they waved banners and sang songs, while many also blogged from the scene or sent messages through the Twitter micro-blogging site.

China has some 400 million internet users but online material is heavily censored for political and moral content.

View article...

RUSSIA: Russian foster family to care for Artyom, rejected by U.S. mom

18:5116/04/2010

The 7-year-old Russian boy who arrived in Moscow alone on a plane from the United States after his U.S. adoptive family rejected him is to live with a Russian foster family, the Russian children's ombudsman told RIA Novosti on Friday.

"Artyom will be discharged from hospital and taken to a foster family next week," Pavel Astakhov said.

He did not give any further details about the foster family.

Astakhov said the boy has caught a slight cold, but managed to celebrate his eight birthday with enthusiasm in hospital.

He said the usually lengthy process of uniting an orphan with a foster family would be speeded up for Artyom in light of the circumstances.

Seven-year-old Artyom, who was adopted in the United States around six months ago, flew to Moscow on April 8 on his own after being accompanied to the plane in the United States by his adoptive grandmother. He was carrying a note from his former adoptive mother saying she would not take care of him any longer because he was "mentally unstable."

Multimedia

• Video:

  Artyom, who flew from the U.S. alone, celebrates his eighth birthday

• Video:

  Russian boy describes life with his adoptive mother in the US

MOSCOW, April 16 (RIA Novosti)

View article...

N. KOREA: A third Kim prepares for succession by organising fireworks

NORTH KOREA -A third Kim prepares for succession by organising fireworks

04/16/2010 15:48

by Joseph Yun Li-sun

North Korean sources say that last night’s great fireworks, which concluded the ‘day of the Sun’, were organised by Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il’s third son. The father also promoted one hundred officers to ensure the military’s loyalty.

Pyongyang (AsiaNews) – Kim Jong-il’s successor was officially designated last night. The event had been expected yesterday during the day. The grand fireworks display that concluded the celebrations of Kim Il-sung’s birthday, known as the “Day of the Sun”, was attributed to Kim Jong-un, the third son of the Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s ‘dear leader’. The youngest Kim is expected to become eventually North Korea’s next dictator. Organising fireworks was one of the task Kim Jong-il, Kim Il-sung’s son and successor, took on before he became president.

Local sources said that North Korean media described the heir, dubbed the ‘smart leader’, as the “youth captain” who “showcased his outstanding ability by organising the entire process (the fireworks) with a set of programmes and songs.

” In Korea, “it is tradition for the head of the household to organise the festivities.” This means that the youngest Kim “has been invested with the succession.”

Kim Ki-nam, secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (North Korea’s Communist party), added his voice, saying,

“We are lucky to have a dynasty of great leaders who serve the country and lead it to the great revolution.”

A publication titled “Instruction Materials on Kim Jong-un’s Greatness” was recently sent to North Korean media. It lays down guidelines on how to address the young heir, highlighting his areas of expertise, which include “organising festivities, fireworks and official choirs for the regime.”

The manual was also distributed to the country’s top brass. In it, Kim Jong-il is quoted as praising the ‘Youth Captain (Kim Jong-un) for his beautiful fireworks and ability in organising the ‘Day of the Sun’, said a source (anonymous for security reason) from Hamgyeongbuk province.

“According to the ‘dear leader’, the young man stayed up several nights to prepare the display; this is a sign of his great devotion to the country. And we were told about it.”

Whatever the case may be, the heir must become party secretary to finalise North Korea’s succession process.

In a sign of great benevolence, Kim Jong-il yesterday issued a decree promoting one hundred military leaders. He has thus filled the ranks of the military leadership with officers loyal to his son, Kim Jong-un.

North Korea’s military account for 50 per cent of the country’s GDP.

View article...

CHINA: China Quake Toll Nears 800 Amid Hunt For Survivors

April 16, 2010

by NPR Staff and Wires

Tibetan monks prayed over hundreds of bodies Friday at a makeshift morgue next to their monastery after powerful earthquakes destroyed the remote mountain town of Jiegu in western China and left at least 791 people dead.

The official toll was likely to climb further. Gerlai Tenzing, a red-robed monk from the Jiegu Monastery, estimated that about 1,000 bodies had been brought to a hillside clearing in the shadow of the monastery. He said a precise count was difficult because bodies continued to trickle in and some had already been taken away by family members.

Alyson Hurt/NPR

As he spoke, three monks and two other men awkwardly loaded two cloth-wrapped corpses into the trunk of a taxi. Nearby, other monks took pictures of bodies and rewrapped them, pinning numbers to each. Others recited prayers as yak-butter candles flickered nearby.

Relief workers estimate that 70 percent to 90 percent of the town of wood-and-mud houses collapsed when the earthquakes hit Yushu county Wednesday morning.

NPR's Anthony Kuhn reported from one of the hardest-hit towns that rescue workers were desperately trying to dig out survivors from the ruins of a collapsed hotel.

"They went at the crumbled hotel first with an excavator, then with shovels, then with hands. Some people were pulled out -- some dead, some alive," Kuhn said.

China Central Television reported that a 13-year-old Tibetan girl was pulled from the toppled two-story Minzhu Hotel on Friday after a sniffer dog alerted rescuers to her location. The girl, identified as Changli Maomu, was freed after a crane lifted a large concrete block out of the rubble, it said. Her condition was good and she was taken to a medical station for treatment, it said.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday afternoon the confirmed death toll had risen to 791, with 294 missing. The report said 11,477 people were injured, 1,174 severely. The strongest of the quakes Wednesday was measured at magnitude 6.9 by the U.S. Geological Survey and 7.1 by China's earthquake administration.

Kuhn said that because the area affected by the quake is relatively small, workers have been able to get heavy machinery, troops and rescue teams in place fairly quickly. But he said altitude in the remote mountain region was making search and rescue efforts more difficult.

"This town is almost 2 miles above sea level and so the oxygen is considerably thinner," he said.

Kuhn also noted that the large population of ethnic Tibetans and the numbers of Tibetan Buddhist monks assisting rescuers adds a politically sensitive edge to the government's aid efforts.

"The government is used to taking the lead and not letting civil society take the lead," Kuhn said. "Another thing they have to watch out for of course is burial practices. The government is burying a lot of the dead who are ethnic Tibetans, and it has to be careful that it doesn't offend them by not respecting their practices.”

To underline official concern for a Tibetan area that saw anti-government protests two years ago, Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Yushu county Thursday evening to meet survivors. President Hu Jintao, in Brazil after visiting Washington, canceled scheduled stops in Venezuela and Peru to come home.

Wen, the sympathetic, grandfatherly face of the usually distant Chinese leadership, sought to provide comfort and build trust with the mostly Tibetan victims of the quake.

"The disaster you suffered is our disaster. Your suffering is our suffering. Your loss of loved ones is our loss. We mourn as you do. It breaks our hearts," Wen said in remarks repeatedly broadcast on state TV.

Standing atop a pile of rubble clutching a wireless microphone, Wen also repeated nearly word for word the promise he made during the Sichuan earthquake:

"As long as there's a glimmer of hope, we will spare no effort and never give up."

Many survivors shivered through a second night outdoors as they waited for tents to arrive. Hundreds gathered on a plaza around a 50-foot tall statue of the mythical Tibetan King Gesar, wrapped in blankets taken from shattered homes.

Smoke rose from charcoal stoves dotting the plaza as some families brewed salty black tea, a Tibetan staple, and ate flat bread and fried noodles. Others complained there wasn't enough to eat and asked reporters to help them get food.

People with broken arms or legs cried in pain as medical teams could offer little more than injections. A doctor at the Qinghai provincial hospital, where the severely injured were being flown, said she had no idea how many were being treated because there was no time to count them all.

China Central Television reported that about 40,000 tents would be in place by Saturday, enough to accommodate all survivors. Also on the way was more equipment to help probe for signs of life under the debris, it said. The tools include small cameras and microphones attached to poles that can be snaked into crevices as well as heat and motion sensors.

Rescuers continued to probe the rubble for sounds or movement in a rush to find anyone buried alive more than 48 hours after the quakes hit.

At one collapsed building where people were believed trapped, about 70 civilians, including three dozen Tibetan monks in crimson robes, joined rescue workers.

"One, two, three," the monks chanted as they used wooden beams to try to push away a section of collapsed wall. They later tied ropes to a slab of concrete and dragged it away.

Xinhua quoted a local education official as saying 66 children and 10 teachers had died, mostly in three schools, but more remained missing.

Xu Lai, a spokesman for the Qinghai-based educational group Gesanghua, said the first and third grade classrooms at the Yushu No. 3 Wanquan Elementary School crumbled because they were built with mud, instead of brick and cement. Xu was not sure how many bodies or survivors had been recovered at the school.

Thogong Golma, an employee at the Children's Home of Hope for orphans, said the bodies of eight orphans had been found by Friday but 25 remained missing, including many who attended classes at the No. 3 Wanquan school.

"When we arrived at the No. 3 Wanquan Elementary School, the place had already been cleared, and the bodies had been pulled out and taken away," Thogong Golma said. "Right now, we are only looking around the town, asking everyone on the streets if they saw those missing children."

Thousands of students died during a massive Sichuan quake in 2008 when their poorly built schools collapsed. But unlike in Sichuan -- where schools toppled as other buildings stood -- nearly everything fell over in Yushu.

View article and photos...

S. KOREA: Veterans return to Korea for 59th anniversary of key battle

Korean War veterans in South Korea

(AFP) GAPYEONG, South Korea — Commonwealth veterans Friday gathered to commemorate a key Korean War battle 59 years ago in which they successfully fended off superior Chinese forces supporting the communist North.

The aging former soldiers, some of them carrying canes, snapped to attention and then marched towards the Canadian Korean War memorial in Gapyeong, the scene of the four-day Battle of Kapyong in April 1951.

Wearing purple or green berets and sporting blue grey or green uniforms decked with medals, some 30 Canadian veterans saluted solemnly in front of the monument engraved with a Canadian flag.

Korean War veterans from Canada

Scores of other Korean War veterans from Australia, New Zealand and Britain joined them in a moment of silence as a bugler played reveille for the lost souls.

"That was the biggest battle we were involved in," Canadian Kim Reynolds, 83, said of the fighting in the rugged area 55 kilometres (35 miles) northeast of Seoul.

His platoon was on a ridge as another Canadian platoon on the next ridge came under attack from Chinese troops after sundown.

"We could not do very much because we were too far over on the next ridge... We could see all the show and there was a lot of whistles blowing. They (Chinese troops) blew horns or something when they attacked," he told AFP.

The attack lasted until about 2:00 am.

Geoffrey McLeod, 83, was in the Royal Australian Navy when he took part in the war in 1950.

"When our squadrons went in and helped in the battle in Incheon, we were all very thrilled with the success of that," McLeod said, referring to the successful landing at the port of Incheon near Seoul in September 1950.

"And I think that led the way for the (United Nations) forces to win the battle for South Korea," he said.

McLeod said he was visiting South Korea for the first time since 1952.

"And I'm very impressed. The people here have done a wonderful job. We're very proud to have been part of your liberation," he said.

The battle at Gapyeong was part of the Chinese Spring Offensive which began in April 1951.

Although heavily outnumbered, the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade set up blocking positions in the Gapyeong Valley, on a key invasion route south to the capital, and successfully fended off flank attacks by Chinese.

The four Commonwealth countries sent a total of 94,000 soldiers to the Korean War, with 1,752 killed and 5,181 others wounded.

Since 1975, South Korea has invited foreign Korean War veterans as a way to thank them for their contribution to the war effort.

This year, around 2,400 people, including veterans and their relatives from 21 countries, will be invited to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the war.

View article…

CHINA: Rescuers Comb Quake Rubble For Signs Of Life

April 16, 2010

by Renee Montagne & Anthony Kuhn

High in the mountains of western China, rescuers are searching for victims of the massive earthquake that struck earlier this week. The rescue teams are clogging the single road leading to the quake zone.

TRANSCRIPT

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Let's turn, now, to a natural disaster high in the mountains of western China. Rescuers are searching for victims of the massive earthquake that struck there two days ago. The rescue teams are clogging the single road leading to the quake zone, and survivors whose homes were destroyed slept outdoors last night as temperatures dipped to near-freezing. The death toll now stands at nearly 800.

After an arduous trek, NPR's Anthony Kuhn has reached one of the villages that has been hit hardest. He joins us now to talk about it. And, Anthony, what are you seeing there?

ANTHONY KUHN: Well, Renee, it's been a very busy day of rescue work. I spent some of the day at a rescue site where they went at the crumbled hotel, first with a excavator and then with shovels and then with hands. And some people were pulled out - some dead, some alive. It's now the third day, local time, since the earthquake hit.

It's a fairly small area. It's a much smaller area than the 2008 earthquake that devastated Sichuan, and so they've been able to get heavy machinery, troops and rescue teams in here pretty quickly. But they're still fighting hard to dig people out of the rubble.

MONTAGNE: Are there particular difficulties to this rescue effort, I mean, aside from the obvious, that it's really far away and hard to get to?

KUHN: Well, another is the altitude. This town is about almost two miles above sea level and so the oxygen is considerably thinner. And so a lot of the rescue workers are suffering from altitude sickness. Some of the rescue dogs are suffering from altitude sickness. And also, this is in a very remote corner. No matter which capital city you come from it takes a long time. It took me 12 hours. I felt like I was driving overland, across Nevada, or something. It was spectacular but very grueling.

MONTAGNE: That must also make it hard to get in the basics, like food and water and shelter.

KUHN: That's right. They're still short of tents, short of blankets. People have been sleeping out in the open because they're afraid their buildings are damaged and they're afraid that numerous aftershocks will crumble those buildings. You know, basically, when you come in here, you have to bring all your own food and water because there's none available here. There's no electricity, so it's very basic.

And I was at a spot where the army was distributing tents. And it became a little bit panicky because people were so worried that they wouldn't have anything overhead when the temperature dips down to freezing or below at night.

MONTAGNE: And, Anthony, that corner of China has a large ethnic Tibetan population. Does it make it politically sensitive or affect how the government is responding?

KUHN: Well, this is a really interesting question, Renee. I was out today and I saw a lot of Tibetan Buddhist lamas who were helping to dig survivors out of the rubble, giving rights for the deceased, pitching in in every way they could. And, you know, Tibetan Buddhists have this tradition of good works and charity.

And the government is used to taking the lead and not letting civil society take the lead. Another thing they have to watch out for, of course, is burial practices. The government is burying a lot of the dead who are ethnic Tibetans, and it has to be careful that it doesn't offend them by not respecting their practices. So, that is very much an issue.

And this was one of the many areas around the Tibetan plateau that saw civil unrest back in 2008.

MONTAGNE: Anthony, thanks very much.

KUHN: Thank you, Renee.

MONTAGNE: NPR's Anthony Kuhn speaking to us from the Tibetan plateau in China.

(Soundbite of music)

MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.

View article...