China says 156 dead in Xinjiang riot

URUMQI, China - Chinese police dispersed 200 people gathering outside a mosque in the Silk Road city of Kashgar, the day after ethnic riots killed 156 in the capital of the Muslim Xinjiang region, state media said on Tuesday.

Calm had settled over Urumqi, capital of western Xinjiang region, after 20,000 police, troops and firefighters reclaimed the streets from rioters who burnt and smashed vehicles and shops, and clashed with security forces over Sunday night.

Over 700 people had been detained, the official Xinhua news agency reported, although local residents told Reuters police were making indiscriminate sweeps of Uighur areas.

But despite heightened security some unrest appeared to be spreading in the volatile region, where long-standing ethnic tensions periodically erupt into bloodshed.

Police dispersed around 200 people "trying to gather" at the Id Kah mosque in the centre of Kashgar city on Monday evening, the day after the Urumqi rioting, Xinhua said. Kashgar is in the far west of Xinjiang.

The report did not say if police used force, but said checkpoints had been set up at crossroads between Kashgar airport and downtown.

Police also had "clues" about efforts to organise unrest in Aksu city and Yili prefecture, the latter a border region that was racked by unrest in the late 1990s, Xinhua said.

Along with Tibet, Xinjiang is one of the most politically sensitive regions in China and in both places the government has sought to maintain its grip by controlling religious and cultural life while promising economic growth and prosperity.

But minorities have long complained that Han Chinese reap most of the benefits from official investment and subsidies, while making locals feel like outsiders in their own homes.

Almost half of Xinjiang's 20 million people are Uighurs, while the population of Urumqi, which lies 3,270 km west of Beijing, is mostly Han Chinese.

Chinese officials have already blamed the unrest on separatist groups abroad, who it says want to create an independent homeland for the Muslim Uighur minority.

A Xinjiang public security spokesman told Xinhua that people outside China used telephones to "direct mobs in Xinjiang to stage the violence," and said calls for protests were posted Saturday evening on Internet forums by sympathisers.

Last year, Beijing also blamed unrest across Tibetan areas on a "clique" led by the exiled Dalai Lama.

But exile groups deny organising the violence and say it was an outpouring of pent-up anger over government policies and Han Chinese economic dominance.

In Washington, the White House said it was concerned about the deaths but it would be premature to speculate on the circumstances. "We call on all in Xinjiang to exercise restraint," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

CHASM BETWEEN SIDES

Muslim Uighur and Han Chinese residents of Urumqi gave accounts of bloodshed that are likely to deepen the chasm between the two sides.

Uighur residents, speaking softly in alleyways away from patrolling police and troops, complained about the growing Han Chinese presence. Some said many of those arrested were youths caught up in indiscriminate police sweeps of the rundown concrete apartments where many Uighurs live.

"They've been taking away all the young people, going into our homes and taking them away," said Amina, a middle-aged woman in a Muslim headscarf sitting on the steps of a mosque. She said her own son had been taken but did not want to give his name.

"They don't care who they take, as long as you're between 17 and 20 and they don't like the look of you," she said as her neighbours shook their heads and clucked in sympathy.

Nearly all Uighurs traced the protests on Sunday back to their own anger over a confrontation in far southern China in late June, when Han Chinese fought Uighurs working in a factory in Shaoguan, leaving two Uighurs dead, after a false allegation that some of them had raped a Han Chinese woman.

The government said two Uighurs died in that clash. But many Uighur residents of Urumqi said they were sure that many more died at the factory, and gave vivid accounts of how 20, 50 or a 100 of the workers were killed in their sleep -- stabbed, strangled or poisoned. And some said a Uighur woman was raped.

There is no independent evidence to support those claims, but Uighur residents said they were angry the details of the factory clash were not more fully aired by the government.

"We know that 100 workers were killed," said a young Uighur, who gave his name as Memet. "Now who cares about their deaths? Why all these police for us, but nothing when they died?"

Han Chinese residents said the toll from the riots was likely to rise and their deepened fears of the Uighurs were unlikely to abate.

Chen, a driver, said his wife who shares driving duties with him had suffered a badly cut eye when a Uighur youth attacked their car, and now she was afraid to venture far from home.

"Why doesn't the United States classify them as terrorists?," said Chen, who would not give his full name. "What they did to us is terrorism, isn't it?"

He said the rioters appeared to be mostly Uighur men in their twenties, many of them unemployed. Riot victims recovering in a Urumqi hospital described groups of men who targeted Han Chinese and attacked them with purposeful efficiency.

"They didn't really talk to you," said Huan Zhangzhao, with two broken ribs and a bloodied eye. "When they saw you, when they saw a Han person coming along, they started to attack. When a bus came along, they started to attack."



By Chris Buckley
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NYPD rookie makes arrest moments after graduation

NEW YORK – A New York Police Department rookie just couldn't wait to get started.

One of the NYPD's newest officers made his first arrest Thursday just minutes after graduating from the Police Academy in a ceremony at Madison Square Garden.

Officer Dariel Firpo, 23, was leaving the midtown Manhattan ceremony when he saw a 79-year-old man being robbed of his wallet and thrown to the ground by a mugger, police said.

The mugger tried to run away, but Firpo caught him without incident, they said.

"Officer Firpo made us all proud," police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. "He's off to a great start."

The man Firpo arrested, Jeffrey Grant, was being charged with robbery. Grant, 47, has 48 previous arrests and was just released last week from Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, N.Y., after serving time for a robbery conviction, police said.

Grant, of Manhattan, was in custody late Thursday and couldn't be contacted. The name of his attorney wasn't yet on record.

The mugging victim was treated at a hospital for a broken wrist.

Firpo's feat "may be the fastest police action upon graduation in department history," said chief police spokesman Paul Browne, who was at the graduation ceremony for the class of 250 new officers.

Firpo, who graduated from Lehman College in January with a degree in political science, said he wants to focus on community affairs while working in the nation's biggest police department.

"I'm really trying to stick in the community," he said.


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Air France Flight 447 'didn't break up in mid-air'

PARIS (AFP) - – The Air France jetliner that crashed in the Atlantic a month ago with 228 people on board did not break up in mid-air, the French bureau leading the investigation said Thursday.

"The plane was not destroyed while in flight," said Alain Bouillard from the BEA accident investigation agency, which released its first report on the June 1 disaster.

"The plane appears to have hit the surface of the water in flying position with a strong vertical acceleration," he added, explaining that the plane hit the water belly-first.

The crash of Flight 447 from Rio to Paris was the worst in Air France's history.

There had been speculation that problems with the Airbus' airspeed sensors, or pitot tubes, may have caused the plane to stall or fly dangerously fast, causing a high-altitude breakup.

Brazil decided on June 27 to call off the recovery operation but France has maintained its nuclear submarine, research vessel and other boats in the area on a final hunt for the black boxes.

The BEA lead investigator said the search would continue until July 10.

The homing beacons on the flight recorders emit signals for about one month after the crash and the BEA hopes that they will have a longer-than-usual shelf life.

Investigators have been scrutinizing some 640 pieces of debris recovered from the crash zone for any clue as to what brought down the plane as it flew through turbulence over the Alantic.

Autopsies were being performed on 51 bodies pulled from the disaster area, some 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) off Brazil's coast.


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DFA identifies Pinay in Yemeni plane crash

The Department of Foreign Affairs will make representations with Yemenia on behalf of the family of the lone Filipino fatality in the passenger plane that crashed last Tuesday.

“Mrs. Lucia Libron said Yemenia has not contacted the family and is seeking assistance from the DFA,” the DFA said in a text message to abs-cbnNEWS.com.

The DFA identified that Filipino Camille Lou Castillo Libron, 26 years old, single, was on board the Yemeni Airline plane.

“The family of Camille Lou Castillo Libron informed the Department of Foreign Affairs today that they received confirmation from the in-flight manager of Yemeni Airways that Ms. Libron was on board the Yemeni Passenger plane that crashed off the Comoros Islands last June 30,” said the DFA.

Two of Libron’s co-workers identified as Jane Garcia Tamah and husband Khalid Tamah also confirmed that she was on the Yemeni Flight.

A radio dzMM report, meanwhile, said that Libron was a fine arts graduate from the University of Cebu.

The report stated that according to the Filipina's uncle, Greg Lidron, she was not supposed to be on board the ill-fated Yemenia Airways flight. The uncle said Libron was assigned to take the spot of an on-leave Malaysian stewardess, the radio report added.

The uncle said Libron’s mother has flown to Manila to wait for her remains. The Filipina's father is a seafarer, the report said.

Agence France Presse reported that only a 14-year-old girl survived the crash and is now recovering.

The Yemeni Airbus had 153 passengers.


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Flight diverted after passenger undresses in seat

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A US Airways flight to Los Angeles was diverted to Albuquerque after a passenger removed all of his clothing mid-flight, forcing flight attendants to cover him with a blanket before he was arrested, authorities said Wednesday.

Keith Wright, 50, of the Bronx in New York, was taken into custody by airport authorities after he disrobed while sitting in his seat in the back of Flight 705 on Tuesday evening, authorities said. The plane was carrying about 148 passengers from Charlotte to Los Angeles, the airline said.

Wright was unresponsive when a flight attendant asked him to put his clothes back on, said Dan Jiron, a spokesman for the Albuquerque airport. "She asked him on more than one occasion to put on his clothes. She covered him with a blanket and he took that off," Jiron said.

Wright punched and kicked the flight attendant, who asked two off-duty law officers for help, according to a criminal complaint. A Los Angeles police officer and sheriff's deputy helped the flight attendant subdue and handcuff Wright before the flight landed, Jiron said.

Roger Finzel, an assistant federal public defender representing Wright, said he has not yet met with his client and had no information about the case other than what was in the complaint.

Wright told the FBI he is suffering from a bipolar disorder and had not taken his prescribed medication before leaving New York that morning, the criminal complaint said. Wright told the FBI he recalled nothing about the flight or his behavior, it said.

Wright had been seen dancing in a crowded boarding area before the flight, but when approached by Flight Service Supervisor Claudia Kearney, he told her he had drunk one beer. Kearney told the FBI she did not smell alcohol on him and determined he was well enough to travel, the complaint said.

US Airways spokeswoman Valerie Wunder could not confirm that Kearney worked for the airline.

Passenger Ginny Keegan of Detroit was sitting in the front of the plane, when there was commotion coming from the back. The people on the flight were notified of a violent passenger as the plane began to approach Albuquerque, but Keegan said no one was fearful.

"No one was really panicking. The flight attendants seemed to handle it very well," she said. Keegan said the man was "completely naked" as he was taken in handcuffs off the plane.

As the plane took off again, Keegan said the usual announcement to please fasten your seat belts came over the loudspeakers with a twist. The message included "a reminder to everybody to please keep your clothing on. It got a couple chuckles," Keegan said.

The flight attendants also were dealing with an unrelated onboard medical emergency at the same time, which exacerbated the situation, the FBI said. The aircraft was diverted because of the medical emergency, and Wright's actions were a secondary reason for the unplanned landing, the complaint said.

Wright is in federal custody on a federal charge of interfering with flight crew members and attendants. He is expected to appear in federal court in Albuquerque on Thursday.


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RP's H1N1 flu cases balloon to 1,709

MANILA - The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday said it is stepping up its mitigation efforts against influenza A (H1N1), as the number of cases in the country rose to 1,709 from 861 last Friday.

In its July 1 update, the DOH said the Philippines had a total of 1,709 cases of influenza A (H1N1) since May 1, but the DOH said 86 percent or 1,485 patients have already recovered from the illness.

The remaining 224 patients (14 percent of total) are still under treatment, most of them under home management, the DOH said.

Only one A (H1N1)-related death has been recorded so far.

The DOH is also monitoring the case of a five-month-old patient, the youngest victim of the virus so far.

"All cases exhibited mild symptoms with the most common as fever, cough, and nasal congestion," Duque said.

"The ages of cases range from 5 months to 79 years old, with 18 years old as median age. Most of them belonged to the 10-19 years age group (831 cases). Majority of the cases were male (894 cases)," Duque described.

Duque disclosed that of the 1,709 reported cases, 1,568 (92 percent) were Filipinos; the rest were American (with 17), Japanese (8), Chinese (4), Korean (3), German (2), and one each from Australia, Canada, India, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Sweden, Thailand, and Turkey.

"Two hundred eighty-five had history of travel to a country which has reported A (H1N1) cases. Most came from the USA, China, Japan and Singapore," Duque noted.

Most of the cases come from the National Capital Region, Regions IV-A, III, and VIII.

Globally, as of June 29, the World Health Organization has recorded a total of 70,893 cases, with 311 deaths, from 109 reporting countries.

Mitigation efforts

Health Secretary Francisco Duque said the DOH is stepping up its efforts against the disease as they anticipate more cases in the coming months.

"As we anticipate more cases in the coming months, we must institute effective mitigation measures to save lives and prevent deaths and to reduce the impact of the pandemic to our nation and the economy," he said.

This comes after Duque convened another DOH Command Conference, attended by members of the A (H1N1) task force, DOH regional directors and chiefs of hospitals, and representatives form the private sector.

With the move towards mitigation, the DOH said that they are ensuring all government hospitals, at all levels, have the capacity to administer care to high-risk patients, in accordance with the directives of President Arroyo.

Duque has also called for meetings with the member-agencies of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) to "engage them... in strengthening the involvement of local government units in the A (H1N1) response."

"We have also requested the NDCC member agencies, especially DepEd, CHED and TESDA and PIA to help us in our nationwide campaign against A (H1N1). This is to make sure that our information and education activities reach all schools, barangays and provinces in the country," Duque added.

The DOH will also meet with medical and health associations, such as the Philippine Medical Association and the Philippine Hospital Association regarding treatment and management of A (H1N1) patients.

'Preparedness plans'

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), meanwhile, is urging the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to compel large firms employing more than 500 workers to submit their "preparedness plans" in dealing with the spread of the virus.

"The DOLE has to ensure that business establishments, particularly the labor-intensive ones, are taking adequate measures to monitor, prevent and control the potential proliferation of Influenza A(H1N1) among their workforces," TUCP secretary-general Ernesto Herrera was quoted in a statement.

The DOLE earlier issued Department Advisory No. 4, providing "Guidelines on Influenza A(H1N1) Prevention and Control at the Workplace," for all employers and workers in the private sector.

Herrera, however, said the guidelines were not enough, saying the DOLE's Occupational Health and Safety Center (OHSC) should require large employers to submit their plans to deal with influenza A (H1N1).

TUCP earlier said that the virus, if left unchecked, could soon invade the country's factories and impair labor productivity.-- With a report from Jing Castañeda, ABS-CBN News


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Girl Lone Survivor of Yemeni Jet Crash?

(CBS/AP) A Yemeni jetliner carrying 153 people crashed in the Indian Ocean as it came in for a landing during howling winds on the island nation of Comoros. Yemeni officials said a teenage girl survived.

The crash came two years after aviation officials reported faults with the plane, an Airbus 310 flying the last leg of a journey from Paris and Marseille to Comoros, with a stop in Yemen to change planes. Most of the passengers were from Comoros, a former French colony. Sixty-six on board were French nationals.

Khaled el-Kaei, the head of Yemenia airline's public relations office, said a 14-year-old girl survived the crash. And Yemen's embassy in Washington issued a statement saying a young girl survived and was taken to a hospital. It also said five bodies were recovered.

There were earlier reports that a 5-year-old boy survived. El-Kaei said that was not known and the airline had lost contact with its office in Comoros because of bad weather.

Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammed Abdul Qader said the flight data recorder had not been found and it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash. But he said the wind was 40 miles per hour (61 kph) as the plane was landing in the middle of the night.

"The weather was very bad," he said, adding the windy conditions hampered rescue efforts.

The Yemenia plane was the second Airbus to crash into the sea this month. An Air France Airbus A330-200 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, killing all 228 people on board, as it flew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

The Comoros is an archipelago of three main islands situated 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) south of Yemen, between Africa's southeastern coast and the island of Madagascar. It is a former French colony of 700,000 people.

In France, school vacations began this week and many on the plane were heading home to visit.

CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports that the jet went down in deep water about nine miles short of the East African coast.

Gen. Bruno de Bourdoncle de Saint-Salvy, the senior commander for French forces in the southern Indian Ocean, said the Airbus 310 crashed 21 miles from the Moroni airport.

French aviation inspectors found a "number of faults" during a 2007 inspection of the plane that went down, French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said on i-Tele television Tuesday.

In Brussels, EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said the airline had previously met EU safety checks and was not on the bloc's blacklist. But he said a full investigation was now being started amid questions why passengers were put on another jet in the Yemeni capital of San'a.

An Airbus statement said the plane that crashed went into service 19 years ago, in 1990, and had accumulated 51,900 flight hours. It has been operated by Yemenia since 1999. Airbus said it was sending a team of specialists to the Comoros.

The A310-300 is a twin-engine widebody jet that can seat up to 220 passengers. There are 214 A310s in service worldwide with 41 operators.

(CBS)
A crisis center was set up at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Many passengers were from the French city of Marseille, home to around 80,000 immigrant Comorans, more even than Comoros' capital of Moroni.

Some French Comorans insisted that their earlier warnings about the airline's safety weren't heeded by authorities.

Stephane Salord, the Comoros' honorary consul in Marseille, called Yemenia's aircraft "flying cattle trucks."

"This A310 is a plane that has posed problems for a long time, it is absolutely inadmissible that this airline Yemenia played with the lives of its passengers this way," he said.

"Some people stand the whole way to Moroni," said Mohamed Ali, a Comoran who went to Yemenia's headquarters in Paris to try to get more information.

Thoue Djoumbe, a 28-year-old woman who lives in the French town of Fontainebleau, said she and others had complained about the airline for years.

"It's a lottery when you travel to Comoros," said Djoumbe. "We've organized boycotts, we've told the Comoran community not to fly on Yemenia airways because they make a lot of money off of us and meanwhile the conditions on the planes are disastrous."

Christophe Prazuck, French military spokesman, said a patrol boat and reconnaissance ship were being sent to the crash site as well a military transport plane. The French were sending divers as well as medical personnel, he said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy "expressed his deep emotion" about the crash and asked the French military to help in the rescue operation, particularly from the French islands of Mayotte and Reunion.

Yemenia airline officials say the 11-member crew was made up of six Yemenis, including the pilot, two Moroccans, one Indonesian, one Ethiopian and 1 Filipino. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
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