China's troubled far-western city of Urumqi has spelt out potential punishments for spreading rumours after days of sometimes deadly unrest and panic about reported syringe attacks that fanned ethnic tensions.
Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region,has been struggling to return to order after days of panic and protests over claims that Muslim Uighurs used syringes to attack residents, especially members of China's Han ethnic Chinese majority.
Officials have said five people died in the protests, but they have not said how they died.
Security forces used tear gas to break up a crowd of Han Chinese on Sunday,after a fresh needle scare near a wholesale market. Witnesses said three Uighurs were beaten.
The government has cast the alleged syringe attacks as a separatist plot by Uighurs, who call Xinjiang their home-land. Many Uighurs resent government controls on their religion and culture,as well as the growing presence of ethnic Han Chinese.
The Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday that Urumqi authorities said anyone found guilty of injecting others with dangerous substances could face a long prison term or even the death penalty.
Authorities also warned residents they could be jailed for spreading rumours.
"Those who deliberately concoct and spread false information about innocent members of the public being stabbed with needles" could be tried and sentenced to up to five years in jail, it said.
The announcement appeared to be another step in government efforts to restore its authority in Urumqi, after thousands of Han residents took to the streets to demand the ousting of Wang Lequan, the Communist Party secretary of Xinjiang for 14 years.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Numbers game turns deadly
Makers of fake car number plates in Songkhla are facing a crackdown on suspicions their plates are being used on vehicles connected to car bomb attacks in the far South, a security source says.
Investigators have zeroed in on two fake plate makers in the commercial district of Hat Yai.
Fake licence plates make it more difficult for police to track down the attackers.
Many insurgents are reported to be hiding out in Songkhla's lower districts of Saba Yoi, Chana, Thepha and Na Thawi, the source said.
They are believed to have fled from neighbouring Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani provinces to evade arrest after launching their deadly attacks, he said.
A member of a police bomb disposal squad said a new pattern of attacks was emerging in which militants were preferring to target populated areas, often in town centres, using powerful bombs aimed at causing heavy casualties.
The source said the aim was to gain maximum exposure and media attention.
The rebels are using all sorts of tricks to get the job done. For instance, in one attack a militant pretended to drop a wallet connected to a bomb detonation cord.
A passer-by picked up the wallet and triggered the bomb.
"This is a new trick as we have never heard of or seen anything like this before,"the source said.
In Friday's bomb attack outside a crowded restaurant in central Pattani,the source said the bomb was loaded on to a motorcycle-mounted pushcart popu-lar for moving goods around a market.No one suspected it carried a bomb. The blast killed a man and injured 29 others.
The source said setting off "spider bombs"- or a handful of explosives connected to a single remote control device - was now quite common in the South.
The current Muslim fasting period is marked by rising insurgent violence.
The insurgents appear to have intensified their violence because it is easier to single out Buddhist Thais for attack during Ramadan as their Muslim neighbours are mostly indoors performing religious activities.
Yesterday, in Pattani, a defence volunteer was shot and injured by a gunman at the Sue Dang School in tambon Troh Bon, Sai Buri district.
Kampanart Songkaew,24, was attacked while he was guarding the school.The gunman fled when he returned fire.
Investigators have zeroed in on two fake plate makers in the commercial district of Hat Yai.
Fake licence plates make it more difficult for police to track down the attackers.
Many insurgents are reported to be hiding out in Songkhla's lower districts of Saba Yoi, Chana, Thepha and Na Thawi, the source said.
They are believed to have fled from neighbouring Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani provinces to evade arrest after launching their deadly attacks, he said.
A member of a police bomb disposal squad said a new pattern of attacks was emerging in which militants were preferring to target populated areas, often in town centres, using powerful bombs aimed at causing heavy casualties.
The source said the aim was to gain maximum exposure and media attention.
The rebels are using all sorts of tricks to get the job done. For instance, in one attack a militant pretended to drop a wallet connected to a bomb detonation cord.
A passer-by picked up the wallet and triggered the bomb.
"This is a new trick as we have never heard of or seen anything like this before,"the source said.
In Friday's bomb attack outside a crowded restaurant in central Pattani,the source said the bomb was loaded on to a motorcycle-mounted pushcart popu-lar for moving goods around a market.No one suspected it carried a bomb. The blast killed a man and injured 29 others.
The source said setting off "spider bombs"- or a handful of explosives connected to a single remote control device - was now quite common in the South.
The current Muslim fasting period is marked by rising insurgent violence.
The insurgents appear to have intensified their violence because it is easier to single out Buddhist Thais for attack during Ramadan as their Muslim neighbours are mostly indoors performing religious activities.
Yesterday, in Pattani, a defence volunteer was shot and injured by a gunman at the Sue Dang School in tambon Troh Bon, Sai Buri district.
Kampanart Songkaew,24, was attacked while he was guarding the school.The gunman fled when he returned fire.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
HOW JESSICA"S LAW TURNED ANTIOCH INTO A PAEDOPHILE GHETTO
Antioch is one of the few places in California where convicted sex offenders can legally reside. Was the strain of monitoring them all too much for the local police? By Guy Adams
They have called it scruffy, cheap and unloved. They have sneered at the wire mesh fences and unmowed lawns and the rusting trucks in almost every driveway.And in time, when the media writes the final chapters of the appalling story of Jaycee Lee Dugard, they may very well conclude that in Antioch, her story was simply an accident waiting to happen.
A staggering 122 registered sex offenders live there, in a small, blue-collar city in northern California that has suddenly found itself at the centre of an international media storm.More than 100 of them -102, to be precise - live in the compact zip-code area containing the suburb that Jaycee Lee's alleged kidnapper,Phillip Craig Garrido, called home.
Two convicted rapists reside on Vine Lane,the street next to Walnut Avenue where Jaycee Lee's imprisonment and sexual abuse went unnoticed for almost two decades. On Viera Avenue, less than 200 metres away, is the home of Henry Lee Mickens, a 46-year-old man who recently served time for "lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years".
Dozens of other paedophiles can be found within walking distance. A mile and a half from Garrido's front door is Gragnelli Avenue,where the occupant of No 420, one Shayne Patrick Gaxiola, was convicted of molesting a 12-year-old girl and impregnating her in 1994,when he was aged 20.
Gaxiola was also found guilty of giving marijuana to a string of pubescent girls. He then took indecent pictures of them. In 2000, three months after his release, he was sent back to prison for violating parole after being caught with cannabis and a stash of pornographic magazines.
In a town full of such men, the activities of Phillip Garrido seemed simply to slip below the radar - despite the awful track record that has emerged since he and his wife, Nancy,were arrested and charged with 29 counts related to Jaycee Lee Dugard's abduction, imprisonment, and serial sexual abuse over 18 years (to which, it must be stressed, they have so far pleaded not guilty).
Court papers released from Garrido's 1977 trial for the kidnap and rape of a young woman in Nevada portray him as a dangerous sexual predator. During a psychiatric evaluation, he admitted to using LSD and cocaine as sexual stimulants and said that he would often masturbate in public, by the "side of schools,grammar schools and high schools, and in my own car while I was watching young females".
There is, however, no shortage of similar stories in Antioch. That is perhaps why, after Garrido was released in 1988,10 years into a 50- year sentence, he and his wife were able to slip virtually unnoticed into the fabric of this community, which stretches for roughly four miles along the Sacramento River.
At first glance, Antioch may look like any other small American city. Its 100,000 residents are largely white and working class. Some work in industrial plants. Others are commuters, unable to afford the cost of living in the San Francisco Bay area. In keeping with most of California, about 10% are unemployed.
Yet as police continue to investigate Garrido's past and look into potential links to 10 murdered prostitutes and three missing girls, the city is being forced to confront a grisly truth - for reasons largely beyond its control, it has become a paedophiles' ghetto.
At fault are laws governing America's treatment of sex offenders, which control where they are allowed to live and how much information the public should be given regarding their whereabouts. These laws were passed with the laudable intention of protecting children. But their actual effect is open to debate.
The most prominent is Megan's Law, which requires the public to be given access, usually via an internet site, to the names, addresses and "previous" of every man and woman convicted of a sexual offence. It is a wellintentioned exercise in open government. But in practice, critics say, it was introduced in such a way as to be of little help to anyone but the voyeuristic.
"Thanks to political pressure, they made the criteria for including someone on the registry so wide that it has become totally ineffective," says Michael Risher, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union."It doesn't just carry details of violent rapists but also people who, say, lost their temper during a road rage incident and flashed at someone, or an 18-year-old boy convicted of statutory rape for sleeping with his 17-year-old girlfriend."
In California, the Megan's Law website contains 90,000 entries. Given this extraordinary statistic, it isn't hard to see why the residents of Walnut Avenue - who had 121 other convicted sex offenders in their city to worry about - might have allowed a man with Garrido's dubious profile to pass largely ignored.
The second group of laws that make Antioch a magnet for paedophiles governs where they are allowed to live. In California, as in many states, voters have in recent years endorsed Jessica's Law, which bans paedophiles from residing within 2,000 feet of a school or a park where children regularly play.
This has driven sex offenders out of major cities and conurbations, where they have access to rehabilitation and treatment facilities, and into suburbs and secluded rural areas, where they don't. In some smaller cities, they have now become concentrated in such large numbers that parole and law enforcement officers are unable to properly vet them.
This may explain why local authorities never noticed that Garrido was apparently keeping the kidnapped Jaycee Lee Dugard and her two small children concealed in the elaborate series of sheds and tents in his back garden.Thanks to the influx of offenders to Antioch frommajor cities, they were simply too overstretched to do their job properly.
It may also explain - but not necessarily excuse - the fact that a police officer dispatched to investigate claims of children living in Garrido's garden in 2006 seemingly did not have either the time or the wherewithal to thoroughly research his suspect's background.
"If you look at maps that show where offenders are actually able to live under Jessica's Law, there's almost nowhere in the whole of Los Angeles and San Francisco where they can now legally settle," Mr Risher adds."Everywhere is within 2,000 feet of a park or school.So they all end up in places like Antioch."
Even police admit that this leaves them struggling to cope. Daniel Terry, from the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department,which oversees Antioch, has about 1,700 registered sex offenders in his jurisdiction. His station is responsible for about 350 of them,or "349 more than the number of detectives I have dedicated to monitoring these people".
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times last week,he said that the region's concentration of sex offenders was "significantly higher" than other areas in California and the rest of the United States."This is the reality. These people are walking amongst us everywhere." Adding to his woes are wider problems in the cheap parts of Antioch where Garrido and many other convicted sex offenders live. In the ramshackle area around Walnut Avenue, petty theft is rampant, drug abuse endemic - the favourite local tipples are crystal meth and crack cocaine - and lawns are littered with junk.
The city, which grew prosperous on the proceeds of the 1849 gold rush and then the steel mills and concrete factories that allowed it to ship the building blocks of San Francisco down-river during the early 20th century, is now among those caught in the storm of America's economic downturn.
Nearly 2,500 homes, roughly 5% of the city's stock, are in foreclosure, with 699 new homes entering arrears last month.
Property values have dropped 40% in the past year and unemployment is soaring. Garrido's bungalow, a four-bedroom home built on a large plot of land between the wars, is worth only $100,000.
Against this background, and helped by laws that encourage ghetto-isation of sex offenders, it now seems that a man known as "Creepy Phil" by neighbours was able to take a little girl hostage, hold her for 18 years, father her two children, and even take them to community events, while barely raising an eyebrow.
In January, Zion Dutro, a convicted child rapist who lived on Alpha Way, not two miles from Walnut Avenue, appeared in court to plead not guilty to performing rape, sodomy and "lewd acts" on at least eight small girls. He faced 21 counts; his wife, a co-defendant, faced four.
In any other town, this kind of case would have sparked a mixture of shock and outrage that would be heard across the world. In Antioch, it merited no more than a few paragraphs in the local newspaper - a reaction which suggests that Jaycee Lee Dugard may not be the last grisly secret that the city reveals.The Independent
SEX OFFENDERS' R REGISTER: MEGAN'S AND JESSICA'S LAWS
MEGAN'S LAW requires the public to be given details sregarding the identity,whereabouts and crimin al record of convicted sex offenders living in their midst. It was named afte er the New Jersey schoolgi irl Megan Kanka, who was kidnapped, raped and kil lled by a serial sex-offender i in 1994. Today, it's being enacted to varying degre ees in every US state.Like any law passed in response to a public trag gedy,the law has been dubbed dknee-jerk by opponents,who say it encourages vigilantism and is an infringement on the civil liberties of ex-offenders.. A study last year conclude dthat the law achieved no odemonstrable reduction in child sex offences.
JESSICA'S LAW prevents convicted sex offenders from living within a certain distance of schools,parks and other areas where children gather. It was first adopted in Florida in 2005 after nineyear-old Jessica Lunsford was snatched from her home, before being raped and murdered by a convicted paedophile. Today, a version is in force in 42 US states. Critics say it has made major cities off-limits to offenders, forcing some to declare themselves homeless, and ghettoising others. There is little evidence that it works. Many police forces say it has the opposite effect stretching resources and doing nothing to prevent paedophiles travelling to commit crimes.
They have called it scruffy, cheap and unloved. They have sneered at the wire mesh fences and unmowed lawns and the rusting trucks in almost every driveway.And in time, when the media writes the final chapters of the appalling story of Jaycee Lee Dugard, they may very well conclude that in Antioch, her story was simply an accident waiting to happen.
A staggering 122 registered sex offenders live there, in a small, blue-collar city in northern California that has suddenly found itself at the centre of an international media storm.More than 100 of them -102, to be precise - live in the compact zip-code area containing the suburb that Jaycee Lee's alleged kidnapper,Phillip Craig Garrido, called home.
Two convicted rapists reside on Vine Lane,the street next to Walnut Avenue where Jaycee Lee's imprisonment and sexual abuse went unnoticed for almost two decades. On Viera Avenue, less than 200 metres away, is the home of Henry Lee Mickens, a 46-year-old man who recently served time for "lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years".
Dozens of other paedophiles can be found within walking distance. A mile and a half from Garrido's front door is Gragnelli Avenue,where the occupant of No 420, one Shayne Patrick Gaxiola, was convicted of molesting a 12-year-old girl and impregnating her in 1994,when he was aged 20.
Gaxiola was also found guilty of giving marijuana to a string of pubescent girls. He then took indecent pictures of them. In 2000, three months after his release, he was sent back to prison for violating parole after being caught with cannabis and a stash of pornographic magazines.
In a town full of such men, the activities of Phillip Garrido seemed simply to slip below the radar - despite the awful track record that has emerged since he and his wife, Nancy,were arrested and charged with 29 counts related to Jaycee Lee Dugard's abduction, imprisonment, and serial sexual abuse over 18 years (to which, it must be stressed, they have so far pleaded not guilty).
Court papers released from Garrido's 1977 trial for the kidnap and rape of a young woman in Nevada portray him as a dangerous sexual predator. During a psychiatric evaluation, he admitted to using LSD and cocaine as sexual stimulants and said that he would often masturbate in public, by the "side of schools,grammar schools and high schools, and in my own car while I was watching young females".
There is, however, no shortage of similar stories in Antioch. That is perhaps why, after Garrido was released in 1988,10 years into a 50- year sentence, he and his wife were able to slip virtually unnoticed into the fabric of this community, which stretches for roughly four miles along the Sacramento River.
At first glance, Antioch may look like any other small American city. Its 100,000 residents are largely white and working class. Some work in industrial plants. Others are commuters, unable to afford the cost of living in the San Francisco Bay area. In keeping with most of California, about 10% are unemployed.
Yet as police continue to investigate Garrido's past and look into potential links to 10 murdered prostitutes and three missing girls, the city is being forced to confront a grisly truth - for reasons largely beyond its control, it has become a paedophiles' ghetto.
At fault are laws governing America's treatment of sex offenders, which control where they are allowed to live and how much information the public should be given regarding their whereabouts. These laws were passed with the laudable intention of protecting children. But their actual effect is open to debate.
The most prominent is Megan's Law, which requires the public to be given access, usually via an internet site, to the names, addresses and "previous" of every man and woman convicted of a sexual offence. It is a wellintentioned exercise in open government. But in practice, critics say, it was introduced in such a way as to be of little help to anyone but the voyeuristic.
"Thanks to political pressure, they made the criteria for including someone on the registry so wide that it has become totally ineffective," says Michael Risher, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union."It doesn't just carry details of violent rapists but also people who, say, lost their temper during a road rage incident and flashed at someone, or an 18-year-old boy convicted of statutory rape for sleeping with his 17-year-old girlfriend."
In California, the Megan's Law website contains 90,000 entries. Given this extraordinary statistic, it isn't hard to see why the residents of Walnut Avenue - who had 121 other convicted sex offenders in their city to worry about - might have allowed a man with Garrido's dubious profile to pass largely ignored.
The second group of laws that make Antioch a magnet for paedophiles governs where they are allowed to live. In California, as in many states, voters have in recent years endorsed Jessica's Law, which bans paedophiles from residing within 2,000 feet of a school or a park where children regularly play.
This has driven sex offenders out of major cities and conurbations, where they have access to rehabilitation and treatment facilities, and into suburbs and secluded rural areas, where they don't. In some smaller cities, they have now become concentrated in such large numbers that parole and law enforcement officers are unable to properly vet them.
This may explain why local authorities never noticed that Garrido was apparently keeping the kidnapped Jaycee Lee Dugard and her two small children concealed in the elaborate series of sheds and tents in his back garden.Thanks to the influx of offenders to Antioch frommajor cities, they were simply too overstretched to do their job properly.
It may also explain - but not necessarily excuse - the fact that a police officer dispatched to investigate claims of children living in Garrido's garden in 2006 seemingly did not have either the time or the wherewithal to thoroughly research his suspect's background.
"If you look at maps that show where offenders are actually able to live under Jessica's Law, there's almost nowhere in the whole of Los Angeles and San Francisco where they can now legally settle," Mr Risher adds."Everywhere is within 2,000 feet of a park or school.So they all end up in places like Antioch."
Even police admit that this leaves them struggling to cope. Daniel Terry, from the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department,which oversees Antioch, has about 1,700 registered sex offenders in his jurisdiction. His station is responsible for about 350 of them,or "349 more than the number of detectives I have dedicated to monitoring these people".
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times last week,he said that the region's concentration of sex offenders was "significantly higher" than other areas in California and the rest of the United States."This is the reality. These people are walking amongst us everywhere." Adding to his woes are wider problems in the cheap parts of Antioch where Garrido and many other convicted sex offenders live. In the ramshackle area around Walnut Avenue, petty theft is rampant, drug abuse endemic - the favourite local tipples are crystal meth and crack cocaine - and lawns are littered with junk.
The city, which grew prosperous on the proceeds of the 1849 gold rush and then the steel mills and concrete factories that allowed it to ship the building blocks of San Francisco down-river during the early 20th century, is now among those caught in the storm of America's economic downturn.
Nearly 2,500 homes, roughly 5% of the city's stock, are in foreclosure, with 699 new homes entering arrears last month.
Property values have dropped 40% in the past year and unemployment is soaring. Garrido's bungalow, a four-bedroom home built on a large plot of land between the wars, is worth only $100,000.
Against this background, and helped by laws that encourage ghetto-isation of sex offenders, it now seems that a man known as "Creepy Phil" by neighbours was able to take a little girl hostage, hold her for 18 years, father her two children, and even take them to community events, while barely raising an eyebrow.
In January, Zion Dutro, a convicted child rapist who lived on Alpha Way, not two miles from Walnut Avenue, appeared in court to plead not guilty to performing rape, sodomy and "lewd acts" on at least eight small girls. He faced 21 counts; his wife, a co-defendant, faced four.
In any other town, this kind of case would have sparked a mixture of shock and outrage that would be heard across the world. In Antioch, it merited no more than a few paragraphs in the local newspaper - a reaction which suggests that Jaycee Lee Dugard may not be the last grisly secret that the city reveals.The Independent
SEX OFFENDERS' R REGISTER: MEGAN'S AND JESSICA'S LAWS
MEGAN'S LAW requires the public to be given details sregarding the identity,whereabouts and crimin al record of convicted sex offenders living in their midst. It was named afte er the New Jersey schoolgi irl Megan Kanka, who was kidnapped, raped and kil lled by a serial sex-offender i in 1994. Today, it's being enacted to varying degre ees in every US state.Like any law passed in response to a public trag gedy,the law has been dubbed dknee-jerk by opponents,who say it encourages vigilantism and is an infringement on the civil liberties of ex-offenders.. A study last year conclude dthat the law achieved no odemonstrable reduction in child sex offences.
JESSICA'S LAW prevents convicted sex offenders from living within a certain distance of schools,parks and other areas where children gather. It was first adopted in Florida in 2005 after nineyear-old Jessica Lunsford was snatched from her home, before being raped and murdered by a convicted paedophile. Today, a version is in force in 42 US states. Critics say it has made major cities off-limits to offenders, forcing some to declare themselves homeless, and ghettoising others. There is little evidence that it works. Many police forces say it has the opposite effect stretching resources and doing nothing to prevent paedophiles travelling to commit crimes.
Friday, September 4, 2009
ALLEGATION AGAINST PHILIP MORRIS "HARD TO PROVE"
Customs officer Yuttana Yimkarun admitted yesterday that it was difficult to prove if tobacco giant Philip Morris (Thailand) had understated the price of cigarettes to keep its excise-tax payments low.
He noted that, in practice, the Customs Department accepts prices stated by importers and makes comparisons later on. However, he said, it was difficult to compare prices because Philip Morris (Thailand) was the sole importer and distributor of Marlboro and L&M cigarettes.
His comment followed the Department of Special Investigation's declaration that Philip Morris (Thailand) had understated the cost, insurance and freight price of the products imported from the Philippines. The DSI said that by doing this, Philip Morris had evaded
tax payments worth Bt69 billion. The DSI named 14 parties in the case, and the Office of the Attorney-General will decide on October 2 on whether it should launch a court proceeding.
"If the cost is deemed to be higher, the DSI has to prove that the stated prices are too low," he said, adding that it was inappropriate for the DSI to compare the stated prices with retail prices in duty-free shops.
He added that in 2000 the Customs Department had accused the company of understating the price and the issue was resolved later. The stated price then was higher than the current rate, he added.
Since 2000, Philip Morris has been stating a lower price, saying that it was the actual cost in line with the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT), he said.
Philip Morris (Thailand) has also filed a petition with the International Court of Justice in the Hague against the Customs Department's requirement for an increase in the stated price as well as the price disclosure rules. It said this was a sort of protectionism under the World Trade Organisation rules.
He noted that, in practice, the Customs Department accepts prices stated by importers and makes comparisons later on. However, he said, it was difficult to compare prices because Philip Morris (Thailand) was the sole importer and distributor of Marlboro and L&M cigarettes.
His comment followed the Department of Special Investigation's declaration that Philip Morris (Thailand) had understated the cost, insurance and freight price of the products imported from the Philippines. The DSI said that by doing this, Philip Morris had evaded
tax payments worth Bt69 billion. The DSI named 14 parties in the case, and the Office of the Attorney-General will decide on October 2 on whether it should launch a court proceeding.
"If the cost is deemed to be higher, the DSI has to prove that the stated prices are too low," he said, adding that it was inappropriate for the DSI to compare the stated prices with retail prices in duty-free shops.
He added that in 2000 the Customs Department had accused the company of understating the price and the issue was resolved later. The stated price then was higher than the current rate, he added.
Since 2000, Philip Morris has been stating a lower price, saying that it was the actual cost in line with the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT), he said.
Philip Morris (Thailand) has also filed a petition with the International Court of Justice in the Hague against the Customs Department's requirement for an increase in the stated price as well as the price disclosure rules. It said this was a sort of protectionism under the World Trade Organisation rules.
At least 40 die in Mexico drug violence
A surge in drug-related violence has seen at least 40 people killed in the troubled northern border region and President Felipe Calderon's home state.
At least 18 people were killed and five wounded on Wednesday when gunmen stormed into a drug treatment centre in northern Mexico's violence-plagued Ciudad Juarez.
Civil protection officials warned there might be more victims from the shootout.The city lies just across the border from El Paso, Texas, where feuding drug cartels are engaged in a violent struggle.
In an eerily similar attack last year,eight people were gunned down at a Mexican clinic treating drug addicts.
Wednesday's slaughter came after 21 people were killed in drug-related violence in Chihuahua state; and the number two security official in Mr Calderon's home state of Michoacan was gunned down.
Jose Manuel Revuelta had been barely two weeks on the job as deputy director of state security when "he was assassinated together with his two bodyguards"in the state capital Morelia, a state official said on condition of anonymity.
The killing took place just a few hundred metres from Revuelta's office, the official said.
The gunmen were said to have intercepted Revuelta's car in the southern part of Morelia, a city where the notoriously ruthless La Familia drug cartel operates. They work in tandem with a feared group of paramilitaries known as Los Zetas, a group made up of former Mexican soldiers.
Authorities blame La Familia for the deaths of 12 federal police intelligence agents whose bodies were discovered dumped along a road in Michoacan in July.
The group made a dramatic appearance in 2006 when members rolled five decapitated heads onto a nightclub dance floor.
Violence has since been on the increase, despite Mr Calderon deploying thousands of soldiers and federal police to Michoacan in what eventually marked the launch of a nationwide crackdown on drug cartel-driven violence.
Deadly attacks in Michoacan hit a new high after the July arrest of Arnoldo Rueda, an alleged top La Familia operative suspected of managing synthetic drug production and shipping marijuana to the United States.
The killings in Chihuahua state overnight Tuesday to Wednesday included the gruesome find of a man who was decapitated and dismembered.
The remains of the 20-year-old were dumped near a police station in central Ciudad Juarez late on Tuesday, the prosecutor's office said.
Police nearby had found a "threat-ening message" signed by La Linea, a group belonging to the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel, said prosecutors.
Separately, a woman was shot dead in broad daylight on a Ciudad Juarez street, another two people were gunned down in a city restaurant on Wednesday,and nine men were killed in other incidents, officials said.
Other violent deaths were reported across the state, including Nuevo Casas Grandes, about 200km south of Ciudad Juarez, and in the state capital Ciudad Chihuahua.
More than 9,600 people have died in drug-related violence since 2008, despite Mr Calderon's deployment of about 36,000 troops and police across the country to try to stem the bloodshed.
At least 18 people were killed and five wounded on Wednesday when gunmen stormed into a drug treatment centre in northern Mexico's violence-plagued Ciudad Juarez.
Civil protection officials warned there might be more victims from the shootout.The city lies just across the border from El Paso, Texas, where feuding drug cartels are engaged in a violent struggle.
In an eerily similar attack last year,eight people were gunned down at a Mexican clinic treating drug addicts.
Wednesday's slaughter came after 21 people were killed in drug-related violence in Chihuahua state; and the number two security official in Mr Calderon's home state of Michoacan was gunned down.
Jose Manuel Revuelta had been barely two weeks on the job as deputy director of state security when "he was assassinated together with his two bodyguards"in the state capital Morelia, a state official said on condition of anonymity.
The killing took place just a few hundred metres from Revuelta's office, the official said.
The gunmen were said to have intercepted Revuelta's car in the southern part of Morelia, a city where the notoriously ruthless La Familia drug cartel operates. They work in tandem with a feared group of paramilitaries known as Los Zetas, a group made up of former Mexican soldiers.
Authorities blame La Familia for the deaths of 12 federal police intelligence agents whose bodies were discovered dumped along a road in Michoacan in July.
The group made a dramatic appearance in 2006 when members rolled five decapitated heads onto a nightclub dance floor.
Violence has since been on the increase, despite Mr Calderon deploying thousands of soldiers and federal police to Michoacan in what eventually marked the launch of a nationwide crackdown on drug cartel-driven violence.
Deadly attacks in Michoacan hit a new high after the July arrest of Arnoldo Rueda, an alleged top La Familia operative suspected of managing synthetic drug production and shipping marijuana to the United States.
The killings in Chihuahua state overnight Tuesday to Wednesday included the gruesome find of a man who was decapitated and dismembered.
The remains of the 20-year-old were dumped near a police station in central Ciudad Juarez late on Tuesday, the prosecutor's office said.
Police nearby had found a "threat-ening message" signed by La Linea, a group belonging to the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel, said prosecutors.
Separately, a woman was shot dead in broad daylight on a Ciudad Juarez street, another two people were gunned down in a city restaurant on Wednesday,and nine men were killed in other incidents, officials said.
Other violent deaths were reported across the state, including Nuevo Casas Grandes, about 200km south of Ciudad Juarez, and in the state capital Ciudad Chihuahua.
More than 9,600 people have died in drug-related violence since 2008, despite Mr Calderon's deployment of about 36,000 troops and police across the country to try to stem the bloodshed.
Han Chinese march in Xinjiang capital
Protesters massed in the capital of China's far western region of Xinjiang yesterday demanding the ousting of its top official, who faced the crowd amid a scare over syringe stabbings that has reignited ethnic tensions.
The demonstration was a rare public challenge by Han Chinese to the ruling Communist Party in tense Xinjiang,where deadly ethnic strife with Muslim Uighurs broke out in early July.
It also erupted at a sensitive time for China, preparing for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic on Oct 1 with a nationwide security clampdown.
"Resign Wang Lequan, the government is useless!" protesters shouted outside the regional government building in Urumqi, referring to Xinjiang's Communist Party chief, who has held office for 14 years. Others called for his execution.
"Wang Lequan, apologise to the Xinjiang people," they yelled, some of them lobbing bottles and other objects in Mr Wang's direction, a witness said.
He estimated that by early afternoon 3,000 people gathered at the People's Square in central Urumqi. By evening,the streets were empty, he said.
A photograph showed Mr Wang, a round, balding figure, using a micro-phone to address the crowd from a balcony.
The witness said Mr Wang told the crowd that 30 people had been detained over the claimed syringe stabbings.
Other pictures showed people,apparently predominantly Han Chinese,marching through streets, some waving Chinese national flags, as riot police with shields and batons blocked streets.
The official Xinhua news agency said more than 1,000 people were involved in the main protest, which it said began in the morning after claims that a man stabbed a five-year-old girl.
Some witnesses said they saw Uighurs,a Turkic-speaking Muslim people native to the region, being beaten by Han Chinese. A resident said he had seen a group of Han Chinese protesters beating a Uighur suspected of carrying out attacks with syringes, but he was rescued by police and taken to hospital.
The Xinjiang health office said that over the past two weeks 476 people have gone to hospitals to report apparent syringe stabbings - 433 of them Han Chinese - and doctors have "found clear syringe marks in 89 cases", regional television reported.
But Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, said it was still unclear how much truth or rumour lay behind the claims of stabbings.
"These kinds of rumours do happen in China after unrest," said Mr Bequelin,who closely follows developments in Xinjiang."There's always bizarre rumours that spread after violence."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters in Beijing that she had no knowledge of any new riot."But I can tell you that the Chinese government has the ability to maintain social stability," she said.
In Xinjiang's worst ethnic violence in decades, Uighurs attacked majority Han Chinese in Urumqi on July 5, after taking to the streets to protest against attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in south China in June in which two Uighurs were killed. Han Chinese in Urumqi sought revenge two days later.
Mr Bequelin said the explosion of anger over the claimed syringe attacks had not evaporated.
At least 197 people died in the violence,authorities say.
The demonstration was a rare public challenge by Han Chinese to the ruling Communist Party in tense Xinjiang,where deadly ethnic strife with Muslim Uighurs broke out in early July.
It also erupted at a sensitive time for China, preparing for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic on Oct 1 with a nationwide security clampdown.
"Resign Wang Lequan, the government is useless!" protesters shouted outside the regional government building in Urumqi, referring to Xinjiang's Communist Party chief, who has held office for 14 years. Others called for his execution.
"Wang Lequan, apologise to the Xinjiang people," they yelled, some of them lobbing bottles and other objects in Mr Wang's direction, a witness said.
He estimated that by early afternoon 3,000 people gathered at the People's Square in central Urumqi. By evening,the streets were empty, he said.
A photograph showed Mr Wang, a round, balding figure, using a micro-phone to address the crowd from a balcony.
The witness said Mr Wang told the crowd that 30 people had been detained over the claimed syringe stabbings.
Other pictures showed people,apparently predominantly Han Chinese,marching through streets, some waving Chinese national flags, as riot police with shields and batons blocked streets.
The official Xinhua news agency said more than 1,000 people were involved in the main protest, which it said began in the morning after claims that a man stabbed a five-year-old girl.
Some witnesses said they saw Uighurs,a Turkic-speaking Muslim people native to the region, being beaten by Han Chinese. A resident said he had seen a group of Han Chinese protesters beating a Uighur suspected of carrying out attacks with syringes, but he was rescued by police and taken to hospital.
The Xinjiang health office said that over the past two weeks 476 people have gone to hospitals to report apparent syringe stabbings - 433 of them Han Chinese - and doctors have "found clear syringe marks in 89 cases", regional television reported.
But Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, said it was still unclear how much truth or rumour lay behind the claims of stabbings.
"These kinds of rumours do happen in China after unrest," said Mr Bequelin,who closely follows developments in Xinjiang."There's always bizarre rumours that spread after violence."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters in Beijing that she had no knowledge of any new riot."But I can tell you that the Chinese government has the ability to maintain social stability," she said.
In Xinjiang's worst ethnic violence in decades, Uighurs attacked majority Han Chinese in Urumqi on July 5, after taking to the streets to protest against attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in south China in June in which two Uighurs were killed. Han Chinese in Urumqi sought revenge two days later.
Mr Bequelin said the explosion of anger over the claimed syringe attacks had not evaporated.
At least 197 people died in the violence,authorities say.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Kidnapped girl's story gives hope to parents
"Giving up is not an option, Part of your heart is walking around somewhere without you."
Patty Wetterling keeps a scrapbook of news clippings about abducted children being reunited with their families years later. It's a source of hope for Ms Wetterling, whose son Jacob was abducted nearly 20 years ago in Minnesota.
Soon, Ms Wetterling will add another child's story to her book: Jaycee Lee Dugard's.
"My heart's smiling," Ms Wetterling said of reports that Ms Dugard had been reunited with her family in California 18 years after she was abducted at age 11."It doesn't happen often enough, but we always have hope in our hearts that it will."
Ms Dugard's case, and others like it, show families whose children have been missing for years that such reunions are possible.
More than 58,000 children are taken in non-family abductions every year in the United States, according to Justice Department estimates. Most of those cases are resolved within the first 24 hours, while an estimated 115 children are victims of real kidnapping - where the child is held, taken a long distance, killed or kept.
Ms Wetterling and some other parents of missing children believe their loved ones still could be out there, just like Ms Dugard.They also know it's unlikely that abducted children will seek help, becoming dependent on their captors.
"These kids don't just come forward on their own, they're most often discovered,"said Ms Wetterling, of St Joseph, Minnesota,who has become a nationally known advocate for missing and exploited children."They build a life. They're told lies. They do what they need to survive. We need to do what we can to find them."
In Arkansas, where six-year-old Morgan Nick went missing in 1995, her mother Colleen has led efforts to keep the case going.She meets with the town's police chief regularly to talk about the case and any new leads,which she says come in weekly.Like Ms Wetterling, Ms Nick started a foundation named after her daughter to support other families and assist in prevention efforts.
When she first heard the news about Ms Dugard,Ms Nick's office phone started ringing. Then her cell phone. All the other parents she had worked with through the years shared in the joy - Ms Dugard had reaffirmed that working to find their missing children was worth it, she said.
"Early on, people said,'It's been too long,maybe you should face reality.' But my reality is my little girl is missing. Giving up is not an option," Ms Nick said."Part of your heart is walking around somewhere without you."
Ms Dugard's reunion with her family is now one of the cases Hilary Sessions will cite as she explains to people why she's still looking for her daughter, Tiffany, who vanished on her college campus in 1989.
The Elizabeth Smart case in Utah and the Shawn Hornbeck case in Missouri also gave her reason to keep looking while some people were telling her to move on.
"They think I'm crazy for keeping up the hope," said Ms Sessions, of Florida.
It's been 20 years since Ms Sessions last saw Tiffany, but she said she heard of a case in Canada where a woman was held in captivity even longer than Ms Dugard before being reunited with her mother.
"The mother stayed in the same house,hoping that her daughter would come home,"she said."I'm still in my same house."
While Ms Dugard turned out to be alive,hearing details about her captivity was painful for some families with missing children.
Victor Shoemaker of Virginia said that while Ms Dugard's story gives his family hope that they'll find his son J R, it doesn't make his own case any easier to deal with.
"It's what that girl went through that gives you bad thoughts," said Mr Shoemaker,who last saw his son 15 years ago when J R was five years old.
"It's a terrible thing that someone would do something like that. For what reason?"
Lois Warner, whose five-year-old granddaughter, Leanna Warner, disappeared six years ago in Minnesota, said she tries to avoid reading articles or watching TV reports about cases like Ms Dugard's. It brings back the pain, she said.
"To actually see it 18 years later, to know that's actually what happened to your loved one, is absolutely devastating," Ms Warner said.
While some in her family might hope for a reunion like Ms Dugard's, Ms Warner doubts she would be able to handle it.
"I don't want to know. She's with the Lord, in my opinion, whether or not she's alive," she said.
At the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, President Ernie Allen said Ms Dugard's reappearance was celebrated as the kind of story advocates work to make happen, whether by asking the public to report suspicious activity or by pushing police to keep working cases.
"It's really important that these cases not be closed until we know with certainty what happened to them," Mr Allen said.
Patty Wetterling keeps a scrapbook of news clippings about abducted children being reunited with their families years later. It's a source of hope for Ms Wetterling, whose son Jacob was abducted nearly 20 years ago in Minnesota.
Soon, Ms Wetterling will add another child's story to her book: Jaycee Lee Dugard's.
"My heart's smiling," Ms Wetterling said of reports that Ms Dugard had been reunited with her family in California 18 years after she was abducted at age 11."It doesn't happen often enough, but we always have hope in our hearts that it will."
Ms Dugard's case, and others like it, show families whose children have been missing for years that such reunions are possible.
More than 58,000 children are taken in non-family abductions every year in the United States, according to Justice Department estimates. Most of those cases are resolved within the first 24 hours, while an estimated 115 children are victims of real kidnapping - where the child is held, taken a long distance, killed or kept.
Ms Wetterling and some other parents of missing children believe their loved ones still could be out there, just like Ms Dugard.They also know it's unlikely that abducted children will seek help, becoming dependent on their captors.
"These kids don't just come forward on their own, they're most often discovered,"said Ms Wetterling, of St Joseph, Minnesota,who has become a nationally known advocate for missing and exploited children."They build a life. They're told lies. They do what they need to survive. We need to do what we can to find them."
In Arkansas, where six-year-old Morgan Nick went missing in 1995, her mother Colleen has led efforts to keep the case going.She meets with the town's police chief regularly to talk about the case and any new leads,which she says come in weekly.Like Ms Wetterling, Ms Nick started a foundation named after her daughter to support other families and assist in prevention efforts.
When she first heard the news about Ms Dugard,Ms Nick's office phone started ringing. Then her cell phone. All the other parents she had worked with through the years shared in the joy - Ms Dugard had reaffirmed that working to find their missing children was worth it, she said.
"Early on, people said,'It's been too long,maybe you should face reality.' But my reality is my little girl is missing. Giving up is not an option," Ms Nick said."Part of your heart is walking around somewhere without you."
Ms Dugard's reunion with her family is now one of the cases Hilary Sessions will cite as she explains to people why she's still looking for her daughter, Tiffany, who vanished on her college campus in 1989.
The Elizabeth Smart case in Utah and the Shawn Hornbeck case in Missouri also gave her reason to keep looking while some people were telling her to move on.
"They think I'm crazy for keeping up the hope," said Ms Sessions, of Florida.
It's been 20 years since Ms Sessions last saw Tiffany, but she said she heard of a case in Canada where a woman was held in captivity even longer than Ms Dugard before being reunited with her mother.
"The mother stayed in the same house,hoping that her daughter would come home,"she said."I'm still in my same house."
While Ms Dugard turned out to be alive,hearing details about her captivity was painful for some families with missing children.
Victor Shoemaker of Virginia said that while Ms Dugard's story gives his family hope that they'll find his son J R, it doesn't make his own case any easier to deal with.
"It's what that girl went through that gives you bad thoughts," said Mr Shoemaker,who last saw his son 15 years ago when J R was five years old.
"It's a terrible thing that someone would do something like that. For what reason?"
Lois Warner, whose five-year-old granddaughter, Leanna Warner, disappeared six years ago in Minnesota, said she tries to avoid reading articles or watching TV reports about cases like Ms Dugard's. It brings back the pain, she said.
"To actually see it 18 years later, to know that's actually what happened to your loved one, is absolutely devastating," Ms Warner said.
While some in her family might hope for a reunion like Ms Dugard's, Ms Warner doubts she would be able to handle it.
"I don't want to know. She's with the Lord, in my opinion, whether or not she's alive," she said.
At the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, President Ernie Allen said Ms Dugard's reappearance was celebrated as the kind of story advocates work to make happen, whether by asking the public to report suspicious activity or by pushing police to keep working cases.
"It's really important that these cases not be closed until we know with certainty what happened to them," Mr Allen said.
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