TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Detained Chinese reporter confesses to taking bribes: CCTV
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Sat, Oct 26 2013
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese journalist arrested last week on charges he defamed a state-owned construction equipment maker on Saturday confessed on state television to accepting bribes for fabricating stories, despite a public outcry over his detention.
Reporter Chen Yongzhou's lengthy explanation of how he invented negative stories about Changsha-based Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co. Ltd is the latest in a series of televised confessions by suspects in high-profile or politicized cases.
"I'm willing to admit my guilt and to repent," he said as he sat handcuffed before police in a morning news segment on state broadcaster CCTV. "In this case I've caused damages to Zoomlion, which was the subject, and also the whole news media industry and its ability to earn the public's trust."
New Express, the state-backed tabloid that employed Chen, had published two front-page pleas for police to release him last week, an unusually bold move that drew widespread attention and sympathy from the public.
The paper's website did not mention Chen's confession on Saturday morning.
Rights activists have said that public confessions in China are often forced and violate the accused's right to due process.
Chen's arrest, which coincides with new curbs on journalists, lawyers and internet users in China, has drawn attention to the role of whistleblowers as the country's leadership moves to eradicate graft.
Chen's reports said Zoomlion engaged in sales fraud, dubious business practices and black public relations tactics, allegations Zoomlion has denied. Chen said in the confession that he had not written the reports, but that a third party had given them to him and paid him to publish them.
CCTV said Chen took bribes ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of yuan for the reports.
The CCTV report did not say who had bribed Chen to fabricate reports about Zoomlion. A Zoomlion employee had publicly accused the company's hometown competitor Sany Group Co. Ltd of planting the stories. Sany has denied any wrongdoing.
Chen was also paid to visit industry regulators in Beijing and Hong Kong to tell them about Zoomlion's business practices, the CCTV report said. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said they found no evidence that Zoomlion falsified its sales or financial statements, as Chen alleged, CCTV reported.
The close competition between Sany and Zoomlion, which comes amid a slowdown in the construction equipment market, has sometimes turned ugly, with each company saying the other engaged in corporate spying. Sany's chairman told a local reporter this year that Zoomlion was involved in kidnapping his son, a charge Zoomlion denied.
(Reporting By Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Michael Perry)
Soviets conducted nuclear blasts at oilfield to be tapped with China
Fri, Oct 25 2013
By Vladimir Soldatkin
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Siberian oilfield that Russia and China plan to develop together was the site of Soviet nuclear blasts in the 1970s and 1980s, Russian officials said on Friday.
The government and state oil firm Rosneft said the field was safe, rejecting environmentalists' concerns that oil extracted from it could be contaminated with radiation.
But the revelation raises questions for a strategic joint venture announced a week ago in which Russia, the world's top energy producer, ceded a share of its oil wealth to China, the leading consumer.
At least seven "peaceful" nuclear detonations were performed at the Srednebotuobinskoye oilfield, according to a report published by the environment ministry of the Republic of Sakha, a remote region in Eastern Siberia also known as Yakutia.
"Yes, indeed, there were nuclear explosions performed at the site," a ministry spokeswoman told Reuters from the city of Yakutsk. No radiation leaks were reported, she said.
Blasts at the field were intended to increase flows from oil-bearing rock and, in one case, create a storage reservoir.
Rosneft said in comments emailed to Reuters that it regularly monitors radiation at the blast sites - now mothballed - in areas where it holds production licenses.
"Radiological examination of the deposits and the production extracted from them shows that no radionuclides have reached the surface - including in the oil," it added.
The company last week signed a joint venture memorandum with China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) to develop the 1-billion-barrel oilfield. CEO Igor Sechin signed an agreement this week that would raise Rosneft's exports to China to more than 1 million barrels per day.
The deals reflect President Vladimir Putin's drive to pivot Russia's energy export strategy eastward, away from Europe's stagnating market and to the more dynamic Asia-Pacific region.
Rosneft did not say whether it had told CNPC about the blasts. CNPC could not provide immediate comment on the issue.
ENVIRONMENTAL RISK?
Environmental experts expressed concern that oil extracted from the field could contain radioactive elements.
"Any nuclear explosion resembles what happens in a reactor - and the blasts at Chernobyl and Fukushima," said Vladimir Chuprov, a nuclear expert at Greenpeace Russia, referring to the reactor disasters in Ukraine and Japan.
"The results are the same: the emission of radionuclides, including strontium-90 and caesium. There is a risk that the oil will be contaminated."
The Ministry of Natural Resources in Moscow, which issues licenses to develop mineral resources, ruled out any danger.
"We analyze all the risks, including radioactive ones. If a field has been allocated for development, that means we consider there to be no risks," spokesman Nikolai Gudkov said.
Nuclear explosions for industrial purposes were not unusual in the Soviet era, but the practice ended after incidents in which hazardous nuclides escaped. In the days before hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking', the United States also carried out such explosions, including Operation Plowshare in the 1960s, to unlock resources of natural gas and oil.
As part of its atomic weapons program, the Soviet Union separately performed above-ground nuclear tests from 1949 at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, exposing hundreds of thousands of people to dangerous levels of radiation.
China carried out underground tests at Lop Nor, in its northwestern Xinjiang region that borders Kazakhstan and Mongolia, conducting the last in 1996 before setting a moratorium.
NUCLEAR HALF-LIVES
Some products of nuclear fission, like strontium and caesium, are unstable and give off harmful radiation until they decay to a stable state. Strontium-90 has a half-life of 28.8 years, while that of caesium-137 is 30 years, meaning that half of the radioactive nuclides created in a nuclear explosion would remain after those periods.
"Of course, there is danger from such deposits. The nuclides last for a long time after blasts and may leak to the surface," Alexei Yablokov, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and an environmental activist, told Reuters.
The Srednebotuobinskoye field, located north-west of the town of Lensk in Yakutia, was discovered in 1970, and more than 100 exploration wells have been drilled at the site.
The report of the regional ministry, dated November 2011, did not say whether developing the field would be dangerous. But some scientists have concerns.
"Humankind has little experience with deposits where nuclear explosions were carried out," said Viktor Repin of the St Petersburg Institute of Radioactive Hygiene, which has monitored the radioactive situation in Yakutia.
Eight peaceful explosions were carried out in Yakutia, of which two, at diamond deposits, "got out of control", he said. Accounts of the actual number of blasts vary.
"In one explosion, radioactive materials leaked out," he said, adding the site was covered with earth to make it safe.
The Srednebotuobinskoye field holds oil and gas condensate reserves of more than 134 million tons and over 155 billion cubic meters of gas. Output from the field started this month.
It is expected to pump 20,000 barrels per day of oil in 2014, rising to more than 100,000 bpd in 2017.
(Additional reporting by Judy Hua in Beijing; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Mark Trevelyan)
European, African observers say Madagascar election credible
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Sun, Oct 27 2013
By Richard Lough and Alain Iloniaina
ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's first presidential election since a military-backed coup was free and fair, European Union (EU) and Southern African observers said on Sunday, as early results trickled out two days after the poll.
The announcements were a boost for the Indian Ocean island which needs a credible vote to rebuild investors' confidence and win back aid suspended after dissident troops propelled Andry Rajoelina into power in 2009.
But foreign envoys warned there was still time for an upset. Full results cold take as long as a week to emerge and the two front-runners both anticipate a second-round runoff, prolonging the uncertainty.
"This election has been free, transparent and credible," the head of the EU observer mission, Maria Muniz de Urquiza, said.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC), which suspended Madagascar as a member after Rajoelina's power grab, said the vote had "reflected the will of Malagasy people".
By midday, the electoral commission (CENIT) had released results from just 1,019 of the 20,001 voting stations dotted across the world's fourth largest island that is famed for its lemurs and eyed by foreign firms for its oil, nickel, cobalt.
DIPLOMATS WATCH ARMY
Two of the most fancied candidates maintained their early leads. Jean Louis Robinson - backed by the president deposed in 2009, Marc Ravalomanana - is holding steady with about 27 percent of the vote.
His nearest rival, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, a former finance minister under Rajoelina, is polling consistently at just under 16 percent.
Friday's vote was peaceful, but the EU observer mission said the lack of a cap on campaign spending had led to "flagrant inequalities" between candidates. It also noted that a "not negligible percentage" of voters were left off the voter list.
These shortcomings had not prevented the vote running smoothly, said de Urquiza.
Diplomats said they were watching the military, parts of which they say remain opposed to Ravalomanana's return from exile - a scenario widely expected if Robinson wins the vote.
"We've made a big step forward but all the options are open," said one European diplomat, who asked not to be named.
Many Malagasy voters said they were frustrated by the delays and flaws in the process.
"I don't know whether it was deliberate or incompetent," said 25-year-old Henintsoa Ramanana who was barred from voting when electoral officials said he was not registered. "In any case, it's truly shocking to be deprived of the right to vote."
(Editing by George Obulutsa and Andrew Heavens)
German parliament to meet over U.S. spying scandal
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4:10pm EDT
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's parliament will hold a special session on reports the United States tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone and left-wing parties demanded a public inquiry calling in witnesses including former U.S. intelligence operative Edward Snowden.
Her conservative party, now in talks with the opposition Social Democrats on forming a new governing coalition after the September 22 election, said it would not stand in the way of any parliamentary committee investigating the espionage affair.
Reports last week that the U.S. National Security Agency had bugged Merkel's mobile phone stirred outrage in a country haunted by memories of eavesdropping by the Stasi secret police in old communist East Germany.
A rift over U.S. surveillance activities first emerged earlier this year with reports that Washington had wired European Union offices and monitored half a billion phone calls, emails and text messages in Germany in a typical month.
"These actions are intolerable, they have the power to destroy the ties of friendship that have always bound us to the U.S.," said Andrea Nahles, general secretary of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).
"A Bundestag (lower house of parliament) committee, which could shed light on the case, is unavoidable," Nahles told the Bild daily. "Edward Snowden could be a valuable witness."
A German newspaper said on Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama knew his intelligence service was eavesdropping on Merkel as long ago as 2010, contradicting reports that he had told the German leader he did not know.
Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and the SPD have agreed to hold a special session of parliament on the spying scandal on November 18, a spokesman for the conservatives said on Monday.
The SPD, Greens and radical Left party also are keen for parliament to set up an investigative committee.
The panel could call up witnesses in the scandal including the chancellor herself or Snowden, now living in asylum in Russia after he leaked details of U.S. spy programs, the parties said.
Gregor Gysi, parliamentary leader of the Left, said Germany should include Snowden in its witness protection scheme so he could speak before the committee.
(Reporting by Hans-Edzard Busemann, Writing by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Mark Heinrich
I don't thing there is anything to risk Putin pretty much as a gun pointed at Georga already.Risking Russia's ire, Georgia seeks closer ties with Europe
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11:55am EDT
By Margarita Antidze and Timothy Heritage
TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia's new president said on Monday he would press ahead with efforts to deepen the former Soviet republic's ties with the West despite Russian concerns.
European leaders and observers hailed Sunday's "clean" election won by Georgy Margvelashvili, an ally of billionaire Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, as a sign that democracy is maturing in the small South Caucasus state.
"Europe is our choice and this election is a confirmation of our European course," Margvelashvili, 44, a mild-mannered academic and political novice, told a news conference.
Making clear Georgia would not bow to Russian pressure to abandon its rapprochement with Europe, he said: "We'll have a constructive and firm position based on principles."
Margvelashvili won more than 60 percent of votes, partial results showed, sparking noisy celebrations by his supporters in the capital Tbilisi.
Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream ruling coalition now controls Georgia's presidency, government and parliament for the first time, but the prime minister plans to quit shortly after only two years in politics.
He says his job is done now that his bitter rival Mikheil Saakashvili's 10-year rule is over, though Georgia still faces big challenges include a flagging economy and winning back foreign investors scared off by political uncertainty.
Saakashvili's departure removes the main irritant in relations with Moscow. Georgia fought a disastrous five-day war with Russia in 2008 which cemented Moscow's control of two rebellious Georgian regions.
Ivanishvili has been the driving force behind attempts to build stronger ties with Russia while at the same time also deepening integration with the West, a balancing act in foreign policy that has proved hard to pull off.
"We have outlined the right moves in relations with Russia," Margvelashvili said on Monday.
"We will try to reduce tension in bilateral relations and to move discussion of issues to European forums."
WIRE FENCES
Georgia is strategically important for Europe, which gets Caspian gas and oil from pipelines that run through the country of 4.5 million. Tbilisi hopes eventually to join the European Union and NATO, although both are distant prospects.
But Moscow still regards Georgia, and most other ex-Soviet republics, as part of its sphere of influence and President Vladimir Putin has sharpened his foreign policy rhetoric since returning to the Kremlin last year.
Georgians say Russia has shown its intent towards their country by erecting wire fencing along the administrative boundaries of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two provinces controlled by Moscow but still part of Georgia.
Even Ivanishvili has acknowledged dealing with Russia will be tough. "We can't change Russia. It would be better for us to change and work more on ourselves. We have to try to work with Russia, our neighbor, as it is," he told Reuters last week.
Russia called before the election for Georgia to continue efforts to "normalize" relations - diplomatic ties have not been restored since the 2008 war - but commentaries by Russian experts and media have been largely hostile.
Who will pull the strings in Tbilisi when Ivanishvili departs in the coming weeks remains unclear.
As president, Margvelashvili takes on a role with reduced powers under Georgia's revamped constitution.
Ivanishvili, 57, has not said who will be premier, the most powerful role in Georgia. Interior Minister Irakly Garibashvili and Health Minister David Sergeenko are thought to be in the running but Ivanishvili might continue to steer things.
Ivanishvili, whose fortune is estimated at $5.3 billion or about a third of Georgia's gross domestic product, says the economy is likely to improve after Saakashvili's departure because discord between president and government will end.
But increasing growth could prove challenging. Poverty remains widespread and, after years of robust investment-driven growth, GDP grew only 1.5 percent in the second quarter this year, down from 8.2 percent in the same period in 2012.
"Unfortunately the factor of trust in the future of the economy has been lost by businesses and investors and it will take a long period of stability to rebuild trust," said Fady Asly, head of the International Chamber of Commerce in Georgia.
But Alexander Pivovarsky, an economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), said the bank was cautiously optimistic about the future and that growth could accelerate in 2014 if political and policy uncertainty eases.
(Editing by Gareth Jones)
Mexico beefs up security after attacks on state energy firms
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3:03pm EDT
By Lizbeth Diaz
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico has stepped up security in a troubled western region after a string of attacks on electricity installations at the weekend that temporarily knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people.
Energy Minister Pedro Joaquin Coldwell told reporters security forces had increased their presence at facilities of the state-run electricity company the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and oil monopoly Pemex in the violent state of Michoacan.
An unspecified number of substations were attacked and damaged early on Sunday, and six gas stations were also damaged, Michoacan's interior minister, Jaime Mares, told Mexican radio on Monday.
Local media said blackouts affected more than 400,000 people across the mountainous state of some 4.4 million. Parts of Michoacan have fallen under the control of criminal gangs who are fighting among themselves and against authorities.
Mares declined to say who may have been behind the attacks in Michoacan, where clashes between the powerful Knights Templar drug cartel and rival gangs have sparked much violence.
Raul Benitez, a security expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said he believed the strikes had been carried out by the Knights Templar in retaliation for government efforts to crack down on the gang.
"It's a decision to carry out general terrorism," Benitez said. "And this will now lead to a very strong response by the government, backed by the population."
Petrol bombs were used in some of the attacks, which involved at least 19 CFE installations, local media said.
Mares said there were no deaths in the attacks, although local media reported that five suspected cartel henchmen were gunned down by vigilantes in the town of Aguililla near the city of Apatzingan, a stronghold of the Knights Templar.
Michoacan has been rocked by repeated explosions of civil unrest this year, and protesters have repeatedly blocked major streets and highways in the capital and other cities.
Compounding matters, vigilante groups have sprung up in the region this year which complain that state and federal police are not protecting them from the gangs.
President Enrique Pena Nieto in May sent a general to take over all police and military operations in the state.
Michoacan was where former President Felipe Calderon launched his military-led crackdown on drug cartels shortly after taking office at the end of 2006.
Though he succeeded in capturing or killing many capos, Calderon could not contain the violence between the gangs, which has since claimed around 80,000 lives.
(Additional reporting by Dave Graham and Michael O'Boyle; Editing by David Brunnstrom)
AFRICA
28 October 2013 Last updated at 15:08 ET
Somalia's al-Shabab commanders 'killed' in strike
An air strike in southern Somalia has killed two senior commanders of the militant Islamist group, al-Shabab, residents have told the BBC.
The strike destroyed the vehicle the militants were travelling in between the towns of Jilib and Barawe, seen as a major base of al-Shabab, they said.
The US launched a failed raid in Barawe earlier this month to capture an al-Shabab commander.
Al-Shabab is the main al-Qaeda-linked group in East Africa.
A Kenyan military source told the BBC their troops had raided Jilib, and that there might have been some casualties.
However, correspondents say it is unlikely that they carried out the air strike.
Residents of Jilib, some 120km (75 miles) north of the port of Kismayo, told the BBC that it was probably a drone attack that killed the al-Shabab commanders.
One of those killed was al-Shabab's top explosives expert, also known as Anta, a member of the group told the Associated Press.
"This afternoon, I heard a big crash and saw a drone disappearing far into the sky, at least two militants died," local resident Hassan Nur was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.
"I witnessed a Suzuki car burning, many al-Shabab men came to the scene. I could see them carry the remains of two corpses," he said.
"It was a heavy missile that the drone dropped. Many cars were driving ahead of me but the drone targeted this Suzuki."
At least 67 people were killed last month when al-Shabab fighters seized the Westgate shopping centre in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.
US commandos raided Barawe after the attack, but had to retreat after meeting heavy resistance.
The US was believed to have sought to capture al-Shabab commander Abdukadir Mohamed Abdukadir, also known as Ikrima.
Barawe residents say Ikrima is an al-Shabab leader with responsibility for logistics, who is usually accompanied by about 20 well-armed guards.
The US has carried out a series of air strikes in Somalia.
In 2008, one killed al-Shabab commander Aden Hashi Ayro.
A year later, another strike killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who was accused of involvement in the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi and the 2002 attacks on a hotel and airline in Mombasa.
The US has a large military base in Djibouti, which borders Somalia.
Al-Shabab has been driven out of several major towns and cities in southern Somalia but it still controls many rural areas.
G4S is a Private Security Contractor based out of Great Britan they Operate in a number of vountries including the US28 October 2013 Last updated at 08:50 ET
South Africa G4S prison staff accused of abuse
Staff at one of South Africa's most dangerous prisons, run by British firm G4S, have been accused of "shocking" abuses and of losing control.
The South African government has temporarily taken over the running of Mangaung prison from G4S and launched an official investigation.
It comes after inmates claimed they had been subjected to electric shocks and forced injections.
G4S says it is investigating the allegations.
The BBC has obtained leaked footage filmed inside the high security prison, in which one can hear the click of electrified shields, and shrieking. It also shows a prisoner resisting a medication.
Researchers at the Wits Justice Project at Wits University in Johannesburg say they have collected accounts of electric shocks and beatings from almost 30 prisoners during a year-long investigation.
"Some said they would pass out when the shocks became too intense," said Ruth Hopkins, a journalist with the Wits Justice Project.
She said inmates also complained about suffering broken limbs and other serious injuries.
One former prisoner told the BBC electric shocks were used as "torture", while a sacked security guard said water was thrown over inmates to increase the impact of the charge.
A lawyer for some of the prisoners has condemned a culture of impunity amongst prison staff, according to the BBC's Africa correspondent Andrew Harding.
G4S has blamed an upsurge of violence at the prison on a labour dispute, our correspondent adds. More than 300 guards there were sacked this month after going on an unofficial strike.
Nontsikelelo Jolingana, the acting national commissioner of the Department of Correctional Services, told the BBC her department had launched a formal investigation into the claims of abuse.
The South African prison authorities announced last month they were temporarily taking over the running of the prison near Bloemfontein, in the central Free State province, after the private security contractor "lost effective control of the facility".
Andy Baker, regional president of G4S for Africa, said administering and prescribing injections was not the domain of G4S staff, but of independent medical staff.
When asked about allegations of electric shocking and beatings, he told the BBC there had "never been an abuse of this type or nature" to his knowledge.
In a statement to the BBC, G4S said while the video could not be verified, the company "takes such allegations very seriously and will be launching our own investigations into the matter".
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My heart goes out to those innocent victims.