News & Reports 2010-09-04

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China commemorates 1 the 65th anniversary of the surrender of Japan in World War II 65 years ago.

The committee created by the Philippine government to investigate last month's tour bus hostage crisis where 8 Hong Kong tourists were murdered begins its inquiry 2 into the bloody 3 ordeal 4 in Manila.

China will send 1,000 soldiers to join 4,000 others from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan for the exercises under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

And an explosion tears through an offshore 5 oil platform in the Gulf 6 of Mexico, just west of the area where BP's Deepwater Horizon rig caught fire and sank in April.

Hot Issue Reports

China commemorates 65th anniversary of victory of WW2

China commemorated 7 on Friday the 65th anniversary of the surrender of Japan in World War II.

65 years ago, the then-Chinese government proclaimed a three-day celebration, one day after Japan surrendered aboard the USS Missouri, ending this country's 14-year-long anti-Fascist war.

As Su Yi tells us, today, veterans of that war still want to remind Chinese people why they are called "the Great Generation".

Reporter:

Wearing military uniforms adorned 8 with shiny medals, veterans still become emotional when they recall the stories of how they put aside their books or shovels 9 and picked up guns, even though 65 years have passed.

China's anti-invasion war started in 1931, when the Japanese blitzed and occupied the northeast.

On July 7th 1937, invaders 10 bombarded Wanping, a town located on the southwestern outskirts 11 of Beijing and entered the city across Lugou Bridge, sparking a full-scale war between the two countries.

Tong Bing still remembers the fierce battle along the river led by his father, General Tong Linge.

"His guards carried him back after he was shot in the leg, but he refused to retreat. He finally died when he was shot in the head."

Soon after the blitz, millions of Chinese troops were sent to the frontlines, in trying to prevent the Japanese army from running through Shanxi Province and entering the country from Shanghai.

Ninety-year-old Jiang Shu was among many young students who voluntarily joined the army.

"We had a saying at that time: no home without a victory; no marriage without a victory."

During the war, China kept about 70 percent of the Japanese troops, or about 1.5 million of them, bogged 12 down here in China, forcing Japan to reassess its moves in the Pacific Ocean and potential plans for an invasion of far eastern part of Russia. An estimated 35 million lives were lost in that struggle.

Nowadays people travel to the memorial museum near the Lugou Bridge and a sculpture park beside it in western Beijing on Victory-Day.

Luo Cunkang is the vice 13 director of the museum.

"We don't want people to forget that part of history, but I think people from both countries also don't want to pass on the hatred 14. We learn from history and we move on."

For CRI, I'm Su Yi.

Justice department starts formal inquiry into bus hostage handling

The committee created by the Philippine government to investigate last month's tour bus hostage crisis where 8 Hong Kong tourists were murdered has now formally began its inquiry into the bloody ordeal in Manila.

Among those who attended the first session to testify was Philippine National Police Chief Director Jesus Verzosa and the ground commander, Senior Superintendent 15 Rodolfo Magtibay.

During today's hearing, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who chairs the inquiry, wasted no time in putting tough questions to Verzosa.

"We want to know, on August 23, when was it determined 16 and who made the determination that the negotiations 17 failed?"

--"It is the ground commander your honour, according to protocol 18 it is he who decides if negotiations have failed and that intervention 19 should be undertaken."

During the inquiry a senior official has testified the objective was to exhaust the gunman through negotiations because police thought they could save all the hostages.

On Monday, the invetigation committee is planning to conduct an visual inspection 20 of the bus and conduct a re-enactment of the incident at a different location in Manila.

The eight Hong Kong tourists were gunned down on live television before police snipers finally took down the gunman, who was a dismissed police officer demanding his job back.

Survivors 21 say he became enraged 22 after watching police handcuff his brother for interfering 23 in the negotiations.

Many in Hong Kong have been highly critical of police in Manila, arguing they bungled 24 the negotiations and the subsequent rescue operations.

PLA unit for SCO anti-terror drills in Kazakhstan leaves Beijing

A 107-strong Chinese military unit has now left for anti-terrorism drills in southern Kazakhstan, which will run from September 9th to the 25th.

About 5,000 troops from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan will take part in the exercises under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. China alone will send 1,000 soldiers.

Chen Xuehui, world military researcher at the China Military Science Institute says China has always tried to be proactive in maintaining regional peace and security, and suggests this exercise is a way in which China can show its pledge toward more military transparency.

"I think the Chinese military has become more open.Now we have our troops outside the country to display our tactics, training abilities and this will improve the comprehensive level of the troops. Especially under the multi-framework, we have invited the observing countries, UN representitives to see the drill, this will surely play a positive role in enhancing the transparency of our military."

The first of the annual drills began in 2002.

Japan imposes new Iran sanctions over nuclear programme

The Japanese government has now decided 25 to step up sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

The additional sanctions included a freeze on the assets of those linked to nuclear development, as well as tighter supervision 26 of financial transactions.

A total of 88 institutions and 24 individuals are being targeted in the new asset freeze.

According to local media, Japanese financial institutions are being asked to refrain from concluding contracts with Iranian banks suspected to be linked to the country's nuclear development activities.

Those Iranian banks on the new list are now banned from opening branches in Japan, while Japanese financial institutions are also not allowed to do so in Iran.

Japanese Chief cabinet secretary Yoshito Sengoku.

"It is important to get Iran to make a wise decision and leave the door open to dialogue while the international community imposes a United Nations Security Council decision unanimously agreed upon."

The fresh sanctions come on top of the measures Japan announced in early August, which are in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution.

The U.N. Security Council in June adopted a resolution to impose fresh sanctions on Iran after the country continued to defy international calls to comply with its obligations under the IAEA in relation to its nuclear program.

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is strictly 27 for peaceful purposes.

Middle East peace talks: Constructive 28?

Israeli and Palestinian leaders have now agreed to keep talking and produce a framework for a permanent peace deal following their first set of direct negotiations in nearly two years.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas now say they will meet again on September 14th and 15th in Sharm el-Sheik in Egypt, with an eye toward forging the outline of a pact 29.

They also say they will meet every two weeks after that.

US special Mideast envoy 30 George Mitchell.

"Our goal is to resolve all of the core issues within one year and the parties themselves have suggested and agreed that the logical way to proceed, to tackle them, is to try and reach a framework agreement first."

Mitchell has declined to say exactly what the framework agreement might include, but says it will outline the main compromises necessary to get to a full peace treaty.

Thursday's negotiations are the first since the last efforts broke down in December 2008.

A spate 31 of violence this week in the West Bank and concerns about Israeli settlement activity have cast low expectations for this week's session.

Further complicating 32 the situation is the fact that the talks will face their first test within weeks, at the end of September, when the Israeli government's self-imposed slowdown in settlement construction is slated 33 to end.

For more on the Palestinian-Israeli talks and the landscape of the Middle east peace process, we spoke 34 earlier with Mark Bruzonsky, a journalist and international affairs counsultant based in Washington.

Thant's Mark Bruzonsky, a journalist and international affairs counsultant based in Washington.

Light News

Explosion on Mariner 35 Energy oil rig in Gulf of Mexico

An explosion has torn through an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, just west of the area where BP's Deepwater Horizion rig caught fire and sank in April, creating the worst oil spill in United States history.

In the latest incident, the 13 crewmembers on the rig managed to escape into the water and have since been rescued.

The US Coast Guard says the blaze burned for hours after the explosion but has now been extinguished.

Peter Troedsson is the Chief of Staff of the Eighth Coast Guard District.

"First, I'm pleased to announce that all thirteen members aboard the oil platform have survived with no serious injuries. The fire is out, and Coast Guard helicopters on scene, and vessels 36 on scene, have no reports of a visible sheen in the water. There is no report of an evidence of leaks, but we continue to investigate and to monitor that situation to make sure that that doesn't change."

Seven Coast Guard helicopters, two planes, and three boats were dispacted to the site, about 130km south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.

Mariner Energy, which operates the platform, says the rig was undergoing maintenance and was not producing any oil or gas at the time of the explosion.

An Indonesian volcano that has woken up after laying dormant 37 for 4 centuries has now unleashed 38 its biggest eruption 39 so far, shooting plumes 40 of smoke 3 km into the air and prompting further evacuations of terrified locals.

The latest eruption of Mount Sinabung on Indonesia's Sumatra, the third this week, is three times stronger than the initial one recorded last Sunday.

A number of villagers have taken refuge at nearby shelters. Sulam Ginting is one of them.

"The tremors 41 were so scary. I was asleep when the eruption started at 4.30 a.m. in the morning. Now, I hope government will pay more attention to us and improve our condition here."

Around 30,000 people have been evacuated 42 over the last week from the mainly farming villages, with many crowding into refugee camps in nearby towns.

Some had begun to return to their villages, but were again whisked out of their homes overnight.

Indonesia is a vast archipelago of some 17,000 islands that lies along the geologically active "Pacific Ring of Fire".

It has about 130 active volcanoes and hundreds of inactive ones.

China to Investigate Housing Vacancies 43

China's statistic 44 bureau is now experimenting with new ways of tracking housing vacancies, as it rolls out plans to revamp its housing price calculations.

The new investigation 45 methods will be piloted in selected residential 46 areas in several cities, including Beijing.

High housing prices have provoked anger that wealthy buyers may be driving up prices by sitting on vacant properties.

And the calculation of the housing vacancy 47 rate has been the subject of a fair amount of public criticizm during the past three months.

According to Wang Zhizhong, an independent real estate commentator 48, the unclear definition of vacant property has been problematic.

"The statistics published previously 49 were about unsold property. This has nothing to do with vacancy rate. Unsold houses refer to inventories 50 of real estate developers, but vacancy rate does not care how many flats are unsold, rather, it looks into how many sold flats are vacant."

The pilot program will be incorporated into the national population census 51 in November.

But the National Bureau of Statistics says the investigation will not result in nationally representative data on housing vacancies.

Rather, the NBS will use the data to improve its own survey methods.

UN Session Draws International Attention to Rights of Persons with Disabilities

A Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is underway in the United Nations Headquarters in New York. As our UN correspondent Shen Ting reports, delegates from all over the world are discussing how to improve the rights, and better meet the needs of people with disabilities, two years after the Convention came into effect.

Reporter:

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006, and came into effect two years later. So far it has been signed by 146 states and ratified 52 by 90.

Professor Yang Jia with the Chinese Academy of Sciences was elected vice chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities two years ago. As one of the leading members of the Chinese delegation 53 to this session, she says the improvements the world has made regarding the rights of the disabled over the past two years are encouraging.

"I think this Convention is very important. Within two years, more and more governments in the world have realized that if we ignore this special group of people, it would be empty words for them to say they are trying to realize the Millennium 54 Development Goals of the United Nations."

According to Yang Jia, in the past two years, the numbers of both contracting and signatory states of the Convention have doubled. It has become the second most popular and respected human rights convention in the world, only after the Convention on the Rights of Children. Many countries, including China, have made great achievements in this regard in the past two years.

"In terms of education, employment, accessibility environment, and the most important of all, people's attitude, we're trying to make our world more inclusive. Actually right now in China we want to make persons with disabilities to participate in various activities and make them more visible, just out of homes, to be part of this society."

Yang Jia said two international events - the Paralympics in Beijing in 2008 and the World Expo currently underway in Shanghai - both helped raise public awareness 55 of improving rights of persons with disabilities in China.

The Chinese government is working hard at all levels to address the needs of this special group of society in two major areas, namely the service system and the social safety network. She says that if more people among both government officials and common citizens realize the importance of this issue, persons with disabilities in China will be able to live better lives with more confidence and optimism.

For CRI, I am Shen Ting from the UN Headquarters in New York.

Giant burger making at BBQ festival

The Serbian town of Leskovac is now playing host an unofficial attempt to make the world's largest hamburger.

The attempt is part of a city-wide annual meat festival known locally as Rostil jijada, or Barbecue Week.

Locals and tourists alike are partying with food and beer, singing folk songs and playing flutes 56 and drums.

But of course, the biggest highlight of the festival so far is the creation by two local chefs.

"The hamburger weighs 51 kilograms, has a diameter of 1.63 metres, and is 2.5 centimetres thick."

Leskovac, known for its rich culinary tradition, and situated 57 some 250 kilometres south of the capital Belgrade, closes its streets to traffic for one week to make way for temporary grills 58, stands and restaurants.

Pulitzer prize winning author teams up with Oscar-winning documentarian for HBO film

In 2006, Lawrence Wright turned his Pulitzer Prize winning book, "The Looming 59 Tower: al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11" into an off-Broadway stage performance called, 'My Trip to al-Qaeda.'

Now the New Yorker reporter has teamed up with Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney to turn the stage performance into a documentary.

"It's the story of a journey into the minds of the people who perpetrated 9-11 and also into our own experience and how it's changed us because of it."

The documentary, like the play, also recounts Wright's struggle to maintain his objectivity as a journalist while covering the September 11th attacks.

Gibney approached Wright after seeing the play at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and suggested the documentary.

'My Trip to al-Qaeda' premieres on HBO on Tuesday.

Media Digest

From Xinhua: According to the designer, the so-called "straddle bus," a newly developed vehicle that may reduce traffic jams by about 30 percent and is less costly 60 than an urban subway system, has theoretically proved workable.

The inventor, from Shenzhen, says a group led by a professor at Shanghai's Jiaotong University has conducted research that says the design will work.

The "straddle bus" spans two traffic lanes and sits at a height of 4.5 meters. The inventor contends it would be used on major roads in cities and could reduce road traffic by 20 to 30 percent.

The bus would run along special tracks and sit on a pair of stilts 61 so ordinary cars can pass underneath 62 it. It could carry up to 1,400 passengers and travel as fast as 60 to 80 kilometers per hour.

From the AFP: Divers 63 have now salvaged 64 the world's oldest drinkable beer from a shipwreck 65 in the Baltic Sea, just days after work began to retrieve 66 dozens of bottles of 200-year-old champagne 67.

The beer bottles were unearthed 68 from a shipwreck believed to be about 200 years old -- as divers were recovering bottles of what is thought to be the world's oldest drinkable champagne, which were discovered in July.

The salvagers say the constant temperature and light levels 50 meters below the surface in Baltic Sea, which is wedged between Finland and Sweden, have provided optimal 69 conditions for storage, and the pressure in the bottles has prevented any seawater from seeping 70 in through the corks 71.