The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Another school bus crash sparks fury in China
- Syria death toll exceeds 5,000 - U.N. rights chief
- Anti-Wall Street activists march on U.S. West Coast ports
| Another school bus crash sparks fury in China Posted: 12 Dec 2011 08:51 PM PST BEIJING (Reuters) - Fifteen children were killed when a school bus crashed in China's eastern province of Jiangsu, state media said on Tuesday, the latest in a string of accidents fanning public fury across the country. The bus rolled into a ditch as it veered off the road to avoid a pedicab, the Xinhua news agency said. At least eight children were also injured in the accident, which happened after school on Monday. "Students became trapped at the bottom of the overturned bus and drowned as water gushed into the wreck," Xinhua reported, citing Zhang Bin, a deputy head of the Fengxian county, where the accident happened. "The driver has been detained for investigation," said Zhang. Xinhua gave conflicting accounts on the number of children on board the bus but all the reports suggested the bus was not overloaded. Xinhua last reported that 29 were on board. An outcry erupted across China in early November after 18 nursery school children were killed when a coal truck slammed into their overcrowded school van in northwestern China. Also on Monday, a school bus carrying 59 children collided with a truck in Guangdong Province, in China's far south, injuring 37, media reported. That crash and the one in Jiangsu are sure to amplify calls for more spending on education and children's safety. In 1993, the Chinese government vowed to dedicate 4 percent of GDP to education. "Close to 20 years have passed, and this has still not been achieved," said an editorial in the China Information News on Tuesday. "For some local governments, the proportion of GDP spent on education has actually fallen." Chinese microbloggers were quick to express their anger about the crash. "Another school bus accident kills 15 children. It's just a number in the eyes of Chinese officials. The only thing they care about is whether it impacts their future career," wrote Huiji Flying on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblog. "Nothing is safe in China apart from leaders' cars, houses, money and concubines," added Yiran Anki. The November tragedy prompted Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to promise more government funds to provide improved school bus services. Rural areas in China are notorious for unsafe transport for children, who face risky rides in aging, badly maintained vans and trucks. The school bus crashes also reflect the growing trend in rural China for schools to be concentrated in larger towns, abandoning villages where the population has been shrinking. Children then have to travel long distances to school or board away from their families. (Reporting by Koh Gui Qing, Sabrina Mao, Chris Buckley and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ken Wills and John Newland) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| Syria death toll exceeds 5,000 - U.N. rights chief Posted: 12 Dec 2011 08:02 PM PST AMMAN (Reuters) - More than 5,000 people have been killed in nine months of unrest in Syria, the U.N. human rights chief said, as an insurgency begins to overshadow what had been mostly peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad.
The latest figure reported to the U.N. Security Council by Navi Pillay is 1,000 higher than the one she announced just 10 days ago. The toll includes civilians, army defectors and those executed for refusing to shoot civilians, but not soldiers and other security personnel killed by opposition forces, she said. The Syrian government has said more than 1,100 members of the army, police and security services have been killed. Pillay said the Syrian government's actions could constitute crimes against humanity and issued a fresh call for the council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court. A wave of largely peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule erupted in Syria in mid-March, inspired by popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya. A violent security crackdown failed to halt the unrest, which has turned bloodier in the last few months as defecting soldiers join armed civilians in fighting back in some areas. One flashpoint region is the central province of Homs, where an explosion set a gas pipeline on fire on Monday, the second reported pipeline blast in the area in a week. "The fire lit the night sky," said a resident who gave his name as Abu Khalaf. The explosion occurred near the restive town of Rastan, the scene in late September of one of the first battles between army defectors and security forces. The insurgents have since opted for hit-and-run attacks on patrols and security compounds. Despite the spiralling violence, the Syrian authorities held local elections on Monday as part of what they say is a reform process, but Assad's critics described the voting as irrelevant. Monday was also the second day of the opposition's "Strike for Dignity," but its success was hard to gauge in some cities where violence has kept many residents in their homes. Though the strike has found support in protest strongholds around the country, it has not taken hold in central parts of the capital Damascus or the business hub of Aleppo. TWENTY MORE DEAD In Homs, activists said at least four civilians were killed by tank fire on Sunni Muslim districts, where the strike held and voting was largely boycotted. The Local Coordination Committees, an activist organisation, said security forces killed another 16 people elsewhere in Syria, including in villages around Homs and in the northwestern province of Idlib on the border with Turkey. Syria has barred most independent journalists, making it hard to assess conflicting accounts of events there. In New York, Western envoys on the Security Council said Pillay's briefing on Monday was the most horrifying they had heard in recent times and termed it scandalous that the council, paralysed by opposition from Russia and China, had taken little action on Syria. "Independent, credible and corroborated accounts demonstrate that these abuses have taken place as part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians," Pillay said, according to briefing notes seen by Reuters. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he too was troubled by Pillay's report but said outside intervention could lead to civil war and a far higher death toll. Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said Pillay should never have appeared before the council for a session that was part of a "huge conspiracy concocted against Syria from the beginning." Assad's government portrays the municipal polls as part of a process leading to a parliamentary election next year and constitutional reform. But critics say local elections have little meaning in a country where power is highly centralised. Prime Minister Adel Safar urged voters to "stand together to save our country from the conspiracies against us" and SANA said Syrians had flocked to the polls in 9,849 voting centres. Assad has said reforms cannot be rushed in Baathist-ruled Syria, which is a close ally of Iran, a key player in nearby Lebanon and supporter of militant anti-Israel groups. Some of his opponents see civil disobedience such as the strike action as preferable to armed confrontation. "The cost will be more human lives I am afraid. But it is less costly than an armed uprising and the regime dragging the country into a Libya-type scenario," said Rima Fleihan, a member of the foreign-based opposition Syrian National Council. (Additional reporting by Erika Solomon in Beirut; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Tim Pearce) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| Anti-Wall Street activists march on U.S. West Coast ports Posted: 12 Dec 2011 07:53 PM PST OAKLAND, Calif (Reuters) - Anti-Wall Street protesters tried to mount a blockade of major West Coast ports on Monday in a move seen as a test of their momentum, but fell short of imposing a large-scale disruption of commerce.
The protesters marched on ports from California to Alaska, hoping to call attention to U.S. economic inequalities, high unemployment and a financial system they say is unfairly skewed toward the wealthy. They succeeded in disrupting morning arrivals of trucks and dockworkers at some waterfronts, blocking and effectively closing two terminals in Portland, Oregon, and briefly forcing the closure of a third terminal in Seattle. But by late afternoon demonstrators had largely failed to cause large-scale immobilization of commerce. A handful were arrested in San Diego, Long Beach, and Oakland, Calif, and Seattle. The long-planned action comes after the Occupy movement that began in New York in September has seen its tent camps in most big West Coast cities dismantled in police raids, leaving the movement looking for new avenues to voice its discontent. The largest action unfolded in Oakland, an Occupy hot spot where protesters hoped to stage a repeat of an October protest that briefly succeeded in shuttering the port, the nation's fifth busiest container port by volume. "Whose ports? Our ports!" a crowd of around 1,000 activists chanted as they paraded before dawn from a transit station to the city's cargo port and split into groups to try to block terminal entrances. Tractor-trailers were prevented from entering at least two terminals where protesters formed picket lines in front of police. Police reported two arrests, but port authorities and protest organizers gave conflicting accounts of the outcome. Former Marine Scott Olsen, whose injury during clashes between Oakland police and demonstrators in October gave fresh impetus to protests, later joined a march in Oakland. 'SPORADIC DISRUPTIONS' Occupy Oakland spokesman Mike King called the blockade a success, saying cargo traffic at the port was limited to just two vessels in anticipation of the demonstration, and that longshoremen and Teamsters were largely absent from work. "Nobody crossed the picket line, and most truckers stayed away," King said, adding that the only cargo loaded onto trucks in the terminal yards was material already taken off ships. The port's executive director, Omar Benjamin, acknowledged "sporadic disruptions" but insisted the facility had remained operational throughout the day. Benjamin had no details about the extent of disruptions, and could not say whether any ships were unloaded or whether union workers had reported to their jobs. Workers affected by the protests were divided. "It's not good for the economy," said Agustin Luna, 39, an independent trucker waiting in his big rig to deliver a load of alfalfa to a ship in Oakland bound for Japan. But Sean Martin, another independent trucker waiting outside an Oakland terminal, said: "I support what they are trying to do. Wages have steadily dropped." In the Port of Long Beach, adjacent to Los Angeles, the nation's No. 2 container port, around 250 to 300 demonstrators rallied in the rain at a terminal facility where they scuffled with helmeted police officers who shoved them back with batons in an effort to keep the entryway clear. Two were arrested before demonstrators left the area to block traffic along a thoroughfare through the port. But protesters later began to disperse on their own as rains grew heavier and police converged in force, threatening arrests. In San Diego, four people were arrested at that city's port as demonstrators tried to block a road into the facility. TWO TERMINALS CLOSED IN PORTLAND In Oregon, several hundred protesters at Portland's harbour blocked gates to two of the port's four main terminals, including the chief deep-draft container dock, forcing the closure of both facilities. "We are not able to get trucks through or employees in," port spokesman Josh Thomas said. "Nobody is going to work, not the longshoremen, office workers or truckers." Portland police said they had detained three men in a car on their way to the port several hours before the march during a traffic stop in which officers seized a loaded .40-caliber handgun, a sword, radios and gas masks. The men told police they had planned to attend the demonstration and had arrived early to "scout the area." The driver was arrested on a charge of possessing a loaded firearm in public while a passenger was held on an outstanding warrant. The third man was released. Protests at the Port of Longview in Washington state prompted officials there to send 16 longshoremen home after their terminal was deemed "an unsafe work environment," said Dan Coffman, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 21. The two largest labour unions caught up in the protests were split, with the longshoremen's union opposed to the attempted blockade and the Teamsters taking a neutral stance. One of the issues for the protestors involved the conditions of truck drivers who are non union and paid low wages. In a show of solidarity with the West Coast protests, some protesters refused to leave a private atrium in the World Financial Center in New York City, and 17 were arrested. (Additional reporting by R.T. Watson in Long Beach, Dan Cook and Teresa Carson in Portland, Laura L. Myers and Nicole Neroulias in Seattle, Mary Slosson in Los Angeles and Amman Ali in New York; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jerry Norton, Cynthia Johnston and Carol Bishopric) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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