Kerry warns of US 'reality check' in brokering Middle East talks

Deutsche Welle, 5 April 2014

US Secretary of State John Kerry has said Washington is weighing up whether to continue to play a role in the Middle East peace process. His comments come after talks between the Israelis and Palestinians hit a snag.

Kerry said there was a limit to Washington's commitment to efforts to broker a peace if the two sides themselves were not willing to move forward.

The Secretary of State declared late on Friday it was "reality check time" as to whether an agreement could be reached. Kerry's comments came after what he described as unhelpful announcements by both the Israeli and Palestinian leadership.

"Regrettably in the last few days, both sides have taken steps that are not helpful, and that's evident to everybody. So we are going to evaluate very carefully exactly where this is and where it might possibly be able to go," Kerry told reporters, while on a diplomatic visit to Morocco.

Kerry, who embarked on a last-ditch effort to save the floundering peace process last weekend, had been due to return to the Middle East on Wednesday, a day after attending the NATO summit in Brussels.

However, he cancelled after both parties made announcements that backtracked on preconditions for talks, placing the already-fragile negotiations in further jeopardy.

'No open-ended effort'

"There are limits to the amount of time and effort that the United States can spend if the parties themselves are unwilling to take constructive steps in order to be able to move forward," said Kerry. "Neither party has said that they've called it off. But we're not going to sit there indefinitely. This is not an open-ended effort… It's reality check time, and we intend to evaluate precisely what the next steps will be."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday signed 15 United Nations treaties and conventions that give his administration greater recognition. An agreement not to sign such documents had been a precondition set by Israel for talks to go ahead.

Earlier, Israel had said it would reissue 708 settlement tenders in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. The Israeli government also called off its promised release of 26 Palestinian prisoners under conditions set for the talks by the Palestinians.

A source familiar with the talks told the Reuters news agency that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were likely to meet, along with US envoy Martin Indyk on Sunday.

rc/crh (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

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"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“.. A New Social System

There is a new kind of social system, a new way of communicating where everyone can talk to everyone all at once. Millions can do this, without borders or culture clash. Take a look at Egypt. It confounded all of those who sit in the power seats not far from here [Washington, D.C.]. The old energy thinking is afraid because there's a vacuum with no emerging leader. You see, everybody knows there has to be leadership, there has to be hierarchy. There has to be all of these things in order to create a revolution. Well, let me tell you, that's old, old thinking. Because you just saw revolution of consciousness without leadership, without hierarchy, without any one person whipping the others into a frenzy to convince them of anything. It just happened together, almost like there is a wave of consciousness that is spreading over the earth. There is. When everyone can talk to everyone, this is what you get. Dictators know this, so the first thing they wish to shut down are the new communications tools.

I want to go further than that. Let's get personal and interview a Syrian or a Libyan. Let's talk to an Egyptian for a moment. Let's find the man on the street and ask him some questions. I'll give you the question. "What do you want?" Here's what they're going to tell you. "We want to choose what we do in our own land. We want the glory of our culture back. We want abundance in our homes and towns. We want schools. We want to have some of the things the rest of the world has. We want to take some of the things that our country has in abundance and share it with the citizens. We want our grandchildren safe. We want good hospitals." That's what they're going to tell you.

So why do I tell you this? Because nowhere in their rhetoric is, "And we want to kill the Jews!" Because they're smarter than that, and they're becoming conceptual and beginning to understand this premise: War is hell. It leads to sorrow, death, destruction and heartbreak. It creates poverty and famine - and they know it. They're looking at Europe. They're looking around and they're starting to see unification being an answer to that which is what they want for their children. They don't want war. They don't want war! They may not like the Jews, but they now understand that in order to really have what they want, they must work with them.

So the uprisings you are seeing, dear ones, are not what you think, or what you are being told. Don't worry, thinking, "This is the beginning of the end." Oh, it's going to have a seesaw of energy; it's going to have fear. It will even have those terrorist leaders who want to control it. You're going to be told this and that, but in the end, in a decade, when you can go there and take a look, you're going to have states that are at peace with Israel. One of the most controversial things we have told you is this: Peace in the Middle East is not going to come from anything Israel does. It's going to come from that which the Islamic states do. The young people there don't want a war. Now, all you have to do is convince the Jews of this so that they don't create one of their own. Do you understand the sense of this? Higher consciousness and conceptual thinking brings about revolution that is not replaced by another dictator. The dictators are falling. Human Beings in these third-world areas want to raise their families the way you do - in peace and safety and stability.

The Evidence is Everywhere

What has happened in the last 50 years? Go to South America with me. How many dictators were there then and how many are there now? There is one left and his days are numbered. Watch him, for he'll want to ally with other dictators and there won't be any! A controlled economy will absolutely fail. His is starting not to work.

These dictators are falling because they represent an old energy paradigm, an old Human nature. A new consciousness is taking over. Look at the big picture. Get out of fear and understand again that time is slow to you and these things are generational, not seasonal! There will be battles won and lost for high consciousness. There will be one country that may even seem to go backwards a little before they go forward. This is the way time works and consciousness works. Here is the prediction we've given you: You're beginning to see the seeds of peace in the Middle East. Not in the news, but in the new social areas with young people. And when it settles, the biggest issue will still be the Palestinians. But perhaps for the first time, their Islamic brothers in countries around them will begin to include them instead of not including them as they are now. Watch for a compassion of brotherhood - not for war, but for eventual peace and stability.

And yes, there'll be those who tell you just the opposite, dear one. This is what we see. Turn on your news and you are seeing it. But you see it graphically, do you not? And you see the sorrow and the death, for that is the most dramatic. Just think of those who have come into this planet to give their lives and sacrifice for something grand - peace in their own land. It's just what you did to create this United States. You had to fight your way through it, didn't you? It seems like an old paradigm that sometimes you have to involve the bridge of swords between old and new. But sometimes you just do to slog through a Human nature which has been a certain way for thousands of years.  …”

Pakistani couple get death sentences for blasphemy

BBC News, 5 April 2014

Human rights groups say Pakistan's blasphemy laws are often used to
target minorities, including Christians

Related Stories

• Q&A: Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws
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A Pakistani Christian couple have been sentenced to death for blasphemy after allegedly sending a text message insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

The couple, named as Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagufta Kausar, were found guilty of sending the text message to the imam of their local mosque.

Allegations of blasphemy against Islam are taken very seriously in Pakistan.

Several recent cases have prompted international concern about the application of blasphemy laws.

The imam brought a complaint against the couple last July.

The couple's lawyer told the BBC he would appeal against the sentences and said the trial had not been conducted fairly.

Pakistan has a de fact moratorium on the death penalty so it is unlikely the couple will be executed.

They come from the town of Gojra in Punjab, previously the scene of communal violence.

In 2009 the rumoured desecration of a copy of the Koran led to a mob burning nearly 40 houses and a church in Gojra. At least eight members of Christian community died in the violence.

Minorities targeted

Since the 1990s, scores of Christians have been convicted for desecrating the Koran or blaspheming against the Prophet Mohammed.

While most of them have been sentenced to death by the lower courts, many sentences have been overturned due to lack of evidence.

Critics argue that Pakistan's blasphemy laws are frequently misused to settle personal scores and that members of minority groups are also unfairly targeted.

Muslims constitute a majority of those prosecuted, followed by the minority Ahmadi community.

In 2012 the arrest of a young Christian girl, Rimsha Masih, on blasphemy charges provoked international outrage. After being detained in a high security prison for several weeks she was eventually released and her family subsequently fled to Canada.

Afghans defy Taliban threats to vote in large numbers

Yahoo – AFP, Usman SHARIFI, 5 April 2014

Afghan residents line up to vote under a billboard showing images of Afghan

 President Hamid Karzai (L) and deceased Afghan figures Burhandin Rabani (R) and

 Ahmad Shah Massoud (C) outside a polling station in Mazar-i-Sharif on April 5, 2014

(AFP Photo/Farshad Usyan)

Kabul (AFP) - Afghans voted in large numbers Saturday to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai in the country's first democratic transfer of power as US-led forces end their 13-year war.

Despite Taliban threats, voting was largely peaceful with long queues in cities across the country as voters cast their ballots at around 6,000 centres under tight security.

The Taliban had rejected the election as a foreign plot and urged their fighters to target polling staff, voters and security forces, but there were no major attacks reported during the day.

An Afghan policeman frisks men at a check

 point on the streets of Kandahar on April 5,

2014 (AFP Photo/Javed Tanveer)

The head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani told AFP turnout was better than expected, without giving figures, but lower in rural districts than cities.

"We have had reports of ballot papers running low in some areas and have ordered regional and provincial centres to supply extra material," he said.

Polling stations started to close at 5:00 pm (1230 GMT), though officials said that people already in line would still be allowed to vote.

In Kabul, hit by a series of deadly attacks during the election campaign, hundreds of people lined up in the open air to vote despite heavy rain and the insurgents' promise of violence.

"I'm not afraid of Taliban threats, we will die one day anyway. I want my vote to be a slap in the face of the Taliban," housewife Laila Neyazi, 48, told AFP.

Poll security was a major concern following the attacks in Kabul, most recently a suicide bombing on Wednesday that killed six police officers.

One dead, two wounded

But a fatal blast was reported in Logar province, south of Kabul, where one person was killed and two wounded according to Mohammad Agha district chief Abdul Hameed Hamid.

IEC chief Nuristani said attacks or fear of violence had forced 211 of a total 6,423 voting centres to remain closed.

Factfile on leading contenders in the Afghan presidential vote.

(AFP Photo)

The day before the poll Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus was shot dead by a police commander in eastern Khost province.

She was the third journalist working for international media to be killed during the election campaign, after Swedish journalist Nils Horner and Sardar Ahmad of Agence France-Presse.

Interior Minister Omar Daudzai said all 400,000 of Afghanistan's police, army and intelligence services were being deployed to ensure security around the country.

Afghans have taken over responsibility for security from US-led forces and this year the last of the NATO coalition's 51,000 combat troops will pull out, leaving local forces to battle the resilient Taliban insurgency without their help.

In the western city of Herat, a queue of several hundred people waited to vote at one polling station, while in Jalalabad in the east, voters stood patiently outside a mosque.

Afghan voters queue at a polling station

in the Jamee mosque in Herat on

April 5, 2014 (AFP Photo/Aref Karimi)

Voters also lined up in Kandahar city, the southern heartland of the Taliban, with some women among the crowd in contrast to the 2009 election when turnout was very low due to poor security.

The country's third presidential election brings an end to 13 years of rule by Karzai, who has held power since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

No clear favourite

Around 13.5 million people were eligible to vote from an estimated total population of 28 million.

As well as the first round of the presidential election, voters also cast ballots for provincial councils.

The front-runners to succeed Karzai are former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, Abdullah Abdullah -- runner up in the 2009 election -- and former World Bank academic Ashraf Ghani.

Afghan women queue outside a school

 to vote in presidential elections in the 

northwestern city of Herat on April 5,

2014 (AFP Photo/Aref Karimi)

There is no clear favourite and if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round -- preliminary results for which will be announced on April 24 -- a run-off is scheduled for late May.

Massive fraud and widespread violence marred Karzai's re-election in 2009 and a disputed result this time would add to the challenges facing the new president.

Whoever emerges victorious must lead the fight against the Taliban without the help of more NATO troops, and also strengthen an economy reliant on declining aid money.

The election may offer a chance for Afghanistan to improve relations with the United States, its principal donor, after the mercurial Karzai years.

Relations fell to a new low late last year when Karzai refused to sign a security agreement that would allow the US to keep around 10,000 troops in Afghanistan to train local forces and hunt Al-Qaeda.

US official hints at reduced Pacific deployment as carrot to N Korea

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-04-05

Daniel Russel. (Photo/CNS)

Daniel Russel, US assistant secretary of state for East Asia, has urged China to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for an implied reduction of US military deployment in the Asia-Pacific region, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

Russel said during a conference held by the Asia Society this week that the best way for China to influence the military deployment of the United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific is persuading Pyongyang to take the right path.

He recognized China's supports for the United Nations Security Council's sanctions on North Korea but also said Beijing's approach of coaxing the Kim Jong-un government has been fruitless.

Beijing's strategies toward North Korea have walked a tightrope between maintaining stability in the region bordering China and preventing Pyongyang from owning nuclear weapon, Russel said. China's government has opposed the approach of the US, Japan and South Korea to rein in North Korea but its own wheedling tactics have been unsuccessful, he said

South Korean newspaper Munhwa Ilbo noted that it is rare for a US official to openly raise US military deployment in the Asia-Pacific region as leverage. The is an enticement as well as a threat to China, suggesting that the US could increase its military deployment in order to protect Japan and South Korea. Although China and the US have taken the same stance on the issue of a nuclear Korean peninsula, they differ greatly on how to handle the situation.

Russel has openly proposed the exchange, which is unusual since most nations trade their interests under the table, said Jin Canrong, a professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing. Jin also said Russel's remark was indirectly aimed at undermining relations between China and North Korea.

Indonesian maid to return to Hong Kong to help torture probe

Yahoo – AFP, 4 April 2014

Indonesian maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih is seen in her hospital bed in

Sragen district, central Java, on February 5, 2014 (AFP Photo/Anwar Mustafa)

Hong Kong (AFP) - An Indonesian maid allegedly tortured by her Hong Kong employer will return to the city next week for a medical examination to help bolster the investigation in the case that sparked angry protests, officials said Friday.

Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, 23, was admitted to hospital in Sragen, on Indonesia's main island of Java, in critical condition after returning from Hong Kong in January where she allegedly suffered months of abuse.

Law Wan-tung, a 44-year-old Hong Kong mother-of-two has been charged with causing grievous bodily harm to Sulistyaningsih, who is set to arrive back in Hong Kong on Monday.

Indonesian maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih
(C) is helped out of the hospital in Sragen
district, central Java, on February 5,
2014 (AFP Photo/Anwar Mustafa)

Law's trial was due to resume last week but was adjourned to April 29, with officials awaiting her medical records from Indonesia.

Prosecutors have alleged that Law turned household items such as a mop, a ruler and a clothes hanger into "weapons" against Sulistyaningsih.

"Police requested the victim of a wounding case, reported to police on January 12, to return to Hong Kong for follow-up arrangement related to the prosecution," police said in a statement without elaborating further.

A spokesman for Hong Kong-based Asian Migrants' Coordinating Body said Sulistyaningsih was "coming over upon the (invitation) of the Hong Kong police for her to undergo some medical examination".

"She'll be here only for about a week," Eman Villanueva told AFP.

Gatot Abdullah Mansyur, head of the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers, said the results of her medical examination will be used in the trial of her former employer.

"We are glad that Hong Kong is pursuing this and our hope is that justice will be served, the law will be enforced," he told AFP.

"This is the hope of all Indonesians. And it's not just for us -- it is for all of those working in Hong Kong."

Sulistyaningsih's ordeal had sparked international concern over the rights of domestic helpers in the southern Chinese city, with thousands marching to call for justice for abused maids.

Members of support groups for Indonesian domestic helper Erwiana Sulistyaningsih

 protest outside a court of justice in Hong Kong on March 25, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Philippe Lopez)

Law, who was arrested at Hong Kong airport in January while attempting to board a flight to Thailand, was also charged with common assault and four counts of criminal intimidation -- charges related either to Sulistyaningsih or to her two previous Indonesian domestic helpers.

The Asian financial hub is home to nearly 300,000 maids, mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines, and criticism from rights groups over their treatment is growing.

In September a Hong Kong couple were jailed for savagely beating their Indonesian domestic helper, including burning her with an iron and hitting her with a bicycle chain.

Amnesty International in November condemned the "slavery-like" conditions faced by thousands of Indonesian domestic helpers in Hong Kong and accused authorities of "inexcusable" inaction.

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Indonesian maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih gets medical treatment

 at a hospital in Sragen, Central Java, on Jan. 15, 2013. Erwiana was

 allegedly tortured in Hong Kong by her employers. (AFP Photo/

Anwar Mustafa)

Three sentenced to death for rape under new Indian law

Deutsche Welle, 4 April 2014

An Indian court has ordered the death sentence for three men convicted of two gang-rapes. It is the first time a law carrying the death penalty for repeat offenders has been applied.

An Indian court in the city of Mumbai on Friday sentenced three men to hang for raping two women in separate incidents.

The men were found guilty of having carried out two attacks in July and August last year at the same abandoned mill compound in Mumbai.

The victims were a 22-year-old photo-journalist - a case that made global headlines - and an 18-year-old telephone operator.

The three convicted men are between 19 and 28 years of age.

India increased penalties for sex crimes in the wake of public outrage at the fatal rape of a 23-year-old medical student in December 2012 in New Dehli. Four men were sentenced to death for that attack, and a new law carrying the death penalty for multiple offenders was introduced last year.

Also on Friday, a court in the southern state of Kerala sentenced one man to life and 23 others to varying prison terms for raping a teenager who was kidnapped and held for several weeks 18 years ago.

The men convicted in the case included lawyers, a retired professor, businessmen and government officials.

A court had acquitted all but one of the accused in 2005, but India's top court ordered a retrial last year, according to prosecutor Anella George.

tj/dr (AP, AFP)

North Korean cargo ship sinks off coast of South Korea

South Korean rescuers search for missing sailors after bodies of two are found along with three survivors

theguardian.com, Associated Press in Seoul, Friday 4 April 2014

South Korean container ship: the Mongolian-flagged North Korean ship was
 carrying 16 crew when it sent a distress signal. Photograph: Jung Yeon-Je/
AFP/Getty Images

The bodies of two North Korean sailors and three survivors have been found off the coast of South Korea after their cargo ship sank. South Korean rescuers are searching for 11 others still missing.

The Mongolian-flagged ship was carrying 16 North Korean crew members when it sent a distress signal in international waters about 80 miles (130km) south of the southern port city of Yeosu, South Korea's coastguard said in a statement.

Three people were rescued and told investigators they escaped from the ship as it was tilting with its freight being pushed to one side.

South Korean coastguard officers said high waves and strong winds were reported in the area where the 4,300-ton ship sank. It was carrying iron ore to China from the North Korean port city of Chongjin.

The South Korean coastguard said it had mobilised 13 vessels and six aircraft to search for the missing crew. Bad weather was still hampering rescue operations, according to the coastguard officers.

It was not immediately known how South Korea would handle the rescued North Korean sailors. Seoul usually repatriates North Korean sailors found drifting in South Korean waters if they want to return home.

All three rescued sailors were taken to a hospital on the southern South Korean island of Jeju and none of them was in a life-threatening condition, the coastguard statement said.

The Korean peninsula remains in a technical state of war as the 1950-53 Korean war ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. On Monday, the rival Koreas fired hundreds of artillery shells into each other's waters.

Blood Money Finalized for Indonesian Migrant Worker Facing Death in Saudi Arabia

Jakarta Globe, Dessy Sagita, Apr 03, 2014

Jakarta. After weeks of controversy, the Indonesian government said today it had formally agreed to pay blood money in exchange for the life of Satinah Binti Jumadi Ahmad, 41, of Ungaran, Central Java, who was scheduled for execution on Friday in Saudi Arabia after admitting to slaying her former employer in 2007 and fleeing with 37,970 riyal ($10,125).

“We have agreed to give the victim’s family what they demanded,” coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs Djoko Suyanto said on Thursday, as quoted by a report published on Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi’s official website, setkab.go.id.

The al-Garib family — the close relatives of Nura, who was killed — initially requested 10 million riyal in 2011, but the Indonesian government managed to negotiate the amount to 7 million, with 5 million to be paid now and another two due in the next two years.

Djoko said the government had agreed to pay the diyat (blood money) in full and that Satinah was expected to be spared.

He said that a diplomatic a task force led by former religious affairs minister Maftuh Basyuni had conveyed the message to the victim’s family.

“Our team left for [Saudi Arabia's] Qassim province on Thursday morning to meet the governor and convey that the Indonesian government had agreed to meet the family’s demand,” Djoko said.

He said that the Saudi government had also confirmed having received a letter sent by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

“The letter from the president has been sent to Saudi Arabian king, and the Saudis have responded by telling us that the Kingdom’s staffs will work on a pardon,” he said.

Anis Hidayah, executive director of Migrant Care, andNGO that advocates for the rights of migrant workers, said he welcomed the government’s actions.

“Finally, the public movement initiated by social media users has successfully touched the government’s arrogance, they can no longer ignore he fact that saving a citizen is the country’s responsibility,” Anis said.

The social movement joined by celebrities, public officials and activists, led by singer Melanie Subono, managed to collect Rp 2.8 billion ($246,400) for the cause.

“From the very beginning our main objective was not only to collect [Rp] 7 million, but also to push the government and to tell them that they cannot let the people to take over the responsibility to save Satinah,” she said.

Anis said she would let the donors to decide what to do with the funds collected through the movement.

‘We will discuss this later, maybe we can use it for the greater good, but we don’t advise that the money be given to Satinah’s family,” she said.

In a meeting earlier this week with the families of migrant workers facing death penalties overseas, Yudhoyono said that 246 Indonesian migrant workers were facing death but that 176 had been freed during his time in office.

A photo of Satinah Binti Jumadi Ahmad is seen on her sister’s phone
in Ungaran, East Java. (JG Photo/Dhana Kencana)

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Singapore seizes ivory disguised as coffee berries

Yahoo – AFP, 3 April 2014

This handout photograph released by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of

 Singapore on April 3, 2014 shows a collection of ivory seized by authorities

(AFP Photo/Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority)

This handout photograph released by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore on April 3, 2014 shows a collection of ivory seized by authorities

Singapore (AFP) - Singapore authorities said Thursday they had intercepted about one tonne of ivory worth $1.6 million in a shipping container from Africa marked as carrying coffee berries.

The seizure was made in an export inspection station at the Pasir Panjang port on March 25 following a tip-off, Singapore Customs and the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said in a statement.

"The shipment, which was declared as coffee berries, was transiting through Singapore from Africa in a 20-foot (six-metre) container and destined for another Asian country," the statement said.

The shipment contained 106 pieces of raw ivory tusks weighing about one tonne, it said.

The statement did not mention if arrests had been made, but said investigations are ongoing.

International trade in ivory has been banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 1989.

Singapore, a major global port, is a signatory to the convention.

The statement urged shipping and logistics firms in Singapore to "exercise prudence" when accepting jobs from customers to avoid being implicated in illegal wildlife trafficking.

The ivory haul last week is the third largest by Singapore authorities since 2002.

In January last year, 1.8 tonnes of ivory from Africa was seized in the city-state, while six tonnes of raw ivory tusks and cut pieces were intercepted in 2002.

Hubei official gets the boot for discipline violations

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-04-01

Lu Lijun. (Internet photo)

One official has been sacked and another is under investigation in central China's Hubei province for discipline violations, local authorities said on Monday.

Lu Lijun, deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Hubei, was removed from his post for a "serious violation of discipline", according to the website of the discipline watchdog of the provincial committee of the Communist Party.

Lu was also sacked from his post as party chief of the Hubei Qingneng real estate company.

The website also confirmed that Li Ping'an, deputy chief of the commerce bureau of Huanggang, was being investigated for serious breach of party discipline.

Mafia-style gang stands trial in central China

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-04-01

An unidentified defendant is escorted by the police to a court in Xianning,
a prefecture-level city in southeastern Hubei province, April 1. (Photo/CNS)

Trials of 36 members of an alleged mafia-style gang opened on Monday in central China's Hubei province on charges including intentional homicide.

The ring, allegedly led by former mining tycoon Liu Han and his brother Liu Wei in southwest China's Sichuan province, is the largest criminal group of its kind to go on trial in China in recent years.

Liu Han was board chairman of the Hanlong Group, the biggest private enterprise in Sichuan. He owned tens of subsidiary companies involved in electricity, energy, finance, mining, real estate and securities.

From 1993, Liu Han, Liu Wei and Sun Xiaodong, who is being dealt with in a separate case, made their money running gambling dens and dealing in construction materials and futures in Sichuan's cities of Guanghan and Chengdu as well as Shanghai and Chongqing, according to a prosecutors' statement released late Monday.

From 1997, when Liu Han and Sun Xiaodong set up the Hanlong Group in Mianyang, the two cooperated with Liu Wei in recruiting a gang of thugs, and the group gradually developed in to a relatively stable criminal organization. The organization had ten steady members of a backbone team and another 20 followers. Liu Han, Liu Wei and Sun were the organizers and leaders of the group.

The group boasted a clear division of labor with Liu Han responsible for commanding the group and decision making, Sun implementing Liu's instructions and managing Hanlong's daily operations, and Liu Wei leading the hatchet men or "bodyguards." The group made tremendous financial gains through organized crime and became an economic force to be reckoned with.

They planned and committed murders and assaults; locked up their enemies; took part in extortion, illegal trade and possession of guns; and tyrannized local people, the Xianning procuratorate said.

"Liu's gang gained took control over various local industries such as mining illegally and had a huge influence, severely damaging economic and social order. Their doings should be viewed as organizing, leading and participating in mafia-style gang," prosecutors said, adding Liu's gang had violated the criminal law and evidence for their crimes was "solid, abundant and clear."

Prosecutors said these people should be held criminally liable for crimes including organizing and leading the gang, intentional homicide and assault, illegal detention, holding and trading in illegal guns, collusion in bidding, running illegal businesses, racketeering, intentional destruction of property, obstructing officials in their line of duty, organizing gambling, harboring criminals, and loan fraud.

According to the court, the 36 defendants are being simultaneously prosecuted in seven cases to make clear facts and protect the legal interests of the accused. The criminal and civil content of the cases will be dealt with separately to ensure consistency. This trial only concerns the criminal aspects and was attended by 27 prosecutors, 36 defendants and their 50 defending lawyers, 49 of whom met their clients and consulted on all related matters before the trials.

Some defendants had no objection to the charges and others denied them.

Prior to the trials, prosecutors, defendants and defence lawyers exchanged opinions and reached consensus on some issues concerning the jurisdictions of the cases, withdrawal of parties of interests and the exclusion of illegally obtained evidence.

More than 500 people, including the defendants' families, those of the victims, representatives of the public and journalists, observed the trials.

Iran director screens film to save man on death row

Yahoo – AFP, 31 March 2014

An Iranian judiciary staff member ties ropes prior to a hanging in Tehran
on September 29, 2002 (AFP Photo/Behrouz Mehri)

Tehran (AFP) - An Iranian film director is to hold a private screening of his latest movie on Saturday to raise funds to save the life of a 26-year-old on death row.

Mostafa Kiaei, director of "Special Line", said he had learnt by accident of the young man's case and wanted to help raise the "blood money" to be paid to the family of a murder victim.

"I didn't know the convict before and I learned about the case through a contact in the judiciary," Kiaei told AFP.

According to Mehr news agency, the unnamed convict and two of his friends were involved in a street fight which led to the murder, but he did not kill the victim.

The case became more complicated after his accomplices died in a car accident, leaving him the only person accountable for paying the blood money.

The convict has been in jail for the past seven years.

Under the country's interpretation of Islamic sharia laws in force since its 1979 revolution, murder is punishable by death.

However, the victim's family has the right to spare a convict from the hangman's noose in return for blood money.

"The blood money (in this case) amounts to three billion rials ($100,000) and so far we have collected one third of it," Kiaei said.

Kiaei said he has invited scores of VIPs to the fundraising event in Tehran, including artists and athletes.

"Since this is a case of a precious human life, it requires our outmost efforts. Whatever we do is valuable as this spreads positive energy to society and helps a family see their child again," he said.

"Considering that he is not guilty, the judiciary has a positive view on his case and is willing to pardon him," he said. "The fewer executions, the better."

UN chief Ban Ki-moon in March voiced alarm over the high number of hangings in Iran, saying at least 500 people had been executed last year, including 57 in public.

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Former Prime Minister Olmert convicted in Israeli bribery case

Deutsche Welle, 31 March 2014

Israeli media have reported that former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was found guilty of two counts of bribery, dating back to his time as mayor of Jerusalem. The case was tied to a major real estate development project.

A court in Tel Aviv on Monday convicted Ehud Olmert of bribery in connection with a Jerusalem real estate deal during his time as mayor. The verdict looked likely to end any hopes Olmert might have held of launching a political comeback.

Olmert's spokesman Jacob Galanti said that the 68-year-old former premier would probably appeal the ruling, telling reporters: "The last word hasn't been said."

The apartment complex is not Jerusalem's
most beloved piece of architecture

Sentencing was scheduled for April 28; the maximum Israeli sentence for a public figure found guilty of accepting bribes is 10 years.

During the case, prosecutors had alleged that Olmert accepted more than $228,000 (166,000 euros) from developers of the Holyland apartment complex in Jerusalem in exchange for smoothing over legal and zoning restrictions.

Judge David Rozen said when handing down the conviction that the case "exposed governance that grew more corrupt and rotten over the years." The judge also said that Olmert "lied in court" during the trial.

One of more than a dozen people accused in the case was Olmert's former aide Shula Zaken. In a major blow to Olmert's defense, Zaken last week agreed to turn state's witness against him in return for her own legal liability being reduced.

Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003, and served as Israeli prime minister - via ministerial posts in government - from 2006 to 2008. Olmert resigned amid separate allegations of corruption first leveled in 2008, although he was later acquitted of all major charges in that case, paying a $19,000 fine and receiving a suspended jail sentence.

The centrist politician gained international recognition for making progress in peace talks with Palestinians. His recent criticisms of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's comparatively tough stance on the current peace talks with Palestinians and on Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions had prompted speculation that Olmert was preparing for a political comeback.

msh/jr (AP, Reuters)