4 journalists reported missing in northern Mexico
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission called on the government Tuesday to find four Mexican journalists reported missing in or near the violence-wracked northern state of Durango.
The journalists include two cameramen from the Televisa network, a reporter for Multimedios television and a reporter for the newspaper El Vespertino.
"The lack of investigation into attacks on journalists has made them more vulnerable in doing their work," the government's rights commission said in a statement.
The four disappeared Monday in the Laguna region, which includes Durango and areas of the neighboring state of Coahuila.
The commission said three of them were "picked up" — a tactic frequently used by drug gangs in which victims are forced into waiting vehicles — around noon Monday, and the fourth was snatched that night.
The area has been wracked by drug gang violence. Prosecutors say officials at a prison in Gomez Palacio — the Durango city where some of the journalists are based — allowed drug cartel gunmen to leave the penitentiary temporarily and provided them guns and vehicles to carry out executions.
At least seven journalists have been killed in Mexico so far in 2010. Many more Mexican reporters have received threats from drug gangs.
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A journalist collects and disseminates information about current events, people, trends, and issues. His or her work is acknowledged as journalism.
Reporters are one type of journalist. They create reports as a profession for broadcast or publication in mass media such as newspapers, television, radio, magazines, documentary film, and the Internet. Reporters find sources for their work, their reports can be either spoken or written, and they are often expected to report in the most objective and unbiased way to serve the public good. A columnist is a journalist who writes pieces that appear regularly in newspapers or magazines.
Depending on the context, the term journalist also includes various types of editors and visual journalists, such as photographers, graphic artists, and page designers.
New bridge arrives in NYC after float down Hudson
A prefabricated 350-foot-long bridge that will replace a 109-year-old span across the Harlem River arrived Monday aboard two barges that were pushed and pulled by tugboats.
The 2,400-ton swing bridge passed under the Brooklyn Bridge at 8 a.m., on its way to its home, just south of the old Willis Avenue Bridge. The new bridge will be tied up to the shoreline until it is installed, beginning in two weeks. The city Department of Transportation hopes to have traffic rolling across the span in November.
The new bridge connecting Upper Manhattan and the South Bronx will replace a span that opened in 1901 and carries more than 70,000 vehicles a day. The existing Willis Avenue Bridge will remain open to traffic as the new span is floated into place atop foundations and piers.
The new bridge was built for the transportation department at a privately owned port in Coeymans, near Albany. Two weeks ago, a marine transportation crew loaded the finished span onto the barges that were welded together for the 130-mile trip down the Hudson River to a dock in Bayonne, N.J.
On Monday, the span was hauled from Bayonne 15 miles north through the East River to its final destination.
The last leg of the journey was via the East River because the load's height, 82 feet from the barges' decks to the bridge's top crossbeam, was too tall for the low bridges over the narrow Harlem River.
Getting 4.8 million pounds of steel onto the barges two weeks ago required four 50-foot-long steel ramps connecting the vessels' decks to the docks. The move was timed to the peak of high tide. The 4 1/2-hour process involved precise measuring of the height of the tide and pumping ballast water through the barges to keep them level with the dock.
All the heavy lifting was carried out by a crew from Mammoet, a Dutch company that specializes in moving extraordinarily large objects. Its past projects include raising the Russian submarine Kursk after it was sunk by an explosion a decade ago, and transporting the 400-foot-long, 5.5-million pound new Providence River Bridge 12 miles up Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay in August 2006.
Barend Schuring, Mammoet's project manager for the bridge job, said each barge was 180 feet long and, when welded together, had a total width of 108 feet.
A crew from Weeks Marine Inc. was handling the bridge transportation in a joint venture with the Kiewit Corp., the Omaha, Neb.-based construction company contracted by New York City for the $612 million bridge replacement project.
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According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.0 km² (2.3 sq mi). 5.6 km² (2.2 sq mi) of it is land and 0.4 km² (0.2 sq mi) of it (6.47%) is water.
Hudson is located on what began as a spit of land jutting into the Hudson River between the South Bay and North Bay, now both largely filled and partially degraded by industrial-era waste.
Across the Hudson River lies the town of Athens and Greene County, New York; a ferry connected the two municipalities during much of the 19th century. Between them lies Middle Ground Flats, a former sandbar that grew due to both natural silting and also from dumping the spoils of dredging; today it is inhabited by deer and a few occupants of quasi-legal summer shanties.
Power outages plague DC area after storms; 2 dead
Hundreds of thousands of people were without electricity Monday in the Washington area and may not get power back for days after powerful storms toppled utility poles, power lines and trees and left two people dead.
A cold front that pushed through Sunday triggered the storm and took the edge off a nearly two-week heat wave, but highs up to 90 were still forecast as crews labored to restore the power grid in neighborhoods pummeled by gusty winds and torrential rains.
The storms knocked out power to more than 430,000 customers in the region.
On Monday, regional utility Pepco reported about 232,000 customers were still blacked out in Washington and neighboring Montgomery and Prince George's counties in Maryland. Because the damage was so widespread, there was no timetable for most places to be back on line, Pepco spokesman Bob Hainey said.
"This is going to be a multiple-day event," Hainey said, comparing the outages to those in the wake of Hurricane Isabel in 2003.
Not only were power lines down but electric poles were broken and numerous transformers were damaged, he said.
Two deaths were also attributed to the storm. In Loudoun County, a 6-year-old boy died after a large section of a tree fell on him while he was walking with his family, authorities said. In Beltsville, Md., a tree crushed a minivan, killing a woman in her 40s and injuring a woman in her 60s, Prince George's County fire spokesman Mark Brady said.
Traffic signals were knocked out, resulting in about a dozen car crashes, Brady said. In the most severe accident, two people were transported to a hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries.
In Washington, officials said there were more than 270 reports of fallen trees or very large limbs and parts of trees that caused damage. Fire department spokesman Pete Piringer said about half a dozen homes were significantly damaged by falling limbs, and 10 boats overturned in the rivers that border the city. Three cars caught fire as a result of downed power lines.
"The dust is settling, and we're extremely busy," Piringer said.
Baltimore Gas & Electric said about 37,000 customers were without service early Monday, though a total of 112,000 lost power as a result of the storms. BGE expected the majority of customers to have power restored by Tuesday evening. Dominion Virginia Power reported that 10,700 customers were without power Monday, down from 94,000. The power company said it expected to have most of the power back on by Monday at midnight.
Power also went out at more than a dozen Metrorail stations and heavy rain flooded one station, the transit agency said. Officials said many generators were still in use early Monday.
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission said the storm also cut off power at its filtration plant that provides water for nearly 2 million people in suburban Maryland. The commission said although power had been restored Monday, mandatory restrictions on water use were still in place.
In Prince George's County, authorities say the storm damaged nearly three-dozen apartment buildings, displacing hundreds of residents.
In Washington on Sunday, wind blew off parts of Boy Scouts floats as police cars led a parade convoy away from the National Mall under darkened skies. Drenched tourists ran barefoot through puddles, struggling against the gusty winds to find shelter.
On Monday, some counties closed summer camps and other programs.
Before the storm, the area had been suffering in oppressive heat for almost two weeks with temperatures in the high 90s.
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A storm (from Proto-Germanic *sturmaz "noise, tumult") is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather. It may be marked by strong wind, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), heavy precipitation, such as ice (ice storm), or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere (as in a dust storm, snowstorm, hailstorm, etc).
Flooding causes millions in damage in Iowa
Flooding from the Maquoketa River after the Lake Delhi dam failed has damaged dozens of homes and businesses, causing millions of dollars in damage in Monticello, officials said Sunday.
The Lake Delhi dam in eastern Iowa failed Saturday as rising floodwater from the Maquoketa River ate a 30-foot-wide hole in it. Areas below the dam, including in Hopkinton and Monticello were evacuated.
"It is simply unbelievable. This is unprecedented. We've had floods before and we've always been able to contain the situation and minimize the damage, but with Mother Nature's fury ... there was no way to do anything about it," said Mike Willey, president of the board of directors at the Lake Delhi Recreation Association. "There was simply too much water."
The river crested upstream of the dam at Manchester early Saturday afternoon at 24.53 feet — more than 10 feet above flood stage and well above its 2004 record of 21.66 feet — before it began to slowly recede.
About 50 homes and 20 businesses had major flood damage and the city's sewer plant had been flooded and shut down about 7 p.m. Saturday, said Monticello Public Works Director Dana Edwards.
Most of the city's 3,700 residents could flush their toilets, but the waste was pouring into the river. Still, environmental damage shouldn't be great because the waste was being diluted by the flood water, Edwards said.
The city's drinking water system was working, "but we are asking people to use as little water as possible," Edwards said.
Damage to private property would likely be in the millions of dollars, Edwards said. The cost of repairing the sewer plant wouldn't be known until workers could get inside to assess the damage.
Pumps from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the city were being put into the city's main sewer lines to try to keep water out of residents' basements.
The hydroelectric dam on the Maquoketa River that created Lake Delhi in the 1920s is no longer used for power but maintains the lake for recreational purposes.
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Iowa (
i /ˈaɪəwə/) is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland." It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration.[4] Iowa was a part of the French colony of New France. After the Louisiana Purchase, settlers laid the foundation for an agriculture-based economy in the heart of the Corn Belt.[5] Iowa is often known as the "Food Capital of the World",[6] however Iowa's economy, culture, and landscape are diverse. In the mid and late 20th century, Iowa's agricultural economy transitioned to a diversified economy of advanced manufacturing, processing, financial services, biotechnology, and green energy production.[6][7] Iowa has been listed as one of the safest states in which to live.[8] Des Moines is Iowa's capital and largest city.
Six Israeli soldiers die in Romania helicopter crash: report
Six Israeli soldiers and one Romanian were killed Monday when a military helicopter crashed in central Romania, local media said, quoting defence sources.
The defence ministry said six Israeli soldiers and one Romanian were on board but did not confirm their deaths.
Initial media reports had said that US military personnel were on board.
The helicopter was taking part in a joint military drill, Blue Sky 2010.
On July 18, the defense ministry said an Israeli CH-53 helicopter participating in the exercise had made a crash landing after "sensing a failure aboard."
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Romania (pronounced /roʊˈmeɪniə/ (
listen) roe-MAY-nee-ə; dated: Rumania, Roumania; Romanian: România [romɨˈni.a] ( listen)) is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, north of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea.[3] Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory. Romania shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova to the northeast, and Bulgaria to the south.
Romania emerged as a personal union of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia under prince Alexander John Cuza in 1859 and as the Kingdom of Romania under the Hohenzollern monarchy, it gained recognition of independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1878. In 1918, at the end of the World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the Kingdom of Romania. At the end of World War II, parts of its territories (roughly the present day Republic of Moldova and the southern half of Odessa oblast (today in Ukraine)) were occupied by the Soviet Union and Romania became a socialist republic, member of the Warsaw Pact.
With the fall of the Iron Curtain and the 1989 Revolution, Romania started a series of political and economic reforms. After a decade of post-revolution economic problems, Romania made economic reforms such as low flat tax rates in 2005 and joined the European Union on January 1, 2007. Romania is now an upper-middle income country with high human development,[4] although within the European Union, Romania's income level remains one of the lowest.
Romania has the 9th largest territory and the 7th largest population (with 21.5 million people)[5] among the European Union member states. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest (Romanian: Bucureşti [bukuˈreʃtʲ] ( listen)), the 6th largest city in the EU with 1.9 million people. In 2007 the city of Sibiu was chosen as a European Capital of Culture.[6] Romania also joined NATO on March 29, 2004, and is also a member of the Latin Union, of the Francophonie, of the OSCE and of the United Nations, as well as an associate member of the CPLP. Romania is a semi-presidential unitary state.
King Tut’s chariot heads to New York
A chariot belonging to King Tutankhamun that may provide clues to the boy king's final moments, will leave Egypt for the first time to go on display in New York, the culture minister said on Monday.
The chariot, which will arrive in New York on Wednesday, will be part of the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit in New York, Faruk Hosni said in a statement.
"This is the first time that the chariot will travel outside Egypt," antiquities chief Zahi Hawass was quoted as saying.
"It is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the people of New York to see something of such great significance from the boy king's life," he said.
The chariot, one of five discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922, is undecorated and its wheels are worn out, suggesting it had been used frequently by King Tut.
Hawass said that during recent CT scans and DNA tests, medical teams had found that Tutankhamun had an accident a few hours before he died causing a fracture in the king's left leg.
"This makes the inclusion of Tutankhamun's chariot to the New York exhibit even more interesting as the young king may have fallen from this very chariot," Hawass said.
"As we discover more about Tutankhamun's death, we may find that this very chariot is an important piece of the puzzle that we've been working for decades to solve," he said.
Last month German scientists said Tutankhamun was probably killed by the genetic blood disorder sickle cell disease, rejecting the conclusions of a major Egyptian study released in February which suggested he had died of malaria.
In Sunday's statement, the culture ministry said Hawass and his team "stand behind their findings and reaffirm that Tutankhamun died of complications from malaria and Kohler's disease, an ailment that effects blood supply to the bones."
Tutankhamun achieved worldwide fame because of the stunning funerary treasure found in his tomb, including an 11-kilo (24.2-pound) solid gold death mask encrusted with lapis lazuli and semi-precious stones.
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New York ( /njuː ˈjɔrk/; locally [nɪu ˈjoək] or [nuː ˈjɔrk]( listen)) is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border with Rhode Island east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Ontario to the west, and Quebec to the north. New York is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from New York City.
New York City, which is geographically the largest city in the state and most populous in the United States, is known for its history as a gateway for immigration to the United States and its status as a financial, cultural, transportation, and manufacturing center. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, it is also a destination of choice for many foreign visitors. Both state and city were named for the 17th century Duke of York, James Stuart, future James II and VII of England and Scotland.
New York was inhabited by the Algonquin, Iroquois, and Lenape Native American groups at the time Dutch and French nationals moved into the region in the early 17th century. In 1609, the region was first claimed by Henry Hudson for the Dutch, and built Fort Orange near the site of the present-day capital of Albany in 1614. The Dutch eventually settled the Albany, Hudson River Valley, and Manhattan areas, establishing the colony of New Netherland. The British took over the colony by annexation in 1664.
The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were roughly similar to those of the present-day state. About one third of all of the battles of the Revolutionary War took place in New York. New York became an independent state on July 9, 1776, and enacted its constitution in 1777. The state ratified the United States Constitution on July 26, 1788 to become the 11th state.
US shows its power to NKorea with carrier drills
If you want to let someone know you're thinking about them, send a massive aircraft carrier.
The East Sea off the coast of the Korean peninsula roiled with U.S. and South Korean ships, submarines, fighter jets and helicopters Monday in a set of high-profile military maneuvers intended to show North Korea that it is being watched.
Military officials said that despite threats of retaliation, North Korea was staying clear. Most of the firepower for the four-day exercises — which North Korea condemns — has been flying off the decks of the USS George Washington, a U.S. supercarrier that can carry up to 70 aircraft and more than 5,000 sailors and aviators.
Washington and Seoul are hoping the drills — and the deployment of the most potent symbol of American military reach in the U.S. Navy — will send a powerful message to North Korea in the wake of the March sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. An international investigation determined the ship was sunk by torpedo, likely in a sneak attack by a North Korean submarine.
"The message is in the eye of the beholder," said Rear Adm. Daniel Cloyd. "But we would hope that they would take this and messages in the future as a message of resolve. We hope this will give them pause."
North Korea — which has denied any connection to the sinking — has threatened to counter the maneuvers with some sort of military show of its own. But on the second day of the maneuvers, scheduled to run through Wednesday, officials said no signs have been seen the North will make good on its saber-rattling rhetoric.
Cmdr. Ray Hesser, head of an anti-submarine helicopter squadron on the George Washington, said North Korean submarines are largely restricted to shallow, coastal waters.
Click to see more photos of North and South Korea tensions
Reuters
"We're not expecting to see them out here," he said. "I would not think they would be willing or wanting to come all the way out here."
He said the South Korean warship, the Cheonan, may have been unprepared when the attack occurred, noting that U.S. ships observe higher readiness. It was the worst military attack on South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War.
"It was like a sucker punch," Hesser said. "It doesn't say much about how much of a fighter you are."
The "Invincible Spirit" exercises involve about 20 ships, 200 aircraft and about 8,000 U.S. and South Korean sailors. It is the Japan-based George Washington's first deployment to South Korea since 2008.
The anti-submarine phase of the training — which also involves anti-ship and anti-aircraft operations — is particularly important because it helps ready the U.S. and South Korean navies to respond to scenarios focused on North Korean submarine activities.
"I am concerned about every submarine underwater that I don't know about," Capt. David Lausman, the carrier's commanding officer, said Monday.
Lausman said the attack demonstrated the opaque nature of Pyongyang's military, which he said should not be underestimated.
"North Korea's danger lies because they are unpredictable," he said. "The sinking of the Cheonan is a prime example."
North Korea has strongly protested the exercises, saying they are a provocation, and has threatened retaliation. In flourishes of rhetoric typical of the regime, it vowed to respond with a "sacred war" and a "powerful nuclear deterrence."
"Should the U.S. imperialists and (South Korea) finally ignite a new war of aggression ... (North Korea) will mobilize the tremendous military potential including its nuclear deterrence for self-defense and thus wipe out the aggressors," North Korea's defense chief, Kim Yong Chun, said in Pyongyang on Monday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea often cites the U.S. military presence in the region, with nuclear-powered warships like the George Washington, as a key reason it needs atomic weapons.
U.S. officials say that the maneuvers, held well away from North Korea's border, are not intended to provoke a response, but are a message that further aggression will not be tolerated.
On Monday, Gen. Han Min-goo, chief of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, toured the George Washington to demonstrate the allies' solidarity.
The exercises are the first in a series of U.S.-South Korean maneuvers conducted in the East Sea and in the Yellow Sea closer to China's shores. They are the first to employ F-22 jets — stealth fighters capable of evading North Korean air defenses — in South Korea.
The North routinely threatens retaliation when South Korea and the U.S. hold joint military drills, which Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal for an invasion. The U.S. keeps 28,500 troops in South Korea and another 50,000 in Japan, but says it has no intention of invading the North.
However, the sinking of the Cheonan has heightened tensions in the region. North Korea says the investigation results were fraudulent and has warned against any punishment.
Still, Capt. Ross Myers, commander of the George Washington's air wing, said the threats were being taken seriously.
"There is a lot they can do," he said. "They have ships, they have subs, they have airplanes. They are a credible threat."
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North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) (Chosongul: 조선민주주의인민공화국), is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea. The Amnok River and the Tumen River form the border between North Korea and People's Republic of China. A section of the Tumen River in the extreme northeast is the border with Russia.
The peninsula was governed by the Korean Empire until it was annexed by Japan following the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. It was divided into Soviet and American occupied zones in 1945, following the end of World War II. North Korea refused to participate in a United Nations–supervised election held in the south in 1948, which led to the creation of separate Korean governments for the two occupation zones. Both North and South Korea claimed sovereignty over the Korean Peninsula as a whole, which led to the Korean War of 1950. A 1953 armistice ended the fighting; however, the two countries are officially still at war with each other, as a peace treaty was never signed.[9] Both states were accepted into the United Nations in 1991.[10] On May 26, 2009, North Korea unilaterally withdrew from the armistice.[11][12]
North Korea is a single-party state under a united front led by the Korean Workers' Party (KWP).[13][14][15][16] The country's government follows the Juche ideology of self-reliance, developed by the country's former President, Kim Il-Sung. After his death, Kim Il-Sung was declared to be the country's Eternal President. Juche became the official state ideology when the country adopted a new constitution in 1972,[17] though Kim Il-sung had been using it to form policy since at least as early as 1955.[18] Officially a socialist republic,[19] many media organizations outside North Korea report that it is a totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship.[14][15][20][21][22] Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung have constructed around them a cult of personality. It is reported as having one of the world's worst human rights records.[23] After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a famine which killed an estimated 2-3 million. Due to the government's secretive nature and its reluctance to allow in foreigners, North Korea is today considered the world's most isolated country. The current secretary of the KWP Central Committee Secretariat and leader of the armed forces is Kim Jong-il, son of Kim Il-sung.
Khmer Rouge jailer faces 19 years for 16,000 dead
A U.N.-backed tribunal sentenced the Khmer Rouge's chief jailer to 35 years for overseeing the deaths of up to 16,000 people — the first verdict involving a senior member of the "killing fields" regime that devastated a generation of Cambodians.
Victims and their relatives burst into tears after learning that Kaing Guek Eav — also known as Duch — will actually serve only 19 years after being convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity after taking into account time already served and other factors.
That means the 67-year-old could one day walk free, a prospect that infuriated many who have been demanding justice for victims of the regime that killed an estimated 1.7 million people between 1975-79.
"I can't accept this," said Saodi Ouch, 46, shaking so hard she could hardly talk. "My family died ... my older sister, my older brother. I'm the only one left."
More than three decades after the ultra-communist Khmer Rouge killed a quarter of Cambodia's population while trying to turn the country into a vast agrarian collective, Duch is so far the only person to face justice. The group's top leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998 and four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders are awaiting trial for their part in the deaths from execution, starvation, medical neglect and slave-like working conditions.
The U.N.-backed tribunal — 10 years and $100 million in the making — said it took into consideration the historical context of the atrocities: The regime was the product of the troubled Cold War times.
It also recognized that Duch, who headed Tuol Sleng, a secret detention center for the worst "enemies" of the state, was not a member of the Khmer Rouge's inner clique and that he had cooperated with the court, admitted responsibility and showed "limited" expressions of remorse.
During the 77-day proceedings, Duch admitted to overseeing the deaths of up to 16,000 people who passed through the prison's gates. Torture used to extract confessions included pulling out prisoners' toenails, administering electric shocks and waterboarding.
Reuters
At least 100 people bled to death in medieval-style medical experiments.
One of the tribunal's international judges, Silvia Cartwright, said she understood that those who lived through the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror may be upset at the sentence.
"That's one of the reasons that we have an objective tribunal ... fixing as balanced a sentence as we can," she said. "If left to the victims to decide how to punish a person, then it would be, possibly, mob rule."
"You have to bear in mind that victims are very deeply hurt and traumatized," she added. "We can never give them what they lost ... so a sentence can only ever be symbolic in a way."
The prosecution and defense have one month to appeal.
Unlike the other defendants, Duch (pronounced DOIK) has several times asked for forgiveness, even offering at one point to face a public stoning. But his surprise request on the final day of the trial to be acquitted and freed left many wondering if his contrition was sincere.
"He tricked everybody," said Chum Mey, 79, one of just a few people sent to Tuol Sleng prison — code-named S-21 — who survived. The key witness wiped his eyes. "See ... my tears drop down again. I feel like I was victim during the Khmer Rouge, and now I'm a victim once again."
Duch, sitting rigidly in a crisp light purple shirt and starring into the distance, showed no emotion as he listened Monday to the judge talk about the court's findings.
Judges noted that the jailer was often present during interrogations at Tuol Sleng and signed off on all the tortures and executions, sometimes taking part himself. He said the court had rejected arguments that he was acting on orders from the top because he was under duress or feared for his own life.
"In carrying out his functions, he showed a high degree of efficiency and zeal," the judges wrote. "He worked tirelessly to ensure that S-21 ran as efficiently as possible and did so out of unquestioning loyalty to his superiors."
A former math teacher, Duch joined Pol Pot's movement in 1967, three years before the U.S. started carpet-bombing Cambodia to try to wipe out Northern Vietnamese troops and Viet Cong inside the border. By 1976, he was the trusted head of its ultimate killing machine, S-21.
After a Vietnamese invasion forced the Khmer Rouge from power in 1979, Duch disappeared for almost two decades, living under various aliases in northwestern Cambodia, where he had converted to Christianity. His chance discovery by a British journalist led to his arrest just over a decade ago.
Though the tribunal has been credited with helping the traumatized nation speak out publicly for the first time about atrocities committed three decades ago, it has been criticized as well.
The government insisted Cambodians be on the panel of judges, opening the door for political interference. It also sought to limit the number of suspects being tried — fearing, some say, it would implicate its own ranks. The prime minister and other current leaders were once low-level members of the Khmer Rouge.
Though most people doubted Duch would get the maximum life imprisonment, few expected he'd get less than 35 years in jail. The decision to shave 16 years for time already served and illegal detention in a military prison means he has 18 years and 10 months left.
That's around two days in prison for every person who died under his watch.
More than 1,000 villagers showed up for the verdict, some traveling more than 180 miles (300 kilometers) by bus.
"It's just unacceptable to have a man who killed thousands of people serving just 19 years," said Theary Seng, a human rights lawyer who lost both of her parents and has been working with others to find justice.
An international civil rights lawyer and associate fellow of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs also criticized the court's "unimaginative" reparation order, which was limited to simply publishing the judgment. Mahdev Mohan said the U.N.-backed tribunal could have ordered Duch to build a memorial to the victims and to do other work to deter future crimes against humanity.
Among those at Monday's verdict was New Zealander Rob Hamill, the brother of one of a handful of Westerners killed by the Khmer Rouge. Kerry, then 28, was sailing across Asia when his yacht was captured in Cambodian waters in 1978. He was taken to Tuol Sleng and killed.
Another brother committed suicide months later, and their mother died seven years ago.
"All I can say is my family, who are no longer here to see justice, would not want to see this man set free, even if it's in 19 years time," said Hamill, 46, struggling to contain his emotion. "It's reality but I'm not happy... he should not be a free man."
Related info :
The Khmer Rouge (Khmer: ខ្មែរក្រហម) was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan. The regime led by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979 was known as the Democratic Kampuchea.
This organization is remembered primarily for its policy of social engineering and the genocide this caused.[1] Its attempts at agricultural reform led to widespread famine, while its insistence on absolute self-sufficiency, even in the supply of medicine, led to the deaths of thousands from treatable diseases (such as malaria). Brutal and arbitrary executions and torture carried out by its cadres against perceived subversive elements, or during purges of its own ranks between 1976 and 1978, are considered to have constituted a genocide.[2]
The clandestine Communist Party of Kampuchea itself constituted the secret leadership of the Khmer Rouge, as its official name was known only to a few insiders: it called itself the Angkar (the organization) and only announced officially its existence in 1977, almost two years after the establishment of Democratic Kampuchea. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, the organization's remaining guerrilla forces became known as the National Army of Democratic Kampuchea. In 1981 the party itself was dissolved, and substituted by the Party of Democratic Kampuchea.
Boat of plastic bottles ends 4-month Pacific sail
A sailboat largely constructed from 12,500 recycled plastic bottles has completed a 4-month journey across the Pacific Ocean meant to raise awareness about the perils of plastic waste.
The Plastiki, a 60-foot (18-meter) catamaran, and its six crew weathered fierce ocean storms during its 8,000 nautical miles at sea. It left San Francisco on March 20, stopping along the way at various South Pacific island nations including Kiribati and Samoa. It docked Monday in Sydney Harbour.
"This is the hardest part of the journey so far — getting it in!" expedition leader David de Rothschild yelled from the boat as the crew struggled to maneuver the notoriously tough-to-steer vessel into port outside the Australian National Maritime Museum.
A crowd of about 100 erupted into cheers after the Plastiki finally docked. De Rothschild — a descendant of the well-known British banking family — exchanged high fives and hugs with his crew, pumping his fists into the air in victory.
Reuters
"It has been an extraordinary adventure," he said.
De Rothschild, 31, said the idea for the journey came to him after he read a United Nations report in 2006 that said pollution — and particularly plastic waste — was seriously threatening the world's oceans.
He figured a good way to prove that trash can be effectively reused was to use some of it to build a boat. The Plastiki — named after the 1947 Kon-Tiki raft sailed across the Pacific by explorer Thor Heyerdahl — is fully recyclable and gets its power from solar panels and windmills.
The boat is almost entirely made up of bottles, which are held together with an organic glue made of sugar cane and cashews, but includes other materials too. The mast, for instance, is recycled aluminum irrigation pipe.
"The journey of the Plastiki is a journey from trash to triumph," said Jeffrey Bleich, the U.S. ambassador to Australia, who greeted the team after they docked.
During their 128-day journey, the six crew lived in a cabin of just 20 feet by 15 feet (6 meters by 4.5 meters), took saltwater showers, and survived on a diet of dehydrated and canned food, supplemented with the occasional vegetable from their small on-board garden.
Along the way, they fought giant ocean swells, 62-knot (70 mile-an-hour) winds, temperatures up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) and torn sails. The crew briefly stopped in Queensland state last week, after battling a brutal storm off the Australian coast.
Skipper Jo Royle also had the particular challenge of being the only woman on board.
"I'm definitely looking forward to a glass of wine and a giggle with my girlfriends," she said.
Vern Moen, the Plastiki's filmmaker, missed the birth of his first child — though he managed to watch the delivery on a grainy Skype connection. He met his son for the first time after docking in Sydney.
"It was very, very surreal to show up on a dock and it's like, 'here's your kid," he said with a laugh.
Although the team had originally hoped to recycle the Plastiki, de Rothschild said they are now thinking of keeping it intact, and using it as a way of enlightening people to the power of recycling.
"There were many times when people looked at us and said, 'you're crazy,'" de Rothschild said. "I think it drove us on to say, 'Anything's possible.'"
Related info :
A boat is a watercraft of modest size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland (lakes) or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is something small enough to be carried aboard another vessel (a ship). Strictly speaking and uniquely a submarine is a boat as defined by the Royal Navy. Some boats too large for the naval definition include the Great Lakes freighter, riverboat, narrowboat and ferryboat.
US, South Korea start war games at sea
The United States and South Korea launched a major naval exercise involving a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan despite North Korea's threats of nuclear retaliation.
The war games -- which began on Sunday -- is the first in a series intended "to send a clear message to North Korea that its aggressive behaviour must stop," US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young have said.
Seoul and Washington, citing the findings of a multinational investigation, accuse Pyongyang's communist regime of torpedoing a South Korean warship near the tense Yellow Sea border in March.
North Korea denies involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan, which claimed 46 lives.
The US-led United Nations Command said the four-day drill would involve about 20 ships, including the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, and some 200 fixed-wing aircraft.
Around 8,000 service personnel from the two allies were to take part.
Click to see more photos of North and South Korea tensions
AP
"The USS George Washington left the southern port of Busan around 7:00am Sunday (2200 GMT Saturday). It's sailing towards the Sea of Japan (East Sea) for the exercise," a US military spokesman told AFP.
Officials at Seoul's defence ministry said other navy ships had also left Busan and the nearby port of Jinhae for the drill, with some from the US 7th Fleet set to join them off the peninsula's east coast.
The ministry has said the drill had been relocated from the sensitive Yellow Sea to the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, in deference to Chinese protests.
But future drills would be held in both seas.
North Korea, which has routinely criticised US-South Korean drills as a rehearsal for war, denounced the exercise as "very dangerous sabre-rattling" and threatened to respond with nuclear weapons at the weekend.
Minju Joson, a newspaper published on behalf of the North's cabinet, on Sunday took note of the exercises, which it said were being conducted by "the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet warmongers."
The newspaper also repeated a warning of nuclear retaliation made by Pyongyang's top defence body a day earlier.
"The army and people of the DPRK (North Korea) will take strong retaliatory measures with dignity by dint of their powerful nuclear deterrent, as a spokesman for the DPRK National Defence Commission had declared," it said.
"They will start Korean-style sacred war for retaliation any time they deem it necessary."
Earlier, Washington urged the North to tone down its "provocative" statements.
"We are not interested in a war of words with North Korea," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley. "What we need from North Korea is fewer provocative words and more constructive action."
South Korea's military says it is closely monitoring the North's military moves in border areas but had not detected any unusual activities in the lead-up to the exercises.
Yang Moo-Jin, a professor of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, told AFP Sunday that Pyongyang could test-fire long-range missiles or conduct new tests on its diversified nuclear programmes.
"The North may try to either stage a third underground atomic bomb test based on its plutonium-based programme or carry out a nuclear fusion reaction again in a show of force," Yang said.
In May, the North claimed its scientists had carried out a nuclear fusion reaction that could lead to a limitless supply of clean energy. Nuclear fusion can also be employed to make hydrogen bombs.
Pyongyang already said last September that it was in the final stages of experimental uranium enrichment -- a second way of making atomic bombs.
Six-nation talks aimed at dismantling the North's nuclear programmes have been stalled since December 2008.
The North announced it was quitting the forum in April last year and it staged its second atomic weapons test the following month, incurring tougher United Nations sanctions.
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South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK) (Korean: 대한민국, pronounced [tɛːhanminɡuk̚] ( listen)), is a country in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul. South Korea lies in a temperate climate region with a predominantly mountainous terrain. Its territory covers a total area of 99,392 square kilometers[6] and has a population of over 48 million.
Archaeological findings show that the Korean Peninsula was occupied by the Lower Paleolithic period.[7][8] Korean history begins with the founding of Gojoseon in 2333 BC by the legendary Dan-gun. Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea under Silla 668 AD, Korea went through the Goryeo Dynasty and Joseon Dynasty as one nation until the end of the Korean Empire in 1910, when Korea was annexed by Japan. After liberation and occupation by Soviet and U.S. forces at the end of World War II, the nation was divided into North and South Korea. The latter was established in 1948 as a democracy.
After the invasion of South Korea by forces from the North on 25 June 1950, the resulting war between the two Koreas ended in an uneasy cease-fire, and the border between the two nations is currently the most heavily-fortified in the world.[9] After the war, the South Korean economy grew significantly and the country was transformed into a major economy,[10] a full democracy, and a regional power in East Asia.
South Korea is a presidential republic consisting of sixteen administrative divisions and is a developed country with a very high standard of living. It is Asia's fourth largest economy and world's 15th (nominal) or 12th (purchasing power parity) largest economy. The economy is export-driven, with production focusing on electronics, automobiles, ships, machinery, petrochemicals and robotics. South Korea is a member of the United Nations, WTO, OECD and G-20 major economies. It is also a founding member of APEC and the East Asia Summit.
