Outrage At China Treatment Of Activists

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 29 Maret 2015 | 23.59

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By Mark Stone, China Correspondent in Beijing

The lawyer for one of five women held in China after campaigning for women's rights has told Sky News their treatment is beyond anything he could ever have imagined.

Wang Qiushi represents Wei Tingting, who was detained by Chinese authorities on 6 March with four other young women.

They were accused of "picking a quarrel" after they had planned a public campaign to end sexual harassment on International Women's Day.

In a coordinated police operation, the women - Zheng Churan, Li Tingting, both 25, Wei Tingting, 27, Wu Rongrong, 30 and Wang Man, 32 - were arrested in different parts of China and brought to Haidian Detention Centre in northwest Beijing.

Three of them remain in custody at the centre. The other two, Ms Wu and Ms Wang, have since been moved to a police hospital.

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Gallery: Outrage At China Treatment Of Women Activists

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Ms Wu suffers from Hepatitis B but had her medication confiscated at the time of her arrest.

Ms Wang is said to have suffered a heart attack at the detention centre, allegedly as a result of long hours of daily interrogation.

"In the past, this is something I would never have imagined. It is something that I imagine would never happen. But it has happened," Mr Wang said.

The five, whose plight has drawn the attention of the US and British governments as well as the EU, appear to have been snared in what has become an unprecedented crackdown to suppress any form of protest.

In the two years since President Xi Jinping took office, there has been a sharp increase in the number of academics, lawyers, journalists and now it seems feminists who are detained.

Typically, detainees are accused of vague crimes, the most common of which is "gathering crowds to disturb the public order".

According to their lawyers, the women have been accused of the similarly vague crime of "picking a quarrel and creating a disturbance".

These catch-all charges, according to human rights campaigners, allow the Communist government to crackdown on anything that they perceive as a threat to social order, stability and, collectively, their hold on power.

China has a vast internal security network. Comprising multiple agencies and with a budget larger than the county's entire military spending, its web of agents, censors and informants ensure a loyal population.

The US State Department released a statement saying: "We remain concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in China, including the numerous arrests, detentions, enforced disappearances of human rights activists and others who peacefully question official policies and actions."

The British government has also voiced concerns and called for China to release the women.

"We remain deeply concerned by the ongoing detention," it said in a statement.

"We are particularly concerned by reports that they have been denied due legal process, and... denied access to adequate medical care while in detention.

"We urge China to release all those detained for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, in line with China's Constitution and international human rights commitments."

Women's rights is a cause which is broadly backed by the Chinese government, making the women's detention all the more confusing.

None of their activities could be constituted as being politically inflammatory.

Their past protests have included a light-hearted toilet sit-in to campaign for more public lavatories for women.

A more serious campaign, in 2012, highlighted the alarming prevalence of domestic violence against women in China.

This year they planned to mark International Women's Day by placing stickers on buses to highlight sexual harassment on public transport.

The Chinese government has given no explanation for their detention.

Such is the climate of fear, Mr Wang agreed to talk to Sky News only from a discreet back room at a coffee shop.

"I don't understand why they keep Wei Tingting in a detention centre and take away her freedom," he said.

"She is being interrogated over and over again with lots of questions and they have asked her to write self-confessions; to admit to her crimes. I can't understand it.

"They shouldn't use this kind of force on these five girls. It is beyond my imagination."

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Plane Comes Off Runway At Canadian Airport

A plane has come off the runway at Halifax airport after making an "abrupt" landing, Air Canada said.

A handful of images posted on Twitter showed what appeared to be the fuselage lying on its belly on the tarmac. They also showed emergency chutes were inflated.

Another picture appeared to show a smashed nose cone while other reports said the port wing was also damaged.

The airline said 23 people were taken to a hospital for observation and treatment of minor injuries after all the passengers left the plane.

Halifax Stanfield International Airport tweeted: "We are thankful no serious injuries have been reported."

Some reports said that the aircraft became entangled in overhead electricity power cables as it came in to land, but airport officials said they could not provide confirmation.

One of the relatives waiting for passengers, tweeting as CherryBerryHFX, said: "People r safe, it really is a miracle #AC624 Bounced & engine popped off, nose of plane damaged, wings off"

She added: "So proud of my new husband, caught many ppl as they evacuated #AC624 coming down the chute. Jagged metal everywhere."

The airport said its airfield remained closed.

Airport spokesman Peter Spurway said the aircraft touched down in stormy conditions.

"It came down pretty hard and then skidded off the runway," Mr Spurway said. He said he did not know whether runway conditions played a role.

There is a heavy snowfall warning in the Halifax region, with Environment Canada saying: "Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow."

Images from the airport's webcam showed snow on the ground and vehicles working to clear it from the taxiway.

Air Canada said a preliminary count indicated there were 132 passengers and five crew members. The flight had departed from Toronto at 9.05pm local time on Saturday and landed early on Sunday morning.

According to flight tracking service FlightAware, the plane concerned is an Airbus A320 with seating for around 150 people.

Power at the airport was briefly knocked out, but Nova Scotia Power said they had since restored it.

The cause of the outage was not immediately clear. Back-up generators were running when the flight landed and the runways were lit.

Because the power went off, an emergency response centre had to be moved to a nearby hotel.

The airport's website showed a number of flights had been cancelled on Sunday morning.

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Militants Kill 39 As Nigerians Go To Polls

Officials say Boko Haram militants have killed 39 people in northeastern Nigeria, disrupting the country's presidential election.

All the attacks took place in areas where the military claimed to have driven the Islamic extremists away.

Residents of the town of Miringa said the militants set fire to people's homes early on Saturday and then shot them as they tried to escape. Twenty-five were reportedly killed.

Another 14 people, including a Gombe state legislator, were said to have died in later attacks on two other towns, Biri and Dukku.

It happened after authorities extended the voting period into Sunday following technical glitches.

After weeks of postponements, millions of Nigerians have voted in the most hotly-contested election since the end of military rule in 1999.

Though counting has begun in parts of the country, polling will continue into Sunday in some areas - including the largest city Lagos - after new machines failed to read voters' biometric cards.

President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife were among those affected after three card readers failed to recognise their fingerprints.

"I appeal to all Nigerians to be patient no matter the pains it takes as long as if, as a nation, we can conduct free and fair elections that the whole world will accept," said Mr Jonathan, who returned to successfully cast his vote several hours later.

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Astronauts Begin One-Year Space Mission

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three crew on board has successfully docked with the International Space Station, Nasa has said.

Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and American astronaut Scott Kelly are to spend 342 days aboard the orbiting laboratory - about twice as long as a standard mission on the station.

The stay is aimed at measuring the effects of a prolonged period of weightlessness on the human body, a step toward possible missions to Mars or beyond.

The Soyuz capsule - also carrying Russia's Gennady Padalka for a six-month stay - docked about six hours after launching on Saturday from Russia's manned space facility in Kazakhstan.

The trip marks the longest amount of time that two people will live continuously at the ISS, though a handful of Russian cosmonauts spent a year to 14 months at the Russian space station Mir in the 1990s.

"This is the first time we're doing it as an international partnership, which I think is one of the great success stories of the International Space Station," Mr Kelly said at a news conference ahead of the launch.

"If we ever go beyond Low Earth orbit again, perhaps to Mars, because of the cost and the complexity it will most likely be an international mission, so I see this as a stepping stone to that."

The physical effects of a year in space will be closely monitored by doctors on the ground in an unprecedented study of how the human body withstands the rigours of spaceflight before humans plan to journey to Mars.

Mr Kelly said he was concerned about the impacts of radiation and living in zero gravity, particularly in terms of compromised immunity and bone and vision loss.

"I'm hopeful that there is not a big cliff out there with regards to our ability to stay and live and work in space for longer periods of time," he said.

"But we are not going to know that until we have actually done it," he added. "The jury is out."

Mr Kelly and Mr Kornienko, both of whom have flown multiple missions to orbit and have each previously spent about six months on the ISS, are set to stay on the space station until March 2016.

Three crew members - Russian Anton Shkaplerov, Italian Samantha Cristoforetti and American Terry Virts - are currently onboard the space station, due to leave in May.

The arriving crew members are due to coincide with the first space tourist since 2009, British singer Sarah Brightman, who has paid $52m for her 10-day stint planned to start on 1 September.

Space exploration remains a hugely symbolic area of cooperation between Russia and the US despite the freeze in relations over Russia's alleged actions in Ukraine.

Russia last month confirmed that it will continue using the ISS in partnership with Nasa until 2024, after threatening to pull out and stop financing it in 2020.

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Drone-Style Systems Could Stop Future Crashes

Technology offers the hope that the Germanwings plane disaster will never happen again, experts have told Sky News.

Systems are already in place to fly unmanned planes from the ground, but they are currently only used in the military sphere.

French prosecutors have said that the captain of the Germanwings plane was locked out of the cockpit as Andreas Lupitz sent the Airbus A320 into a mountain in the French Alps.

In 2009, Honeywell was awarded a patent for a fly-by-wire system that could take control of a plane's cockpit controls and remotely pilot a commercial plane to prevent "unauthorised-flight" and maintain "stable flight".

It has been suggested that the system or others like it could have helped prevent not only the Germanwings disaster but also the disappearance of MH370 if there had been a way to alert ground staff to an on-board emergency.

Mischa Dohler, Head of King's College London's Centre for Telecommunications Research, told Sky News: "We have all the technology in place so the aircraft can talk to the ground directly or via the satellite link, so that is all possible. It's just a question of cost.

"At the end of the day, you just need to pay for the infrastructure or a data plan, in the same way as you might pay for your mobile phones.

"The airlines have to decide whether they are willing to invest that money to add that extra real-time safety to airplanes."

David Cummins, Head of Flight Operations at UMS Aerogroup and an expert on unmanned aircraft, said: "We not at the stage where we are talking about autonomous systems that will operate and look after the aircraft.

"We are talking about automated systems where ultimately man, an operator, will always be in the loop."

He told Sky News there are systems in existence that could keep a plane safer without requiring one to be controlled from the ground.

"We need a number of years (before) we will ever see the first unmanned commercial aircraft but there are checks and balances that can be put into play.

"You can look at collision avoidance - the Germanwings is an example - there is technology that exists and is in place that could help.

"There's also sense-and-avoid systems on aircraft that will also be the pilot's eyes on an aircraft. So there are a number of steps we can take.

"We are years away from doing it, but the technology exists and its about putting the time and effort and ultimately the finance.

"What the aviation industry is very good at is not knee-jerk reaction. You've got to remember that this is still an incredibly safe method of travel."

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Jolie Makes First Post-Surgery Appearance

Angelina Jolie has made her first public appearance since revealing she had preventative surgery to remove her ovaries.

She appeared at the 2015 Kids' Choice awards in Los Angeles, where she was named Favourite Villain for her role as the title character in dark fantasy film Maleficent.

The 39-year-old, who was accompanied by two of her children, told the audience: "Thank you so much to all the kids who voted.

"I want to say that when I was little - like Maleficent - I was told that I was different.

"And I felt out of place, and too loud, too full of fire, never good at sitting still, never good at fitting in.

"And then one day I realised something. Something I hope you all realise. Different is good!"

It came less than a week after the Oscar-winning actress revealed she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed after doctors detected possible signs of cancer.

She wrote about the procedure, which she had two weeks ago, in an opinion piece in the New York Times entitled Diary of a Surgery.

"It is not possible to remove all risk, and the fact is I remain prone to cancer," she wrote.

She also had a double mastectomy in 2013 after it was found she had the faulty BRCA1 gene, which sharply increased the chance of her developing breast and ovarian cancer.

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Saudi Bombs 'Destroy All Yemeni Fighter Jets'

Saudi-led airstrikes have destroyed every fighter jet in Yemen and forced Houthi rebels out of government air bases, a Saudi military leader has claimed.

A coalition of 10 countries began bombing Yemen on Thursday, targeting the Shia rebels and allied troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Saudi Brigadier General Ahmed bin Hasan Asiri said the aerial campaign had also "devastated" all known Scud missile launching pads in the Arab state.

The international airport in the rebel-controlled capital Sanaa was disabled and 15 pro-rebel troops killed.

The Houthis began their offensive in September, seizing Sanaa, and holding President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi under house arrest.

The rebels later took control of the government and forced Mr Hadi to flee the country.

Mr Hadi accused Iran of being behind the Houthi offensive as leaders at an Arab summit in Egypt agreed to create a military reaction force in the Middle East.

Arab League chief Nabil al Arabi said the Saudi-led offensive would continue until the rebels "withdraw and surrender their weapons".

Egyptian officials said the planned reaction force would be made up of 40,000 elite troops, backed by jets, warships and tanks.

It raises the prospect of a regional conflict pitting Sunni Arab nations against Shia powerhouse Iran.

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Singapore Bids Farewell To Longtime Leader

Thousands of Singaporeans and world leaders have lined the streets to pay their respects to the country's founding prime minister.

Lee Kuan Yew, who served as prime minister for 31 years, died on Monday at the age of 91. He had been suffering from pneumonia.

After almost a week of national mourning, Mr Lee's coffin was taken from Parliament House to the National University of Singapore for a state funeral.

Officials said more than a million people have already paid their respects to the former leader by visiting tribute sites at community centres across the island.

"It has been a deeply moving experience," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Mr Lee's son, said in a Facebook post thanking the public.

The expansive show of emotion is a rare event for Singapore.

Singapore is known around the world as a wealthy Asian trade and financial centre with a strict social order including a ban on chewing gum and caning for some crimes.

Mr Lee ruled with an iron grip until 1990 and is regarded by Singaporeans as the architect of the island's prosperity.

But his authoritarian rule has also left a legacy of restrictions on free speech, a tame media and a stunted democracy.

Leaders and dignitaries from more than two dozen countries attended the state funeral.

Highlights of the procession included a 21-gun salute by four howitzers and a flyover by four fighter jets.

The ceremony concluded with the singing of the Malay-language national anthem Majulah Singapura (Onwards Singapore).

Mr Lee's remains were then driven to a private cremation service.

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Top Suspect In Tunis Museum Attack 'Killed'

The leading suspect in the deadly attack on a Tunisian museum has been killed, the country's prime minister has said.

Prime Minister Habib Essid said that Khaled Chaieb, also known as Abou Sakhr Lokman, was killed overnight in an anti-terrorist operation.

Chaieb, who Tunis suspects of masterminding the assault on the Bardo Museum in Tunis on 18 March, is believed to be a prominent member of al Qaeda's North African arm, al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM).

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack which left 21 foreign tourists and a policemen dead but several armed groups in north Africa are known to have pledged allegiance to the extremist group.

It is not known if Chaieb was among nine suspected militants killed when security forces clashed with them in the southwest region of Sidi Aich, near the Algerian border.

State news agency TAP said Chaieb was killed overnight in an operation in the Gafsa region, also near the Algerian border. Sidi Aich is within the Gafsa region.

The announcement came as tens of thousands of Tunisians marched through Tunis in a show of solidarity against Islamist militants.

A major road in the Tunisian capital was turned red and white by people waving the country's flag as they took part in the rally, which was expected to be attended by several world leaders.

One of the demonstrators, Kamel Saad, said: "We have shown we are a democratic people, Tunisians are moderate, and there is no room for terrorists here. Today everyone is with us."

Until the Bardo attack, Tunisia had mostly avoided the levels of violence in other countries which saw uprisings during the Arab spring in 2011.

Tunisia has seen an upsurge in Islamist extremism but not to the same extent as in Libya, Yemen and Syria which have been plunged into civil war.

Egypt has seen a coup as the democratically elected Islamist government was subsequently ousted.

Earlier, French President Francois Hollande announced that another French tourist injured in the Bardo museum attack has died.

Huguette Dupeu had been in hospital after being seriously injured in the raid, which also saw the deaths of three more French tourists.

The other foreign tourists who died were from Italy, Japan, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Colombia and Australia as well as Briton Sally Adey, 57.

Two gunmen were killed in the brazen assault and authorities subsequently made arrests but until Sunday said they were still hunting for the mastermind.

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Crash Captain Screamed 'Open The Damn Door!'

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The captain of the Germanwings jet that crashed in the French Alps reportedly screamed at his co-pilot to "open the damn door" as he tried to get in the cockpit.

Andreas Lubitz, 27, apparently locked the captain out of the cabin and deliberately flew the Germanwings jet into a mountain, killing 150 people.

The older pilot left to use the toilet and then desperately tried to open the cockpit door during Flight 4U 9525's eight-minute descent, according to the black box voice recorder.

Germany's Bild on Sunday newspaper said he is heard shouting "For God's sake, open the door!" as passengers scream in the background.

He then tries to smash through the heavily reinforced door with an axe, while yelling at a silent Lubitz to "open the damn door".

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Gallery: The Victims Of The Germanwings Crash

American Emily Selke, a recent graduate, was on the plane with her mother Yvonne. Raymond Selke has described his wife and daughter as 'amazing people'. Pic: Facebook

Iranian sports journalist Hussein Javadi was on his way to Austria to cover a football match. A friend said he was 'a kind, loving, caring man'. Pic: Maysam Bizær/Hossein Javadi

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Argentinian Sebastian Greco was on board with his girlfriend. Pic: Facebook

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Argentinian Gabriela Maumus, 28, was the daughter of a firefighter. Pic: Facebook

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Spanish victim Carles Milla Masanas, 37. The businessman was on his way to a food industry fayre. Pic: Facebook

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Before leaving the cockpit, the captain is heard telling Lubitz he did not have time to go to the toilet before they left Barcelona for Dusseldorf.

German prosecutors believe Lubitz hid an illness from his airline, and had been written off sick on the day of the crash.

He had also sought treatment for vision problems which could have threatened his career, officials told the New York Times.

The Dusseldorf University Hospital said Lubitz had been evaluated at its clinic in February and on 10 March. The hospital has an eye clinic, but it did not comment on why he was being treated, citing patient privacy laws.

Police found medicines for treating psychological conditions during searches at his home in Dusseldorf, according to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

And Lubitz's ex-girlfriend, Maria W, has claimed he told her: "One day I'm going to do something that will change the whole system, and everyone will know my name and remember."

She told Bild that if he did deliberately crash the plane, it was "because he understood that because of his health problems, his big dream of a job at Lufthansa, of a job as captain and as a long-haul pilot, was practically impossible".

French police investigator Jean-Pierre Michel has said Lubitz's personality was a "serious lead" in the investigation - but not the only one.

While the investigation continues, forensic teams are trying to isolate DNA from body parts recovered at the crash site - with 78 distinct strands found so far.

Prosecutor Brice Robin added that an access road was being built for all-terrain vehicles to reach the site.

Meanwhile, a father of one of the three British victims called for airlines to do more to look after their pilots.

"I believe the airlines should be more transparent and our finest pilots looked after properly. We put our lives and our children's lives in their hands," said Phillip Bramley, whose son Paul, 28, died in the disaster.

Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) documents suggest some 100 commercial airline pilots in the UK had a history of depression, with 42 still on medication, The Observer has reported.

But Professor Sir Simon Wessely, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), said the aviation industry should not "rush" to action in the wake of the crash.

He cited health authorities' knee-jerk reaction to Dr Harold Shipman, who is thought to have killed between 215 and 260 people, as an example of ineffective policy.

Sir Simon said: "It is not a good idea to rush; it is like the response to Dr Shipman, an utterly bizarre and unpredictable event is not a good basis of policy.

"The procedures that they then brought in would not have prevented Shipman.

"I have dealt with some pilots with depression and when they recover they are still monitored. But the two I have dealt with returned to very successful careers. Why should they not?

"What does cause trouble is saying that if you ever have a history of depression then you should not be allowed to do whatever.

"That is wrong, as much as saying that people with a history of broken arms shouldn't be allowed to do something."

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