BEIJING ? Chinese police arrested 608 suspects and rescued 178 children in a bust of two separate child trafficking networks, authorities said Wednesday.
The ministry said in a statement posted online that 5,000 police across 10 provinces cooperated for six months on the investigation and moved in to arrest the suspects last week. It said prosecutors were preparing cases against the suspects, suggesting that charges have yet to be filed.
Child trafficking is big problem in China, where traditional preference for male heirs and a restrictive one-child policy has driven a thriving market in baby boys, who fetch a considerably higher price than girls. Girls and women also are abducted and often used as laborers or as brides for unwed sons.
Tens of thousands of children go missing every year, though the exact numbers of victims are difficult to obtain.
The rescued children will be put into orphanages while authorities try to reunite them with their families, it said. It didn't give the age range of the abducted children or other specifics. It said they were temporarily in the care of female police officers while the Ministry of Civil Affairs was finding temporary places for them in orphanages.
An investigation into a traffic accident in south China's Sichuan province in May led police to the first ring, which was allegedly selling children abducted or bought in Sichuan to buyers in central China's Hebei province and elsewhere. The ring had links to at least 26 gangs nationwide, it said.
The second ring was uncovered in August and was based in southeast China's Fujian province and led by a female suspect identified as Chen Xiumei.
The statement said police have cracked more than 7,000 gangs or rings that sold women or children since a special campaign against human trafficking started in April 2009. It said 18,518 children and 34,813 women have been rescued.
NASA satellite confirms sharp decline in pollution from US coal power plantsPublic release date: 1-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Adam Voiland adam.p.voiland@nasa.gov 301-614-6949 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
GREENBELT, Md. A team of scientists have used the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite to confirm major reductions in the levels of a key air pollutant generated by coal power plants in the eastern United States. The pollutant, sulfur dioxide, contributes to the formation of acid rain and can cause serious health problems.
The scientists, led by an Environment Canada researcher, have shown that sulfur dioxide levels in the vicinity of major coal power plants have fallen by nearly half since 2005. The new findings, the first satellite observations of this type, confirm ground-based measurements of declining sulfur dioxide levels and demonstrate that scientists can potentially measure levels of harmful emissions throughout the world, even in places where ground monitoring is not extensive or does not exist. About two-thirds of sulfur dioxide pollution in American air comes from coal power plants. Geophysical Research Letters published details of the new research this month.
The scientists attribute the decline in sulfur dioxide to the Clean Air Interstate Rule, a rule passed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2005 that called for deep cuts in sulfur dioxide emissions. In response to that rule, many power plants in the United States have installed desulfurization devices and taken other steps that limit the release of sulfur dioxide. The rule put a cap on emissions, but left it up to power companies to determine how to reduce emissions and allowed companies to trade pollution credits.
While scientists have used the Ozone Monitoring Instrument to observe sulfur dioxide levels within large plumes of volcanic ash and over heavily polluted parts of China in the past, this is the first time they have observed such subtle details over the United States, a region of the world that in comparison to fast-growing parts of Asia now has relatively modest sulfur dioxide emissions. Just a few decades ago, sulfur dioxide pollution was quite severe in the United States. Levels of the pollutant have dropped by about 75 percent since the 1980s due largely to the passage of the Clean Air Act.
Vitali Fioletov, a scientist based in Toronto at Environment Canada, and his colleagues developed a new mathematical approach that made the improved measurements a reality. The approach centers on averaging measurements within a 30 miles radius (50 km) of a sulfur dioxide source over several years. "Vitali has developed an extremely powerful technique that makes it possible to detect emissions even when levels of sulfur dioxide are about four times lower than what we could detect previously," said Nickolay Krotkov, a researcher based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and a coauthor of the new paper.
The technique allowed Fioletov and his colleagues to pinpoint the sulfur dioxide signals from the 40 largest sulfur dioxide sources in the United States generally coal power plants that emit more than 70 kilotons of sulfur dioxide per year. The scientists observed major declines in sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia by comparing levels of the pollutant for an average of the period 2005 to 2007 with another average from 2008 to 2010.
"What we're seeing in these satellite observations represents a major environmental accomplishment," said Bryan Bloomer, an Environmental Protection Agency scientist familiar with the new satellite observations. "This is a huge success story for the EPA and the Clean Air Interstate Rule," he said.
The researchers focused their analysis on the United States to take advantage of the presence of a robust network of ground-based instruments that monitor sulfur dioxide emissions inside power plant smokestacks. The ground-based instruments have logged a 46 percent decline in sulfur dioxide levels since 2005 a finding consistent with the 40 percent reduction observed by OMI.
"Now that we've confirmed that the technique works, the next step is to use it for other parts of the world that don't have ground-based sensors," said Krotkov. "The real beauty of using satellites is that we can apply the same technique to the entire globe in a consistent way." In addition, the team plans to use a similar technique to monitor other important pollutants that coal power plants release, such as nitrogen dioxide, a precursor to ozone.
OMI, a Dutch and Finnish built instrument, was launched in 2004, as one of four instruments on the NASA Aura satellite, and can measure sulfur dioxide more accurately than any satellite instrument flown to date. Though OMI remains in very good condition and scientists expect it to continue producing high-quality data for many years, the researchers also hope to use data from an upcoming Dutch-built OMI follow-on instrument called TROPOMI that is expected to launch on a European Space Agency satellite in 2014.
On July 6, 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), requiring 27 states to significantly reduce power plant emissions that contribute to ozone and fine particle pollution in other states. This rule replaces EPA's 2005 Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). A December 2008 court decision kept the requirements of CAIR in place temporarily but directed EPA to issue a new rule to implement Clean Air Act requirements concerning the transport of air pollution across state boundaries. This action responds to the court's concerns.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
NASA satellite confirms sharp decline in pollution from US coal power plantsPublic release date: 1-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Adam Voiland adam.p.voiland@nasa.gov 301-614-6949 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
GREENBELT, Md. A team of scientists have used the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite to confirm major reductions in the levels of a key air pollutant generated by coal power plants in the eastern United States. The pollutant, sulfur dioxide, contributes to the formation of acid rain and can cause serious health problems.
The scientists, led by an Environment Canada researcher, have shown that sulfur dioxide levels in the vicinity of major coal power plants have fallen by nearly half since 2005. The new findings, the first satellite observations of this type, confirm ground-based measurements of declining sulfur dioxide levels and demonstrate that scientists can potentially measure levels of harmful emissions throughout the world, even in places where ground monitoring is not extensive or does not exist. About two-thirds of sulfur dioxide pollution in American air comes from coal power plants. Geophysical Research Letters published details of the new research this month.
The scientists attribute the decline in sulfur dioxide to the Clean Air Interstate Rule, a rule passed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2005 that called for deep cuts in sulfur dioxide emissions. In response to that rule, many power plants in the United States have installed desulfurization devices and taken other steps that limit the release of sulfur dioxide. The rule put a cap on emissions, but left it up to power companies to determine how to reduce emissions and allowed companies to trade pollution credits.
While scientists have used the Ozone Monitoring Instrument to observe sulfur dioxide levels within large plumes of volcanic ash and over heavily polluted parts of China in the past, this is the first time they have observed such subtle details over the United States, a region of the world that in comparison to fast-growing parts of Asia now has relatively modest sulfur dioxide emissions. Just a few decades ago, sulfur dioxide pollution was quite severe in the United States. Levels of the pollutant have dropped by about 75 percent since the 1980s due largely to the passage of the Clean Air Act.
Vitali Fioletov, a scientist based in Toronto at Environment Canada, and his colleagues developed a new mathematical approach that made the improved measurements a reality. The approach centers on averaging measurements within a 30 miles radius (50 km) of a sulfur dioxide source over several years. "Vitali has developed an extremely powerful technique that makes it possible to detect emissions even when levels of sulfur dioxide are about four times lower than what we could detect previously," said Nickolay Krotkov, a researcher based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and a coauthor of the new paper.
The technique allowed Fioletov and his colleagues to pinpoint the sulfur dioxide signals from the 40 largest sulfur dioxide sources in the United States generally coal power plants that emit more than 70 kilotons of sulfur dioxide per year. The scientists observed major declines in sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia by comparing levels of the pollutant for an average of the period 2005 to 2007 with another average from 2008 to 2010.
"What we're seeing in these satellite observations represents a major environmental accomplishment," said Bryan Bloomer, an Environmental Protection Agency scientist familiar with the new satellite observations. "This is a huge success story for the EPA and the Clean Air Interstate Rule," he said.
The researchers focused their analysis on the United States to take advantage of the presence of a robust network of ground-based instruments that monitor sulfur dioxide emissions inside power plant smokestacks. The ground-based instruments have logged a 46 percent decline in sulfur dioxide levels since 2005 a finding consistent with the 40 percent reduction observed by OMI.
"Now that we've confirmed that the technique works, the next step is to use it for other parts of the world that don't have ground-based sensors," said Krotkov. "The real beauty of using satellites is that we can apply the same technique to the entire globe in a consistent way." In addition, the team plans to use a similar technique to monitor other important pollutants that coal power plants release, such as nitrogen dioxide, a precursor to ozone.
OMI, a Dutch and Finnish built instrument, was launched in 2004, as one of four instruments on the NASA Aura satellite, and can measure sulfur dioxide more accurately than any satellite instrument flown to date. Though OMI remains in very good condition and scientists expect it to continue producing high-quality data for many years, the researchers also hope to use data from an upcoming Dutch-built OMI follow-on instrument called TROPOMI that is expected to launch on a European Space Agency satellite in 2014.
On July 6, 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), requiring 27 states to significantly reduce power plant emissions that contribute to ozone and fine particle pollution in other states. This rule replaces EPA's 2005 Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). A December 2008 court decision kept the requirements of CAIR in place temporarily but directed EPA to issue a new rule to implement Clean Air Act requirements concerning the transport of air pollution across state boundaries. This action responds to the court's concerns.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
AAA??Dec. 1, 2011?6:06 PM ET It's on: the new National Christmas Tree lights up STACY A. ANDERSONSTACY A. ANDERSON, Associated Press??
President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, daughters Malia and Sasha, obscured, and mother-in-law Marian Robinson, far left, arrive for the lighting of the National Christmas Tree at the Ellipse across from the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec., 1, 2011. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, daughters Malia and Sasha, obscured, and mother-in-law Marian Robinson, far left, arrive for the lighting of the National Christmas Tree at the Ellipse across from the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec., 1, 2011. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
The National Christmas Tree is pictured after it was lit by President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, daughters Malia and Sasha Obama and and mother-in-law Marian Robinson, at the Ellipse across from the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec., 1, 2011. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama, with daughter Sasha and first lady Michelle Obama, with Malia, arrive for lighting of the National Christmas Tree at the Ellipse across from the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec., 1, 2011. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, and daughters Malia and Sasha Obama arrive for lighting of the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse across from the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec., 1, 2011. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The new National Christmas Tree is getting its holiday on.
President Barack Obama and his family lit the tree in a ceremony just after dark Thursday. It's the 89th year for the holiday tree lighting, a tradition that began with President Calvin Coolidge in 1923.
Obama urged the crowd to be generous and to help others in need during the season including "the homeless, the hungry, the sick and shut in."
Obama also welcomed troops returning home in time for the holiday and advised Americans to give "thanks and honor to our troops and our veterans and their families who sacrifice so much for us."
The new National Christmas Tree was planted in March on the Ellipse south of the White House. It's a 26-foot-tall Colorado blue spruce from a New Jersey tree nursery. The previous tree stood on the Ellipse since 1978. It was toppled in February by strong winds.
TV's Carson Daly hosted the lighting ceremony, which included performances from Big Time Rush and Ellie Goulding and appearances by Kermit the Frog and Santa Claus.
ISTANBUL?? A heavily armed man opened fire at one of Istanbul's main tourist attractions on Wednesday, wounding a Turkish soldier and a security guard before police snipers killed the attacker, officials said.
The motive for the assault at Topkapi Palace was not immediately known. But police said the man, a Libyan with Syrian citizenship, had entered Turkey only three days ago.
Police said the attacker arrived at the palace in a car with Syrian license plates. Minutes before the attack, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had announced tough economic sanctions on Syria to protest its government's crackdown on an 8-month-old pro-democracy uprising.
Multiple gunshots were heard from behind the high walls of the Topkapi Palace before the attacker was killed, and some tourists threw themselves on the ground to avoid the violence, officials and witnesses said.
Topkapi Palace, the seat of the Ottoman sultans for almost 400 years, is located in the city's historic Sultanahmet district, which also includes the Blue Mosque and the former Byzantine church of Haghia Sophia.
The palace ? including ornate courtyards, gilded treasures and dozens of rooms that once housed harems ? attracts thousands of visitors each year.
Witnesses said the man shot the soldier in the leg and the guard in the abdomen before running into the palace courtyard through the main gate, chanting in Arabic "God is Great!"
Istanbul's governor, Huseyin Avni Mutlu, said the wounded are not in life-threatening condition.
Mutlu said the gunman made no demands and that police decided to shoot him when he refused to surrender.
Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said the attacker had entered Turkey on Sunday. The state-run TRT television, citing unnamed officials, identified him as 36-year-old Samir Salem Ali Elmadhavri, a Libyan with Syrian citizenship.
Authorities would divulge further details about the man's identity and Sahin said it was not immediately known if the attacker was affiliated with any groups or organizations in Libya or Syria.
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The prosecutor's office in Istanbul is investigating the attack.
A spokesman for Libya's National Transition Council, Jalal el-Galal, said authorities in Tripoli have no information at this point on the gunman.
The man was seen at an outdoor cafe in the area before going on his rampage, witnesses told Associated Press television. A photo obtained by The Associated Press shows the attacker carrying a rifle and a cartridge belt around his neck.
"I saw the gunman carrying a gun on his shoulder, like a hunter. He had ammunition around his neck and a backpack. His overcoat was buttoned, I couldn't see what was underneath," witness Idris Cengiz told AP television. "He was coming toward us and my friend said he looked like a hunter so I asked him in English 'Are you a hunter?' He said something in Arabic which I didn't understand. Then he said 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great)."
Cengiz said he and his friend heard the gun shots moments later.
"We ran we saw a soldier and a security guard laying on the ground," he said.
No tourists were hurt.
"I'm not afraid because this kind of thing can happen anywhere these days, even in Amsterdam, where I live," Dutch tourist, Yeuonne Alkemade, told AP television. "I'm sad for Turkey and Istanbul because this is one of the top tourist attractions here."
Turkey has suffered a number of terrorist attacks in the past.
Earlier this year, police arrested alleged Turkish members of al-Qaida terrorist network accused of planning to attack the U.S. Embassy in Ankara and another group in the southern city of Adana, which is home to the Incirlik Air Base used by the United States to transfer noncombat supplies to Iraq and Afghanistan. Authorities have said al-Qaida planned to attack Incirlik in the past but was deterred by high security.
An attack blamed on al-Qaida-affiliated militants outside the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul in 2008 left three assailants and three policemen dead.
Homegrown Islamic militants tied to al-Qaida attacked the British Consulate, a British bank and two synagogues in Istanbul in 2003, killing 58 people.
___
Hacaoglu reported from Ankara, Turkey. AP correspondents Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Vanessa Gera in Tripoli, Libya, contributed to this report.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
BAGHDAD, ? A string of explosions hit a Baghdad market and the capital's western outskirts on Saturday, killing at least 15 people and exposing the challenges still facing Iraqi security forces just over a month before all American troops leave the country.
The bombings mark the second major attack against Iraqi civilians this week and come as American forces are packing up to leave and handing over their remaining security responsibilities to Iraqi forces. Many Iraqis are concerned that insurgents may use the transition period to launch more attacks in a bid to regain their former prominence and destabilize the country.
Iraqi security officials maintain that they are fully prepared for the American withdrawal, which is required under a 2008 security pact between the U.S. and Iraq. About 15,000 U.S. troops remain in the country, down from a one-time high of about 170,000.
Earlier this week, the top U.S. general in Iraq, Lloyd Austin, said that there would likely be some "turbulence" after American troops leave. But he did not think there would be a wholesale descent into violence.
The first blasts Saturday struck an area where people looking for work were gathered in the mostly Sunni village of al-Zaidan, west of Baghdad. Seven people were killed and 11 others were wounded, police officials said.
Hours later, three bombs exploded near kiosks in a market in downtown Baghdad where vendors were selling CDs and military uniforms, killing eight people and wounding 19 others.
"I went outside my shop and saw people running in all directions trying to leave the market area. I saw several bodies and wounded people on the ground," said Mohammed Youssef, who owns a clothing shop in the area.
Iraqi military commanders later ordered all the vendors selling products in the area to close up their kiosks and move, in an attempt to clear out the area and make it harder for insurgents to hide bombs.
Health officials at Abu Ghraib's general hospital and at three hospitals in Baghdad confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
The market had until recently been protected by blast walls, but the military spokesman for Baghdad, Qassim al-Moussawi, said they were removed because the security situation in the city has been improving.
The bombers "try to prove their presence and hinder our efforts to remove all the concrete walls, but we will continue removing them and keeping control," he said.
Baghdad is crisscrossed with concrete blast walls that both reassure and frustrate residents. The walls helped reduce violence and protect areas such as markets or major buildings. But they also create huge traffic jams and hurt the economy.
The Iraqi security forces have been slowly removing the blast walls, but some people in the market area Saturday said they wanted them back.
"We have been expecting something bad in the market after the security forces removed the blast barriers a few days ago," said Youssef.
Violence has ebbed across Iraq since the height of the fighting, but deadly bombings and shootings still occur almost daily as U.S. troops prepare to leave. On Thursday evening, 19 people died in the southern city of Basra after three bombs went off in quick succession.
As the U.S. has drawn down the number of American troops in Iraq over the last year, the U.S. military has played more of an advising role to Iraqi security forces, leaving the more high-profile jobs such as patrolling and manning checkpoints to Iraqi security forces.
But U.S. troops have played a key role in helping Iraqi forces gather intelligence on suspected insurgents, something that will be lost when the American military departs.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Gen. Austin said that Iraqis are very good at human intelligence ? gathering information from a local population that they know well. But they lack the American technology and ability to analyze intelligence gathered from multiple sources and then use that information to combat terror networks such as al-Qaida.
"What we've learned about al-Qaida is they have a very sophisticated network and the ability to kind of see themselves across the country, and synchronize activities," he said. "In order to counter that I think you need the ability to put pressure on the network."
___
Associated Press staff in Baghdad, Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Hadi Mizban, contributed to this report.
MEXICO CITY ? Mexico City's police chief says he has launched an investigation into a journalist's video that allegedly captures a police officer abusing a suspect.
Milenio Television reported Friday that one of its reporters had taken the video recording an officer repeatedly pushing the man's head into a bucket of water while his T-shirt was pulled up over his head and face.
The alleged abuse took place following a gunfight between police and gunmen in the working-class neighborhood of Tepito. The video's authenticity could not be independently confirmed, and neither Milenio nor police released the suspect's identity.
Mexico City Public Safety Director Manuel Mondragon said Friday that he was outraged by the video and that both the police and local prosecutor will look into it.
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Public release date: 1-Dec-2011
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