Bombings stopped in Xinjiang

Police shot and killed six suspected terrorists, including one who threatened them with an ax while trying unsuccessfully to detonate bombs in a commercial area of Shule county in the southern part of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region at about 10 am on Monday.

No civilians or police officers were injured in the incident.

The police prevented the bombings after responding to reports from residents about suspicious individuals. It was not clear how many bombs were involved, or whether the attackers were male or female.

Residents reported that one of the suspects carried the explosives to the commercial area, the statement said.

Shule, in southwest Xinjiang, is about 7 kilometers from Kashgar, capital of the Kashgar prefecture, which saw a bloody attack in its Shache county on July 28, when a gang armed with knives and axes attacked a township's police station and government offices. Officers shot 59 attackers and arrested 215 other people.

On Nov 28, the officers responded to another case in the same county. A group of knife-wielding terrorists set off explosives on a main street, killing four and injuring 14. Eleven terrorists in that incident were shot dead by police.

Hit by frequent terrorist attacks in the past year, the regional authorities are carrying out a campaign to eliminate religious extremism, which is regarded as the source of the violence.

A regulation banning full-face veils, called niqab, and full-body coverings in public in Urumqi was approved by the legislature on Saturday. Xinjiang officials said such clothing is associated with religious extremism.

Outward appearances, such as the niqab and distinctive male beards, are not small matters, said Nurmemet Turson, deputy director of the religious research institute of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, "They are favored by ultraconservative Muslims and can be symbols of religious extremism."

Several prefectures, including Aksu, Turpan and Ili, have made efforts to mitigate the influence of religious extremism by introducing various constructive activities for the public.

Wang Yiwen, Party chief of Qapqal Xibe autonomous county, said: "If the farmers, especially the youth, are interested in sports, cultural activities and even the films we play every week in the village, they might stay away from the extremism."

Source: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/

Intercity train connects Beijing and 'city of beds'

Commuters living in Yanjiao, a town about 35 km east to Beijing, now have more options to go to work in Beijing after an intercity bullet train started operating on Monday.

Train D9022 left Yanjiao at 6:46 am and arrived at Beijing Station at 7:17 am on Monday. All the 706 tickets of the train were sold out, a railway official said.

Zhou Hongyu, one of the first passengers on the maiden trip of Yanjiao-Beijing bullet train, said that the new train almost halved the daily two-hour-long journey to her office.

"I used to take bus before transferring to subway to my office. The bus is extremely crowded and it's always a struggle to get on it."

For some others, punctuality is the top concern.

Peng, 37 year old, said ideally it takes an hour to reach his office. But that is not often the case on the congested roads of Beijing.

"Sometimes the commuting time can stretch to two hours or more. Now the bullet train can take me to Beijing in half an hour," said Peng.

But the timing and cost of the train deter some commuters.

"A second-class seat on the bullet train sells at 10 yuan ($1.6), which will nearly double the cost of bus journey," veteran commuter Wu Zejian told reporter ahead of the operation of Yanjiao-Beijing bullet train. "Besides, my home is quite a distance away from the railway station, so it is not a bargain for me to take the train," added Wu.

"Although the train is punctual and fast, but I can only take the morning train because the evening train leaves Beijing at 5:50 pm and I will not be able to catch it. I hope more shuttle services will be added between Beijing and Yanjiao in the future," said Zhou Hongyu.

Whether Zhou's wish will be fulfilled is in doubt because of limited transport capacity on the line, according to the head of Yanjiao railway station.

Yanjiao, which literally means the suburb of Beijing, is home to over half a million residents, many of them moved to the small town in recent years after the house prices in Beijing skyrocketed.

Despite the low house price and rents, commuters have to take the cost of excruciating journey to their work place in Beijing. After a long day on the road, they have no extra energy to do anything other than go to bed, thus earning the town the name "city of beds".

Source: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/

Peshawar school reopens after Taliban massacre of students

PESHAWAR: Pakistani children and their parents returned on Monday to the school where Taliban gunmen killed 150 of their classmates and teachers, their green school blazers, Superman lunchboxes and hands clutched tightly to their parents a symbol of perseverance despite the horrors they had endured.

Pakistan has been reeling from the December 16 terrorist attack in Peshawar one of the worst the country has experienced. The violence carried out by seven Taliban militants has put a spotlight on whether the country can end the stubborn insurgency that kills and maims thousands every year. The violence also horrified parents across the nation and prompted officials to implement tighter security at schools.

For parents like Abid Ali Shah, getting ready for school Monday morning was horrifically painful. Shah's wife was a teacher at the school and was killed in the violence. Both of his sons attended the school. The youngest was shot in the head but survived after the militants thought he was dead. Monday morning they were late as they struggled with preparations previously done by Shah's wife.

"A hollowness in my life is getting greater. I am missing my wife," Shah said.

His older son, Sitwat Ali Shah, said he had managed to control his emotions. It wasn't until he saw his brother break down in tears that he did as well.

A ceremony was expected to be held at the school, but classes were not expected to be held until later this week.

Security was tight, part of a countrywide effort to boost safety measures at schools in the wake of the attack. Media and vehicles were kept hundreds of meters (yards) away from the school. The chief of Pakistan's army, Gen. Raheel Sharif, was on hand inside the school to greet students, a military spokesman said on Twitter.

For many, attending school Monday morning was an act of defiance and proof that they would not be cowed in the face of Taliban threats to attack again.

Andleeb Aftab, a teacher at the Army Public School, lost her 10th grade son, Huzaifa, in the attack. She arrived Monday wearing a black dress and black head scarf and walked briskly toward the school, where she had last seen her son alive.

"I have come here because the other kids are also my kids," she said. "I will complete the dreams of my son, the dreams I had about my son, by teaching other students. I have chosen to get back to school instead of sitting at home and keep mourning."

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Fourth ship to join search for missing Malaysian airliner

CANBERRA, Australia – A fourth ship with specialized underwater sonar equipment will join the search for a Malaysia Airlines jet 10 months after it vanished under mysterious circumstances, an Australian official said Monday.

The ship Fugro Supporter was on its way to the search area after conducting trials off the Indonesian island of Bali, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said in a statement.

“Fugro Supporter has been equipped with a Kongsberg HUGIN 4500 autonomous underwater vehicle,” the statement said. “The AUV will be used to scan those portions of the search area that cannot be searched effectively by the equipment on other vessels.”

Not a single trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been found since the Boeing 777 vanished with 239 people aboard on March 8 last year during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The jetliner veered sharply off course and flew for hours with its communications systems disabled before disappearing.

Three ships – two provided by a Dutch contractor and one from Malaysia – have already been scouring 60,000-square-kilometre (23,000-square-mile) area of the Indian Ocean about 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) west of Australia.

Since October, the ships have searched more than 12,000 square kilometres (4,600 square miles) of the seafloor with towed sonar equipment – or one-fifth of the highest-priority search zone.

Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the agency leading the search, said the unmanned submarine equipment would be used to take a second, closer look at difficult seabed terrain where towed sonar was less thorough.

“Because the terrain remains complex, there’s a possibility that there’ll be some areas that we can’t do with the towed sonar, and so we’re getting an autonomous underwater vehicle as the alternative option,” Dolan said. “We think we’ve got pretty good coverage already, but this will give us a 100 per cent guarantee.”

The underwater drone moves slower than the towed sonar equipment and will not hasten the search, which is expected to end around May if nothing is found earlier, Dolan said.

No additional equipment will be needed to ensure a thorough search of the mountainous terrain, which ranges from 600 metres (2,000 feet) to 6.5 kilometres (4 miles) deep, he said.

The Fugro Supporter is jointly funded by the Australian and Malaysian governments. It is expected to join the search in late January, Truss said.

Source: http://globalnews.ca/

29 arrested over Malaysia `birthday orgy`

Colombo: Hundreds of lawyers in Sri Lanka today took to street, demanding resignation of Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, who was appointed by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa after the impeachment of the country's first woman top judge allegedly out of personal vendetta.


Peiris, a confidante of Rajapaksa, was inducted in office in January 2013 after the impeachment and sacking of his predecessor Shirani Bandaranayake on corruption charges despite protests by rights groups, citizens, clergy and lawyers.

Bandaranayake's removal was pronounced unlawful by courts and also condemned by international community. It was cited even in the UN Human Rights Council resolutions adopted against the Rajapaksa administration.
She had denied all the charges against her and alleged that she had been sacked by Rajapaksa "through improper procedure due to personal vendetta".

Several lawyers had vehemently protested against the sacking of Bandaranayake and vowed not to cooperate with Peiris.

"We want him to go with dignity," Upul Jayasuriya, the Chairman of the lawyers' body, Bar Association of Sri Lanka said today.

"We will give him time until tomorrow to resign, if he did not we shall be back here protesting tomorrow," Sunil Watagala, a lawyer said.
In the run up to the January 8 presidential election, the joint opposition had pledged to restore Bandaranayake in her position as the 43rd Chief Justice.


Kuala Lumpur : Police in mainly Muslim Malaysia arrested 29 people including two auxiliary police officers in a raid on an birthday party which they said Monday had turned into a drug-fuelled orgy.

Officers were called to a hotel in the town of Klang near the capital Kuala Lumpur early Sunday after a complaint about noise in one of the rooms.

Ten women and 19 men were arrested while drugs including heroin, ecstasy and ketamine were impounded, police said.

"We suspect it to be a sex orgy cum birthday party," said North Klang police chief Mohamad Shukor Sulong.

A police officer involved in the investigation told AFP on condition of anonymity that all 29 were ethnic Malays, who belong to the multi-cultural country`s Muslim majority, and ranged in age from 20 to 35.

"They brought girls, drugs and beer to celebrate the birthday party," the officer said.

Premarital sex and lewd behaviour are deeply frowned upon in Malaysia, which has traditionally practised a relatively moderate brand of Islam yet remains conservative on sexual issues.

Muslims who are merely caught alone in a secluded place with a member of the opposite sex who is not a relation can face up to two years` jail and a fine.

Muslims make up more than half the country`s nearly 30 million people.

Three die in Nigeria suicide bombings

At least three people have been killed and dozens more injured in twin suicide bomb attacks in Nigeria.

Eyewitnesses say two female militants detonated their explosives in a crowded marketplace in Yobe state.

It comes after a bomb strapped to a girl killed at least 19 people on Saturday - and amid reports that up to 2,000 people were killed by Boko Haram in a series of "massacres" over the past week.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has condemned the recent attacks.

Africa’s most populous country is due to hold elections next month even though Boko Haram extremists hold large swathes of territory in the north-east.

Mr Ban’s office said in a statement that he was appalled by reports that hundreds of civilians were slaughtered in an assault around Baga town in Borno state, near Nigeria’s border with Chad. Some reports put the death toll as high as 2,000.

Mr Ban’s office also cited reports that extremists used a 10-year-old girl as a suicide bomber to kill 19 people at a market in Maiduguri, also in Borno state, on Saturday.

Source: http://www.breakingnews.ie/