Monday, August 29, 2016
China serial killer captured after murdering 11 women, police say
Police in China say they have captured a serial killer who murdered 11 women and girls over a 14-year period. Gao Chengyong, 52, was arrested at the grocery store he runs with his wife in the northwest province of Gansu, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper. The paper said he has confessed to the murders in Gansu and the neighbouring Inner Mongolia region between 1988 and 2002. Gao is alleged to have targeted young women wearing red during a 14-year killing spree, following them home to rape and kill them. Some women had their throats cut and reproductive organs removed, according to reports. The youngest victim was eight years old. Police first linked all 11 crimes in 2004, and ...
Japan's first passenger jet had a nightmare weekend
World
'Missile practice' caused deadly Taiwan misfire: prosecutors
An unsupervised Taiwanese naval officer who decided to experiment with a missile launcher and accidentally fired towards China was one of three people charged on Monday over the fatal incident.
The misfiring of the supersonic "aircraft carrier killer" last month struck a damaging blow to the military's image, embarrassing new president Tsai Ing-wen and angering Beijing.
The Hsiung-feng III (Brave wind) missile hit a Taiwanese trawler, killing the skipper on board and injuring three other crew members.
The misfire -- the biggest military slip-up since Beijing-sceptic Tsai came to power in May -- sparked an uproar in Taiwan and drew a stern rebuke from China.
Prosecutors in the southern port city of Kaoshiung revealed Monday that naval officer Kao Chia-chun had been left alone in the master control room for as long as seven minutes.
Kao decided to practise without a supervisor, despite the system being in "combat mode", prosecutors said in a statement marking the end of their investigation.
"(He) did not ultimately notice that missiles no.3 and no.4 were already in 'live-fire' mode and went on to press...'allow launch', 'launch missile', and 'confirm'", prosecutors stated.
One of the missiles travelled for about two minutes, automatically searching for a target before locking onto the fishing boat in the waters off Taiwan-administered Penghu island.
Kao was charged with negligence leading to death and injuries, as well as damaging weaponry.
His supervisor Chen Ming-hsiu and lieutenant Hsu Po-wei, who was responsible for overseeing weapons, were charged with neglecting official public duties leading to catastrophe.
Chen should have been supervising but left Kao alone during the incident on July 1, the statement said.
President Tsai last week called for the defence ministry to hammer out a new strategy and improve its performance, while attending an annual military exercise simulating China attacks.
The mainland is the biggest military threat to self-ruling Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a breakaway province to be reunified.
Tensions have risen across the strait under Tsai as Beijing does not trust her traditionally pro-independence party.
According to Taiwan's defence ministry, there are 1,500 Chinese missiles aimed at the island.
China launched some of the missiles into waters off Taiwan in 1995 and 1996 in an attempt to deter voters in the island's first democratic presidential elections.
Last month's misfire coincided with China celebrating the 95th anniversary of the Communist Party
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Airman was left for dead by SEALs, but there are signs he fought al-Qaida alone
Japan braces for a third powerful typhoon in a week
As Obama heads to Laos, signs of a tilt away from China
* Laos to host Asian summit next week
* Obama first sitting president to visit Laos
* Laos more nuanced on S.China Sea
* New leaders more friendly to neigbouring Vietnam
* But China still dominates business scene in Laos
By Marius Zaharia
VIENTIANE, Aug 28 (Reuters) - The secretive communist government of Laos, a country with a population of less than 7 million, rarely causes a ripple on the diplomatic circuit. And yet its sleepy capital will spring to life next week when global leaders arrive for an Asian summit.
Barack Obama will be among them, making the last push of his presidency to 'rebalance' Washington's foreign policy towards Asia, a strategy widely seen as a response to China's economic and military muscle-flexing across the region.
The might of Laos' giant neighbour to the north is hard to miss in Vientiane: wealthy Chinese driving SUVs overtake tuk-tuks sputtering along the roads and Chinese-backed hotels sprout from noisy construction sites in one of Asia's most low-rise cities.
But diplomats say Obama could be pushing on an open door in Laos, thanks to a change of government there in April.
They say the country's new leaders appear ready to tilt away from Beijing and lean more closely towards another neighbour, Vietnam, whose dispute with China over the South China Sea has pushed it into a deepening alliance with the United States.
"The new government is more influenced by the Vietnamese than the Chinese," said a Western diplomat in Southeast Asia." "It's never too late for a U.S. president to visit."
Obama will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit landlocked Laos, where the United States waged a "secret war" while fighting in Vietnam, dropping an estimated two million tonnes of bombs on the country. About 30 percent of the ordnance failed to explode, leaving a dangerous and costly legacy.
Laos has strategic importance to both Vietnam and China. Vietnam has a long land border with Laos that gives it access to markets in Thailand and beyond. For China, Laos is a key gateway to Southeast Asia in its "new Silk Road" trade strategy.
Laos, which is developing a series of hydropower plants along one of the world's longest rivers, the Mekong, aims to become "the battery of Asia" by selling power to its neighbours.
SHIFTING POLICY
It is difficult to read policy in Laos because its leaders are so uncommunicative, but Western diplomats have detected some shifts.
First, deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad - who ran the steering panel for a $7 billion Chinese rail project - retired. The project is now believed to be on hold because Laos is unhappy with the terms of the deal.
Officials of Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith's new government, many of them educated in Vietnam, have visited Hanoi en masse in recent weeks, their first foreign trip.
At two of the past meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is currently chaired by Laos, Vientiane has taken a more nuanced stance on Beijing than neighbouring Cambodia, which is increasingly seen as a Chinese satellite.
"The U.S. strategic interest in Laos is to see the country be able to exert a certain degree of strategic autonomy because you don't want ... (to) have something akin to the relationship between China and Cambodia," said Phuong Nguyen of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank.
A defence official in Washington did not comment on wider strategic issues but described Laos as "an important partner."
A China foreign ministry spokesman said "we welcome any country, including those inside and outside this region, developing constructive relations, as long as these ties are really beneficial to regional peace, stability and prosperity."
LONG-TERM BATTLE
Beijing has invested around $1 billion annually in Laos in 2014 and 2015, a step up from the $4.5 billion invested historically before 2014, according to figures from China's Ministry of Commerce and state-run media.
For the United States, impoverished Laos is not a strong investment draw.
"In Laos, we bring 7-8 companies to the table compared with 30-40 companies that Vietnam brings. But China- that's a totally different ball game," said Anthony Nelson, director of the U.S.-ASEAN business council.
"So there's no coincidence that the countries with the lowest levels of development, Laos and Cambodia, are the most willing to advocate for China's position in international discussions."
But the Lao are closer culturally to Vietnam than they are to China. Their businesses use Lao language signs and mixed Lao-Vietnamese families incorporate local customs, while Lao-Chinese families tend to be isolated.
"We are a bit frustrated with (China). They create their own eco-system," a Lao businessman said.
(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Idrees Ali, Michael Martina and Ben Blanchard.; Editing by John Chalmers and Bill Tarrant)Addict risks all in deadly Philippine drug war
Manila (AFP) - Pedicab driver Reyjin dives into a neighbour's house for a quick meth fix, fearful of taking a bullet to the head in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's brutal war on drugs but unable to quit.
More than 2,000 people have died violent deaths since Duterte took office two months ago and immediately implemented his scorched-earth plans to eradicate drugs in society, ordering police to shoot dead traffickers and urging ordinary citizens to kill addicts.
The bloodbath has seen unknown assailants kill more than half the victims, according to police statistics, raising fears that security forces and hired assassins are roaming through communities and shooting dead anyone suspected of being involved in drugs.
Armed police constantly circle in Reyjin's Manila slum community, but he continues to snort the fumes of the highly addictive methamphetamine known as "shabu" that Duterte has warned is destroying the lives of millions of poor Filipinos.
"It's scary because I could be next," said the gaunt, gap-toothed 28-year-old, speaking to AFP on the condition his identity not be revealed for security reasons.
The father-of-three said two masked motorcycle gunmen riding in tandem on a motorcycle had shot dead a woman who sold small amounts of drugs to him and other residents.
"She was sitting in the alley when she took two bullets to the head," he said.
Such riding-in-tandem murders are one of the most common forms of killings by the shadowy assassins.
- 'Cardboard justice' -
Often a piece of cardboard, with "drug peddler" or "drug addict" written on it, is placed on the corpse. This has led to the war on crime becoming known as "cardboard justice".
Meanwhile, police have reported killing 756 people they have branded drug suspects.
National police chief Ronald dela Rosa has repeatedly defended his officers, insisting they only kill when their own lives are in danger.
However two policemen have been charged with murder over the jailhouse deaths of a father and son, who autopsies showed to have been beaten so badly before being shot that their limbs were broken.
The United Nations, the US government and human rights groups have expressed alarm at the bloodshed, with some critics warning the Philippines is in the midst of a reign of terror as authorities act with no regard for the law.
Duterte and Dela Rosa have repeatedly insisted they are acting within the boundaries of the law, while accusing their critics of siding with the drug traffickers and ignoring the devastating consequences of what they describe as a national shabu crisis.
They say most of the unexplained deaths are being carried out by drug syndicates waging war on each other.
Yet on the day he was sworn into office, Duterte gave a speech to a crowd in a Manila slum in which he called on them to kill drug addicts in their own community.
And in an address to a group of drug addicts who had surrendered to police last week, Dela Rosa called on them to kill their suppliers and burn down their homes.
Dela Rosa later apologised for the comments, saying they were made because he was angry, but they nevertheless added to an atmosphere of a dramatic breakdown in the rule of law.
- Resilient drug trade -
In Reyjin's Manila slum, the violence and security presence has slowed the drug trade and made shabu more expensive.
But lots is still available, in what could be a worrying sign for Duterte who vowed during the election campaign that he could completely wipe out the trade within six months.
"If you want to buy, you just go stand there on the street and somebody will approach you," said Reyjin, who took his first hit of shabu when he was 13.
"You hand over the money and he will tell you to wait and have somebody else deliver the drugs to you."
Even the shabu "dens", in which people rent out their huts for addicts to take a hit, are still operating, according to Reyjin.
Reyjin said he earned about 400 pesos ($8.50) a day, taking passengers on short pedicab trips and occasionally doing odd jobs.
He said he was spending about one quarter of his earnings on shabu. It used to be a 50-peso-a-day habit, but the price of shabu had doubled because of the drug war, according to Reyjin.
Neighbours told AFP the eldest of Reyjin's three children, a grade-schooler, looked malnourished and often went to school hungry.
The two other siblings looked dirty and were forced to wear hand-me-down clothes in their one-room house, they added.
The neighbours said they also suspected him of stealing small items from their homes to fund his habit.
Reyjin said he was aware of the toll his habit took on his family.
But, even compounded by the threat of his children being orphaned in the drug war, he said he could not stop taking shabu.
"Sometime I tell myself I have to stop," he said.
"But my body craves it."
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