China still is stonewalling
on facts about Tiananmen


More than two decades later, China’s Communist Party is still facing calls for a full accounting of its bloody 1989 crackdown on protests in Tiananmen Square.  And while the party shows no signs of changing its stance on the protests, the calls for more political openness and public disgust with official graft continue to this day.

The difference now, according to political analysts, historians and activists, is that the stakes are much higher and the problems the party faces are even bigger.

The Communist Party’s official verdict on the protests is that they were a counter-revolutionary rebellion.  And when pressed, officials focus on the changes China has made since that day and not what may or may not have happened. It is not known how many died in the crackdown, but human-rights groups say hundreds were killed.

Zhang Xianling lost her son during the crackdown in early June of 1989.  After more that two decades, her comments waver between despair and hope.

Ms. Zhang said she hopes China’s new leaders, President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, can have a new vision.  At the same time, she worries they will continue to ignore the Communist Party’s mistakes.

“We hope that they can reassess the old sufferings and start a new vision,” Ms. Zhang said.  “That they can acknowledge the murders of Tiananmen as the rest of the world did and have a more relaxed vision on June 4th by expressing that they want to address it.”

Ms. Zhang is part of a group of parents, relatives and friends of those killed, called the Tiananmen Mothers.  Since 1995, the group has been pressing the government to tell the truth about what happened on June 4th and hold those responsible accountable.

The group says it has written 36 letters to Communist Party leaders and the government’s rubber-stamp National People’s Congress.  To this day, they have not received a single response.

In this year’s letter, the Tiananmen Mothers urged the Communist Party to address all of its mistakes during the past six decades.

“Tianamen happened in the second 30 years,” Ms. Zhang said. “During the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap forward they already starved to death millions of people and killed millions.  In both 30 years there have been massacres. How can we deny this?”

Students who gathered in China’s Tiananmen Square in 1989 were asking the government to promote a wide range of reforms from political freedoms to addressing the problem of corruption.

Calls for reform continue to this day, but the public’s perception of change is dramatically different.

“In the 1980s, reform was a word that everybody supported and admired.  Reform thinking and moving forward the reform process were all positive concepts,” said Chinese historian Zhang Lifan.  “Now it’s not the same, reform is a concept used to plunder.  For example, in order to achieve economic growth and political praise a city official would expropriate land to build a new district. This is reform.”

During China’s recent leadership reshuffle, the country’s new leaders outlined a wide range of reforms, stressing the need for the party to improve the rule of law, promote more economic reforms and address the yawning gap between the rich and the poor.

While most Chinese say they are still cautiously optimistic, and that it is too early to judge, there is growing concern that President Xi  and Premier Li  talk the talk, but do not walk the walk.

The party has said repeatedly it is in a life or death struggle with corruption.  But at the same time in recent weeks, authorities have detained several activists for calling for government officials to disclose their personal assets.

Corruption was just as much a concern for the public in the late 1980s as it is today.  The difference, analysts say, is that in the 1980s corruption was a lot simpler.  Insider-track dealing or guandao, as it was called in Chinese, was something that could be controlled.

“Corruption is different now. It’s really in the bones of the organization. It’s gone mafia-style. It’s gone family,” said David Kelly of China Policy, a group that monitors Chinese views on reform, the economy and other topics such as corruption.

Kelly said when officials broke the rules in the 1980s and made a bit of money on the side, they were actually helping break a deadlock in the supply of goods.

“Now it’s not about getting a bit of petrol that you need for your taxi company say,” Kelly said. “Now it’s about buying a job for your son, 'Yes let’s buy him a lieutenant generalship in the army.'  Some of these reports may be exaggerated, but it’s a different world now.”

Chinese historian Zhang said things started to change in the 1990s when officials would ask how much individuals were willing to pay for their help or how they wished to send their children abroad to study in exchange.

“The way of doing things and the appetite were different,” Zhang said.  “For example, around the year 2000, a city party secretary was sentenced to life in prison for taking bribes of about one-million Chinese yuan.  But if you look at that with today’s eyes, someone who takes bribes of one-million Chinese yuan is a good government official.”

In the spring of 1989, Zhou Duo was asked to help the government negotiate a settlement with the student protesters.  In the end, he joined them by participating in a hunger strike along with liberal scholar Liu Xiaobo.

Zhou continues to pay a price to this day for not siding with the government in its account of what happened, and he was imprisoned for a year after the crackdown.

Despite all that, Zhou said Chinese enjoy more freedoms today than in the late 1980s.  He also is cautiously optimistic that change will continue to come, albeit gradually.

“We’ve made big progress on the amount of freedom.  At the time if you talked about environmental pollution, or wore bell-bottom trousers or any outlandish outfit you would always be reprimanded.”  Zhou says, “Freedom is nowadays increasingly ample in China, but still there is no political freedom.  Repression of political ideas and divergences is very strong.”

Much like the events surrounding June 4, those who push too far, too fast, are quickly detained and held without charge or thrown behind bars.  Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo is serving an 11-year sentence for sharing his views online.

The group Chinese Human Rights Defenders reports at least a dozen individuals have been harassed or detained in the run-up to this year’s anniversary.

In a statement last week, the U.S. State Department said China should “end harassment of those who participated in the protests and fully account for those killed, detained or missing.”

China's government says the United States should mind its own business and it has already reached a clear conclusion about the events of 1989.  It also warned, as it routinely does, that such prejudiced remarks could impact ties between the two countries.

U.S. President Barack Obama and China’s leader meet later this week in California for their first summit, where the thorny issue of human rights could come up.

Despite China’s dramatic changes since June of 1989, the country’s lack of political freedoms and respect for the rule of law continue to frustrate its relations with many Western countries.


Ban on hunting crocodiles
allowed them to flourish


As the crocodile population reaches levels not seen since hunting was banned in Australia’s Northern Territory in the early 1970s, wildlife authorities are reinforcing efforts to protect residents and tourists.  School children are taking part in a new Crocwise campaign following several fatal attacks in recent years and other  near-misses. It is estimated there are 130,000 saltwater crocodiles in northern Australia.

The message to schoolchildren in Darwin is simple: that one of nature’s most efficient killers lives among them.

Rachel Pearce, from the Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory, told schoolchildren in Darwin of the dangers posed by the world’s largest reptile. She showed them a crocodile’s skull, where rows of sharp teeth are embedded.

Pearce said that as crocodile numbers increase, so does the threat to residents and visitors.

“There are crocodiles in people’s backyards.  We get call-outs to them walking into people’s lounge rooms," she said. "Lots of people here live on creeks.  They have big, open houses. When the rivers rise, the crocs are able to go wherever they like and quite often they’ll walk up into people’s backyards looking for their dogs or different things, so they are in very close proximity with people here.”

Crocodylus Park in Darwin is home to thousands of these armored-plated and supremely aggressive reptiles. It is one of Australia’s leading crocodile research institutions.

“Large animals have been known to puncture an aluminum boat - put their teeth through the hull,” explains Charlie Manolis, chief scientist at the park.

TV advertisements warn of the ever-present dangers, as northern Australia learns to live alongside one of nature’s most fearsome predators.

The authorities have set up a 50 kilometer crocodile-free exclusion zone around heavily populated areas of Darwin and its busy harbor.  Traps catch hundreds of reptiles each year.  The animals are sold to crocodile farms, which produce meat and souvenirs, including belts and handbags made from reptile skins.

The number of attacks is increasing in northern Australia.  Most victims are not tourists who ignore the warnings and stumble into trouble, but complacent locals.  For many, the waterhole or creek they have swum in since they were children is now out of bounds as the crocodiles spread.

There is, on average, about one fatal crocodile attack each year.

Crocodiles are found in the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia.


Manning goes on trial today
in WikiLeaks documents case


A U.S. soldier goes on trial today for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the WikiLeaks Web site.

Pvt. Bradley Manning faces life in prison if a military judge at Fort Meade, Maryland finds him guilty.

Manning was arrested in 2010. He has admitted giving the information to WikiLeaks, saying he wanted to spark public debate on U.S. policy and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But prosecutors will argue that he put the lives of U.S. soldiers in danger.

The leaked information includes videos of a U.S. helicopter strike in Baghdad that killed civilians.

Manning's backers say he exposed mistakes the Pentagon would never admit.


'After Earth' is another film
about a quest and relationship


M. Night Shyamalan's new sci-fi summer flick, "After Earth," is about life after humans destroy their planet.

Set more than a thousand years into the future, what little is left of humanity lives on a different planet. During a space mission, a father and son crash land on Earth, a luscious, jungle-like planet healed from humans' abuse, but hostile to its former children.
 
The father, a starship fleet general played by Will Smith, tries to calm his son down after their spaceship is hit by meteors and is going down.

Gen. Cypher and his son, Kitai, played by Smith's real-life son, Jaden, are the only survivors. Cypher, stranded in the ship’s hull, is critically injured. Kitai must retrieve a beacon 100 kilometers away to call for help.

“We need that beacon," Cypher tells his son in the film. "You understand? You are going to retrieve that beacon or we are going to die.”

Kitai battles extreme temperatures, poisonous plants and wild animals in his quest to retrieve the beacon.

Jaden Smith, 13, says there is a lesson in "After Earth."

“If we don’t get rid of all the horrible plastics and the oil and fossil fuels," he said. "We’re on an escalating path that just keeps going up, keeps going up, so I definitely think it could get to the point where Earth will evict us.”

Garrett Reisman, a Space X engineer and former NASA astronaut, says that although the film is based on the real science of space travel, it does take liberties.

“Even if we went on a crash program over the next 10 years, we wouldn’t come close to taking that kind of a number of people," Reisman said. "We still have such a long way to go. My message is we better take care of this planet because if we mess it up too fast, before we have an opportunity to leave, we are going to be in big trouble.”

Will Smith says while the film aims to educate, it's main purpose is to entertain.

“It’s rare that you can make a movie like this that your grandma, and your aunt and your little niece can all go to," he said. "There is something for everybody in the movie.”

"After Earth" is also about a father-son relationship, not unlike the one Jaden has with his dad. Like Kitai, Jaden says he wants to forge his own path:

“I just want to make movies, and I don’t want to be labeled as following in his footsteps."

Will Smith says he’s there to teach his son the trade, and how to survive in the jungle that's Hollywood, which is not very different from the futuristic poisonous jungle envisioned in After Earth.


France bans e-cigarettes
despite their popularity


France will ban electronic cigarette smoking in public places by imposing the same curbs enforced since 2007 to combat tobacco smoking, Health Minister Marisol Touraine said Friday.
 
Amid mounting global concern over the public health implications of so-called e-cigarettes, Ms. Touraine said they faced the same fate as traditional ones: a ban on smoking in public spaces and sales to minors and a blackout on media advertising.
 
In a country where the pungent waft of Gaulloises and Gitanes once seemed an unassailable part of cafe culture, smokers have long been banished to outdoor terrace seats.
 
The near-odorless electronic alternative, battery-driven  devices that allow users to inhale odorless nicotine-laced vapor rather than smoke, are gaining ground in no-go zones such as bars, cafes, trains, waiting rooms and offices.
 
A government-commissioned report said this week that around 500,000 people in France had turned to e-cigarettes, which are designed to look like cigarettes although some come in different colors, and recommended a crackdown on public use.
 
Health officials in many countries say the impact of electronic cigarettes on health needs further study.
 
Another worry they cite is that the electronic alternative will increase the general temptation to smoke, including enticing those who have quit to start again, or that smokers may use them alongside rather than instead of regular cigarettes.
 
“This is no ordinary product because it encourages mimicking and could promote taking up smoking,'' said Ms. Touraine, who announced her plans at a news conference.
 
In the United States, the number of smokers who have tried out e-cigarettes doubled to one in five in 2011 and the number of all adults trying it doubled too, to 6 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
 
In France, a country of 66 million, the government says tobacco smoking kills some 66,000 people a year and another 5,000 are killed through passive exposure to smoke.
 
The expert in charge of the French report advised against an outright ban on e-cigarettes, however, saying they still seemed safer than tar-laden tobacco.
 
Electronic cigarettes, whose invention is widely credited to a Chinese pharmacist a decade ago, usually comprise disposable cartridges of liquid such as propylene glycol that is easily turned to vapor and can contain artificial flavors alongside concentrated liquid nicotine.


Portable information making
breach of security much easier


Cybercrime strikes an estimated 1.5 million people every day. That’s about 18 victims every second, 556 million people around the world, every year. While experts say the people who commit these crimes are becoming more sophisticated, you don’t have to be another statistic. There are effective ways businesses and individuals can minimize their risks.

Protecting organizations and individuals from data thieves is a multibillion-dollar industry. There's a good reason. Alan Edwards, the president of WhiteHorse Technology Solutions says anyone with access to the Internet should be worried because cybercrime is no longer limited to the home, the office or the bank.

“You have your iPad you’re carrying around. You have iPhones, your android tablets, your laptops. So much information walks out the door of the office,” says Edwards.

For hackers all that mobile data spells opportunity. A criminology professor, David Maimon, says one way to reduce risks is to be very careful about what a user posts on social networking sites.

“I think the fact that you report to everyone about your actions 24/7 is problematic because if someone wants to victimize you, all they have to do is look at your Facebook account," said Maimon. 

A little common sense can pay dividends:

* Don’t tweet when you’re going on vacation if you don’t want your home burglarized.

* If you bank by phone, don’t store account numbers and passwords on your phone.

* Don’t open emails or attachments from people you don’t know.

And if someone wants to give you something for free, Alan Edwards of Whitehorse Technology Solutions says to be wary. "The first thing to think about is basic economics. If I’m being given something for free… why?"

But common sense is a poor substitute for good security:

*Activate your computer’s firewall.

*Install reputable anti-virus and anti-malware software.

*Use strong passwords, which means avoid using your name, your birthday or personal information.

Whitehorse Technology recommends starting with a familiar phrase then use the first letters of each word in the phrase to create your password. 

*In this case AFaHMaSP. To make it stronger, add a special character, numbers or both.

Even then, good security measures can only do so much, said criminology student Ted Wilson.

“Anything can be exploited, it’s just a question of whether or not a hacker actually wants to take the time to overcome whatever type of security measures you have,” said Wilson.

Consider a recent example involving the secretive government of Iran. Security expert Edwards said hackers managed to infiltrate the country’s top secret nuclear program using the old USB flash drive trick. 

"It’s very, very simple. If I drop a flash drive in a car park, the odds are somebody’s going to pick it up, and what they do first is look and see what’s on it. So they take it into their business and they plug it in their computer. You’ve just bypassed all the external firewalls," he said.

Hackers have many more tricks to steal your information. But unless you’re a high value target, such as a bank, government agency or business, every security precaution adds a new layer of protection.  Experts say that additional barrier may be all it takes for a cyberthief to move on to the next target.


Oklahoma City area hit again
by string of killer tornadoes


Another violent storm system brought along tornadoes and floods to parts of the U.S. midwest, leaving at least 12 people dead.

A total of five tornadoes struck the Oklahoma City area late Friday, killing nine people injuring more than 100 others.

Among the victims were a mother and her child sucked out of their car while traveling on a highway.

Most of the damage and casualties occurred just miles from where a huge tornado killed 24 people just 11 days earlier.

The storm system also caused heavy winds and rains in Missouri and Arkansas where flash floods caused at least three deaths.

Elsewhere in the country, firefighters are working to contain seasonal wildfires that have threatened homes and scorched at least 80 square kilometers in California. More than 1,000 homes and businesses were evacuated as wind pushed the fires towards the Los Angeles foothills.