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12 AMERICAS US Secretary of State John Kerry (2-R) and Guatemalan Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Rita Claverie wave to the press upon his arrival at the Guatemalan Air Force (FAG) base in Guatemala City. — AFP Hopes of improved ties in Obama-Xi talks WASHINGTON — The United States hopes the "fast on his feet" style of China's new President Xi Jinping will loosen the stiling formality of past summits that did little to ease great power mistrust. Obama will test the proposition that China's new leader is ready to talk candidly about the many differences between Washington and Beijing at an unusual laid-back meeting tomorrow and Saturday in California. But a cresting dispute about alleged Chinese cyber espionage, with both sides staking out tough positions, threatens to swamp the narra- tive adopted by both sides of an informal get-to-know you summit with low expectations. Obama and Xi will have informal chats, a private dinner and a second day of bilateral talks in a freewheeling agenda that is a departure for the normally tightly scripted US-China summits, US oficials said. There are also plans for them to answer several questions from reporters at what will be the irst summit since Xi rose to power as China's supreme leader and Obama embarked on his second White House term. Despite simmering US- China tensions, the agenda shows Army called in to defuse conlicts over Indian lands BRASILIA/SAO PAULO — President Dilma Rousseff's government said it would send 110 federal troops to the Brazilian farm state of Mato Grosso do Sul to try to prevent more violence between Indians claiming their ancestral territory and ranchers. The government has been struggling to defuse tensions with indigenous tribes over farmland in several states as well as over hydroelectric dams in the Amazon. Tensions escalated in a disputed property in Mato Grosso do Sul that was invaded last week for a second time by Terena Indians angered by the fatal shooting of one of their tribe's members. Local media said the man's cousin was shot and injured on a nearby ranch on Tuesday. "We must avoid radicalising a situation that goes back a long way in Brazilian history," Justice Minister Jose Cardozo told reporters. However, protests have now erupted across the country. In Rio Grande do Sul state, about 2,000 Kaingang and Guarani Indians were blocking roads to protest the government's decision to put on hold the granting of ancestral lands to indigenous communities, a concession to Brazil's powerful farm lobby. "The government has abandoned us. Dilma isn't supporting indigenous peoples," Indian chief Deoclides de Paula said by telephone from a blocked highway. In Curitiba, the Parana state capital, 30 Kaingang Indians invaded the ofices of the ruling Workers' Party on Monday and only agreed to leave 10 hours later when they were promised a meeting with Rousseff's chief of staff, Gleisi Hoffmann. Hoffmann, who will run for governor of Parana next year, said last month that the role of the government's Indian affairs ofice, Funai, in land decisions would be restricted. Cardozo, however, stressed on Tuesday that Funai would not be gutted and would continue to play a central role as the main institution that defends Indian rights, though others will be brought in to improve the process of deciding ancestral lands. — Reuters Chile's President Sebastian Pinera (L) with his El Salvadoran counterpart Mauricio Funes at the presidential palace in San Salvador. Pinera is on an oficial visit to El Salvador. — Reuters Washington hopes to move on from what aides have privately described as Obama's frustrating meetings with Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao that stuck to talking points. "(Xi) seems to be someone who is fast on his feet, who's open to engagement," said a White House oficial, speaking on condition of anonymity to preview the talks at the Annenberg retreat in sweltering Palm Springs. Xi also appears "willing to speak directly to Americans and to issues of concern to Americans in a manner that was not the hallmark of some of his predecessors," the oficial said. — AFP Tornado was the widest on record WASHINGTON — The tornado that killed at least 14 people last weekend as it ploughed through Oklahoma was the widest on record at 4.2 kilometres, and more powerful than originally estimated, the National Weather Service said. The service based in Norman, Oklahoma, upgraded the intensity of the storm to EF-5, the strongest level a tornado can reach on an enhanced Fujita scale. The original estimate had been EF-3. EF-5 level indicates wind speeds of more than 320 kilometres per hour. In some of the vortices of the multi-funneled storm, wind speeds reached nearly 480 kilometres per hour, according to measurements by two teams of scientists, CNN reported. The tornado was on the ground for 26 kilometres, grinding away for 40 minutes Friday evening and battering to death a high-proile threeman team of storm chasers. The path width "is believed to be the widest tornado on record in the United States," the service said. — dpa Post unveils paywall plans WASHINGTON — The Washington Post said yesterday it would start a metered paywall beginning on June 12, offering digital subscription packages at between $9.99 and $14.99 per month. The Post had been one of few remaining major US newspapers to offer its content free of charge online, but it has been facing inancial struggles along with the rest of the industry. Readers will be able to view 20 articles or features per month before being asked to subscribe, publisher Katharine Weymouth said in an online posting. "We hope you will consider subscribing even if you don't reach the limit; a subscription will provide unlimited access to all The Post's world-class journalism, multimedia and interactive features and more," Weymouth said. "Importantly, you will also be helping to support our newsgathering operations." — AFP THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 Kerry to push for OAS reform, broad debate on drug policy ANTIGUA, Guatemala — US Secretary of State John Kerry will press for reform of the 35-nation Organization of American States and back a broad approach to tackling drug-related violence at OAS meetings this week, a senior US oficial said. Kerry, who arrived in Guatemala on Tuesday, will also meet with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua on the sidelines of the OAS meetings later, the oficial said. Venezuela has been a vocal critic of the United States in Latin America, and the encounter would be the irst high-level meeting between the two countries in several years. Kerry is on his irst oficial visit to Central America as President Barack Obama's top diplomat. The US oficial said Kerry would push for an overhaul of the OAS to improve its effectiveness by refocusing its mission on the defence of democracy and human rights, while promoting security and development throughout the region. In a belt-tightening environment, the United States, the OAS's chief paymaster, is reluctant to see its con- tribution to the body increase and is pushing for the organisation to put its inances on sounder footing, the oficial added. "It is particularly important to us at this time of budget constraints that the OAS be using those funds responsibly," the US oficial said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The meetings are set to debate new strategies in the region's crackdown on drug gangs and discuss a recent OAS report on drug policy in the Americas, which called for a "lexible approach" and suggested that legalisation of marijuana be considered. The OAS urged a reconsideration of global drug policy at a general assembly in Guatemala this week, saying that efforts must focus on treatment of users and education rather than incarceration. Central America has been ravaged by criminal violence as Mexican drug cartels, squeezed by attempts to root them out at home, have sought to diversify their operations southward. The OAS, which issued a report in May calling for a softer approach to- Susan Rice new national security adviser WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama conducted a major shakeup of his foreign policy team yesterday, naming Susan Rice as his new White House national security adviser after she withdrew from consideration last December for secretary of state because she was a lightning rod for Republican criticism. Rice, currently the US Ambassador to the United Nations and a longtime Obama conidante, will take over in July from Tom Donilon as the person who co-ordinates American foreign policy from the White House, oficials said. The shakeup comes as Obama grapples with a welter of foreign policy challenges that are testing his diplomatic skills, from Syria's civil war to China's rise on the world stage. To replace Rice, Obama will nominate Samantha Power — a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, former White House aide and Harvard professor — as UN ambassador, White House oficials said. Power's selection amounts to a fresh chance for her after her discretion and diplomatic skills were called into question by her labelling then- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — running against Obama at the time for the party's White House nomination — a "mon- Filmmaker accused of being spy deported CARACAS — Venezuela deported a US ilmmaker who had been arrested in April on accusations he was working as a spy for Washington and advising opposition student groups on how to destabilise the South American Opec nation. "The gringo Timothy Hallet Tracy, who was captured while spying in our country, has been expelled," Interior and Justice Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres said on Twitter yesterday. Tracy's lawyer, Daniel Rosales, said the charges against his client had been dropped, and that the 35year-old ilmmaker was put on a light to Miami. The outcome of his case has been seen as a test of new Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's intentions toward Washington following years of hostility from his predecessor, the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez. President Barack Obama had said the accusations against Tracy were "ridiculous." Friends and relatives of Tracy, who was a director and producer at Los Angeles-based Freehold Productions, according to his LinkedIn proile, said he was making a documentary in Venezuela ahead of its April 14 presidential election. He was arrested 10 days after the vote as he tried to ly out of the country — amid a lurry of headline-grabbing accusations by the government that included a claim Washington was plotting to assassinate Maduro. Venezuelan authorities said intelligence agents had been tracking Tracy since late 2012 and had uncovered ample evidence that he was plotting with militant anti-government groups to provoke "civil war." Rosales said the ilmmaker had been treated well during his time behind bars. "Everything worked out well in the end," the lawyer said. — Reuters ward drug users, said that harsh law enforcement policies face complex challenges and that member states should reach an agreement to improve prevention and reduce the demand for illegal substances. Without issuing any concrete recommendations for new policies, OAS General Secretary Jose Miguel Insulza said that the meetings will encourage greater debate for reform. "This won't be the closing chapter, rather the opening chapter," Insulza told reporters this week. "We are knocking on sensitive doors, but we need to examine drug policy." Guatemalan president Otto Perez, who met Kerry on Tuesday, has said the war on drugs in Latin America has failed and has called for decriminalisation of narcotics. After the meeting, Perez, a retired general, said the United States had shown it was ready to support "dialogue" on the issue. Washington has held back recognition of leftist President Nicolas Maduro, chosen successor of the late Hugo Chavez. — Reuters ster" in 2008. The remark prompted her resignation from Obama's campaign team. By appointing Rice as his national security adviser, Obama avoids a congressional ight because the job does not require Senate conirmation. Congressional Republicans have sharply criticised her role in the aftermath of last year's attack on a US compound in Benghazi, Libya. Rice igures to play a more prominent public role in promoting Obama's foreign policy than the lowkey Donilon, who largely stayed behind the scenes and appeared to be camera shy. — Reuters Fireighters line up during a processional before a memorial service for four Houston ireighters in Houston, Texas yesterday. Four ireighters died and 13 others were injured when the roof collapsed while battling a ive-alarm ire at a hotel and restaurant in Houston. — Reuters Republican pushes tougher border plan WASHINGTON — The second-ranking Senate Republican yesterday unveiled a proposal to signiicantly tighten security on the US-Mexico border before giving undocumented workers legal status in the broad immigration bill being considered in the US Senate. The proposal from Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a sceptic of the bill that would grant legal status to some 11 million undocumented immigrants, would require the Department of Homeland Security to have surveillance over the entire US-Mexico border and meet a benchmark of apprehending at least 90 per cent of people trying to cross the border illegally. Cornyn would tie achievement of the benchmarks to the plan to give permanent legal status to undocumented immigrants. Many immigrants' rights groups oppose such provisions, saying they would erode the path to citizenship at the heart of the bill. — Reuters
THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 People see off buses carrying students who are travelling to attend the college entrance examination, or gaokao, at Maotanchang High School in Liu'an, Anhui province yesterday. Thousands of people including teachers, relatives and local residents came to bid farewell to more than 11,000 students from the school who are going to attend the exam which falls on June 7 and 8, local media reported. — Reuters South Korea 'kidnapped' returned refugees: North SEOUL — North Korea yesterday accused the South of having lured, kidnapped and brainwashed nine young North Korean refugees who were recently forcibly repatriated from Laos to Pyongyang via China. Their case has attracted international concern and condemnation, with the United Nations and human rights groups warning the North that it would be held responsible for the safety of the refugees — aged between 14 and 18. But a lengthy statement attributed to a spokesman for the central committee of the North Korean Red Cross Society said the nine were among many people lured away from the country by South Korean government-sponsored human trafickers, posing as religious activists. ASIA 13 China has 'mountains of data' about US cyber attacks: oficial BEIJING — China's top Internet security oficial says he has "mountains of data" pointing to extensive US hacking aimed at China, but it would be irresponsible to blame Washington for such attacks, and called for greater cooperation to ight hacking. Cyber security is a major concern for the US government and is expected to be at the top of the agenda when President Barack Obama meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California today and tomorrow. Obama will tell Xi that Washington considers Beijing responsible for any cyber attacks launched from Chinese soil and must take action to curb hightech spying, White House oficials said on Tuesday. China's Internet security chief complained that Washington used the news media to raise cyber security concerns which would be better settled through communication, not confrontation. "We have mountains of data, if we wanted to accuse the US, but it's not helpful in solving the problem," said Huang Chengqing, director of the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China, known as CNCERT. "They advocated cases that they never let us know about," Huang said in comments on Tuesday and carried by the government-run China Daily newspaper yesterday. "Some cases can be addressed if they had talked to us, why not let us know? It is not a constructive train of thought to solve problems." CNCERT has instead co-operated with the United States, receiving 32 Internet security cases from the United States in the irst four months of 2013, and handling most promptly, except for a few that lacked suficient proof, Huang said. Designs for more than two dozen major US weapons systems have been compromised by Chinese hackers, the Washington Post reported late last month. The compromised designs included combat aircraft and ships, as well as missile defence systems vital for Europe, Asia and the Gulf, the newspaper said, citing a report prepared for the US Defence Department by the Defence Science Board. — Reuters Even after earlier ire, poultry plant workers didn't query locked doors DEHUI, China — Workers at a poultry slaughterhouse in northeastern China where 119 people died in a ire this week saw nothing odd in the plant's doors being locked, even after a previous ire at the 4-year-old facility. One 36-year-old worker, who gave her family name as Li, said there had been a ire at the facility, where ammonia is stored for produce refrigeration, three years ago. That was said to have been started by a lighted cigarette. China's government has said initial investigations into the cause of Monday's blaze point to ammonia gas leaks that triggered explosions, and also blamed lammable building materials, poor design of escape exits and insuficient ire prevention equipment. "It is an unprecedented and heinous class-A crime — luring our young children, conining and brainwashing them against their will and trying to drag them to the South," the spokesman said. The nine refugees were arrested in Laos on May 10 for illegal entry and were eventually returned to North Korea via China. The Lao foreign ministry said two South Koreans accompanying the refugees were detained for alleged human traficking and later handed over to the South's embassy in Vientiane. The foreign ministry in Seoul rejected the "traficker" label and said the two were acting as "guides" and trying to secure the refugees' permanent escape from the North. Most North Korean refugees begin their journey by crossing into 2 more reactors used fake part certiicates: Seoul SEOUL — A South Korean government probe into nuclear safety has uncovered cables with forged safety certiicates at two power plants under construction, a source at the sector's regulator said yesterday. The source at the state-run Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said the indings were part of an investigation that began almost two months ago. South Korea's 23 nuclear reactors generate a third of its electricity needs, and power supplies are tight because three of these reactors are ofline after the government probe revealed components with fake documents. Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Corp, which is owned by state-run Korea Electric Power Corp, manages all of South Korea's nuclear power plants. A Korea Hydro spokesman said the company's President and Chief Executive Kim Kyun-seop had tendered his resignation last week, but declined to say whether his decision was linked to the forged parts scandal. "Our president tendered his resignation last week. We are not sure if the resignation is accepted, and why he submitted the resignation," the spokesman said. Asked about the nuclear regulator's latest indings, another Korea Hydro spokesman said: "We know the indings of the fake certiicates at two additional reactors, although the commission knows the details of the investigation." Construction at the two reactors was due to inish later this year and in September 2014, Korea Hydro said. The nuclear problems have increased the risk of power shortages in the hotter than usual Korean summer when power demand is seasonally high for air conditioning. South Korea is likely to import more oil and natural gas to make up for the shortages. — Reuters The world's second-largest economy has a poor record on workplace safety, where factory ire exits are often locked or blocked to stop workers taking time off or stealing. The locking of doors, blamed by state media for making the death toll higher — the inal toll was revised down from 120 — was common practice, Li said. "They were worried workers would go outside, not work and waste time. Some people also get hungry during work and will go for food. They were worried about that too," she said. Another worker, hospitalised for inhaling ammonia, said it was not unreasonable to keep the doors locked while the plant was active. "Of course they'd restrict our movement. China, where they face repatriation if caught. They then try to make it to a third country — Thailand is the most popular choice — from where they generally seek permission to resettle in South Korea. Those who are caught and deported back to the North face severe punishment including a jail term at a labour camp, defectors in Seoul and rights groups say. But yesterday's statement carried by the North's oficial Korean Central News Agency said the nine "kidnapped" returnees were being well-cared for. "These young children who were luckily brought back to their beloved homeland... are stabilising and will lourish under the care of the nation to fulil their hopes and future," the spokesman said. — AFP More cancer cases conirmed since 2011 disaster TOKYO — Nine more young people have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer since Japan's worst nuclear accident two years ago, the Kyodo News agency reported yesterday. That has brought the total number of cancer cases to 12 residents, who were 18 or younger at the time of the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, it reported, citing unnamed sources. Fifteen others were also suspected of suffering from some form of cancer, up from seven in a February report, Kyodo said. But experts at Fukushima Medical University said that it is too early to link the cancer cases to the nuclear disaster. They said the 1986 Chernobyl accident showed that it takes at least four to ive years before thyroid cancer is detected. Local government oficials surveyed about 174,000 young people near the plant in Fukushima. — dpa Environment activist group Greenpeace and members of the ‘Green Mums’ rally in Manila yesterday to mark World Environment Day. Mothers and their children advocating for organic food and breastfeeding practices expressed their strong opposition to certain types of genetically modiied rice. — AFP I don't know why, but it's not unreasonable. Which company allows workers to wander in and out during work hours?" said the male worker, who didn't want to give his name. Relatives of the ire victims protested outside the Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Co plant near Dehui in rural Jilin province for a second day yesterday, claiming oficials lied about how many people died. Young men and police stumbled into a ditch during scufles, and police oficers were seen kicking and stamping on one man. The protest was dispersed after around 20 minutes, with at least one man taken away by police. A man who gave his name as Liu, who lost his daughter in the blaze, said he believed Another contaminated water leak at Fukushima N-plant TOKYO — The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant said it had found another leak of contaminated water yesterday, piling pressure on the utility to curb the problem as it seeks permission to release water to the sea. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant was hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami more than two years ago, triggering nuclear reactor meltdowns and explosions. Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco, said a worker patrolling the area spotted the leak just after noon, with droplets of contaminated water leaking out between the tank's circular steel structure. Shunichi Tanaka, chief of Japan's new nuclear regulator, set up after its predecessor was discredited in the 2011 disaster, told a news conference that Tepco should deal with the problem immediately. But he said the regulator did not regard the matter as serious. The latest leak was acknowleged after Tepco said earlier this week it had detected radioactive caesium in groundwater lowing into the plant — overturning an early inding that contamination was negligible. A spate of similar incidents and power outages plagued the facility in March and April. The incidents represent another setback for the company as it tries to reassure the public and the government that it can manage the problem of tainted water. The plant's still precarious state also serves as a reminder of the poor management of the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986 as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government presses ahead with a drive to export Japan's nuclear technology. — Reuters many more were killed, and the authorities were covering up the true number. "They're lying. If you go and count the numbers, check that name list, it's totally false. You can shoot me, I will still say it," he said angrily as police tried to move him along. Calls to the company seeking comment would not connect. The government has detained several people in connection with the ire, but has not given any further details. They will likely face long jail sentences, judging from how previous similar industrial disasters have been handled. "There's a tendency to over-manage employees, to lock them in, to make sure they Indonesian scribe wins AFP prize JAKARTA — Indonesian journalist Stefanus Teguh Edi Pramono has won the Agence France-Presse Kate Webb Prize for his reporting on Syria's bloody civil war and the Jakarta drugs trade, the AFP Foundation announced yesterday. Pramono, 31, produced his work for Tempo, a respected media group that rose to prominence with its daring reporting during Indonesian leader Suharto's more than three decades in power. "I am not a brave person, I was often in a cold sweat when I was in Syria and in west Jakarta (for the drugs story), but it is just something that I have to do," he said from Jakarta. The Kate Webb Prize was launched in 2008 in honour of the AFP correspondent in Asia who blazed a trail for women in international journalism. The prize recognises exceptional work produced by locally hired Asian journalists operating in dangerous or dificult circumstances. Pramono will receive 3,000 euros ($3,900). — AFP don't steal," said Mary Gallagher, director of the Centre for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan and an expert on labour relations in China. "But they tend not to take into account the possibility of this kind of occasional accident that then turns into a disaster." Local ire departments may carry out inspections, but it's mostly about ining factories, said Liu Kaiming, head of the Institute of Contemporary Observation in Shenzhen that advocates labour rights. "There's no accounting for where those ines go, and we never know if they're used for training or eliminating ire hazards. Fines are currently just a way to increase government income, not to prevent accidents." — Reuters
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