Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg arrives for a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street on February 21, 2012 in London. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Firms are to be paid to get young people into work in a new scheme aimed at diffusing what Nick Clegg described as the “ticking time bomb” of youth unemployment. 

Announcing the scheme on Tuesday, the deputy prime minister said that charities and businesses were invited to bid for up to £2,200 for every young person, in a bid to address growing concern over the number of so-called Neets (Not in Education Employment or Training). 

“Sitting at home with nothing to do when you’re so young can knock the stuffing out of you for years,” said Mr Clegg. “This problem isn’t new, but in the current economic climate we urgently need to step up efforts to ensure some of our most troubled teenagers have the skills, confidence, and opportunities to succeed.”

Critics say the scheme is too little, too late, and is tackling a problem already compounded by the government’s austerity cuts.

The government claims the process differs from schemes in the past, because it is a “payment-by-results” system. Organisations will receive an initial payment for taking young people on. But further payments will depend on that person’s success: whether they can stick with training programmes, navigate apprenticeships, or hold down jobs. 

The scheme, with a purse of £126 million, will target the 55,000 unemployed young people with no GCSEs above a grade D. 

“Many of them will have complex problems: truancy, teenage pregnancy, a lack of GCSEs, and health problems,” said Nick Clegg. “So helping them onto their feet will not be without challenges and government cannot do this alone. That’s why today I am calling on charities and other organisations at the coal face to work with government to help tens and thousands of lost teenagers onto a brighter path.”

Labour Shadow Work and Pensions Minister Liam Byrne said the measures was too little, too late, and only targeted 1 in 20 unemployed young people. In his blog he claimed that the problem of youth unemployment would cost the nation £28 billion over the next 10 years. “The government needs to bite the bullet and put in place a sensible tax on bankers bonuses in the next budget to help get 100,000 young people back to work,” he said. 

Adrian Prandle, education policy adviser at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said the youth unemployment problems were of the government’s own making. 

“It is good news if the government is genuinely making new funding available to train unemployed 16 and 17-year-olds. But this is a government which takes with one hand and gives with another. It lit the ‘time-bomb’ when it removed support from young people by dismantling the careers and advice service and abolishing the education maintenance allowance,” he said in a statement.

Cubans line up at a bus stop in Havana, on Feb. 10. (Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama has relaxed travel restrictions to Cuba and the Castro regime has granted limited economic freedoms to the Cuban people. In Alabama, some hope the embargo against trade with Cuba will be dropped completely; in Florida, Cuban immigrants want a policy that focuses on opposing the communist regime in Cuba.

Dr. Jase Ramsey, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Alabama, said the city of Mobile has been sending lumber to Havana, Cuba for the last 300 years. Ramsey said he recalled a group in Mobile called the La Havana Mobile Society.

“They remember times before these business restrictions [the 50-year-old embargo placed on Cuba in hopes of moving the communist island toward democracy] and they remember it fondly.” He predicts that this year America may drop the embargo, and expects Alabama to benefit.

Ramsey said people in Florida do not feel the same way.

When Cubans flee the island in the Caribbean, they make the perilous journey to Florida. Ramsey said they escaped the regime and they are angry. According to a Department of State report, Cuba is a totalitarian state that tolerates no opposition. Human rights violations are widespread.

Rafael Romeu, with the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, a nonpartisan Washington-based organization that promotes research on the Cuban economy said in an email “the Cuban government has been very unfriendly in its customs, immigration, travel, trade, and investment policies with regard to Cubans living abroad.” For example, Cuban passports cost $600 for six years, according to Romeu.

“The licensing and regulatory environment in Cuba is not business-friendly and quite restrictive in terms of which industries’ investment is allowed,” said Romeu.

Ramsey served in the Peace Corps, focusing on business development in a formerly communist country. Some in “the Southern states see the business benefit by opening up the trade barriers to Cuba,” said Ramsey.

Ramsey said through taking on various projects such as business in an oppressed country, the aim is to “let the foreign country see how nice and friendly Americans are,” and vice versa.

Meanwhile, the Castro regime is “attempting to reorganize the economy to make it more efficient, but at the same time, it would like to maintain the socialist system,” said Romeu.

Cubans living on the island rely heavily on income from family members in America, if they have them. The monthly salary in Cuba is $20. Recently it became legal to sell or buy a house. A house in Cuba can cost $30,000.

Romeu said America supplies food to Cuba and is Cuba’s second largest source of tourists after Canada. Starting in 2000, U.S. businesses can export food, agricultural and forestry products, and medicines to Cuba. Southern states near Cuba such as Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida are exporters.

Inside Cuba the investment conditions are difficult for other countries because “large industries are considered “strategic”… investment in these industries is handled on an official level,” according to Romeu. Everything is controlled by the regime.

Ramsey said Alabama has a huge port, and college students who understand Spanish and real Cuban culture could go to Cuba for business when the wall [communism] goes down.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a press release this month criticizing the administration for reduced spending on democracy in Cuba and Venezuela. “I am disappointed that this administration continues to downplay the threats posed to democracy and human rights by the Western Hemisphere’s despots. The United States should stand in solidarity with the people of Cuba and Venezuela, who are in desperate need of democracy assistance,” said Ros-Lehtinen.

According to Ros-Lehtinen, who is a Cuban immigrant, the Obama administration is taking the wrong side when the budget favors “tyrants” over “freedom-loving people of Cuba and Venezuela” and that “sends the wrong message.”

Boats are pictured on the edge of the depleted Bewl Water reservoir, in Kent, last summer. With low levels of rain persisting through autumn and winter the water table has continued to fall, and is now as low in many regions as it was during the drought of 1976. (Ian Kington/AFP/Getty Images)

With rainfall at its lowest for nearly a century in London, people are being asked to voluntarily reduce their water consumption as experts predict the worst drought for 35 years. 

The Department of Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on Monday called a summit to discuss how to handle the impending water crisis, the same day it was announced that the South East was officially in drought. 

Richard Aylard, sustainability director for Thames Water, said in a statement: “It is no longer a case of if we have a drought this year but rather when, and how bad. 

“This is not just our problem, it’s everyone’s problem and we can all do our bit to help -- for example, turning off taps while we brush our teeth can save six litres of water a minute.”

After months of low-rainfall and with long-term weather forecasts offering little hope of heavy rainfall, many parts of the country are facing water shortages, but it is the southeast that is particularly affected.

The recent lack of rainwater has not only directly reduced the water in rivers and reservoirs, but also caused groundwater levels to drop to their lowest in over a generation. 

Mark Lloyd, chief executive of the Angling Trust, said in a statement: “The vast majority of people are unaware that we are in the middle of a crippling drought. River levels are lower in many areas than they were in 1976 and many rivers in the South East have dried up completely. 

“We’ve endured months of below average rainfall, but there is little evidence that anyone is doing anything to change their water use as a result.

“Many modern city residents have become completely detached from the fact that the water that comes out of their power shower, or the hose that washes their car, is water that should be keeping a river flowing or a wetland wet. People waste vast amounts of water because they don’t pay for it themselves, but there is a huge cost for the community and the environment from their thoughtlessness.” 

But the water crisis has been compounded by lack of action over the years, according to Friends of the Earth. 

Friends of the Earth’s Senior Nature Campaigner Paul de Zylva said in a statement: “Leaky old water pipes and over-abstraction from rivers mixed with unusually low rainfall this winter is a dangerous -- and expensive -- concoction.

“It’s little surprise we’re in drought -- successive governments have ignored expert advice on saving water, burdening farmers and households with the consequences.”

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman, speaking after the water summit, said: “It is not just the responsibility of government, water companies, and businesses to act against drought. We are asking for the help of everyone by urging them to use less water and to start now.” 

According to Defra, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, parts of Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, and west Norfolk are still in drought.

NFU Vice President Gwyn Jones said the drought predictions were making farmers and growers extremely anxious.

According to the NFU, the water companies are adopting a “no regrets” policy. They believe that if various measures are not taken now, a further 12 months of dry weather would lead to a much greater national water supply problem in 2013.

The iconic photo of American soldiers raising the US flag is captured where Feb. 23, 1945?

THEN

Feb. 23, 1945, during World War II, Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal takes the iconic photograph of six U.S. soldiers struggling to raise the American flag at the crest of 550-foot Mount Suribachi, Japan, during the bloody Battle of Iwo Jima. The famous photograph, which visually captures a significant turning point in the war, wins Rosenthal a Pulitzer Prize and becomes the most reproduced photograph in history. With three of the six soldiers in the photograph killed before the conclusion of the battle in March 1945, the image goes on to be a symbolic reminder of the tremendous death toll on both sides resulting from the vicious Battle of Iwo Jima. In a month of fierce fighting, it is estimated that over 21,000 Japanese soldiers and more than 6,000 Americans are killed. Iwo Jima is part of the Volcano Islands archipelago in far southern Japan.

NOW

In August 2011, 66 years after the Battle of Iwo Jima, the government of Japan announced plans to dispatch survey teams to the island in order to begin preliminary investigations of the historic sites in an effort to recover the remains of the 12,000 Japanese soldiers missing after the Battle of Iwo Jima. Last year, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration provided the Japanese Health Ministry with a document identifying four sites on the island where there was intense fighting and the American forces are believed to have buried the fallen Japanese troops.

DENVER—Coloradans welcomed prestigious Shen Yun Performing Arts as they presented the first of two shows in Denver. It didn’t take long for theatergoers to understand why Shen Yun’s performance is in a class by itself.

As the curtain rose to start the show, Steve Norman, manager of Architecture and Standards at Janus Capital Group, in Denver, was impressed with the “very stunning opening” of the show.

“With the drums and the fog on the stage, it was a big ‘Wow!’ at the beginning,” Norman said. He was referring to the opening act An Era Begins, described by Shen Yun’s program as “a regiment of celestial soldiers, preparing for a battle between good and evil.”

An IT manager was accompanied by his daughter Emma, she had a particular interest in the show related to her schooling. “I think it is really interesting because I’m in a Chinese language class, and it’s cool to learn a little bit more about the culture, and not just language,” the young lady said.

Dad Steve added that the show as “very colorful, very well choreographed; very nice.”

Denver lawyer Helen Shreves also paid notice to the choreography, saying the synchronized movements of the performers stood out.

“I’m very impressed with the precision … a beautiful precision. It appears they are very highly trained,” the attorney said.

Ms. Shreves was accompanied by Danny Poole, a yoga instructor who formerly worked with the Denver Broncos NFL team. With such experience, he commented on the dedication of Shen Yun performers in developing such precision.

“To train and practice, and [develop] the flexibility, takes a lot of discipline,” Mr. Poole said.

“It’s quite beautiful,” Ms. Shreves added.

Shen Yun Touring Company is performing at the Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre, part of the renowned Denver Performing Arts complex in downtown Denver. The Buell is known as a “venue of choice for high-profile, traveling Broadway shows,” that “consistently ranks as a top-grossing theater for its size nationally,” according to information on its website.

This is the fifth consecutive year the show has performed in Denver.

Shen Yun Touring Company will be in Denver for one more performance on Feb. 23 at The Buell Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

Jeremy Lin's sudden popularity is almost unprecedented. (Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin will be on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the second straight week, according to a report on NBA.com.

The feat has never been done by a New York-based team-athlete since Sports Illustrated started in 1954. Lin’s sudden emergence from virtual unknown to global star in a matter of weeks is nearly as unprecedented as his back-to-back SI cover honors for a New York athlete.

Children reading. (Francois Guillot/Getty Images)

Study Finds Fewer Children’s Books Depict Nature

A recent sociological study led by Dr. J. Allen Williams, Jr. of The University of Nebraska–Lincoln concluded that the appearance of the natural environment present in children’s books has diminished over the past 70 years. “There have been significant declines in depictions of natural environments and animals while built environments have become much more common. These findings suggest that today’s generation of children are not being socialized, at least through this source, toward an understanding and appreciation of the natural world and the place of humans within it,” the study concluded. The study used as its sample picture books that were awarded the Caldecott Medal from 1938 to 2008.

Publishers Present Their Offerings at Toy Fair

The 2012 International Toy Fair was held this week in New York. Included among the vast array of companies exhibiting their products at the Jacob Javits Center were about 30 publishers, according to Publishers Weekly. “Exhibitors include coloring and activity publishers such as Bendon and the newly merged Kappa and Modern, educational workbook specialists such as School Zone, book-plus and novelty houses such as Klutz and InnovativeKids, and trade publishers such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,” the trade magazine said, describing the mood as positive.

Author Jeffrey Zaslow Laid to Rest

Journalist and best-selling author Jeffrey Zaslow was killed in a car accident last week. He was 53. A funeral was held for the co-writer of “The Last Lecture” in Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, Mich., the Detroit Free Press reports. Among those paying their respects was airline pilot Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger who famously landed his plane on the Hudson River and who collaborated with the late author on his memoir. According to the report, Zaslow was promoting his newest book, “The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish For Our Daughters.” Zaslow is survived by his wife and three daughters.

Compiled by Barbara Danza, Epoch Times Staff

Zhou Yongkang feels threatened by Bo Xilai, according to a former advisor to high-level Party officials speaking anonymously with The Epoch Times’ Chinese edition.

Bo’s ambition means he is intent on fighting to be chief of the Party, or at least premier, according to the former advisor. Bo gained secrets about top Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials through his “hitting the black” campaign in Chongqing, the advisor said.

The individual described one alleged dust-up. Zhou Yongkang had close relationship with Wen Qiang, the former chief of Chongqing’s Public Security Bureau. If Wen Qiang had not been taken down and executed, he would have become Vice Minister of the CCP’s Ministry of Public Security. Back then, Zhou gave Wen Qiang two choices, to either get into the Ministry of Public Security or become the chief of National Prison Administration in the Ministry of Justice. It had already been decided internally. However, due to a high-ranking official’s disapproval, Wen wasn’t able to get in. Later, Wen Qiang was taken down and executed in Bo’s “anti-mafia” campaign.

Bo Xilai holds damaging evidence against several members of the standing committee of the CCP’s Politburo, the advisor said. He is even said to have secrets on He Guoqiang, the chief of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, who was once Party Secretary of Chongqing.

“Bo holds the damaging evidence against at least 3 members of the standing committee of the CCP’s Political Bureau which could bring them down and lose everything anytime,” the insider said, indicating that if Bo Xilai were to start a factional war, he would also go down in flames. “They are all on the same boat, virtually nobody is clean,” said the source

The anonymous source also alleges that Zeng Qinghong, a former member of the standing committee of the CCP’s Political Bureau, is also vulnerable. Zeng’s family makes money mainly from military contracts and petroleum, having made money from industrial enterprises in Chongqing.

Read the original Chinese article.

David Aardsma saved 69 games for the Mariners from 2009-10. (Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

The New York Yankees announced the signing of reliever David Aardsma Wednesday to a one-year contract with a club option for a second year, according to a report on the team’s website.

Aardsma, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, hasn’t pitched since 2010 with Seattle—a year where he saved 31 games for the Mariners. Aardsma will earn $500,000 for the 2012 season, but will start the year on the disabled list. According to the report, Yankees GM Brian Cashman sees Aardsma being available as early as July.

“The move could help us in 2012, but has a lot more eyes toward 2013,” Cashman said. “[Aardsma is] another power arm choice for us at a cost-contained price.”

US President Barack Obama and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping speak during meetings in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, Feb. 14, 2012. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

During his entire visit to the United States, Xi Jinping had to be extremely cautious. He had to face all kinds of protests and condemnation, while being careful not to steal Hu Jintao’s show.

He had to make the Americans attach importance to him, while paying attention to being monitored, or even plotted against, by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership in China. It was really difficult for him.

Thus, if someone in China said that Xi achieved such and such on this trip, that story must have been fabricated by the CCP’s media.

We can basically divide Xi’s U.S. visit into two parts. First, he was being assessed by the White House, State Department, the Defense Department, both houses of Congress, and other departments in Washington DC. Second, he revisited Iowa, watched a basketball game in Los Angeles, and played at wooing the United States.

As for how visiting CCP leaders often suffer embarrassment, Xi must have prepared himself well psychologically before his U.S. visit.

After dinner with the State Department, cocktails in Iowa, the NBA game in Los Angeles, and saying what should be said on behalf of the CCP, the only thing Xi could show off about was that the level of reception given him at the Pentagon was higher than what was given to Hu on his first visit to the United States. However, Xi dared not show his delight, but was rather uneasy about it for fear of offending Hu.

Overall, Xi had bad luck on this visit to the United States. He encountered difficult treatment from all fields. Of course, it was not necessarily specifically aimed at Xi personally. Since he was representing the CCP regime, he was rightfully bombarded.

Throughout his trip Xi was trailed by protesters. He encountered challenging treatment from the White House and both houses of Congress, from both parties. The majority of American sentiment, expressed in opinion polls, was: “I don’t like China.”

At a press conference prior to the closed meeting at the White House, Obama put away his featured smile commonly seen at diplomatic occasions and opened his speech with, “The United States is a Pacific nation!” lambasting Xi for remarks he made prior to his U.S. visit about the U.S. shifting its strategic center to the Asia-Pacific region.

Obama bombarded Xi even more fiercely during the closed meeting, and even Joe Biden, who always displayed a polite and friendly demeanor as he accompanied Xi, mentioned several times that the human rights situation in China was worsening.

Members of Congress of the two houses were even more direct.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said if China continued to repress its own citizens, this nation couldn’t be seen as a reliable partner. Romney vowed that unless China changed its current policy, he would designate it as a currency manipulator on the first day he became president, and he would take appropriate measures to resist China’s exchange stance.

According to an opinion poll run jointly by the Washington Post and the American Broadcasting Company, released on Feb. 14, 52 percent of Americans responding said they don’t like China and only 37 percent like China.

The ratio of “do not like very much” and “like very much” is 3:1; the ratio of those believing that China poses an economic threat vs. bringing new market and investment opportunities is 2:1.

Xi’s visit of the small Iowa town of Muscatine for a reunion with people he met there 27 years ago when he was a county party secretary, and to arrange a US$4.3 billion soybean purchase, is a common practice CCP officials use to shift the focus away from their unpopularity and to create a cordial image.

The nostalgic gala dinner in a small U.S. town illustrates the CCP’s “money diplomacy,” using Chinese people’s hard-earned resources.

If Xi were indeed cordial towards the common people, and really wanted to be the leader of the Chinese people, he would be spending the money to benefit the farmers in China, who still don’t have enough food and clothing.

Xi’s U.S. visit was not meant to be significant. However, it happened during the infighting between Wang Lijun and Bo Xilai in China’s central-western megalopolis of Chongqing, spreading to Zhou Yongkang and other high-ranking figures in Beijing. It gave a new meaning to Xi’s visit.

For the United States, the original plan was just to take a closer look at Xi and to learn more and understand the new leader expected to take over after the CCP’s 18th National Congress.

The United States never expected that Wang Lijun—Chongqing’s chief of police, who sought refuge in the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu—would reveal to the United States confidential information about the infighting in the CCP’s highest leadership circle.

The Wang affair contradicted the belief the United States has held over the decades that the CCP’s rule was “very stable” and would “not collapse soon.”

The U.S. government suddenly became aware that the CCP’s infighting could cause the communist regime’s collapse at any time, and the United States could even use the infighting to push and speed up the CCP’s disintegration.

To test the waters, U.S. officials released the news during Xi’s visit that Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang had conspired to topple Xi, according to information supplied by Wang Lijun to the U.S. Consulate.

Originally, the United States had been carefully studying who Xi is. They tried to understand Xi’s character and conduct, as well as the impact of the CCP’s adjustment to changes in the economy, issues with the RMB exchange rate, and other economic and trade friction concerns, all still within the previous policy framework toward China for the next five to ten years.

However, as Wang Lijun exposed the serious infighting at the core of the CCP, the United States suddenly became aware that cohesion in the CCP had disappeared, and the days of the CCP rule might be numbered.

The United States realized that the CCP could be going through a disintegration process similar to that of the former Soviet Union 20 years ago. So they began a comprehensive reassessment of their policy toward China.

Xi’s visit to the U.S. is considered by most to have accomplished no practical achievements, but the trip was not worthless for Xi.

Xi should have learned that the leader of the CCP has to pay homage to the United States, which is an utmost mockery of the CCP. However, an even greater embarrassment that the leader of the CCP should face is the contempt and protest of the CCP autocracy coming from the international community.

At the very least, Xi should have learned of the demands from overseas Chinese, especially from the Falun Gong community, who asked Xi to stop the persecution of them in China, to help disintegrate the CCP, and to bring Jiang Zemin and other top officials responsible for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners to justice, so that Xi can avoid becoming an accomplice to their crimes and a scapegoat for Jiang and the CCP.

Perhaps Xi himself wasn’t aware that learning these realities could have been the best thing to come out of his difficult trip to the United States.

Read the original Chinese article.

chinareports@epochtimes.com

A rescued wolf howls at The Wild Animal Sanctuary in this file photo taken in Keenesburg, Colo., in 2011. Wolves are controversial, especially in areas where their population has grown. (John Moore/Getty Images)

BOISE, Idaho—Almost a year after gray wolves were taken off the endangered species list, Idahoans still debate the impact of gray wolves on their human environment and how best to control the wolf population.

The gray wolf, which used to roam most of the United States, was first put on the endangered species list in the 1970s. A federal recovery plan established in 1995 allowed for the release of 35 wolves into the state of Idaho. The wolves repopulated in great numbers.

“The robust recovery went beyond the protection range, and we felt it was detrimental,” said Jon Hanian, press secretary for Gov. Butch Otter. “The concern in Idaho is the impact on livestock and herds.” Means to manage and protect livestock include education and nonlethal means such as live traps, as well as other methods. “Some tools we have include the hunting season to periodically reduce the impact.”

Part of the reason for delisting the species was the considerable population increase. According to Craig White, a wildlife research biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, there are anywhere from 750–1,000 wolves in Idaho, with about 70 collared, and that is only a minimum estimate. According to the Idaho Governor’s Office of Species Conservation, Idaho’s wolf population has greatly exceeded federal goals and objectives.

Wolf conservationists are happy to hear the news. “It’s good to see the wolves recovering,” said Suzanne Stone of The Defenders of Wildlife. “In the long term, it’s been rewarding to see the species gain a foothold.”

Local ranchers may see it differently. According to the Idaho Fish and Game Management Plan from June 2011, there have been 2,107 confirmed wolf depredations and deaths of pets and livestock since 2003. Numbers such as these serve as the motivation for an amendment added into the Endangered Species Act, which allows for ranchers to protect their property from wolves. For many, however, it’s still not enough.

As of Jan. 17, 2011, 190 wolves have been harvested by firearm, and 49 harvested by trapping.

Stone and other wolf conservationists also understand the importance of hunting.
“Delisting shouldn’t go against conservation,” says Stone. “Hunting has always been part of the plan, and it’s not the problem.”

Among the issues debated is the low number of breeding pairs necessary before the wolves are required to again be relisted. Idaho must maintain at least 15 breeding pairs and 150 wolves to keep the species from being returned to the endangered species list.

“The flaw is in allowing unsustainable low levels within the population,” said Stone, adding that, rather than fighting, people on both sides could certainly communicate more effectively to help the situation. “There are ways to improve, but it takes time.”

If the gray wolf is relisted in the future, many also question why this subspecies of wolf should be legally protected.

According the United States Forest Service, the native gray wolf in Idaho is Canis lupus irremotus, commonly named the northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf. In the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf was listed as endangered.

Following the Endangered Species Act of 1973, federal regulations allowed for a change in the way gray wolves were to be identified. Regardless of subspecies, all gray wolves in Idaho were to be identified under the broad and all-inclusive classification of gray wolf. This opened the door for an introduction of other, larger subspecies of Canadian gray wolves into Idaho’s borders.

“The introduction of the Canadian gray wolf into Idaho was based on fraud,” said Idaho House Rep. Phil Hart. “The fact that [Canadian gray] wolves are a menace and are also dangerous to humans is undebatable.”

“Wolves are polarizing,” said White, speaking about opposing opinions and perspectives people hold about wolves and their presence near humans. “People’s values are the biggest debate. Wolves are not ‘the spawn of the devil’—but they are carnivores,” he said. “On the flip side, they are not ‘divine messengers,’ but they are a part of the natural landscape and function.”

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India F1 was quickest on Day Two of Formula One winter testing at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Nico Hulkenberg, driving for Force India, was fastest in the second day of Formula One testing from Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya—a surprising performance from this normally mid-pack team. Hulkenberg foreshadowed today’s times by finishing second behind two-time world champ Sebastian Vettel yesterday.

Of course, this is just testing—no one but the teams knows which cars are running to their full potential, or are testing new components or strategies.

Hulkenberg told formula1.com that he turned in a time of 1:22.608 while testing the car’s response to different tires.

“We started the day with some aero work—trying some constant speed runs and collecting more data,” explained Hulkenberg. “Then, the rest of the day was spent working on the balance of the car and trying out all four tire compounds. I did some short runs, long runs, and just got a feel for the tire characteristics and how the car reacts to them.

“Once again the car has been very drivable all day and our baseline setup has proved to be a good starting point for running all the different compounds.”

Only four hundredths of a second behind Hulkenberg with a lap of 1:22.648 came Sauber’s Sergio Perez. The Sauber only ran 85 laps because of a late-session exhaust problem.

The Swiss team was also using the session to test aero and tires, said team track engineer Giampaolo Dall’Ara: “In the morning we started with aero comparisons, and then did some proper mechanical setup work. We also carried out a full comparison of all tire compounds and ran different fuel loads.”

Vettel on the New Car

Sebastian Vettel finished third in the session. The Red Bull driver ran qualifying tests in the morning and full-race-distance runs in the afternoon, completing 104 laps and turning in a best time of 1:22.891.

Vettel described how…

Two-time world champion Sebastian Vettel signs autographs for young fans during F1 testing at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. (Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images)

Vettel described how the new RB8 compared to last year’s amazing RB7: “The biggest difference is that the cars have less grip, which will make us slower than last year. Last season the way we incorporated the exhaust was very cleverly devised. It made the car faster by generating more grip, but it’s a thing of the past in 2012 and for now we have to live with it.

“I would say that goes for all the other teams as well. We are looking into ways of getting that grip level back and I am sure we will succeed, although it will take time.

“The car is on its sixth day on the track. What we are doing right now is eliminating any teething problems and focusing on reliability. If you ask me what teething problems, then I can tell you that at Jerez we had some electronic issues. We have identified that problem and now we are working to solve it.

“The words ‘problem’ and ‘issue’ sound so serious but what we are looking at has nothing to do with the weight of those words. The genuine feeling is good but you should never bank on feelings in F1! I guess I don’t have to say that we want to be faster than the rest. So let’s wait and see, but as the same design whiz who created the RB6 and RB7 also created the RB8, we have the best possible pedigree.”

Rest of the Best

Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari finished fourth, swapping Tuesday results with Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo, who finished fifth today.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who ran third Tuesday, was sixth Wednesday, but was in good spirits. “To have completed more than 1000km in the past two days is incredibly encouraging—the whole team should feel proud,” he said in a team press release.

“The car behaves really well in the high-speed corners—I think the baseline of our car is higher than it was last year—and it’s better overall at high-speed. It’s performing well in Turns Three and Nine, too.

“It’s been an extremely productive few days—and I think Jenson [Button] will continue to improve the car tomorrow.”

Nico Rosberg drove 82 laps in the new Mercedes, ending up seventh—almost two seconds off Hulkenberg’s pace. For the second day running, the Mercedes developed mechanical issues which cut short the test.

“Early in the morning, it was a bit too cold on the track to collect some decent information,” Rosberg told formula1.com. “However later we were able to get into our planned work.

The Barcelona test lasts until Friday, Feb. 24, with the next round of testing, also in Barcelona, scheduled to start March 1.

The 2012 Formula One season starts on March 18 with the Melbourne Grand Prix. Tickets are available through the formula1.com website.

Texting while driving increases accident rate by 23 times, according to a recent study. (Helena Zhu/The Epoch Times)

With cell phones, navigation equipment, music, and even Web browsing, drivers enjoy more entertainment options than ever before—but officials want to bring the focus back to the road.

“Distracted driving is a dangerous and deadly habit,” said U.S. Transportation secretary Ray LaHood in a recent conference call with reporters. His announcement wasn’t about another cellphone law. Instead LaHood unveiled the first in a series of federal design recommendations calling for a more integrated vehicle control panel—one aimed at simplifying the growing number of devices competing for our attention.

We expect crash-avoidance technologies to provide an opportunity to save lives and reduce injuries by preventing crashes from occurring in the first place.

–NHTSA administrator David Strickland.

“We envision a new safety era that will revolve around safe vehicle designs and emerging technologies,” said NHTSA administrator David Strickland. “We expect crash-avoidance technologies to provide an opportunity to save lives and reduce injuries by preventing crashes from occurring in the first place.”

Strickland told reporters that he understands why car manufacturers would want to build vehicles with the convenience and connectivity features consumers demand, but he says the NHTSA design recommendations offer “real-world guidance” to develop a system that doesn’t disrupt a driver’s attention.

From sending a text to changing the radio dial, the NHTSA has for years been studying how different devices can affect driver performance. Researchers say that even when a driver’s focus shifts from the road to other activities for just a few seconds, vehicle safety is compromised. According to an agency report, 17 percent of all police-reported crashes in 2010 involved some type of driver distraction.

The NHTSA recommendations encourage automakers to reduce the complexity and time drivers spend on their electronic diversions (fumbling for knobs, pushing buttons, and reading displays) so that they can concentrate their focus on vehicle control. The guidelines apply to “communications, entertainment, information gathering, and navigation devices” that are not required to safely operate the vehicle. This includes text messaging and Web browsing, as well as any displays that confront the driver with more than 30 characters of text unrelated to his primary task.

Future phases of the NHTSA program will address devices such as smartphones, tablets, and navigation systems. Another set of guidelines is planned to encourage voice-activated controls. Officials say these guidelines can steer manufacturers toward less-distracting vehicle systems.

For an illustration of what the control panel of the future might look like, consider General Motors’ new Color Touch Radio with IntelliLink. Last week GM announced their onboard solution to driver distraction—a voice-controlled console that provides a smartphone-like layout of driver accessories, all designed to be used with two hands on the wheel as often as possible.

Toyota and Hyundai have previously designed systems to address driver distraction, and BMW is marketing its new 3 Series featuring a heads-up display—a technology that projects information directly onto a driver’s field of vision, preventing attention from wandering off the road for too long.

Strickland says that while several companies are already addressing distractions in their designs, others “have no strategy at all.”

Although researchers believe that integrated technology might improve driver concentration, it isn’t a perfect solution. Critics say that even with these integrated systems, extraneous devices may still contribute to distraction. Studies have shown that when drivers have intense cellphone conversations, for example, even hands-free devices can significantly compromise safety.

The NHTSA is giving the public 60 days to comment on the proposed recommendations. Final guidelines will be issued following agency review of public feedback.

Geng He, the wife of imprisoned human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, testifies at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Feb. 14. She still does not know whether her husband is dead or alive. (Gary Feuerberg/The Epoch Times)

WASHINGTON-- As President Obama was welcoming Chinese communist leader Xi Jinping to the White House on Feb. 14, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) was holding a hearing on imprisoned human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who has become a cause célèbre for human rights. The Commission heard testimony from two wives—Geng He, wife of disappeared Gao, and Li Jing, wife of imprisoned democracy advocate Guo Quan. Both are seeking United States support in the release of their jailed husbands.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Chairman of CECC, said, “I hope that President Obama doesn’t put human rights last on the agenda—or not at all—as he did when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the White House on January 19th, 2011.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Co-chairman, also noted the high levels meetings in town: “As Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping attends meetings just minutes away with our top officials, we are reminded that the real China is represented by the brave individual whose fate remains a mystery and who is the focus of today’s hearing.”

Sen. Brown was referring to Gao Zhisheng.

Guo Quan

Guo Quan was a professor at Nanjing Normal University, who published an open letter to President Hu calling for multiparty elections. He wrote public letters to top government leaders defending the rights of workers laid off, demobilized soldiers, and displaced farmers. He called for the end to China’s notorious reeducation through labor system.

Because of the letters, Guo lost his university professorship and was expelled from the China Democratic League, a state-approved “democratic” party under the direction of the Communist Party.

“From the first published letter, my family experienced continuous harassment by police. Our lives have been turned upside down for the simple expression of political opinion. Our home was raided several times in the middle of night. They smashed the locks on our door, ransacked our cupboards and chests, and forcibly confiscated our computers and some of my husband’s manuscripts, which were never returned,” testified Li Jing, Guo’s wife.

In Dec. 2007, Guo announced the formation of the China New Democracy Party. “Authorities detained Mr. Guo and sentenced him in Aug. 2009 to ten years’ imprisonment for ‘subversion of state power’ for organizing an ‘illegal’ political party, for recruiting members for the party, [and other subversive acts], said Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.)

Mr. Guo is serving out his sentence in a Nanjing prison. His wife Li Jing and 11-year-old son fled from China, and have been in the United States for only three weeks.

Next:Gao ZhishengGao Zhisheng

‘The real China’ is represented by Gao Zhisheng, says Sen. Sherrod Brown, Co-chairman of CECC

In October 2005, Gao wrote a letter to communist leader Hu Jinatao and Premier Wen Jiabao that described the torture of Falun Gong practitioners. The following month, Gao’s law firm was shut down and his lawyer’s license revoked.

“You cannot be a rights lawyer in [China] without becoming a rights case yourself,” said Geng He, Gao’s wife, quoting her husband, in testimony at the hearing.

In Dec. 22, 2006, Gao was convicted of “inciting subversion of state power,” a charge frequently used against government critics, and handed down a three-year suspended sentence; Gao was released home on a five years’ probation.

Geng He, the wife of imprisoned human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, testifies at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Feb. 14. She still does not know whether her husband is dead or alive. (Gary Feuerberg/The Epoch Times)

Gao was really not free, but held under de facto house arrest, was repeatedly taken away for long periods of time, and was frequently tortured, testified Jared Genser, founder of Freedom Now, an independent non-profit organization working to free prisoners of conscience.

Then, on Sept. 21, 2007, Gao was seized again, after writing an open letter to the U.S. Congress. Gao wrote an account of the 50 days he was held and tortured, including tooth picks inserted into his private parts.

“Policemen covered his head with a black mask and took him into a room where they stripped him naked and beat him. They used electric batons to shock him all over his body … turning his skin black … his captors used cigarette smoke to burn his eyes so severely that he could not open them” testified Geng He.

Geng said life was hard at home with the constant surveillance. Their daughter Grace was accompanied by a policeman when she went to school, who sat behind her in class. In order to protect the children, Gao’s wife and two children escaped to the United States in Jan. 9, 2009.

The following month, on Feb. 4, 2009, Gao was abducted by Chinese authorities and “disappeared” for more than a year, without even the pretense of legal process, said Genser, who is serving pro bono as international counsel for Gao. In an interview with the Associated Press, Gao said during this period that he endured the worst beating and that for two days, his life “hung by a thread.”

Gao reappeared on March 28, 2010 for a few weeks and then disappeared again on April 20. No one has seen or heard from him since. Geng testified that the last time she spoke to her husband was on daughter Grace’s 16th birthday on April 17th.

Genser said that on Nov. 19, 2010, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion (Opinion No. 26/2010) finding his ongoing detention to be a violation of international law.

After one year and eight months with information regarding Gao’s location or wellbeing, and just days before the probationary period was to end, Chinese state media announced in December that Gao would have to serve out the three-year prison sentence, said Geng.

A Beijing court said Gao had “seriously violated” his probation but doesn’t say how supposedly Gao violated probation when he was in police custody most of the time. Gao was allegedly taken to the Shaya County Prison in remote Xinjian.

Gao’s brother and Geng’s father traveled 22 hours by train to see Gao, and to verify that he was alive, put prison authorities refused a visit, claiming that Gao didn’t want to see family and that visitation was not permitted during a three-month “education” period, according to Geng and Genser.

“The government has lied so many times that we don’t know what to believe,” said Geng.

“No independent party has been able to confirm Mr. Gao is alive or actually in this prison,” said Genser.

VP Denied Request

Geng explained that such self-censorship gives the green light to the communist regime to act with impunity.

Li Jing said repeatedly in her testimony that her husband “is innocent.” She said that for her husband to be set free, “only the United States can make this case to China.”

Prince's swing has yielded an average of 40 home runs the last five seasons. (Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

With spring training in full gear, baseball has started to grab headlines of late—excluding of course Jeremy Lin news days. So it’s about time to get out the annual rankings of what players are the best in their leagues.

For offensive players, attributes like speed on the base paths, discipline at the plate, as well as ability to hit count in the rankings.

Age also matters as this is a projection for the 2012 season. For instance, Rangers infielder Michael Young hit .338 last season and led the league with 213 hits and is a career .304 hitter (16th among active players) but turned 35 in the offseason, so his projection for 2012 is to have a bit of a drop-off.

Conversely, consistency matters in projecting future seasons—for the most part. Obviously not all players are All-Stars in their rookie seasons but were minor-league All-Stars before that time.

10. Alex Gordon, 28 years old, Kansas City Royals; 2011 Offensive stats: (average/on-base/slugging) .303/.376/.502, 23 home runs, 87 RBIs, 101 runs scored, 67/139 walks/strikeouts, 17/25 steals/attempts. Career 162-game average: .262/.343/.434, 20 home runs, 72 RBIs, 85 runs scored, 66/145 walks/strikeouts, 13/19 steals/attempts—Kansas City’s second overall pick in the 2005 draft finally realized his potential in 2011 and is just entering his prime. Gordon’s surprise inclusion on this list bumps some good players for various reasons. Players like Evan Longoria (hit just .244 last year), Michael Young (is now 35), Curtis Granderson (needs another great year), Mark Teixeira (hit just .248 and .256 last two seasons), Adrian Beltre (inconsistent for years), David Ortiz (is now 36), Paul Konerko (turns 36 next month), Billy Butler (needs more power) and Joe Mauer (injuries).

9. Jacoby Ellsbury, 28 years old, Boston Red Sox; 2011 Offensive stats: .321/.376/.552, 32 home runs, 105 RBIs, 119 runs scored, 52/98 walks/strikeouts, 39/54 steals/attempts. Career 162-game average: .301/.354/.452, 17 home runs, 75 RBIs, 109 runs scored, 49/88 walks/strikeouts, 56/68 steals/attempts—Ellsbury’s projections for 2012 are a bit of a mystery. Having never hit more than nine home runs in any season he broke out for 32 last year. But his stolen base totals of 50 and 70 in 2008 and 2009 respectively (he played in just 18 games in 2010) dropped to 39 last year. A repeat performance of 2011 would bump him past teammate Dustin Pedroia.

8. Dustin Pedroia, 28 years old, Boston Red Sox; 2011 Offensive stats: .307/.387/.474, 21 home runs, 91 RBIs, 102 runs scored, 86/85 walks/strikeouts, 26/34 steals/attempts. Career 162-game average: .305/.373/.463, 17 home runs, 78 RBIs, 109 runs scored, 68/61 walks/strikeouts, 19/24 steals/attempts—Pedroia’s superior plate discipline and as well as being a consistently good hitter for longer than Ellsbury gives him the slight edge, despite Jacoby’s superior speed. Being injured for half of the 2010 season (played in just 75 games) and not playing at 100 percent in the games he did play hurt, dropped his career numbers a bit, keeping him slightly behind Cano.

7. Robinson Cano, 29 years old, New York Yankees; 2011 Offensive stats: .302/.349/.533, 28 home runs, 118 RBIs, 104 runs scored, 38/96 walks/strikeouts, 8/10 steals/attempts. Career 162-game average: .308/.347/.496, 22 home runs, 96 RBIs, 94 runs scored, 34/78 walks/strikeouts, 4/8 steals/attempts—Cano over Pedroia was the closest call on the list but Robinson’s stellar hitting the last three seasons (average of 27 home runs, 45 doubles, .314 batting average, and 104 RBIs) makes up for his lack of walks at the plate.

6. Josh Hamilton, 31 years old, Texas Rangers; 2011 Offensive stats: .298/.346/.536, 25 home runs, 94 RBIs, 80 runs scored, 39/93 walks/strikeouts, 8/9 steals/attempts. Career 162-game average: .308/.366/.543, 32 home runs, 117 RBIs, 101 runs scored, 56/126 walks/strikeouts, 10/12 steals/attempts—What could have been for the first overall pick in the 1999 draft had he not had drug/alcohol problems is anyone’s guess. Without various injuries since his arrival to the big leagues in 2007 that have cost him an average of 48 games per season the last three years, Hamilton could be right behind Pujols.

5. Adrian Gonzalez…

Albert Pujols is bringing his potent bat to the American League. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

5. Adrian Gonzalez, 29 years old, Boston Red Sox; 2011 Offensive stats: .338/.410/.548, 27 home runs, 117 RBIs, 108 runs scored, 74/119 walks/strikeouts, 1/1 steals/attempts. Career 162-game average: .293/.375/.514, 31 home runs, 102 RBIs, 95 runs scored, 78/124 walks/strikeouts, 0/0 steals/attempts—Gonzalez doesn’t have the ceiling that Hamilton has but has missed just 14 games the past six seasons while hitting between 24 and 40 home runs every year. Hitting just 27 home runs last season keeps him just behind Bautista’s sudden power.

4. Jose Bautista, 31 years old, Toronto Blue Jays; 2011 Offensive stats: .302/.447/.608, 43 home runs, 103 RBIs, 105 runs scored, 132/111 walks/strikeouts, 9/14 steals/attempts. Career 162-game average: .254/.362/.481, 29 home runs, 80 RBIs, 83 runs scored, 83/121 walks/strikeouts, 6/9 steals/attempts—Although it’s only been two great seasons, Bautista makes it all the way to fourth with extreme power and patience. Bautista’s 54 home runs in 2010 were the most in the majors since Ryan Howard hit 58 in 2006 and his 132 walks last year were the most since Barry Bonds’s 232 in 2004.

3. Prince Fielder, 27 years old, Detroit Tigers; 2011 Offensive stats: .299/.415/.566, 38 home runs, 120 RBIs, 95 runs scored, 107/106 walks/strikeouts, 1/2 steals/attempts. Career 162-game average: .282/.390.540, 37 home runs, 106 RBIs, 93 runs scored, 92/126 walks/strikeouts, 3/5 steals/attempts—A similar hitter to Bautista, Prince gets the nod here since he’s been a similar power, but patient, threat for six years. Only his relatively low average keeps him from passing his new teammate in Detroit.

2. Miguel Cabrera, 28 years old, Detroit Tigers; 2011 Offensive stats: .344/.448/.586, 30 home runs, 105 RBIs, 111 runs scored, 108/89 walks/strikeouts, 2/3 steals/attempts. Career 162-game average: .317/.395/.555, 33 home runs, 118 RBIs, 102 runs scored, 77/121 walks/strikeouts, 3/5 steals/attempts—Cabrera has finished in the top five of the MVP voting three straight seasons and five times overall. A threat everywhere, except running the bases, Cabrera has led the league in home runs, RBIs, and batting average at various points in his career. Cabrera’s power numbers (as great as they are) and strikeouts keep him from topping Albert, even after a down year by Pujols.

Rescuers work near the cruise liner Costa Concordia lying aground in front of the Isola del Giglio (Giglio island) on January 27, 2012 (Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images)

Eight more bodies were found on Wednesday in the wreckage of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that hit rocks off the Italian coast over a month ago.

The recovery team working on the ship said they found four people near the lifeboats and found four more later on Wednesday, meaning that 25 people are now confirmed dead in the disaster, Italy-based ANSA reported.

Divers said they recovered the body of Dayana Arlotti, 5, but said they have not found the body of her father, the news agency said.

In another development, seven other people are now under investigation for offenses relating to the disaster, ANSA reported. Prosecutors have placed the ship’s Capt. Francesco Schettino under investigation alleging that he left the stricken vessel before the passengers. Ciro Ambrosio, his first officer, was also placed under investigation.

“We have received seven formal notifications—four for officers on board, three for company employees on land,” the Costa Crociere press office told AFP confirming the investigation.

The search for bodies has been complicated by waves, poor weather conditions, and the movement of the

Earlier this month, workers began the task of pumping more than 2,300 tons of fuel from the wrecked ship to prevent it from spilling into the marine environment.

Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, announced the launch of the Foreign Credential Recognition (FCR) Loans Pilot on Wednesday in Vancouver. (PMO Photo)

Labour Minister Diane Finley announced a three-year pilot project to help internationally trained professionals get their credentials recognized in Canada.

“For many internationally trained professionals, the cost of licensing exams, training, and skills upgrading can present a significant barrier to credential recognition,” notes a statement from the government.

The Foreign Credential Recognition Loans Pilot will develop and test projects to give those professionals financial assistance to help them get credentials recognized and find work in their field in Canada.

The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada released a report on Wednesday taking aim at no-fault divorce laws.

The institute, a pro-marriage research and advocacy group, argues no-fault divorce laws allow unilateral divorces without any cause given. Because of the law, the report says there have been more divorces and increased poverty.

When a city councillor in Mexico City recently proposed temporary marriage licenses, a range of reactions from appreciation to disbelief ensued. While this idea may be a source of controversy, the reality is that Canadian law actually values marriage as a short-term prospect through no-fault divorce, the report says.

“Research shows that when unhappily married couples manage to avoid divorce they are happily married five years later; those who divorce are no happier than those who stayed married.”

The NDP has translated its breakthrough in the last election into a 50 percent increase in the number of card-carrying party members since October.

The party released numbers Tuesday illustrating that some 128,351 members are now eligible to vote in the March 24 leadership vote which was moved to a larger venue to accommodate the number of registered delegates.

“Canadians are really engaged and involved in our leadership race, as these historic numbers show,” said New Democrat national director Chantal Vallerand. “Canadians are turning to New Democrats in record amounts in order to defeat Stephen Harper and elect a prime minister for all Canadians.”

“This leadership campaign is about choosing the next leader of the Official Opposition, but also the next Prime Minister,” said Vallerand, who said Harper’s policies are driving NDP membership.

President Barack Obama speaks on his 2013 budget to students at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., on Feb. 13. Key features of the budget include rebuilding jobs, increasing innovation and manufacturing, deficit reduction, and tax reform. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama’s proposal to reform the corporate tax structure has critics concerned that small businesses are being left out.

Obama intends to simplify the tax code, eliminate a range of tax loopholes and subsidies, and lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent. “It’s a framework that lowers the corporate tax rate and broadens the tax base in order to increase competitiveness for companies across the nation,” he said in a Feb. 22 statement.

Obama added that the present corporate tax system was “outdated, unfair, and inefficient” and decried it for encouraging American businesses to move offshore.

“It’s not right, and it needs to change,” he said.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the U.S. corporate tax system was among the highest in the developed world. He blamed the high tax rate on loopholes that were only available for certain industries but cost taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

“Those families and businesses deserve a stronger, more efficient tax code.” -- Orrin Hatch, senator

“You can call these tax preferences, tax expenditures, loopholes, incentives, or tax benefits. But whatever you call them, they are subsidies,” he said.

Apart from lowering the corporate tax rate and removing loopholes, Geithner identified four other areas of reform in the proposal. They include replacing tax deductions for companies relocating overseas with tax credits for coming back home, lowering tax rates for manufacturing, simplifying the tax system for small businesses, and making sure all new incentives are paid for.

Mixed reactions

House Republicans were mixed in their response. House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) acknowledged the administration’s efforts to address corporate tax reform—particularly in lowering tax rates and closing loopholes—but said he would have liked to see broader reforms, particularly in the area of individual tax.

“So, while this is a good step by the administration, I will borrow from the president’s own words to Congress from just yesterday, ‘Don’t stop here. Keep going,’” he said in a statement.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, was dismissive, describing the proposal as a “set of bullet points designed more for the campaign trail than an actual blueprint for fixing our tax code.”

Hatch expressed particular concern that the proposal had ignored small businesses, noting that small and family businesses accounted for roughly half of U.S. private sector jobs.

“Those families and businesses deserve a stronger, more efficient tax code,” he said.

The National Small Business Association (NSBA) said there were good and bad points in the proposal.

“Although the proposal does include some positive language for small-business tax credits, NSBA believes firmly that the only way to ensure fairness, transparency, and eased complexity of the U.S. tax code is broad reform,” said NSBA President Todd McCracken in a statement. “And that must also include individual income taxes.”

Geithner said the proposal would be seen by some as “politically contentious,” but was designed to start the process of fundamental tax reform.

Geithner noted that he spoke with Rep. Camp and Sen. Hatch and will meet with them to discuss the proposal in coming weeks.

A real estate sign stands in front of a building on May 31, 2011, in Chicago, Ill., in this file photo. According to Freddie Mac data, a 30-year fixed rate mortgage on average was 3.87 percent, the lowest since records were kept in the 1950s. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

NEW YORK—The macroeconomic trends in the national real estate market are making it a real buyers’ market.

According to new reports, January U.S. housing prices on average dropped to their lowest in more than a decade. In addition, sales of existing homes jumped as buyers took advantage of low borrowing rates and a glut of inventory.

A national trade group, the National Association of Realtors (NAR), reported Wednesday that the median U.S. home price in January fell 2 percent to $154,700, the lowest since November 2001, or 11 years ago. This puts American real estate prices at a lower level before the recent housing bubble.

In addition, existing-home sales jumped in January by 4.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.57 million. “The uptrend in home sales is in line with all of the underlying fundamentals—pent-up household formation, record-low mortgage interest rates, bargain home prices, sustained job creation, and rising rents,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.

Recent economic developments such as record low interest rates and decline in housing prices translate to the best buyers market in years. A recent uptick in the nation’s unemployment rate has also increased consumers’ willingness to spend.

The number of first-time buyers increased modestly to 33 percent of all home sales. This is typically viewed as a critical indicator of a healthy economy, although levels above 40 percent are viewed as positive.

Homebuilders have also responded to these signs. Builders have applied for more new home permits in January in anticipation of increased sales. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence rose this month to its highest level since 2007.

Rates Still at Record Lows

The Nakamol Chicago booth at the Jacob Javits center on Wednesday. (Amal Chen/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—Looking out at a room packed with booths lined with the trendiest pieces of the season, complete with a spa bar and dining section, you might think you’ve stepped into a high-end fashion gala, but it’s really the backstage for boutiques and department stores across the globe.

The fashion trade shows of Moda Manhattan, AccessoriesTheShow Pavilion, and Fame are showcasing over 900 fashion brands at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for buyers from almost every state and more than 44 countries.

The event, which opened on Tuesday and will continue through Thursday, is only open to buyers and storeowners, who are purchasing for the fall/winter 2012 season.

Turn out for the February show is moderate, according to the sales representatives at the fashion booths.

“This show overall has been slow for everyone,” said Lauren Robinson, sales assistant of New York-based fashion line sharagano noir.

Nonetheless, she said that the company plans on showcasing every year at Moda Manhattan in the city hereafter. “If people are in town for a little bit longer, they can come to our showroom because it’s so close.”

The Mystree booth at the Jacob Javits center on Wednesday. (Amal Chen/The Epoch Times)

Fame presents contemporary junior selections while Moda Manhattan is a higher priced modern contemporary women’s ready-to wear show. AccessoriesTheShow features accessories from scarves and bags, to different types of jewelry.

“They have a great selection,” said Thuyvan Bui, the owner of Gift Fanatics in Lafayette, La. She also pointed out that the exhibition was less crowded than the many others that she attended in Atlanta and Dallas.

“I like it. It’s not overwhelming, it’s relaxing,” she said.

The trade shows provide free breakfast, lunch, and beverages for the buyers. There is also a beauty spa section toward the back of the exhibition that provides massages and hairdressers doing dry blowouts.

The timing of the trade show is specially selected to follow fashion week to accommodate buyers who live away from the city and flew in for runway shows. Fashion Week for Fall 2012 ended last Thursday.

Chris Carpenter pitched in 10 games in 2011 as a rookie. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Nearly four months after the Cubs hired away Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, the two clubs have finally agreed on compensation for the successful executive, according to reports on the two teams’ websites.

Chicago will send 26-year-old pitcher Chris Carpenter (not the Cardinals former Cy Young Award winner) along with a player to be named later to Boston for a player to be named later.

“I think it took so long because it was a unique circumstance,” said Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington. “We talk to teams all the time about trades, and it’s players for players and it’s pretty easy, or easier, to assign value and figure out what’s fair and what’s not fair. In this case, it was just tougher because it involved not just an executive, but a friend.”

A rusty bike with a bent back tire and missing front tire on 34th Street near 11th Avenue. (Amal Chen/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—The Department of Sanitation has recently received many complaints about derelict bikes taking up space on the city’s bike racks and creating eyesores.

In October 2010, the Department of Sanitation began cleaning up derelict bikes around the city, including bikes that are crushed and unusable, bikes that are more than 75 percent rusted (including the chains that hold them to public property), or bikes that are missing parts (not including missing front tires or seats which owners sometimes remove to prevent theft).

Oscar statuettes on display at Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal on Wednesday. (Dai Bing/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—For the upcoming Oscar Awards, New York directors claim 5 of the 10 documentary nominations and New York documentary film producers claim 4 of the 10 nominations in the category.

“Year after year, New York City—not Hollywood—is the unrivaled star performer in one key Oscar category: documentary film,” declares a February report issued by the Center for an Urban Future, a think tank that works on public policy.

Between 2005 and 2011, New York documentary directors have won 7 of the 14 Oscars in the category and New York documentary producers have taken home 10 of the 14 Oscars in that category.

The 84th Oscar Award ceremony will air on ABC on Sunday, Feb. 26.

New York state Sen. Jose Peralta in front of Elmhurst Hospital on Wednesday announced his office will help immigrants who are victims of fraud regardless of their legal status. (Kristen Meriwether/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—In the Jackson Heights area of Queens, one of the most culturally diverse districts in America, city officials have recently seen an increase in immigrants coming to their offices reporting various types of real estate, employment, and travel agent fraud.

These immigrants, some of whom are undocumented, feel they cannot go to the police to report these crimes out of fear of their legal status—and the scammers know it. This leaves these crimes unsolved and the scammers free to repeat their crimes.

Assemblyman Michael DenDekker and other members of The Unity Team gathered in front of Elmhurst Hospital on Wednesday to remind their constituents their offices are open to aid in getting scammers off the streets. “When you need help in a case like this, we are here for you. If you are afraid to report a suspected case of consumer fraud or cheating to the New York City Police Department or other law enforcement agency, you can come to us and we will help,” DenDekker said.

DenDekker, as well as the other Unity Team members, said they will facilitate meetings between the police and citizens, and try to recover lost money if possible, all while keeping the citizen’s immigration status out of the conversation.

The city officials feel immigrants’ distrust of the police stems from fear of deportation and sometimes bad experiences in their home countries. Immigrants are also less likely to know laws, such as not having to pay to apply for a job, or laws against apartment application fees.

DenDekker said there were no official statistics on the number of people being victimized because the crimes are not being reported to the police, the only agency that would keep those numbers. His office keeps a record of people coming into his office and if the issues were resolved, but those records will not be made public.

West Virginia Mine Tragedy: People participate in a candlelight vigil on April 10, 2010 to honor the coal miners that were killed,  a few days before in Montocal, West Virginia. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Federal prosecutors filed charges on Feb. 22 against a superintendent at the West Virginia coal mine where an explosion killed 29 in 2010.

Gary May, 43, of Bloomingrose is charged with felony conspiracy for allegedly telling employees about pending safety inspections and concealing violations at the Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine owned by Massey Energy, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin of the Southern District of West Virginia.

“Mine safety and health laws were routinely violated at UBB, in part because of a belief that following those laws would decrease coal production,” the charges said, noting that it is “prohibited for any person to give advance notice” of an inspection.

“Today’s charge is a significant step in the investigation of events at the Upper Big Branch mine,” said Goodwin in a statement. “Our investigation of those events remains ongoing.”

Councilman Robert Jackson joined protesters, including many students, outside One Police Plaza on Wednesday, to express concern over newly released arrests and summonses numbers in and around schools. (Zachary Stieber/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—Most of us are used to going through metal detectors at times, such as before embarking on a plane trip, or going into a high-profile building.

Yet going through a metal detector is the beginning of every school day for many students in New York City.

A coalition of students, organizations, and elected officials on Wednesday gathered to protest numbers released showing 279 arrests and 532 summonses occurred during the fourth quarter of 2011—Oct. 1 to Dec. 31—in schools.

At One Police Plaza, outside of the NYPD’s headquarters, the coalition said the number of arrests and summonses are too high, and show an extension of what they say is racial profiling conducted citywide through stop-and-frisk searches.

Racial statistics aren’t kept for summonses. Out of 279 arrests, 167 were blacks. Three-quarters were male.

“Time is long past due for meaningful oversight of school disciplinary practices, and that should start with city council hearings, and an independent audit … and a reassessment of the role of the NYPD in our public schools,” said Donna Lieberman, New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) executive director.

The NYPD’s School Safety Division has approximately 5,320 school safety agents for the 441,300 middle- and high-school students. Legislation passed in December 2010 requires the department provide quarterly statistics on arrests and summonses in and around schools.

“Felonies in schools dropped from 1,577 in 2001 to 801 last year,” Paul Browne, NYPD deputy commissioner, said in a statement. “That 50 percent reduction in serious crime was made through the good work of dedicated school safety officers and police officers.”

Donna Lieberman, New York Civil Liberties Union executive director, speaks to those gathered to protest the number of arrests and summonses in and around schools. (Zachary Stieber/The Epoch Times)

Maishah Salan, a 16-year-old senior at Hillside Arts and Letters Academy in Queens, said that the safety agents and metal detectors detrimentally affect the students in her area.

“I remember in middle school there used to be like one cop for the whole school and we didn’t have any problems then,” said Salan. “Because of zero-tolerance policies they started suspending kids for no reason [other than minor violations]. It’s just a downward spiral.”

Metal detectors often create lines of students, she said, forcing them to arrive more than half an hour before their class starts just so they can make it through the line in time for class.

Both Salan and Councilman Danny Dromm pointed out that schools have more safety agents than guidance counselors, which seems to place more importance on discipline than education.

The Department of Education asked on the phone that questions be emailed to them, but didn’t answer the emailed questions.

Councilman Robert Jackson said that everyone, not only the NYPD, must collectively work to bring a more positive environment into schools.

“What we find is that schools that are most successful at handling this behavior without criminalizing students make education a priority, rather than policing,” said Angela Jones, coordinator of the School to Prison Pipeline Project for of the NYCLU. “They see young people as having potential rather than being potential criminals.”

Eric Weltman, the senior organizer of Food & Water Watch, speaks with a passerby about the dangers of hydrofracking in New York City on Nov. 14. (Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—The first local ban on hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, in New York went into effect on Tuesday when a New York state judge ruled that the city of Dryden in Tompkins County had the right to keep potential frackers out through local zoning laws.

A moratorium still exists on the controversial method of extracting natural gas from shale, but state legislators will likely open the industry up by the end of the year, albeit with regulations, once public comments on the matter have been reviewed.

On a press conference call in July 2011, Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens was uncertain if opponents would be able to block fracking through local zoning laws.

He noted that fracking could only take place in the appropriate industrial zones. When asked whether he thought municipalities that are opposed to fracking might block it through zoning laws, Martens replied, “The law is not perfectly clear. … I think we’ll see some legal challenges along the way that will make that clearer.”

Ottawa City Hall. The City of Ottawa has been recognized as being among Canada’s top diversity leaders in the 2012 Canada’s Best Diversity Employers competition. (The Epoch Times)

The City of Ottawa has been recognized as being among Canada’s top diversity leaders in an annual competition that evaluates employers based on a range of workplace diversity and inclusiveness programs.

More than 2,750 employers of all sizes from the public and private sectors across Canada competed in this year’s Canada’s Best Diversity Employers competition.

“The City strives to build diversity awareness among our employees as a direct reflection of the makeup of the community that we serve,” said Mayor Jim Watson in a news release. “This distinction recognizes our continuing commitment to having a workplace that is inclusive and accessible to all.”

Among the initiatives that earned Ottawa the recognition include a partnership with the City for All Women Initiative to help identify barriers to employment and to eliminate discrimination.

The city co-leads a committee with the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition to work with community groups on finding solutions to issues affecting Aboriginals, and is a member of the Employment Accessibility Resource Network, working with service providers and employers to help persons with disabilities find jobs.

Hire Immigrants Ottawa is another partnership between the city and community groups, focusing on advancing the hiring of skilled immigrants.

A program called Diversity Champion builds relationships between the Ottawa Paramedic Service and minority groups to encourage their members to consider paramedicine as a career.

And the Ottawa Fire Services runs a “female firefighters in training” camp, a mentoring program for young women aged 15 to 19.

“The City is working with the community to ensure that all residents have equal access to facilities, products, services, grants, and employment opportunities,” said city manager Kent Kirkpatrick in the release.

“Our ongoing priority is to eliminate barriers and to generate a culture at the City of Ottawa that is respectful and inclusive.”

Since 2002, the City of Ottawa has had a policy in place to ensure equitable and inclusive recruitment practices. It also offers an award that recognizes employees who have worked to advance diversity initiatives within the government.

The City of Ottawa also ranked among Mediacorp’s list of Canada’s Top 100 Employers in 2012.

In addition to diversity, Mediacorp runs several other national competitions to recognize employers for excellence in issues of special interest, such as family-friendly workplaces, environmental values, young people, and older Canadians.

Children in the small Dixon Creek Primary School some 50km north-east of Melbourne. (Paul Crock/AFP/Getty Images)

A new report says Australian governments must adopt a new funding model for schools, expected to cost an additional $5 billion a year, that involves a set dollar amount of funding per student.

The Gonski report released on Feb 20 also recommends more funding for schools with high numbers of disadvantaged students, to address factors such as low socio-economic background, indigenous background, disability and poor English skills.

It says that such factors have contributed to a “significant” gap found between the highest and lowest performing students, and a general decline in the performance of Australian students.

“Particularly compelling is the evidence that suggests that all students, regardless of their own background, seem to perform better in schools with a higher average socioeconomic background,” the report says.

The report was released after 18 months of extensive research led by businessman David Gonski and is the most far-reaching review of school funding since 1973. It has found the current system “unnecessarily complex”, lacking “coherence and transparency” and lacking coordination between governments.

In response to the report, the federal government has promised a round of consultations on the recommendations, while stressing that the first priority is to get the budget back in surplus.

The Opposition says adopting Gonski recommendations may discourage private investments in schools, and that the current funding system is fine.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has surged ahead of former front runner Mitt Romney in the GOP race, building on his three-state sweep earlier in the month, where he won Colorado, Missouri, and Minnesota.

While Romney presently leads Santorum in Arizona, Santorum is ahead of the former Massachusetts governor in national polls by 6 points, according to an average of five polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.

Santorum has 33.8 percent support in those polls to Romney’s 28 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is third at 14 percent and Texas Rep. Ron Paul follows at 12.2 percent.

Santorum also leads in Michigan, Romney’s home state, but that lead has been cut by 15 percentage points over the last week, according to a Public Policy Polling survey (PPP) that notes the tightening is more a function of Romney gaining than Santorum dropping back.

All four candidates will be preparing for a critical national CNN debate to take place on Feb. 22 in Mesa, Ariz. It will be the 21st debate in the GOP race and the last before Super Tuesday March 6.

Michigan a Test

In Michigan, where the auto industry is the backbone of the state, Romney is paying a high price for taking a strong position on the government bailout of auto giants Chrysler and General Motors in 2008.

There are an estimated 150,000 workers employed by the auto industry in the Great Lakes city and 93 of the top 150 auto suppliers in North America are headquartered there, according to a report by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

In a 2008 op-ed piece published in the New York Times, Romney maintained his conservative credentials by decrying government intervention, saying the auto industry should be left to go bankrupt.

“A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs,” he wrote.

The bailout turned out to be a success story with the auto industry now booming and locals in Michigan gainfully employed after looking down the barrel of what could have been years of unemployment.

Outside Michigan’s Farmington Hills Manor, where Romney was speaking at a luncheon organized by the Greater Farmington Area Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 16, a small group of demonstrators made that point holding up a banner stating “Mitt Romney said: ‘Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.’”

Ironically, Santorum had also opposed the auto bailout but defended his position at an address in Detroit last week by turning the debate around to Romney.

“Governor Romney supported the bailout of Wall Street and decided not to support the bailout of Detroit,” Santorum said. “My feeling was that we should not support—the government should not be involved in bailouts, period. I think that’s a much more consistent position.”

Romney-Santorum Contest

With U.S. economic indicators presently on an upward spiral, Romney has lost traction with his message that Obama has been a failure at managing the economy and he, as founder and CEO of international venture capital company Bain Capital, is the better option to manage the U.S. economy.

Rick Santorum’s rise in the polls and his focus on conservative social issues also coincided with Obama’s controversial legislation requiring insurance coverage of contraception, added to a change in the campaign narrative and gave Santorum additional exposure.

Whether Santorum can maintain his momentum and prevent Romney from winning Michigan will be critical to the Romney campaign. As the youngest son of George Romney, the former chairman and president of American Motors, and much-liked governor of Michigan in the 1960s, Mitt Romney was born and raised in Detroit. Losing his own state could deliver a crushing psychological blow.

The stakes are high and both Romney and Santorum “SuperPacs” are already strafing the air waves with attack ads in Ohio, Michigan, and Arizona, according to the Huffington Post, but Michigan has by far the greater focus.

Politico’s Maggie Haberman reported Feb. 20 that the phones had been running hot in the offices of favored Republican presidential candidates New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, brother to past President George W. Bush.

All three have reportedly maintained their position not to contest the Republican presidential nomination this year—for now at least.

Vanessa Rios contributed to this report

“We were the beginning of the industry. We were rockstars back then,” says Henk Rogers, founder of Blue Planet Software, the Hawaii-based distributors of “Tetris.”

Rogers has plenty of stories to tell. He helped Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of “Tetris,” escape the Soviet Union so he could get paid for his work. He helped build “Tetris” into a game that gets 15 million players on Facebook each day. And his first game, “The Black Onyx,” introduced role-playing games to Japan and shaped the industry we know today.

In 1976, when computers were still a faraway concept, Rogers moved to Japan not knowing he would soon find himself on the launchpad of modern gaming.

Five years later, the personal computer came out, and after another year, “there were enough of them where you could actually sell a game and make money. So that’s when I jumped in,” he said. “I just happened to be there.”

The gaming market was still small. Developers were mainly independent programmers, and Rogers was no exception. He coded the game himself for nearly a year.

But partly from passion, and partly from a misjudgment of Japanese interest, Rogers was doing something far different from other programmers in the country. He was making a role-playing game (RPG).

Now, RPGs made their debut largely through the release of “Dungeons & Dragons” in 1974, created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Before video games, they were played through storytelling. Players would roll dice to put things to chance, and record their progress with pen and paper.

RPGs were extremely popular among gamers in the United States. Games like “Ultima” and “Wizardry” were top sellers in the American market, but in Japan few people had ever heard of them.

Before moving to Japan, he spent four years in Hawaii where he found his love for RPGs. It was a time when the works of J.R.R. Tolkien were under the arm of all well-informed gamers, and imagination was still king.

Rogers was part of a group called ARRGH (the Alternative Recreational Reality Group of Hawaii) that would get together each weekend for extended sessions of “Dungeons & Dragons.” “We would start Friday and finish Monday morning. We would take time off and have water balloon fights and eat to break the tension, but that’s what we did,” he said.

But when Rogers finally finished “The Black Onyx” in 1984, he was in for a surprise. “I assumed a lot of things about Japanese people back then. I assumed they played role-playing games, which they didn’t,” he said. “It was a rude awakening after working on this game for nine months.”

“Nobody knew what a role-playing game was,” he said.

In an attempt to break into the Japanese market, they decided to advertise. They used the game’s cover art, which Rogers describes as a “sort of Frank Frazetta copied image with a Conan the Barbarian standing on a heap of monsters swinging his sword.” The type of image was familiar to the American market, but Japan was another story.

“We made a full page ad in a couple of magazines—blowing our entire advertising budget—and we got one phone call asking, ‘What is your game?’” he said.

Things only went downhill from there. Softbank promised to buy 3,000 copies of “The Black Onyx” for Christmas, “but they did a little bit of research and found out nobody really had any idea what was going on. So we thought this was it—this was the end and people in Japan didn’t play role-playing games, I’ve had it.”

But rather than just give up, Rogers decided to take matters into his own hands. The problem, he figured, was that RPGs were too foreign, and so he decided to change this.

“I went to every game magazine and I taught them how to play ‘Black Onyx,’” Rogers said.

“Every single magazine went nuts over my game, and by March all the issues of every gaming magazine had huge stories,” he said.

That April, they sold 10,000 copies, and sales poured in like this for more than two years. 

Changing the Market

“The Black Onyx” was Japan’s number one game in 1984, and the number two game in 1985—a factor Rogers attributes to the fact that “The Black Onyx” was so different from every other Japanese game of the time. “We had a long reign before the others figured it out.”

The success of “The Black Onyx” and the RPG genre was something fundamental. It introduced a level of depth that was nearly unheard of in Japanese gaming at the time, due to hardware limitations.

It had a currency system, shops, customizable characters, an in-depth story, systems of leveling and growing characters, and a karma system that punished or rewarded players for their choices.

Games at the time were limited to 64k of space (smaller than most digital photographs). “The Black Onyx” was a 40-hour game on a cassette tape—a format he chose over a 5-and-a-quarter floppy disk drive because it gave him an extra 10k to work with.

Developers had to weigh things carefully, since even a sentence of conversation text would drain space. “It was counting bytes,” Rogers said. “The Black Onyx” used around 28k for the basic program, 4k for the maps, 20k for the different character graphics, and the rest filled in the technical parts.

Rogers made a conscious decision of how to stretch the technology to allow this level of depth. Other developers in Japan were mainly creating action games—similar to Mario (who debuted in “Donkey Kong” in 1981), where players would typically run and jump over obstacles.

The problem with this, however, was that the animations took up nearly all the space that programmers were working with. Creating a jumping animation, for example, would take around five different images.

“If you have 64k or less, if you have animation in your game, you just used up all of your graphics space for animation, and that’s it,” Rogers said. “So I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to do any animation because I didn’t want to use up all the memory.”

The extra space meant he could create more characters and a significantly deeper game. This was something RPG developers in the United States were also doing. “Wizardry,” which has a similar style to “The Black Onyx,” had a basic, wireframe world. “Hack,” another RPG released around that time, took an even simpler route with text-based graphics. The main character might be an @ sign, the world would be formed by dashes and brackets, and other characters would be represented by letters.

Rogers said someone made a program that would squeeze the code of a game, and found he had just three bytes of unused memory. “I wasted a couple of bytes in there as a joke to other programmers or hackers who would hack my code—I knew that was going to happen,” he said.

Due to the success of “The Black Onyx,” RPGs remain one of the most popular game genres in Japan.

Rogers compared it to the recent emergence of social media games. “All of the sudden it was a huge change in the market and everybody was paying attention. Now everybody is scrambling to make social games,” he said.

“That was sort of everybody’s wake-up call and they all said ‘we have to make a role-playing game,’” he said.

(L to R) Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Togo Faure Gnassingbe, Gabon's President Omar Bongo and President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan meet on Feb. 18. The African leaders gather for talks on insecurity in northern Mali. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced in Mali and have been flowing into the surrounding countries. (Wole Emmanuel/AFP/Getty Images)

Around 120,000 people have been displaced in Mali since Tuareg rebels launched attacks on government forces last month to create an independent state, according to Reuters, citing United Nations figures.

Many of the rebels had fought alongside forces loyal to slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in the country’s civil war last year. Many weapons that were in Libya prior to the civil war have found their way into rebel hands.

The U.N. estimates that 60,000 Malians have had to seek refuge in neighboring countries including Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Algeria due to the fighting, according to Reuters.

“As the influx continues, our teams are stepping up assistance for refugees who have taken refuge in makeshift shelters in villages bordering Mali,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokesperson Melissa Fleming said in a release last week. 

“Humanitarian assistance is all the more critical because the Sahel region is facing a severe food crisis due to several years of drought,” she added.

Around 15,000 have streamed across the border into Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world and is affected by drought.

Fatima Alhacen, a refugee from Mali who now resides in the village of Chinagoder, told the Inter Press Service that the situation is “gradually improving.” 

“We now have mats, blankets, cooking utensils and a bit more to eat, thanks to the food aid that the Nigerien government brought for us at the beginning of last week,” she said.

Bo Xilai, Secretary of Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, in March of 2011. (Feng Li/Getty Images)

In the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), family ties count. Bo Xilai is not only a “princeling,” a child of the founding generation of the CCP, his father, Bo Yibo, is one of the Eight Elders, eight CCP veterans who held great power in the 1980s and 1990s. Perhaps because of his privileged birth, Bo has displayed a sense of entitlement to rule.

Born in 1949, Bo was a Red Guard, and his student organization was directly mobilized by Mao Zedong. Criticism of his father gave Bo Xilai the chance to prove his revolutionary zeal—he beat Bo Yibo, breaking three of his ribs.

In a memoir written by Yang Guang, a survivor of the Cultural Revolution, Bo’s father is quoted as saying “when Jiang Qing [a member of Gang of Four] declared me a traitor, my son Xilai beat me down to the ground. … When I saw that he was not afraid to cut his ties with family members, I knew he was good material for the next generation of the Party leadership.”

Click this tag to read The Epoch Times’ collection of articles on the Chinese Regime in Crisis. Intra-CCP politics are a challenge to make sense of, even for veteran China watchers. Here we attempt to provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation.

In 1976, Mao’s death marked the end of the revolution. Bo then returned to school and graduated with a master’s degree in international news in 1982. As his father rose to power again, Bo Xilai’s path as a politician was smooth. Within a few years after graduation, he gained key roles in the central committees of Liaoning Province and became the mayor of its major city, Dalian, in 1993.

While in Dalian, Bo gained a reputation for corruption. Jiang Weiping, a veteran journalist, published a report on Bo describing him as a frequent visitor to prostitutes while drinking. One of the cases Jiang included was the imprisonment of the owners of Dalian’s high profile restaurant chain Daily Hub in 2001. After learning that the owners were involved in a personal conflict with the husband of his mistress, Bo arrested them on tax crimes and put them in jail. Bo also rebuilt government buildings as a modeling school for his mistress. After the report was published, Jiang Weiping was arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Knowing that Jiang Zemin’s support was vital for a central position in the leadership, Bo followed closely the then-chairman’s steps in persecuting Falun Gong. In 2001, Bo was appointed the governor of Liaoning Province.

Bo allocated 1 billion Yuan (US$160 million) to rebuild prisons. One area that Bo focused on was Masanjia Labor Camp. The camp was extended until it became China’s first “prison town.”

It became known as a hellish place for Falun Gong practitioners. The Falun Gong website Clearwisdom would carry regular accounts of practitioners there being beaten and shocked with electric batons. On one occasion, 18 female Falun Gong practitioners were stripped naked and thrown in with male criminals, who gang raped them. Female practitioners were also raped at the Liaoning Women’s Prison and Dalian Forced Labor Camp, according to Clearwisdom.

The author Ethan Gutmann has described Liaoning Province as the epicenter of forced organ harvesting in China. This atrocity was first discovered in Sujiatun, a suburb of Shenyang City, the capital of Liaoning Province, where Bo was governor from 2001-2004. Wang Lijun, who would be Bo’s right-hand man in Chongqing, spoke in public about overseeing thousands of organ harvesting operations when he was the head of the public security bureau in Jinzhou City in Liaoning.

A cable from the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai released by WikiLeaks quoted Gu Su, a liberal political philosopher at Nanjing University, as saying that Premier Wen Jiabao criticized Bo for having been sued in several countries for his cruelty toward Falun Gong practitioners.

Wen’s opinion “found fertile soil among officials who still harbor resentment against Bo for his treatment of his family, particularly his father, during the Cultural Revolution,” said Su as quoted in the cable.

In 2007, Bo, then the minister of commerce, was transferred by his competitors from the center of China’s political stage to a position far from Beijing—he became the Party head of the troubled, province-level city Chongqing in central-western China.

In Chongqing, Bo revealed his ambition for a leading role in the CCP. He launched a political campaign, something that has always been the prerogative of the head of the CCP, never of a provincial leader.

“Singing the red and hitting the black” involved, on the one hand, singing Mao-style communist songs and was meant to inspire the common people to be loyal to Bo. On the other hand, “hitting the black” was said to be an anti-Mafia campaign, and was initially welcomed by the people of Chongqing who have suffered at the hands of the triads. But among those targeted were independent businessmen whose fortunes were expropriated, and CCP officials who were loyal to Bo’s predecessor.

Bo also showed he had developed strong ties to the military in the Chongqing region, organizing military exercises while Hu Jintao was at the APEC meetings in November 2011. Bo’s doing so was understood by some China watchers as a suggestion that Bo could launch a coup if he wanted to do so.

A Portrait of Lindy Chamberlain with husband Michael and children. In 1980, Lindy Chamberlain reported that her baby had been taken by a dingo. A new report offers evidence supporting her case. (Patrick Riviere/Getty Images).

Lindy Chamberlain, the Australian mother who famously blamed a dingo for her baby’s death more than 30 years ago, will submit new evidence in the case, according to media reports.

Stuart Tipple, lawyer for Lindy and Michael Chamberlain told the Herald Sun newspaper that he will submit a report that offers more proof that a dingo took the couple’s nine-week-old infant, Azaria, in 1980.

“The significant thing that has basically happened since the last inquest is that there have been at least 12 significant attacks, three deaths,” Tipple told the paper.

Tipple said the evidence proves that dingoes may be a danger to humans.

“There are still a lot of people out there who don’t understand the danger that dingoes present to humans, particularly in the situation where they have been conditioned by human contact,” he told the Australia Broadcasting Corporation.

Lindy Chamberlain said she saw her daughter being taken away by a dingo from their tent. “I could have lost three children that night—it could have been worse,” she said in a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.

She was convicted for Azaria’s death but the verdict was overturned three years later when her daughter’s jacket was found around two miles from the campsite.

Michael Chamberlain said that the government may have had a hand in the trial because if it were proved that dingoes could attack children, then tourism in the Australian backcountry would take a hit.

“I think someone said to them ‘Fix this up—it might affect tourism, you have to get a conviction because you can’t have dingoes, or the fear of them, running around killing kids,’” he told the Morning Herald.

 The case was massive news in Australia and earned worldwide fame after the 1988 Meryl Streep movie about the case, “A Cry in the Dark.” One of Streep’s lines from the film— “a dingo ate my baby”—has become immortalized in pop culture. 

Magic Johnson (Andy Kropa/Getty Images)

Magic Johnson to Launch Cable Network

Basketball Hall-of-Famer turned business leader Magic Johnson will launch Aspire—a new cable network that aims to portray “positive, uplifting images of African Americans,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

Johnson told the newspaper, “This is big for myself, for the African American community and the African American creative community. I wanted a vehicle to show positive images and to have stories written, produced and directed by African Americans for our community. Aspire—that’s how I’ve been leading my life.”

The network is expected to hit airwaves June 30.

Paramount Launches ‘Godfather’ Lawsuit

Film studio Paramount Pictures is suing the estate of Mario Puzo (author of The Godfather) in an attempt to stop the publication of a new Godfather novel, claiming its release may tarnish the “legacy and integrity” of the film franchise, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The estate’s attorney told the publication the claims were “utter hogwash,” saying the original agreement with Paramount excluded book publishing rights.

Stars Celebrate Muhammad Ali’s Birthday

Lonnie Ali,Muhammad Ali, Sean Combs (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Legendary boxer Muhammad Ali celebrated his 70th birthday this past weekend surrounded by numerous celebrity friends, all in the name of charity.

In attendance were Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg, Sugar Ray Leonard, Evander Holyfield, LL Cool J, Sean Combs, Samuel L. Jackson, and David Beckham among others.

The Power of Love Gala was held on Feb. 18 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. The annual event in its 16th year raised funds for Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and the Muhammad Ali Center, according to LookToTheStars.org.

Compiled by Barbara Danza.

Buddy Roemer speaks at the National Press Club in Washington in this file photo from Aug.15, 2011. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Presidential candidate Buddy Roemer is leaving the Republican Party, but not dropping his bid for the White House, according to a statement from his campaign on Feb. 22.

Roemer, the former governor of Louisiana and a four-term congressman, said he will run as an Independent candidate.

“As the GOP and the networks host debate number 20-something this evening, they have once again turned their backs on the democratic process by choosing to exclude a former governor and congressman,” Roemer said in a statement, referring to himself.

He has not been invited to participate in any of the Republican debates due to his low support in the polls.

Roemer, who said he would make tackling special interest groups in Washington a priority, said he would now seek the nomination from Americans Elect, which is an independent group seeking ballot access across the United States. He also said that he is seeking nomination with the Reform Party.

Dr. Amir Amedi wearing one of the SSD devices developed as the result of research in his lab. (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Sensory substitution devices (SSDs) can provide visual information via other senses to people who are born blind, enabling them to “see” and identify objects.

Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a visual-to-auditory SSD involving headphones attached to a camera. The images taken by the camera are converted into sounds through a known algorithm.

With brief training as part of a lab study, users interpreted these “soundscapes” to describe objects, locate people, and read words, even after lifelong blindness.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) revealed that the sounds activated the visual cortex in the brain of the congenitally blind, despite a lack of visual sensation from the eyes.

Interestingly, the activation is organized according to the two visual processing pathways in the brain—the ventral and dorsal streams. The ventral stream is linked to the visual processing of form and to identifying objects and colors, while the dorsal stream focuses on object location and vision-movement coordination.

When SSD users identify an object’s location, the dorsal stream is activated, and when they are asked to identify an image’s shape, the ventral stream is activated. This process is similar to how a normal sighted person sees an object, and suggests that the visual cortex does not solely depend on visual sensation to interpret data and that it may be more task-specific.

The findings also imply that other areas of the brain could extract information from the external world in the absence of input, such as touch or smell, from normally corresponding sensory organs.

“The brain is not a sensory machine, although it often looks like one; it is a task machine,” concluded research leader Amir Amedi in a press release.

The study was published in the journal Cerebral Cortex.

Silver bullion and coins are offered for sale at the Chicago Coin Company May 11, 2006, in Chicago, Ill. Researchers say that the available silver supply is limited, and there will be no in-ground silver available in about 25 to 30 years. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The London Fix Silver prices have been on a roller coaster ride over the past few years, ebbing and flowing up and down, rising from an annual cumulative average of $14.6733 per ounce in 2009 to an annual cumulative average of $20.1928 in 2010. It rose to $35.1192 in 2011, and from Jan. 1 to Feb. 15, the annual cumulative average fell to $31.7844, according to historical data on the Kitco Metals Inc. website.

In 2009, the highest daily London Fix price was $17.9900 on Oct. 13 and the lowest $10.5100 on Jan. 15. In 2010, the highest daily London Fix price was $30.7000 on Dec. 30 with the lowest at $15.1400 on Feb. 8. In 2011, the highest daily London Fix price was $48.7000 on Apr. 28, and the lowest was $27.1000 on Jan. 26, moving up and down throughout the year.

Between Jan. 1 and Feb. 15 this year, the highest London Fix price was $33.8400 on Feb. 13, and the lowest was $28.7800 on Jan. 3.

The London Spot Fix is the price per ounce fixed daily at 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. during a conference call in London by the five members of the London Gold Pool: ScotiaMocatta, Barclays Capital (a division of Barclays Bank PLC), Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings PLC, and Société Générale S.A.

“There are two times in the day when we know for sure that the gold price [and other precious metals, including silver, platinum, and palladium] is being set in a clandestine procedure that is controlled by just five bullion banks,” states an article on the Market Force Analysis website, suggesting that the precious metal “market is not ‘fixed,’ it’s rigged.”

Silver Price Predictions

“For silver, BNP Paribas [based in France] increased its 2012 estimate to $37.50 from $36.75, and in 2013 to $52.00 from $49.75 per ounce. Over the four quarters of 2012, the firm predicted silver will average $31.90, $34.95, $39.30, and $43.80, respectively,” according to a Feb. 15 article on the GoldAlert website.

BNP Paribas’s Anne-Laure Tremblay, analyst at Paribas, was quoted to have said that the price of silver is determined by a given price for gold, as well as how much risk an investor is willing to take. During upward movement of both gold and silver prices, silver is a preferred investment, according to Tremblay.

“Gold and silver forecasters are probably too cautious about the outlook for 2012. This is not surprising after the volatility of 2011 which saw record highs for both metals but a collapse later in the year that left gold up 10 per cent and silver down around the same amount for the year,” suggests an article on the GoldSeek website.

HSBC doesn’t agree with BNP Paribas and believes that silver prices will remain at the status quo, according to an article on the Gold Price website. It predicted that silver prices would hover around $34 per ounce in 2012 and at $32 per ounce in 2013.

“We are bullish on silver, based on solid retail investment demand for coins and small bars. We expect silver ETF demand to recover this year, and based on HSBC Economics’ forecasts of industrial production, demand for silver from manufacturing should grow moderately,” said James Steel, precious metal analyst, as quoted on the MarketWatch website.

Continued on next page … Quantifying Above Ground Silver

Quantifying Above Ground Silver

Regarding how much above ground silver is available, “the big problem is that nobody knows for sure,” according to a forum discussion on the Kitco website.

The Kitco forum member added, “What we do know is that somewhere around 500Moz [million ounces] to 1Boz [billion ounces] exists in known locations (for example, COMEX warehouses have 100Moz , the SLV ETF has 350Moz, etc.).”

According to historical records, about 60 billion ounces of silver has been mined since such records existed. The silver was used during ancient times for coins, made into silver bars, formed into sculptures, jewelry, and much more. In more modern times, silver is being used for photographic purposes, in electronic equipment, and for antibacterial purposes in medicines, food, and drinking water.

“We do not know how much of that 60Boz has been saved, how much is currently in products, and how much is sitting in landfills,” the Kitco forum member said.

Since about the 1950s, the United States has stockpiled about 3 billion ounces of silver in a vault in New York. However, any silver used by the U.S. mint is bought in the market.

“Since 1950, we have witnessed a collapse of 93% in global silver inventories yet, demand hasn’t stopped. The last time above ground silver inventory was this low was in 1380, and the usage for silver has accelerated,” according to statistics on the GoldSilver website.

Between 1950 and 2010, the silver bullion global supply decreased from 40 billion ounces, which was considered a 140-month supply, to 700 million ounces, considered to be an 11-month supply.

The electronics industry used 100 million ounces in 1999 and an estimated 250 million ounces in 2011. Researchers say that the available silver supply, both in the earth and already recovered, is limited, and there will be no in-ground silver available in about 25 to 30 years.

There are very few newly discovered silver deposits, as most silver is mined from greatly depleted existing mines. Also, the silver used by the electronics, health, and other industries isn’t recoverable once used, which means that it is lost forever.

“In all cases, unlike gold, silver is used and consumed and then not recoverable. The demand side of silver is very significant. There are some statistics from the U.S. geological studies indicating that just with the current demand for silver, all known mineable silver will be exhausted in just 29 years. This is very bullish for silver in the long term,” according to a February 2011 article on the submityourarticle website.

Reviewing Silver Mining Companies

“I was falling for dazzling investment propositions…each one with attributes that dreams are made of: bonanza discoveries of thick veins of ore. …When it came decision time, I reverted to what I know: earnings growth and fundamental value,” said Stanley Barton, investment analyst, in a recent article on the Seeking Alpha website.

The first silver mine stock Barton bought was Revett Minerals Inc. Revett is owner of the Troy Mine, located in Montana, which mined 1.3 million ounces of silver in 2011 at a cost of $2.22 per ounce. Besides the Troy Mine, Revett is the owner of the Rock Creek mine in Montana, which is said to hold the largest silver deposit in the United States with 300 million ounces.

Before buying stock in a mining company, one needs to evaluate the silver deposits available for mining, and determine if the mine is in a development stage or production cycle. For example, a development stage mining company will have to pump $100 million into the operation over a period of three years before taking out the first ounce of silver, according to Barton.

“Precious metal miners are not always evaluated according to traditional methods. Undervalued land makes book value deceptively low, and accounting to amortize mine life reduces profit numbers. … Bright earnings reports may blind one to the realities of a voluptuous vein flaming out,” Barton said.

Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna (L) shakes hands with Zhou Yongkang, ranked ninth in the hierarchy of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and member of the influential Politburo Standing Committee in-charge of Political, Legal and Legislative Agenda prior to a meeting in New Delhi on Nov. 1, 2010. (Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images)

Before entering the world of politics, Zhou Yongkang (b. 1942) worked in the oil fields for almost 30 years.

It is widely believed that after his first wife died in a car accident, Zhou’s prompt marriage to former president’s Jiang Zemin’s niece greased the wheels on his path to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) leadership. In 1998, Zhou left his position as the head of China’s national petroleum company, and was appointed the minister of land and resources. One year later, Zhou became the Party leader for Sichuan Province.

Also in 1999, then-president Jiang Zemin vowed to eradicate Falun Gong in three months through a nationwide campaign. As a relative and a trusted companion in the leadership, Zhou assumed key roles in carrying out the persecution against Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa).

While he was the Party leader for Sichuan Province, Zhou ordered financial rewards for individuals from prisons, labor camps, and public security bureaus who were particularly active in torturing and brainwashing captured Falun Gong practitioners, according to the Falun Gong website Clearwisdom. With at least 217 confirmed deaths of Falun Gong practitioners due to torture and abuse, Sichuan Province is one of the provinces with the most severe human rights abuses related to the persecution against Falun Gong.

According to Clearwisdom, official documents leaked from the 610 Office—the Party organ set up by Jiang Zemin for the purpose of eradicating Falun Gong—show that as director of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee Zhou Yongkang (2007–present) and Luo Gan (1998–2007) each gave permission to police to “perform medical treatments while transforming Falun Gong practitioners if necessary.” At least 11 Falun Gong practitioners are known to have died of injections with drugs that damage the central nervous system. During his visit to the United States in 2001, Zhou was sued for crimes against humanity.

Because of his active participation in Jiang’s persecution of Falun Gong, in December 2002, Zhou was promoted to the position of minister of the Department of Public Security, though he had no experience in the field. When he was also appointed in November 2001 assistant director of Central 610 Office, Zhou brought his Sichuan-style strategies against Falun Gong to a nationwide level, according to the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong.

At the same time, Zhou successfully entered the central organs of the regime. As a member of the Politburo and the secretariat of the Party’s Central Committee, Zhou was involved in personnel decisions for both the Party and the state.

In 2007, Zhou was promoted to the head of The Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of the Communist Party, overseeing all legal enforcement authorities including intelligence, law and order, security, detention, and judicial and procuratorial agencies. In this position, Zhou’s tasks have been varied. Zhou has been involved in silencing the protests of parents of children who were trapped under poorly constructed school buildings in the 2008 earthquake, initiating taking troops to Tibet after widespread reports of protests by self-immolated monks, and sourcing overseas Chinese students for intelligence work.

Seen through the windshield of a car, members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) take position in Idlib in northwestern Syria on Feb. 22, 2012. (BulentKilic/AFP/Getty Images)

Two Western journalists and one local cameraman became the latest victims of the unceasing violence in the Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday. Activists say at least 20 more people were killed in the city.

An activist in the Bab Amro neighborhood of Homs told Al-Jazeera that Marie Colvin, a journalist for the U.K.’s Sunday Times newspaper, and Remi Ochlik, a French photographer, were killed when a building they were staying in was shelled by Syrian forces. Another nine people were also killed in the shelling, which has been ongoing for nearly than three weeks.

A third journalist, local videographer Rami al-Sayed, also died covering a bombardment on Tuesday, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe summoned the Syrian ambassador in France, demanding that Damascus “provide safe medical access in order to assist the casualties with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross,” according to a statement.

Colvin, 55, was considered one of the world’s pre-eminent war correspondents, according to CJP. She covered events in many war-torn countries and lost an eye while covering the civil war in Sri Lanka.

She worked for the Sunday Times for two decades and said in her final report on Wednesday that the shelling in Homs was constant.

“Almost every building is pock-marked after tank rounds punched through concrete walls or rockets blasted gaping holes in upper floors. The building I was staying in lost its upper floor to a rocket last Wednesday,” she wrote, adding that “there are no telephones and the electricity has been cut off.”

Syrian Information Minister Adnan Mahmoud said via state television that they had no information about the two journalists entering the city. Citing Mahmoud, state television said, “All foreign journalists who entered Syria illegally to refer to the nearest immigration department in the areas of their presence to regularize their status according to law.”

“Our colleagues Marie Colvin, Remi Ochlik, and Rami al-Sayed gave their lives to report a story of grave importance, a story the Syrian government has sought to choke off from rest of the world,” said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney, in a statement from Cairo. “The deaths of these local and international journalists illustrate the escalating dangers to independent journalists working in Syria and the unacceptable price our colleagues are being forced to pay.”

A total of seven media professionals have been killed during the unrest in Syria.

“We condemn in the strongest terms this threefold crime. The Damascus government … has decided to punish the entire population collectively and to use the most violent means to silence those journalists who witness its excesses,” said media watchdog Reporters Without Borders in a statement.

Supporter of Sea Shepherd, Dutch environmental activist Erwin Vermeulen (C) speaks next to Sea Shepherd membrer Scott West (R) after he was found not guilty of a charge of assault against a man in dolphin-hunting town Taiji, western Japan, on Feb. 22. (Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images)

A Japanese judge cleared a Dutch activist with the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd of a minor assault charge in the town of Taiji, the group announced on Wednesday.

Dutchman Erwin Vermeulen was held in jail for two months after being indicted for allegedly punching—or by some accounts, pushing—a man in Taiji, historically considered a dolphin-hunting town. He allegedly was trying to enter an off-limits area where dolphins were purportedly being kept.

In a statement, Vermeulen said the “judge showed great courage in going against public opinion and ruling fairly.”

“My arrest and two-month detention generated worldwide publicity for the dolphins in Taiji and I would like to thank the Wakayama Prefecture police and prosecutors for generously donating Japanese taxpayers money to bring attention to the dolphin slaughter,” he added.

Judge Satoshi Shibayama admitted in the Wakayama District Court that he could not rule out Vermeulen’s claims that the victim gave a false statement.

According to the Kyodo news agency, the judge said, “There remains doubt over the credibility of the testimony, which is the only evidence.” Vermeulen’s defense argued that there was no way he could push or punch the man because both his hands were occupied.

Sea Shepherd accused police of being incompetent in handling Vermeulen’s arrest and investigation, saying that they were forced to pursue “a flawed case” because of Vermeulen’s association with the anti-whaling activist group.

Every year, Sea Shepherd sends a fleet of ships to the Southern Ocean to disrupt the annual Japanese whaling harvest, which Tokyo claims is for scientific purposes. The group has launched projectiles at whaling ships and disrupted the movement of the vessels, while crew on Japanese whaling ships have fired water cannons at activists and tried to fend them off with long bamboo poles.

Over the past several years, Sea Shepherd has attempted to raise awareness about the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, which was also documented in the 2009 Oscar Award-winning documentary, The Cove. Fishermen have defended the hunt of dolphins as a cultural tradition.

A restaurant overlooking the ocean in Sidi Bou Said, a town about 20 kilometers from Tunis. Credit (Valerian Mazataud/The Epoch Times)

It was last January that the Jasmine Revolution ousted Tunisia’s President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, eventually leading to free and democratic elections and the drafting of a new constitution.

A year later, Tunisia is in the midst of restructuring but is completely safe for travelers. Between the bar and the mosque, wearing shorts or the veil, both worlds seem to coexist in harmony, inspired by the new democracy that is being built.

The mild climate in winter is a good time to choose to become familiar with Tunisia, when the country becomes a haven away from the regular tourist traffic and visitors can experience its rich and varied cultural heritage at a lower cost than in the high season.

Beautiful and peaceful, the coastal capital of Tunis should be visited in winter to experience all it has to offer in relative quiet.

At the onset of winter, Tunis opens up like a flower. Tourists are also greeted in perfect French, the second most commonly spoken language in the country after Arabic. Being Francophone, for us this was really the icing on the cake!

Agriculture is the largest industry in the country, and the cuisine varies from one region to another. However, Tunisian resorts offer many other amenities aside from gourmet eating.

Cultural Journey

Tunisia has the largest collection of mosaics in the world after Italy, which illustrates the cultural wealth of the country. The Bardo National Museum in the western district of Tunis is dedicated entirely to the mosaics.

The mosaics have been carefully restored, forming several meters of frescoes dating back to the Carthaginian, Roman, and Arab invasions, moving through prehistory to the Muslim period. The museum remains open to the public despite renovations that will add two additional floors to accommodate its extensive collection.

Visiting the House of Crafts is a must in Tunis. Whether shopping for ceramics, rugs, baskets, bird cages, leather goods, engraved plates, or embroidered dresses, prices are amazingly low and profits go directly to the artisans. The state subsidizes a portion of the rental spaces to encourage crafts, the heart of tourism.

If you are looking for pottery, Nabeul, a town 67 kilometres southeast of Tunis on the south coast of the peninsula of Cape Bon, is the place to be.

At the onset of winter, Tunis opens up like a flower.

The Bourguiba Mausoleum in Monastir. Habib Bourguiba is known as the father of Tunisian independence. (Valerian Mazataud/The Epoch Times)

Pottery company Kerkeni offers visitors a guided tour punctuated by demonstrations of pottery-making. Through the help of the National Association of Crafts, Karkeni also offers training to students from Japan, Saudi Arabia, and France. The impressive variety of pottery and terracotta objects, of which Tunisians are known masters, deserves to be discovered.

Driving toward the fortified tower of Sousse, located 140 kilometers from Tunis, we marveled at the breathtaking panoramic view of the city and its famous Medina, the oldest section of Tunis.

A visit to the Bourguiba Mausoleum in Monastir is an adventure in itself. The mausoleum’s sumptuousness, the chandelier overlooking the imposing tomb of the deceased, and the long passage to reach the main room (several graves were displaced to install this) are a sight to behold.

Built in 1963, the mausoleum is the burial place of Habib Bourguiba, the first President of the Republic of Tunisia, who introduced pro-Western reforms during his presidency.

The Sahara

A camel ride in the Sahara in winter as the sun gently covers the sand dunes is an unforgettable experience, as it combines the pleasure of the trip with silence and meditation inspired by the desert.

Enjoying a camel ride through the desert in the Tunisian part of the Sahara as the sun rises. (Valerian Mazataud/The Epoch Times)

Douz, known as the Gateway to the Sahara, is a starting point for desert treks by camel, motorcycle, or four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Douz is home to the Museum of the Sahara, which showcases displays of the traditional nomadic desert culture of the Mrazig people who now mostly live a settled life in the town. Every year, the town hosts the International Festival of the Sahara, a four-day celebration of traditional desert culture.

A camel ride in the Sahara in winter as the sun gently covers the sand dunes is an unforgettable experience.

As for water restrictions and swimming, some hotels have pools of salt water for a quick dip. The good news is that in winter, it is not uncommon to have the water privileges all to yourself.

Thalassotherapy, the use of seawater as a form of therapy which has been popular in France for years, is now widely available in Tunisia and highly sought out by tourists.

The next item on the agenda for us was true spa relaxation combined with a massage before heading back through the oases to enjoy the diversity offered by Tunisia.

Safe for tourists

The Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has advised travelers to exercise a “high degree of caution” when visiting Tunisia, but on the ground things are calm despite some ongoing demonstrations.

“Since the protests began, no tourist has been killed or injured,” said Ferid Fetni, marketing director at the Tunisian National Tourism Office in Montreal.

However, tourist traffic has declined drastically in many parts of the country.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, between January and October 2011, patronage decreased by 41.9 percent and revenue by 36 percent compared to the same period in 2010.

Some hotels are taking advantage of this break to renovate and introduce new services.

The Hotel Africa’s parent company is building a new spa center and surgical clinic in Sousse on the east coast in order to attract customers wishing to take advantage of lower costs—particularly from Europe.

Tunisia is fast becoming the favored destination of Europeans seeking plastic surgery, according to Dr. Hassem Nouira, the medical and technical director of the Amen Clinic in Mutual Amen City, an upscale neighborhood of Tunis.

“People stay an average of one week and have access to the most skilled surgeons. We maintain an ISO international standard that will be in effect next month,” said Dr. Nouira.

During our trip, the sun never missed a day in the pleasantly warm but not-too-heavy climate.

In the Tunisia of today, visitors can enjoy the atmosphere of optimism and peaceful involvement that characterizes the country, and encounter a culture that is reinventing itself while imbued with the history of several millennia.

For more information, contact the Tunisian National Tourist Office in Montreal at 514-397-1182 or visit www.bonjour-tunisie.com.

This article was written during a press trip paid for by the Tunisian National Tourist Office.

Egyptian anti-Hosni Mubarak demonstrators pose in front of a mock gallow whilst riot policeman provide security outside court in Cairo on Feb.22. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will be given his final verdict on June 2. (Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)

The judge in the case of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will deliver the final verdict on June 2, according to media reports.

If found guilty, Mubarak and several others, including former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly, could receive the death penalty, which was requested by the prosecution. They were on trial for ordering the deaths of protesters during last year’s popular uprising.

The defense in Mubarak’s trial submitted its final written statements on Wednesday. The former president did not make any comments, according to Al-Jazeera television. Adly during the final hearing blamed the deaths of more than 850 protesters during the uprising on “foreigners” and said there was a “conspiracy” against Egypt.

Adly blamed Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militant group, and Hamas, a Palestinian political bloc, for causing the unrest and deaths, according to the broadcaster.

Attorney General Moustafa Suleiman said Mubarak’s lawyers should also be charged for slander and fabrication, according to a report from the Daily News of Egypt.

“We hope that someone’s conscience is awoken and the unknown principal perpetrators are reported, but this doesn’t mean that the [defendants] will escape punishment,” Suleiman said in the report.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, with interpreter, speaks ahead of the one year Christchurch earthquake anniversary on Feb. 22.

Residents of Christchurch, New Zealand, gathered on Wednesday to pay tribute to the 185 people who were killed and the countless who suffered in the city’s magnitude-6.3 earthquake on Feb. 22, 2011.

Events included memorial services at parks and cemeteries, a flower festival, community picnics, candlelight services, and ceremonies to honor the heroes who saved others. City Council arranged to collect the variety of nonperishable tributes and mementos to be placed in the Canterbury Museum.

At least 20,000 residents filled a park in the city center where 185 monarch butterflies were released to honor the victims, according to the New Zealand Herald.

“We are seeing a resurgence of strength and spirit. We are learning a new way to do things. … No city has ever been more strongly united in wanting to recover, rebuild, and once more be a great place to live and to work,”’ said Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker, according to the Brisbane Times. ‘”Let us work together to rebuild a city fit for heroes.’”

During the magnitude-6.3 earthquake, many buildings crumbled, trapping victims inside, which triggered a national state of emergency. At the CTV Building alone, 115 people were killed.

(Left to Right) Zhou Yongkang, Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Political and Legislative Committee, in 2007; Bo Xilai, Secretary of Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China in March 2011; Chinese Regime paramount leader Hu Jintao at a meeting with EU leaders in the "Great Hall of the People" in Beijing on February 15. (Left to Right: Teh Eng Koon/AFP/Getty Images, Feng Li/Getty Images, and How Hwee Young/AFP/Getty Images)

In succession battles in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), leaders regularly seek to assure they will not be held accountable for the crimes committed on their watch. There has been no bigger crime on the CCP’s books since the Cultural Revolution than the persecution of Falun Gong, and the fear of being held responsible for that persecution is driving what may be one of the bitterest succession battles in the history of the CCP.

A 2009 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing released by WikiLeaks states a principle that governs the struggles over succession that many China watchers have observed: “The central feature of leadership politics was the need to protect oneself and one’s family from attack after leaving office. Thus, current leaders carefully cultivated protégés who would defend their interests once they stepped down,” notes an unnamed source in the cable.

Zhou Yongkang rose from Party secretary in Sichuan Province to minister of public security, earning himself the nickname “the human rights killer” in the process.

The jockeying for position that is a constant feature of CCP politics has intensified with the 18th Party Congress, due to be convened later this year. At that meeting a new head of the CCP—presumed to be Xi Jinping—will be introduced and the membership of the elite nine-member Standing Committee of the Politburo will be reshuffled. The people who run the Party will be locked into place until the next Party Congress, five years down the road.

At the center of the intrigues in the Party are Bo Xilai, the Party boss of the province-level city of Chongqing in central-western China, and Zhou Yongkang, who heads the powerful Central Political and Legislative Committee and oversees the 610 office, an extra-judicial Gestapo-like police force charged with eradicating the spiritual practice of Falun Gong.

Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai are both known to be part of a faction in the CCP loyal to former CCP head Jiang Zemin.

Bill Gertz of the website The Washington Free Beacon quotes a U.S. official to the effect that Zhou has become Bo’s protector. After Wang Lijun, the former head of the Chongqing Public Security Bureau under Bo Xilai, left the U.S. Consulate, he was detained by Beijing officials and was said to be eager to reveal all of Bo’s dealings in order to give Bo’s opponents in the CCP the ammunition they needed to justify bringing him down.

According to U.S. officials quoted by Gertz, “Zhou Yongkang, China’s most senior security official and a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, has taken charge of Chongqing from Bo Xilai. However, Zhou has not allowed Beijing security authorities to further investigate or arrest Bo.”

Promotion Through Persecution

The special relationship of Bo and Zhou rests to a great deal on the fact that each of them climbed rapidly in the Party’s hierarchy due to their enthusiastic implementation of Jiang’s policy of eradicating the Falun Gong spiritual practice.

Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) involves practicing meditative exercises and living according to teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. After first being taught publicly in 1992, the practice spread very rapidly, so that by early 1999 an official in the state’s Sports Administration suggested 100 million people had taken up Falun Gong.

Bo Xilai rose to power by backing Jiang’s campaign against Falun Gong.

The number of people practicing—larger than the membership of the CCP, and the possibility that the Chinese people would find the teachings of Falun Gong more attractive than the doctrines of the CCP, scared Jiang Zemin, who in July 1999 ordered the campaign against Falun Gong.

Jiang did so despite a prevailing sentiment within the Standing Committee that Falun Gong practitioners were not a threat. Former Premier Zhu Rongji held a conciliatory stance toward the group, even as it came under assault. Previously, Zhu had praised how Falun Gong helped ease the regime’s health care costs.

Click this tag to read The Epoch Times’ collection of articles on the Chinese Regime in Crisis. Intra-CCP politics are a challenge to make sense of, even for veteran China watchers. Here we attempt to provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation.

With Jiang Zemin’s sponsorship, Zhou Yongkang rose from Party secretary in Sichuan Province to minister of public security, earning himself the nickname “the human rights killer” in the process. He presided over the Ministry of Public Security from 2002 to 2007, before ascending to his current post as director of Central Political and Legislative Committee.

Bo Xilai also rose due to his participation in the persecution, going rapidly from mayor of Dalian City, to governor of Liaoning Province, to minister of commerce, and, with Jiang’s and [Zhou’s] backing, was poised to become vice premier.

A 2007 U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks revealed Premier Wen Jiabao defeated Bo’s promotion to vice premier largely because of a bevy of international lawsuits for crimes against humanity filed against him by practitioners. Wen argued that because Bo was being sued around the world for persecuting Falun Gong he could not be promoted to represent the Party.

Bo Xilai learned at the 2007 Party Congress that he would be demoted from minister of commerce and sent to take charge of the problem-prone Chongqing.

Next…Controlling the Succession

Controlling the Succession

Jiang rose to power by backing Deng Xiaoping’s wish to crack down on student protesters in Tiananmen Square. Because Jiang was implicated in the repression of the students, Deng could trust Jiang to be his successor. Jiang could not in the future use the massacre against Deng without implicating himself.

Similarly, Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai rose to power by backing Jiang’s campaign against Falun Gong. Now, as the 18th Party Congress looms, the key issue for Zhou, as he leaves the Standing Committee and his post as director of the Political and Legislative Committee, and for the retired Jiang, is to assure that they and their dependents will not be called to account for their crimes against Falun Gong.

The dissident website Boxun has reported that Wang Lijun told the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu of a coup attempt that Bo was planning.

Zhou Yongkang is said to have conspired with Bo to eventually oust Xi Jinping from the leadership of the CCP.

The alleged Zhou-Bo plot involved Zhou arranging for Bo to be appointed to the Standing Committee and to succeed him as director of the Political and Legislative Committee. From that perch, which controls all of the Chinese regime’s police forces, Bo would have the power to, at the right time, push Xi out.

Click this tag to read The Epoch Times’ collection of articles on the Chinese Regime in Crisis. Intra-CCP politics are a challenge to make sense of, even for veteran China watchers. Here we attempt to provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation.

Boxun’s reporting has received support from a U.S. official quoted by Bill Gertz, who speaks of Zhou and Bo’s opposition to Xi.

According to Gertz’s source, “Wang possessed invaluable knowledge of the current Chinese power struggle, and the efforts of the hard-liners like Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai to upset the smooth succession of Xi Jinping.”

An Ohio woman was charged with attempting to hire a hit man to murder a person at random for wearing fur, reported local media, citing the FBI and prosecutors.

Meredith Marie Lowell, 27, of Cleveland Heights, was arrested by FBI agents for offering to pay an undercover agent $850 to make the hit.

In an email allegedly sent by Lowell obtained by ONN TV, which was included in the affidavit, she implored the undercover agent that she “[wants] the person to be dead in less than two minutes” and suggested bringing a gun with a silencer or a knife.

“I’m appalled and horrified that somebody would think that committing violence is going to further a cause that is all about nonviolence,” Cleveland Animal Rights Alliance co-founder Jennifer Kaden told FOX-8 television, responding to Lowell’s case.

Wang Lijun, former Chief of Chongqing Public Security Bureau, attends a meeting during the annual National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People on March 6, 2011 in Beijing, China (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

Some events shift the way in which we look at things: What had seemed permanent is revealed to be fleeting, and institutions that appeared solid are seen to be crumbling.

Such a transformative event was the sudden visit by the Chinese official Wang Lijun to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6. Today’s paper (Pages A6 — A9) carries a special four-page section that examines the background and implications of the affair Wang set in motion.

Wang was the former vice mayor and chief of police for the province-level city of Chongqing in central-western China. According to a U.S. government official quoted by the website Washington Free Beacon and according to the dissident Chinese-language website Boxun, Wang had gone to Chengdu to defect, but the United States refused to give him asylum.

Investigation and Flight

The tale of Wang’s attempted defection reads like a spy story.

On Feb. 2, Bo Xilai, the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Chongqing, relieved Wang of his duties as chief of police and demoted him from first vice mayor to seventh vice mayor, with a portfolio that included the environment and education.

Click this tag to read The Epoch Times’ collection of articles on the Chinese Regime in Crisis. Intra-CCP politics are a challenge to make sense of, even for veteran China watchers. Here we attempt to provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation.

According to Boxun, Bo had an informant on the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), a secretive and powerful Party organ that investigates and punishes cadres suspected of corruption. The informant told Bo that the CCDI, which is headed by his enemies, had launched an investigation of Wang.

During Bo’s five-year reign over Chongqing, Wang had been Bo’s henchman. Among other duties, Wang had led Bo’s “hitting the black” campaign. Said to be an anti-Mafia campaign, it was used as a political weapon.

Businessmen were jailed and their wealth expropriated. CCP officials put in place by Bo’s predecessor were also jailed—Wen Qiang, Wang’s predecessor as head of the Chongqing Public Security Bureau, was executed. Critics say Wang only targeted those gangs Bo did not control.

Wang, then, literally knew where the bodies were buried in Chongqing. Bo recognized that the CCDI sought to bring him down by investigating Wang, and so Bo threw his longtime ally overboard. Bo arrested 19 of Wang’s close associates. According to Boxun, two were killed, one committed suicide, and several were tortured.

Bo assigned policemen to monitor their former boss day and night. Wang, who knew the fates of his former staff, appeared unperturbed in public. In a Feb. 5 interview he spoke calmly of the challenge of his new duties, but Wang feared he could be assassinated at any time.

On Feb. 6, he donned a disguise, walked past the police camped outside his apartment building, climbed into a regular civilian car, and began the four-hour drive west to Chengdu. Using a temporary cellphone, he called the consulate to tell them he was on his way and wanted an interview.

Revenge at the Consulate

Wang spent over 24 hours in the consulate. The Washington Free Beacon quotes former State Department official John Tkacik, who when serving in China dealt with walk-ins requesting asylum, as saying Wang would have only been kept overnight in order to continuously debrief him.

Meanwhile, Bo had discovered Wang’s flight and dispatched Mayor Huang Qifan, who surrounded the U.S. Consulate the morning of Feb. 7 with 70 police cars, including armored vehicles, according to Hong Kong’s Mingpao newspaper.

The U.S. Consulate had informed Beijing of Wang’s presence there, and several high-ranking officials flew to Chengdu. They commanded the Sichuan national security forces to disperse the Chongqing police, who departed by noon.

That evening, Wang left the consulate and was taken under the protection of Qiu Jin, a vice minister of state security. Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported that as Wang left the consulate, he shouted out to the crowd that he was Bo’s “sacrificial lamb” and that he had transferred important information overseas.

On Feb. 9, Wang was put under investigation by the CCP Central Disciplinary Committee, according to a report on the mainland website Caixin.

Wang’s flight to Chengdu was not just about self-preservation, it was about revenge.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, “a source familiar with Wang’s debriefing said it contained details of corruption and links to organized crime by his boss, Bo Xilai, as well as details about Chinese police repression of dissent.”

Boxun has reported that Wang claimed that Bo and Zhou Yongkang, a powerful member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, were conspiring to oust the presumptive next head of the CCP, Xi Jinping, after Xi takes power at the 18th Party Congress next fall.

Avoiding Responsibility

The CCP has always had some level of factional struggle. In 1998, Chen Xitong, the former mayor of Beijing, was jailed, putatively for corruption but actually because the faction headed by Jiang Zemin wanted him out of the way. In 2008, Shanghai’s Mayor Chen Liangyu was jailed, putatively for corruption, but actually as a way for Hu Jintao to weaken the Jiang faction.

But not since the plane of Lin Biao, who had been tabbed to succeed Mao Zedong, exploded over the Mongolian desert as Lin fled to the USSR, have there been credible reports of a planned coup in China.

Lin probably believed he needed to depose Mao to preserve the CCP. Wang Lijun was not devoted to an ideology; he was a mobster with a fancy title who ran an elaborate protection racket in one of China’s great cities.

Arthur Waldron, Lauder professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote to The Epoch Times in an e-mail. “I have difficulty seeing what glue holds the CCP together any longer—nothing except a shared desire to hold on to power and to enrich themselves.”

While the Chinese regime appears to be rapidly amassing power in the forms of wealth and high-tech military weaponry, in fact the leadership’s criminality and lust for power are pulling it apart.

The weapon of choice that CCP officials use against one another is the knowledge they have of one another’s crimes. Today’s CCP has no greater crime on its hands than the almost 13-yearlong persecution of Falun Gong.

The attempt to avoid responsibility for this massive violation of human rights is forcing some officials to try to hold onto power in order to protect themselves. As the steady stream of accurate Internet leaks about Bo and Wang these past two weeks has demonstrated, other officials fight back by publicizing colleagues’ wrongdoings.

In this process of disintegration, professor Waldron warns that no hopes should be attached to one faction or one individual.

He writes, “My greatest fear with respect to the U.S. is that we will start taking sides on Chinese internal politics. … The ultimate effect of this is to tie American politics, which are constitutional, to Chinese, which are personal, dictatorial, and corrupt.”

Pakistani Islamists protest in Lahore on Feb. 22. At least 5 people are dead after protests broke into riots over the burning of the Koran. (Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)

At least five people were killed and more injured in Afghanistan after protests descended into riots over the burning of the Koran at a U.S. military base, say media reports.

Police shot and killed several demonstrators during clashes in several parts of the country, including the capital, Kabul, reported local Tolo News. On Tuesday, demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails and fired slingshots at Bagram Airbase.

Several members of the Afghan Parliament on Wednesday said those who burned the Koran should be brought to justice. “We strongly condemn the action which is an insult to more than 2 billion Muslims in the world. Those responsible for the incident must be brought to justice,” said Abdul Qayoun Sajjadi, a representative of Ghazni province, according to Tolo.

On Tuesday, several U.S. officials, including Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, commander of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, apologized for “the improper disposal of Islamic religious materials” at the airbase. The books had been incinerated. 

Department of Defense Secretary, Leon E. Panetta called it a “deeply unfortunate incident” in a statement, and said his department would launch an investigation into the matter.

“These actions do not represent the views of the United States military. We honor and respect the religious practices of the Afghan people, without exception,” Panetta said.

“When we learned of these actions, we immediately intervened and stopped them. The materials recovered will be properly handled by appropriate religious authorities,” added Panetta