Thesun 2009-01-21 Page10 Ban Sees Heartbreaking Gaza Damage

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theSun

| WEDNESDAY JANUARY 21 2009

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China blocks 244 new websites BEIJING: China has blocked 244 new pornographic websites over the last week, the official Xinhua news agency said, bringing the total number of sites shut down in a campaign against “vulgar” content to over 700. Many of the targeted websites were unregistered and broke laws about distribution of sexual content, the report said. China promised last week that the campaign, which Xinhua said is scheduled to last a month, will be no “flash in the pan”. It has been extended to cover content in mobile phone games, online novels and radio programmes. – Reuters

Bird flu threat in China rises as third person dies BEIJING: A 16-year-old boy yesterday became the third person to die of bird flu in China this month, authorities said, fuelling concerns of more deaths as the nation prepares to celebrate the Lunar New Year. The boy, surnamed Wu, died in the central province of Hunan yesterday morning, while a twoyear-old girl was suffering from the virus remained in a critical condition, a health ministry spokeswoman said. Wu was the third person to die from the H5N1 strain, bringing the total number to 23. – AFP

Thai cold snap gets pandas hot BANGKOK: Pornography, diets and sperm donation have all failed, but Thai authorities said yesterday that a rare cold spell has boosted hopes that the country’s famously celibate giant pandas could produce a cub. The Chiang Mai zoo has struggled to make its star residents – nine-year-old Chuang Chuang and his

Paraglider survives 11 hours hanging from power cables BOGOTA: A Colombian paraglider was rescued alive and well on Monday, after hanging from high-voltage cables for 11 hours in the province of Antioquia. Alberto Ocampo jumped in a mountainous area in the town of Bello, near Medellin, but his paraglider was pushed by the wind and got caught on a 110,000 volt wire. The flow of electricity was cut off on Sunday afternoon, to allow a rescue operation that ended successfully in the early hours of Monday. It took a team of 30 rescue workers to get him down. – dpa

Ban sees ‘heartbreaking’ Gaza damage Ban Ki-moon (centre) addresses the media as he visits the destroyed UN compound in Gaza.

There is hidden talent near you pg 15

GAZA: Voicing shock and anger at the “heartbreaking” devastation, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the Gaza Strip yesterday to pledge aid for Palestinians after Israeli attacks killed 1,300 and left thousands homeless. Israel was set to withdraw its remaining troops before the inauguration of Barack Obama as US president, seemingly to avoid clouding the start of a new era in a key alliance. Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush endorsed the three-week offensive as a legitimate response to

Lawyer, journalist slain in Moscow MOSCOW: A lawyer who had protested against the early release of a convicted murderer and a journalist were gunned down after a press conference in central Moscow on Monday, Russian prosecutors said. Attorney Stanislav Markelov was killed by an assailant armed with a silencer-fitted firearm at around 2pm (7pm in Malaysia) on Prechistinkaya street in downtown Moscow, a law enforcement source was quoted by local media as saying. “An assailant ran behind Markelov and a woman escorting him, Anastasia Baburova, and shot him in the back of the head from point-blank range. The woman tried to get hold of the suspect, but he shot her too,” the source told RiaNovosti. Baburova, a freelance journalist for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, died in the hospital a few hours later. – dpa

EPAPIX

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eight-year-old partner Lin Hui – mate since the pair arrived on loan from China in 2003. But zoo director Thanapath Pongpamorn said temperatures that have fallen as low as 4°C recent days have in fact steamed up the pair. Thanapath said Lin Hui has shown signs of being ready to mate, including following her partner around. – AFP

rocket fire by Gaza’s ruling Islamists. Since a ceasefire, though nothing like a peace accord, took hold on Sunday, Hamas has demonstrated it remains in charge in the coastal enclave. It held “victory” rallies to coincide with Ban’s visit. “I have seen only a fraction of the destruction. This is shocking and alarming,” Ban said, condemning the “excessive use” of force by Israel as well as militants’ rocket salvoes. “These are heartbreaking scenes I have seen and I am deeply grieved by what I have seen today,” he told a news conference held against a backdrop of still smouldering food aid in a UN warehouse set ablaze by Israeli gunfire last Thursday. Ban called the attack “outrageous” and demanded an inquiry

and, if need be, the guilty to be held to account. He criticised Hamas for firing rockets but said Israel used “excessive force”. Ban, on a Middle East tour, was the most senior diplomatic figure to visit the territory in years, certainly since Hamas routed secular Fatah forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and seized control of Gaza in June 2007. Although aid agencies said they planned a massive inflow of supplies to Gaza’s people through Israeli crossings, help will be complicated by the Western boycott of Hamas as a “terrorist” organisation and an Israeli blockade on many items, including building materials, that can be used to make weapons. – Reuters

Thai political analyst charged with insulting king BANGKOK: Police filed formal charges against Thailand’s leading leftist political commentator yesterday, accusing him of insulting the king in a 2007 book criticising the previous year’s military coup. Giles Ungpakorn of Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University denied all charges, and said the army and Democrat Party-led government were merely using Thailand’s draconian lese majeste laws to crush dissent and political opposition. “Lese majeste is being used to destroy free speech,” Ungpakorn told reporters

outside the central Bangkok police station where he heard the charges. “The lese majeste laws are there to protect the military and to protect governments that come to power through military action. They’re not really about protecting the monarchy,” he said. Insulting the monarchy is taken extremely seriously in Thailand, where many people regard King Bhumibol Adulyadej as semi-divine. It carries up to 15 years in jail although critics say the law is frequently abused by politicians since a complaint can

be filed by anybody against anybody else, no matter how trivial or tangential the alleged disrespect to the crown. An Australian author was sentenced to three years in jail on Monday for defaming the crown prince in a 2005 novel that only sold seven copies. Earlier this month, Justice Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga vowed to toughen the laws, although Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said last week he was trying to “strike the balance between upholding the law and allowing freedom of expression”. – Reuters