Execution does not stop Chinese knife attacks

Early in the morning on March 23, Zheng Minsheng walked in front of an elementary school in Fujian province. Wielding a knife, he attacked the students who happened to be around, killing eight and wounding several others.
Authorities said Zheng, 42, carried out the attack because he was frustrated at "failures in his romantic life," according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Whatever his real motive was, the senseless killing, reported widely by the Chinese media, shocked the nation. Zheng was tried, sentenced to death and executed on April 28.
If Chinese authorities thought Zheng's execution would deter similar attacks, they were wrong. The day he was executed, a knife-wielding man attacked elementary school students in southern Guangdong province, wounding 16 students and a teacher. The attacker was later subdued by the police, and no one died.
The next day, a man in Jiangsu province barged into a kindergarten and stabbed 31 people, including 28 students, two teachers and one security guard. "It was too horrible to imagine," one eyewitness told local reporters. "I saw blood everywhere." Police apprehended the suspect, 47-year-old Xu Yuyuan.

Then, on April 30, a man barged into a village school in Shandong province, carrying a hammer and a can of gasoline. Wang Yonglai, a local farmer, attacked preschool students with the hammer, causing head injuries. He then set himself on fire and died. According to a Xinhua report, the local farmer went berserk after the local police told him that the family house he had just built using 110,000 yuan (US$16,110) of family savings had to be torn down because it had been built on farmland, which is illegal in China.
It was the third such school attack in three days.
The spate of school attacks is prompting public anger. "What is going on with these people?" Wen Jia, a father of a pre-schooler in Beijing, asked. "Why take their frustrations on defenseless children? We need better security in schools, but we also need to take care of the mentally ill."
On Friday, the Ministry of Education on its website issued an urgent circular ordering kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools to beef up security and restrict strangers from entering the campuses. The ministry instructed schools across the country to hire security guards, install security facilities and ensure that pupils are escorted home. Schools are also urged to teach pupils to how to protect themselves.
Guns are strictly controlled in China, but until recently possession of large knives were not. Chinese authorities have recently issued a regulation requiring people to register with their national ID cards when they buy knives longer that 15 centimeters.

Other measures are being put in place. In Jiangsu province, local police have helped schools set up "campus security team" composed of 70 security guards with batons and pepper spray. Police in Beijing have distributed "forks", long poles with semi-circular prongs that security guards could use to fight assailants. In Changsha, capital of central Hunan province, parents formed vigilante teams to patrol local elementary schools.
This series of school attacks are blamed on people with personal grievances or suffering from mental illness.
Says Ding Xueliang, a sociology professor in Hong Kong: "The Chinese society has generated enormous pressure on individuals and some of those individuals have perhaps had emotional and psychological problems. They want to cause general attention from the population and attacking kids perhaps is the best way from their perspective of achieving this objective."
These recent incidents are covered extensively in the local media and on the Internet, prompting concerns over copycat violence. Says sociologist Ding Xueliang: "With the mass media (reports), particularly on the Internet, more individuals are likely to copy such practice, if the Chinese government does not do things quickly and effectively."

For the terrified pupils and worried parents, the solutions are not coming quickly enough.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks US for Afghan 'double game'

 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused the US of playing a "double game" in Afghanistan after the US used the same term to condemn Iran's role.

Mr Ahmadinejad said the US had "created terrorists and now say they are fighting them", as he appeared with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is also in Kabul, has accused Iran of giving the Taliban low-level support.
Later, Mr Karzai flew to Pakistan for talks with another key neighbor.
This is Mr Ahmadinejad's first visit to Afghanistan since both he and Mr Karzai were re-elected last year.

 At a joint press conference with Mr Karzai, Mr Ahmadinejad rejected the presence of foreign military forces "as a solution for peace in Afghanistan".
He said: "Our policy is full support for the Afghan people and Afghan government and reconstruction of Afghanistan."
Mr Gates, who is in Afghanistan to review the progress of the current Western troop surge against the Taliban, had earlier accused Tehran of "playing a double game" of offering friendship to the Afghan government while at the same time giving "low-level support" and money to the Taliban.
The Taliban are Sunni Muslims and sworn enemies of Shia Iran, which has growing interests and influence, particularly in western parts of Afghanistan.
Mr Ahmadinejad said it was the US that was playing the "double game".
"They themselves created terrorists and now they're saying that they are fighting terrorists," he said.
Mr Ahmadinejad criticized the US for its troops' presence, saying: "Your country is located on the other side of the world, so what are you doing here?"
Mr Ahmadinejad said that terrorism could not be defeated by armies, only by intelligence.
'Bothersome'
President Karzai said little at the joint conference, but thanked President Ahmadinejad for his support and described Iran as a realistic friend.
Mr Karzai said: "We are very hopeful that our brother nation of Iran will work with us in bringing peace and security to Afghanistan so that both our countries will be secure."


Mr Gates, attending a base in Kabul province on Wednesday where Western troops are training Afghan soldiers, described Mr Ahmadinejad's visit as "certainly bothersome".
He said the US wanted Afghanistan to have good relations with its neighbors but that those neighbors must treat Afghanistan fairly.
He also said US troops might begin to leave Afghanistan before the previously stated withdrawal start date of July 2011, depending on "conditions on the ground".

However, he added: "We should not be too impatient.
"At the end of the day, only Afghans will be able to provide long-term security for Afghanistan."
Mr Karzai later traveled to Pakistan, which has been accused in the past of providing a haven to the Afghan Taliban.
However, it has recently stepped up its drive to arrest Taliban leaders, including alleged second-in-command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
Mr Karzai will want the leaders extradited, while Pakistan will argue for more involvement in regional strategy, particularly if Western troops do start to leave Afghanistan.
Later on Wednesday, Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband is expected to deliver a speech in the US, urging President Karzai to do more to find a political solution to the conflict with the Taliban.
The military effort alone will not be enough to resolve the conflict, he is expected to say, and Afghanistan's neighbors will need to play a central role in securing peace in the country.

Mumbai attacks defence lawyer gunned down

A lawyer for one of three men accused of involvement in the deadly Mumbai attacks in 2008 has been shot dead, Indian police say.

Shahid Azmi was gunned down by unknown attackers in his office near Mumbai.

Mr Azmi represented Fahim Ansari, who - along with Sabahuddin Ahmed - is accused of aiding the gunmen who attacked Mumbai, killing 165 people.

Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, alleged to be the sole surviving attacker, is currently on trial in the city.

Fahim Ansari was arrested in 2008 allegedly carrying maps with details of Mumbai landmarks.

He and Sabahuddin Ahmed are suspected of scouting for those who attacked the city in November 2008.

The attacks left 174 people dead, including nine gunmen, and strained ties between India and Pakistan.

Delhi blames the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for the attacks.

Islamabad has admitted they were partly planned on its soil.

3 Coordinated Bomb Attacks Hit Hotels in Baghdad

Suicide car bombers suffering at three major hotels in downtown Baghdad on Monday, mirroring lethal coordinated attacks on ascendancy buildings in August, October and December that stimulated fears of escalating violence through Iraq clan toward central elections junket 7.

The hotels, including one favored by Western journalists, were hieroglyphics of a returning normality pull Baghdad, setting violence remains empty from two years ago.

The delegation of hash spoken that 36 people had been killed further 71 injured, but maiden estimates of casualties often flaunt wide of the mark.

The three bombs exploded roughly 10 scandal sheet apart starting about 3:30 p.m. . The three hotels hit were the Ishtar Sheraton, followed by the Babylon further the Hamra. The blasts perturbed the situation and shattered windows owing to miles around. Iraqis in surrounding areas took to the streets, wailing at the clouds of smoke.

The bombers had to phase through security checkpoints at all three hotels. At the Hamra, a day laborer who gave his name as Abu Haider vocal he dictum a car exchange gunshots at the checkpoint, then watched a second car promote through.

“It was just seconds before the explosion,” he said.

The repetitious friendless a crater roughly 12 feet abyssal and 6 feet below about 50 feet from the Hamra. It beggared the house in front of the hotel to rubble, from which rescue workers pulled bodies. A woman who gave her propose as Um Riyadh emerged from the ruined hulk of a house across the street, maroon on her head and face.

“We adrift the house,” she said, crying. “We lost corporeality. Why should I continue in Iraq? I’m going to cede. There’s no contradistinct solution.”

Two weeks before Monday’s attacks, Iraqi expectancy forces, aided by intelligence from Americans, said they had foiled another large assault on the city, capturing hundreds of pounds of explosives besides putting the longitude temporarily on lockdown.

Iraqi officials blamed the earlier attacks on Al Qaeda effect Mesopotamia, the homegrown terrorist group that Iraqi again American officials believe has outward leadership, play jointly hold back former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath roister. But no evidence has been produced of resembling a aid.