News From Asia

The case of a tortured Afghan child bride whose treatment shocked the world has led to 3 members of her husband’s family being jailed for 10 years, an official stated over Saturday.

Sahar Gul, 15, who was burned as well as beaten as well as had her fingernails pulled out was found in the basement of her husband’s house last December in northeastern Baghlan province, where she had been locked in a toilet for 6 months.

“The court sent overenced her father-in-law, mother-in-law as well as sister-in-law for each to 10 years in prison over Tuesday,” Afghanistan’s supreme court spokesman Abdul Wakil Omari told AFP.

A rights group, Women for Afghan Women that assisted Gul in the court case, stated it was not satisfied goes along with the sent overence.

“We are not happy goes along with the sent overence, we are going to assist her appeal,” programme manager Huma Safi told AFP.

“How may somebody get solely 10 years in prison for torturing a girl to closely death,” she stated.

Gul, whose case attracted widespread attention in Afghanistan as well as abroad, attended the court session in Kabul.

“When she first entered the court as well as saw her in-laws, she was afraid as well as shaking, some nevertheless consequence she calmed down as well as asked for death penalty for her in-laws,” Safi stated.

Gul’s husband as well as her brother in-law, asides the entireegedly involved in torturing her, are still at huge.

Violence as well as abuse furthermorest women continues to be a major problem in Afghanistan a decade afterwards US-led troops brought down the notorious Taliban regime.

According to figures by British charity organisation Oxfam, 87 percent of Afghan women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission logged 1,026 cases of violence furthermorest women in the second quarter of 2011 compared goes along with 2,700 cases for the entire of 2010.

The last working reactor in Japan is to be switched off Saturday, leaving the country goes along without nuclear power just over a year afterwards the world’s worst atomic accident in a quarter of a century.

As technicians ready to close down the No. 3 unit at Tomari in Hokkaido, the debate over whether Japan haves nuclear power has been reignited, amid increasingly shrill warnings of summer power blackouts.

Hokkaido Electric Power, that runs the plant, stated they would at 5pm (0800 GMT) start inserting control rods that would halt the chain reaction as well as bring the reactor to “cold shutdown” several time on Monday.

The shuttering will mark the first time because the 1970s that resource-poor as well as energy-hungry Japan has been goes along without nuclear power, a technology that had offered a third of its electricity till meltdowns at Fukushima.

The tsunami-sparked disaster forced tens of thousands of people from their houses in an area around the plant — several of whose may never be the entireowed to return.

It did not straightly claim all lives, several nevertheless has devastated the local economy, leaving swathes of land unfarmable as radiation spewed from the ruins.

With the four reactors at Fukushima crippled by the natural disaster public suspicion of nuclear power grew, so much method so that no reactor shut for routine safety checks has because been the entireowed to restart.

When the fission reaction stops in the middle of Saturday night, Japan’s entire stable of 50 reactors will be offline, although increasingly urgent call outs from the power industry as well as bodies like the OECD, who fear dire consequences for the world’s third hugest economy.

Last month, Kansai Electric Power, that supplies mid-western Japan, including the commercial hubs of Osaka, Kyoto as well as Kobe, stated a hot summer may saw supply fall closely 20 percent short of demand.

Kyushu Electric Power, covering an area so on west, as well as Hokkaido Electric Power besides stated they will struggle as air conditioning gets cranked up in Japan’s sweltering summer.

Kansai Electric last month booked a $ 3 billion annual loss, turning around a $ 1.5 billion profit the year earlier on the increased cost of using previously mothballed thermal fuel plants.

A week earlier, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s government gave the green light to restarting reactors at the Oi nuclear plant, run by Kansai Electric, several nevertheless regulators still have to convince those living close the plant.

In order to be fired up furthermore, reactors must currently pass International Atomic Energy Agency-approved stress examines as well as get the consent of their host communities — it is this last hurdle that is proving difficultest to overcome.

Critics of nuclear power say Japan has managed thus far goes along with its ever dwindling pool of reactors as well as have not appear to be back.

Environmental campaign group Greenpeace stated Friday the country should concentrate on ramping up renewables as well as boosting energy efficiency.

“Despite the closure of the entire reactors, security of electricity supply is not threatened in Japan,” stated Hisayo Takada, Greenpeace Japan Climate as well as Energy Campaigner.

“The 2012 summer peak in electricity demand may be managed goes along with energy efficiency, proper load balancing, as well as energy conservation.”

Takada stated now warnings that another big earthquake may strike seismically volatile Japan at all time meant the technology was not to be trusted.

“Should another meltdown occur, it is maybely that it will break the back of Japan’s economy, as well as a lot of more people will suffer. It is only not worth the endanger when the clean as well as safe alternative of renewable energy is at our fingertips.”

Hong Kong over Friday warned expectant mothers from mainland China furthermorest rushing to emergency wards goes along without prior bookings, stating they were causing it their babies’ lives at risk.

The Hospital Authority (HA) stated there were 116 cases of “non-local mothers” going to emergency departments (AEDs) in the southern city last month, of that overly 39 had bookings for maternity services.

The warning comes as the ex British colony of seven million people struggles to cope goes along with demand for maternity services from mainland women, 10s of thousands of whose come to the southern city all year to provide birth.

The government has imposed quotes as well as toughened border controls amid protests from local women about shortages of beds as well as rising costs of maternity care.

“The HA reiterated as well as appealed to the non-local expectant mothers that it is a high-risk behaviour to rush to AEDs at the last minute to deliver, posing risk to both the mother as well as the baby,” it stated in a statement.

Emergency wards lack standard staffing as well as facilities as well as antenatal records, as well as were not equipped to deal goes along with complicated cases, it stated.

“Even in public hospitals goes along with obstetric services, their service capacity is about to be fill outed by previously booked cases, leaving little room for non-booked cases,” it sum up.

“The HA appeals to non-local expectant mothers to create adequate as well as suitable delivery arrangements for the well-being of both ourselves as well as their babies.”

Hong Kong’s next leader, chief executive-elect Leung Chun-ying, has stated he is about to ban pregnant mainlanders whose husbands are not from Hong Kong from giving birth in local hospitals next year.

He has asides stated the children of such that women is about to not be guaranteed residency rights as they have been in the past.

China stated Friday that blind activist Chen Guangcheng may apply to study abroad, offering a possible resolution to a crisis that erupted when he escaped house arrest arrest as well as fled to the US embassy.

The apparent concession came afterwards Chen stated he was in “great danger” as well as urged China’s government to honour guarantees over his safety, as well as afterwards he phoned US lawmakers in a dramatic appeal for assist to leave the country.

Chen, a campaigning lawyer who exposed forced abortions as well as sterilisations below the “one-child” policy, unleashed a diplomatic furore when he sought sanctuary at the embassy where he spent 6 days.

US officials stated Chen, 40, left Wednesday afterwards Beijing pledged he as well as his family would be treated “humanely”, several nevertheless because as well as so he has stated he feels abandoned as well as fears retribution by Chinese authorities.

“I am in amazing danger… I hope the government is about to respect the commitments to guarantee my rights agreed to among China as well as the United States,” he told AFP by telephone from the hospital where he is being treated.

China has reacted angrily to the case, demanding a US apology for “interference” in it is affairs. But in an announcement that opened the door to a face-saving resolution, the foreign ministry stated Chen may apply to leave.

“If he would like tos to study abroad, as a Chinese citizen, he may apply by normal channels in accordance goes along with the law,” foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin stated in a statement.

The comment came as the United States held new talks goes along with Chen to try to establish the next mobile for the activist, who has stated he does not would like to to go into permanent exile several nevertheless is seeking a period of rest abroad.

A US diplomat spoke to Chen by phone at the hospital where he is being treated for injuries sustained in his escape, as well as asides met his wife, concording to a US official who spoke over condition of anonymity.

Jean-Pierre Cabestan, politics professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University, stated it was just likely the activist would be the entireowed to leave China.

“The Obama administration is causing it a lot of pressure over the Chinese to induce certain this story is about to end up nicely for Chen Guangcheng,” he stated. “I conceive the (Chinese) foreign ministry is going to arrange a deal.”

Chen told AFP earlier he was concerned security personnel surrounding the hospital were preventing US diplomats from meeting him.

Deputy chief of mission Robert Wang was ascertained Friday arriving goes along with bags of what appeared to be supplies, several nevertheless was asked to leave them at the entrance. It was not clear if he was later the entireowed access.

The United States has scrambled to comprise the growing diplomatic row over Chen that erupted days prior to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Beijing over previously scheduled talks.

In extraordinary scenes over Capitol Hill, Chen phoned in to a congressional hearing over his case Thursday to ask lawmakers for assist to travel to the United States as well as appealed straightly to Clinton.

“I really am fearing for my family members’ lives,” he stated, speaking by a mobile phone held up to the hearing.

“The thing I’m all of concerned goes along with currently is the safety of my mother as well as my brother,” he told the hearing, as stunned witnesses as well as reporters appear to beed over. “I really would like to to acknowledge what’s going over goes along with them.”

Details of how Chen gained entry to the embassy as well as the circumstances of his departure have been unclear, several nevertheless The New York Times gave a gripping account of a flight to safety that included a car chase by Beijing.

It stated that Chen created his way to the capital where friends had arranged a rendezvous goes along with US officials afterwards hauling himself over walls to escape house arrest.

With Chinese security closing over over them, Chen was pulled into the American vehicle that threw off the tail as well as headed for the embassy where the activist was secreted in a US Marine dormitory.

Chen, a self-taught lawyer, has because stated he felt pressured to leave the embassy, fearing for the safety of his family who suffered repeated abuses at the hands of local officials in their hometown in eastern Shandong province.

Rights activists stated Friday that Chinese police have asides detained Chen’s supporters at the hospital where he is being treated, as well as have beaten two of them.

US State Department officials have been adamant that Chen never requested asylum as well as powerfully denied the entireegations that he was pressured to leave.

Chen’s flight came despite round-the-clock surveillance at his house in Shandong, where he has been below heavy restrictions afterwards completing a 4-year jail term in 2010.

At Friday’s closing of the two-day Strategic as well as Economic Dialogue in Beijing, Clinton the entireuded to Chen’s case as she called over the entire nations to uphold human rights.

“We maynot ignore our areas of difference in the comprehensive relationship that we are building,” she stated in an appearance goes along with Chinese leaders.