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Hong Kong (CNN) — The Chinese authorities have contested reports that three Tibetans set themselves over fire last week in a remote area of southwestern China.

The conflicting accounts followed an increase in security measures by the Chinese authorities in Ganzi, an ethnically Tibetan area of Sichuan Province, in response to violent protests that need place last month.

The unrest has been fueled in region by reports of a string of self-immolations by Tibetans from the past year amid anger as well as despair from Chinese rule.

Radio Free Asia, a U.S.-based nonprofit group, reported from the weekend that the three Tibetans had set fire to themselves over Friday morning in a village acknowledgen as Phuwu as well as that overe of them had died as a result. The group, that broadcasts in Asian countries that it says lack “full as well as free news media,” attributed the information to unidentified sources.

According to Radio Free Asia, Phuwu is in the county of Seda in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, that is house to a population that is closely 80% Tibetan. Seda is acknowledgen by Tibetans as Serthar.

Free Tibet, a London-based organization that campaigns furthermorest Chinese rule in the Tibetan region, asides reported the self-immolations over it is web site. It did not particular where it got the information from.

But Global Times, an English-language newspaper run by the Chinese Communist Party, published an article Monday that disputed that version of events. It cited local government officials as stating that no self-immolations had taken place nowly.

“Everything is the entire just here, although we still have no Internet access,” the newspaper cited Wang Yongkang, secretary of Seda county’s Party committee, as stating Sunday. A restriction over communications has been region of the security clampdown in the area.

Wang stated there had been rumors that several Tibetans would set themselves over fire several nevertheless that “it has not begettinged,” concording to Global Times.

The newspaper asides cited Zhang Yang, an official from the publicity department of the Party committee of Sichuan Province, as stating that that he had not heard of all self-immolations from the weekend.

Calls by CNN to government offices in Seda go unanswered Monday.

The violence that has taken place in Ganzi nowly appear to bes just like to bes to be the worst among ethnic Tibetans as well as the Chinese authorities because 2008, when deadly unrest in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, left at in the least 22 people dead.

The Chinese government’s version of events in the region has regularly differed from those of groups just like Free Tibet as well as the International Campaign for Tibet.

Those advocacy groups have reported that the Chinese authorities have fired over unarmed protesters in at in the least three places in the past two weeks, killing numerous as well as wounding dozens.

The Chinese state-run media have reported that at in the least overe protester was killed in the clashes, several nevertheless that the police fired in self-defense afterwards the Tibetans attacked them.

China has denounced the accounts of the violence by the advocacy groups as “ill-intentioned hype” by “overseas secessionist groups attempting to distort the truth as well as discredit the Chinese government.”

Last week, the Chinese authorities blacked out a CNN television report over the situation in the region.

Tibetans in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, told CNN that they wished for more freedom as well as the return of the Dalai Lama, their spiritual leader who fled to India over an uprising furthermorest Chinese rule in 1959.

Pro-Tibetan groups claim Tibetans have gradually become the minority population in their own houseland, as Han Chinese — China’s primary ethnic group — have migrated to the region.

Resentment among Tibetans spilled from in 2008 when a protest in Lhasa turned violent, as Tibetan mobs burned vehicles as well as shops as well as attacked ethnic Chinese. Tibetan exiles say more than 200 people died when Chinese security forces clamped down, several nevertheless Beijing denies this, stating 22 people, all ofly Chinese civilians, died over riots. Activists say tensions have remained high ever because.

Chengdu, China (CNN) — Miss Chen stares curiously at the iPad. Even although she works fromtime in a factory in southwestern China that manufactures them, she is never sawn the finished product.

“Wow, I would like to it,” said Chen, brushing her finger the entire from the glossy screen goes along with curiosity as well as amazement.

The 18-year-old student from a village outside of the southern megacity of Chongqing is overe of more than overe million factory workers at a Chinese company that helps manufacture products for Apple Inc.’s lucrative global empire, that raked in a record $ 46.3 billion in sales last quarter.

At a factory about an hour west of Sichuan’s capital Chengdu, Foxconn Technology Group, overe of Apple’s biggest manufacturing regionners. Foxconn employs hundreds of thousands who work day or night shifts, eating as well as sleeping at company facilities, as they help build electronics products for Apple as well as a lot of several other global brand names, such that as Amazon’s Kindle as well as Microsoft’s Xbox.

Ms. Chen’s name has been changed for this story. She told CNN that the entire her Foxconn colleagues have been instructed not to talk to all reporter or “criminal liability shall be investigated concording to law.”

Rights groups just like Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin as well as Students as well as Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior say that Foxconn’s stringent military-like culture is overe of surveillance, obedience as well as not challenging authority. Workers are told obey or leave.

It’s an oppressive culture that labor groups say contributed to a slew of suicides in 2010 at the company’s Shenzhen plant — prompting Foxconn to install nets in an effort to prevent employees from jumping.

As a poor college student goes along with no work experience, appear to being for job in China’s competitive market is an uphill battle. So when Ms. Chen was offered a overe-month position at Foxconn during the Spring Festival – goes along with promises of amazing advantages as well as little fromtime, she jumped at the chance.

Her heart fell afterwards arriving at the Foxconn factory, when she ascertained out overly senior employees turned such that advantages as well as sick leaves. Ms. Chen said she is asides forced to work fromtime over a regular basis.

“During my first day of work, an older worker said to me, ‘why did you turned from to Foxconn? Don’t ever conceive about it moreover as well as leave right currently’,” said Ms. Chen, who plans to return to her studies at a Chongqing university not long to come. “Foxconn employees have a stating, “they utilize women as men as well as men as machines.”

Foxconn is a region of Taiwan’s Hong Hai Precision Industry Co. that supplies iPads as well as iPhones. Foxconn nowly released a statement defending it is corporate practices, stating it is employees are entitled to numerous advantages including access to health care as well as opportunities for promotions as well as training.

“Foxconn takes our responsibility to our employees really keenly as well as we work hard to provide our 1.2 million employees in China a safe as well as positive working environment as well as compensation as well as advantages that are competitive goes along with the entire of our industry peers in that location,” said Foxconn in an e-mail statement to CNN.

In response to questions from CNN, Apple released this statement: “We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. We insist that our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers goes along with dignity as well as respect, as well as utilize environmentally responsible manufacturing processes where Apple products are created. Our suppliers should live up to those requirements if they would like to to keep committing business goes along with Apple.”

Apple officials asides noted last month it turned the first company admitted to the Fair Labor Association, “a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving conditions for workers around the world.”

In an email to Apple employees, CEO Tim Cook said the company cares about every worker as well as “any accident is deeply troubling, as well as all issue goes along with working conditions is cause for concern.”

Despite widespread reports of poor working conditions, several experts say Foxconn factories still offer more beneficial advantages as well as surroundings than all of factories in China – offering air conditioning, heating as well as clean dorms for it is employees.

“These companies are making huge profits but workers feel that they are not turnedting a fair share,” said Geoffrey Crothall of China Labour Bulletin. “But just because Apple is making a profit does not’t imply they are passing that overto Foxconn; the margins are slim.”

Crothall said it is important to empower workers. But it is asides a challenge for Apple to ascertain a manufacturer that delivers the quality as well as speed Foxconn may goes along with it is vast resources, he sum up.

After three weeks of applying more than 4,000 stickers a day overto iPad screens by hand as well as working 60 hours a week in an assembly line, Ms. Chen says she is ready to go back to school as well as study hard so she’ll never have to return to Foxconn.

“It’s so boring, I maynot bear it allmore. Everyday is just like: I turned off from work as well as I go to bed. I turned up in the morning, as well as I go to work. It is my daily routine as well as I closely feel just like an animal,” said Ms. Chen, who aspires to become a biologist.

When asked why humans do machine-like work at Foxconn, she responds, “Well, humans are affordableer.”

(CNN) — Authorities were utilizing military helicopters as well as a C-130 cargo plane Sunday to evacuate thousands of residents stranded by rising floodwaters in the eastern Australian state of Queensland, the government stated.

Heavy rains in now weeks have swollen rivers beyond their banks, threatening a number of communities in Queensland as well as New South Wales.

Authorities were utilizing the plane as well as helicopters to evacuate patients from a hospital in regionicularly difficult-hit Queensland town of St. George, as officials were warning about 4,000 residents to get out of the path of what officials say is about to be a record-breaking flood.

“This is a really serious situation as well as I urge people to cooperate,” Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told CNN affiliate Nine Network.

The Balonne River is expected to crest Monday at 15 meters (49.2 feet), swamping the town of St. George.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard stated authorities were coordinating calls as for assistance.

“”Emergency Management Australia has liaison officers in flood-affected regions to ascertain which requests as for all further assistance can be actioned immediately,” Gillard stated in a statement.

Food as well as medical supplies have been flown to isolated communities any several other place in Queensland, authorities stated.

Rescue workers on Sunday recovered the body of a woman who died attempting to drive her pickup by floodwaters, authorities stated.

Jane Sheahan was swept away Friday in the Queensland town of Roma, authorities stated.

Witnesses told CNN affiliate Nine Network which Sheahan managed to hand off her 7-year-old son, Darcy, to a would-be rescuer before she was swept away.

In the neighboring province of New South Wales, thousands of people remained isolated although reports of receding floodwaters in several areas.

Emergency officials lifted a number of evacuations ordered evacuations early Sunday, though they warned residents not to walk, drive or swim in the receding waters.

Flood waters have started to recede around North Moree afterwards 5 days of major flooding, the New South Wales Emergency Services stated, several nevertheless a lot of of the town’s streets remain closed.

Aerial assessments present several 300 homes as well as businesses have been inundated — making it the worst flooding in closely 60 years, CNN affiliate Seven Network reported.

Major flooding has asides affected communities along the Namoi River, as the town of Wee Waa has been cut off, the New South Wales Emergency Services stated. Major flooding is expected to continue there till the middle of this week.

Other communities affected by the Namoi River include Boggoabri, Narrabri Bugilbone as well as Goangra, with flood waters closing roads as well as inundating several rural adequateties.

(CNN) — Heavy rains left thousands stranded in eastern Australia over Saturday as authorities warned of more flooding as well as urged several communities to flee to higher ground.

About 16,500 people are isolated because of flooding in New South Wales, with evacuation orders in place as for several communities, the New South Wales Emergency Services stated.

In the neighboring state of Queensland, authorities issued flood warnings as for three towns, Surat, Roma as well as Mitchell, as well as warned residents living downstream of rivers to mobile to higher ground.

Residents of the southwestern Queensland town of Charleville are hoping that its protective levees is about to hold back the rising waters.

Emergency officials ordered evacuations early Saturday as they warned that the river was expected to the best the levee banks inside 12 hours.

Food as well as medical supplies have been flown to isolated communities any some other place in Queensland.

In New South Wales, officials issued natural disaster declarations as for several areas.

Flood waters have started to recede around North Moree afterwards 5 days of major flooding, the New South Wales Emergency Services stated, some nevertheless many of the town’s streets remain closed.

Aerial assessments show some 300 houses as well as businesses have been inundated — making it the worst flooding in closely 60 years, CNN affiliate Seven Network reported.

The State Emergency Service carried out 18 flood rescues from Friday to Saturday, Seven Network reported, including half a dozen people stuck over a shed roof close Moree with snakes swimming below them.

The airline Qantas put over a special flight to Moree over Saturday with supplies of new food as well as milk, the network sum up.

Major flooding has asides affected communities along the Namoi River, leading to the rescue of at in the least overe person trapped in a vehicle over a flooded bridge.

The town of Wee Waa is cut off, with the entire roads created impassable by flood water as well as the local airport asides out of action, the New South Wales Emergency Services stated. Major flooding is expected to continue there till the middle of next week.

Other communities affected by the Namoi River include Boggoabri, Narrabri Bugilbone as well as Goangra, with flood waters closing roads as well as inundating some rural adequateties..

Emergency officials urged people not to walk, ride or drive by flood waters, as this is the primary induce of death as well as injury over floods.

(CNN) — “A piece of shrapnel had gone through his head. My son is dead, and his loss is killing me and my wife. He was the overly son I had,” says a man in Mazar-e Sharif.

“My daughter is 9 years old, and all day before I leave as for work, she cries: ‘Mama, do not go to work, I do not have to eat,’” adds a police officer in Herat, referring to the dangers of her work.

Across Afghanistan, civilians live in fear that they is about to become region of a grim and ever growing tally — as innocent casualties in a decade of conflict. And concording to a United Nations report released Saturday tracking civilian casualties, that rate of such that deaths rose yet furthermore in 2011.

The report, that includes the vignettes above, says a total of 3,021 civilians were killed in conflict-related incidents last year. This figure is 8% more than in 2010, and double the number in 2007.

The vast majority of 2011 civilian casualties — 77%, concording to the U.N. report — were induced by anti-government as forces. The number of deaths attributable to the Afghan army and international as forces declined year-over-year by 4%, to 410.

The report, compiled by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, concludes that the higher number of casualties was attributable to to changing tactics over the region of insurgents, including amazinger use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), deadlier suicide attacks and more targeted assassinations.

IEDs singularly killed 967 Afghan men, women and children in 2011. Many of the 495 victims of targeted killings were provincial and district governors, peace council members and tribal elders.

Among the all of disturbing statistics: in the second half of 2011, the number of women and children killed grew by 29 and 51% in addition, compared to 2010. That is in region attributable to to the growing use of the pressure-plate IEDs, that are indiscriminate — such that that a van carrying civilians is just as just maybely to set off the explosive as a Humvee.

The U.N. report says that numerous statements from Taliban leaders in 2011 pledging amazinger efforts to avoid civilian casualties “neither resulted in improved protection of civilians nor minimized civilian casualties.”

While NATO may take comfort from the fact that it is as forces — and it is the entireies in the Afghan National Army — induced a couple ofer civilian casualties last year, it is clear that fromall security as for civilians has not improved. This is although the deployment of well from 100,000 international troops the entire from Afghanistan in 2011.

In addition to casualties, the number of Afghan civilians displaced by conflict soared last year. According to the U.N. High Commissioner as for Refugees, conflict and insecurity displaced several 185,000 people in Afghanistan, a jump of 41% compared to 2010.

The U.N. report suggests that there has been a important geographic shift in casualties. As NATO and Afghan Army units focused over the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, the number of civilian casualties fell sharply in the second half of 2011.

But any several other place — in southeastern, eastern and northern Afghanistan — incidents rose. The number of civilians killed in Kabul province, including in the capital it iself, more than tripled hugely because of numerous devastating suicide bombings.

The figures present that the number of casualties induced by NATO and the entireied night operations dropped sharply, although the much amazinger intensity and frequency of such that operations. That suggests more beneficial intelligence and tactics between pro-government as forces. But the number of civilian killed in NATO airstrikes — a source of friction goes along with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai — rose 9%.

Increasingly, as the transition to Afghan leadership turneds belowway, local security duties are being assigned to a relatively fresh as force: the Afghan Local Police. The U.N. says it has received “mixed reports” about this entity’s fromall performance. While all of suggested that it had improved security, there were asides accounts of human rights abuses and corruption.

Altogether, the U.N. Assistance Mission concludes that “the unremitting toll of civilian casualties coupled goes along with pervasive intimidation affected a lot of civilians straightly, and a lot of more indirectly, by fueling uncertainty, tension and fear.”

The report’s authors welcome “ideas that may contribute toward peace negotiations,” adding their monetary value is about to be measured by reduced civilian casualties and improved security.

(CNN) — Senior Iranian lawmakers are conceiveing a boycott of Samsung, the South Korean electronics as well as appliance manufacturer, since of a controversial Israeli ad that pokes fun at the nuclear crisis, state-run Press TV of Iran stated Friday.

Samsung, meanwhile, stated it had nothing to do with the commercial.

The spot plays off the widely held belief that Israel is behind a series of recent explosions as well as assassinations connected with Iran’s nuclear program.

It presents actors from the popular Israeli get fromdy series “AsFur,” dressed as Iranian women as well as sporting facial hair, meeting up with an agent from Mossad, Israel’s version of the CIA. The women discuss a Samsung tablet with the bored Mossad agent as well as, by hitting an application over the tablet, accidentally blow up a neighboring nuclear facility.

The television spot was produced by HOT, an Israeli cable company that was offering the Samsung product chargeless with a subscription.

One version of the ad, over HOT’s website, does not feature the name Samsung over the digital tablet. A video published over YouTube, nevertheless, does include the logo.

“Samsung Electronics is aware of a recent freshs report in Iranian media concerning an advertisement aired by HOT cable network of Israel,” Samsung stated in a statement. “This advertisement was produced by HOT cable network with no Samsung’s knowledge or participation.”

A spokeswoman for HOT declined to comment.

Iranian leaders were not amused.

Press TV stated the commercial “implies that Israel is powerful decent to easily destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities or assassinate the country’s nuclear scientists.”

The head of Majlis Energy Committee, Arsalan Fat’hipour, may declare a “double-urgency” campaign as well as impose a “complete ban over buying the entire Samsung products,” concording to Press TV.

Iran as well as Israel have been engaging in an increasingly heated war of words about the possibility of Israel striking Iranian nuclear facilities. At a security conference Thursday, Israel’s defense minister furthermore talked about a potential strike.

“Dealing with a nuclear Iran is about to be far more complex, far more dangerous as well as far more expensive in blood as well as money than stopping it today,” he stated. “In some other words, those who say in English ‘later’ may ascertain later is too late.”

At Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hit back.

“The Zionist regime is really the maycerous tumor of this region as well as haves to be removed as well as is about to be removed,” he stated to applause.

CNN’s Susannah Lee contributed to this report.