Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/313248
ByChrisBrummitt The Associated Press HANOI, VIETNAM A 1,000-strong mob stormed a Taiwanese steel mill in Vietnam and hunted down Chinese workers, killing one, attacking scores more and then setting the com- plex alight, Taiwanese and Vietnamese authorities said Thursday, further inflam- ing tensions between Hanoi and Beijing as they square off against each other in the disputed South China Sea. It was the first deadly incident in a wave of anti- China protests triggered by Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in the long-disputed seas on May 1. Vietnam is angrily demanding that China remove the rig and has sent ships to confront it and a flotilla of Chinese es- cort ships, triggering fears of possible conflict. Businessesbearbrunt Taiwanese companies, many of which employ Chi- nese nationals, have borne thebruntoftheprotestsand violence, which is posing a challenge to the authori- tarian government, which prides itself on maintaining peace and security. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said peaceful protests over thelastfewdayswere"legit- imate," but that anyone in- volved in violence should be punished severely. Nervous Chinese expa- triates were fleeing by land and air. Cambodian im- migration police said 600 Chinese crossed into Cam- bodia over the land border in southern Vietnam on Wednesday, and that oth- ers were arriving Thursday. Taiwan's China Airlines was adding two additional charter flights from south- ern Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, according to Taiwan's Central News Agency. In Beijing, Foreign Min- istry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China was "greatly shocked and con- cerned." "We urge the Vietnam- ese government to ear- nestly assume responsibil- ity, get to the bottom of the incident, punish the per- petrators harshly, and pay compensation," Hua said. The riot took place at a mill in Ha Tinh province in central Vietnam, about 220 miles south of Hanoi. It fol- lowed an anti-China protest by workers at the complex, operated by the conglomer- ate Formosa PlasticsGroup, one of the biggest foreign in- vestors in Vietnam, accord- ing to Taiwan's top repre- sentative in the country, Huang Chih-peng, and po- lice. Huang, who spoke to a member of the management team at the mill, said rioters lit fires at several buildings and hunted down the Chi- nese workers, but did not target the Taiwanese man- agement. He said the head of the provincial govern- ment and its security chief were at the mill during the riot but did not "order tough enough action." He said he was told one Chinese citizen was killed in the riot and around 90 oth- ers were injured. Ha Tinh's deputypolicechief,BuiDinh Quang, said the situation was "stable" on Thursday and that none of the injured, which he put at 141, had life- threatening injuries. Anti-Chinese sentiment is never far from the surface in Vietnam, but has surged since Beijing deployed the massive deep sea oil rig in disputed waters about 150 miles off the Vietnamese coast, close to the Paracel Islands. The government protested the move as a vi- olation of Vietnam's sov- ereignty and sent a flotilla of boats, which continue to bump and collide with Chi- nese vessels guarding the rig. The U.S. has also de- scribed China's actions as "provocative." In Washington, U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said after a meeting Thursday with his Chinese counterpart that in a world where infor- mation moves so fast, "is- sues afloat quickly become issues ashore as we've seen today in Vietnam." ASIA Vi et na m ri ot s le av e 14 1 Chinese injured, 1 dead By Matthew Lee The Associated Press WASHINGTON The State Department acknowledged Thursday it could have acted sooner to designate Nige- ria's Boko Haram a foreign terrorist organization, even though the Nigerian gov- ernment and many Africa experts opposed the move when it was first considered two years ago. The acknowledgment — accompanied by a caveat that it is impossible to say if an earlier designation would have had a significant impact on the group — came amid Republican criticism of for- mer Secretary of State Hill- ary Rodham Clinton's deci- sion not to take the step in 2012. And it was made as se- nior U.S. officials declared to Congress that freeing the schoolgirls abducted by the radical Islamist group last month has become one of the Obama administration's top priorities. Limitations lamented As the 276 girls entered a second month in captivity that has sparked global out- rage, senior officials from the State Department, the Pen- tagon and the U.S. Agency for International Develop- ment told a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee that the U.S. is committed to assisting Nigeria in com- batting the al-Qaida-linked Boko Haram as it expands its reach and builds capac- ity for more sophisticated and deadlier terror attacks. At the same time, though, the officials lamented limi- tations on U.S. cooperation with the Nigerian military due to its poor human rights record. And they expressed concern about the Nigerian government's commitment to fight the group and the ability of its army to do so. "In general, Nigeria has failed to mount an effective campaign against Boko Ha- ram," said Alice Friend, the Defense Department's prin- cipal director for Africa. "In the face of a new and more sophisticated threat than it has faced before, its secu- rity forces have been slow to adapt with new strate- gies, new doctrines and new tactics." Robert Jackson, a State Department specialist on Af- rica, told the panel that Nige- rian objections to the State Department formally listing Boko Haram a "foreign ter- rorist organization" in 2012 were a main reason Clinton chose not to make that des- ignation, which would have imposed sanctions. At the time, some U.S. agencies, including intelli- gence services and the Jus- tice Department, were push- ing for the designation, say- ing the group met the strict criteria and was becoming a growing threat, not only to Nigerians but to U.S. inter- ests in west Africa. The Nigerian govern- ment, however, argued that such a designation could give undeserved visibility and credibility to what was then a largely localized in- surgency. A group of lead- ing Africa scholars weighed in, saying the designation might hurt the Nigerian gov- ernment's attempts to blunt the group's influence by ad- dressing poverty and pro- moting educational, health and infrastructure develop- ment. After what Jackson called a "healthy debate," Clinton opted to blacklist Boko Ha- ram's top three command- ers as individual terrorists instead of designating the entire group. It was not until last year, under current Secretary of State John Kerry, that the State Department listed Boko Haram as a terrorist organization. The adminis- tration has also offered a re- ward of up to $7 million for information leading to the capture of its leader. Asked by Sen. Marco Ru- bio, R-Fla., if that had been a mistake to wait, Jackson said the U.S. might act more quickly and be less deferen- tial to foreign governments' desires in the future. "In retrospect, we might have done it earlier," he said, adding: "I think the impor- tant thing is that we have done it and that we've of- fered a reward for the lead- ership of Boko Haram's lo- cation. "I think, senator, that there is definitely a lesson here," Jackson told Rubio, "and I think that we will be quicker to act to make desig- nations based on our own as- sessments earlier on based on this." The 2012 debate was re- kindled last week after Clin- ton, a potential 2016 presi- dential candidate, joined the international outcry over the mass abduction of the girls. Clinton expressed sol- idarity with the kidnapped girls on May 4, tweeting that "access to education is a basic right & an un- conscionable reason to tar- get innocent girls. We must stand up to terrorism." She ended the tweet with the popular hashtag, "#Bring- BackOurGirls." NIGERIA US s ay s Bo ko H ar am is now 'top priority' SUNDAYALAMBA—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS People attend a sit-down rally calling on the government to rescue the kidnapped school girls of the Chibok secondary school, in Abuja, Nigeria, on Thursday. By Jessica Gresko The Associated Press WASHINGTON A federal judge Thursday upheld reg- istration requirements that arepartofthegunlawsinthe nation's capital, approving of measures that make own- ers take a gun safety class, be photographed and finger- printed and re-register their weapons every three years. The city put the re- quirements in place after a landmark 2008 Supreme Court decision that ended a 32-year-old handgun ban in the District of Columbia. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled that requirements the city put in place are constitutional. This isn't the first time a judge has approved of the requirements. A judge first upheld them in 2010 after a group of residents sued. A year later, however, an ap- peals court upheld a city ban on assault weapons but told the District it had to explain further why its registration requirements are necessary. In his 62-page ruling Thurs- day, Boasberg accepted the city's reasoning. Boasberg began his rul- ing by noting "The District of Columbia knows gun vio- lence," and citing high-pro- file gun crimes in recent years, including a gunman's fatal shooting of 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard last year. Boasberg said the city has enacted some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation in "an effort to stem this violence and pro- mote public safety." "The people of this city, acting through their elected representatives, have sought to combat gun violence and promote public safety. The Court finds that they have done so in a constitution- ally permissible manner," he wrote. Stephen P. Halbrook, a lawyer who represented the residents who sued, said he was "disappointed" that all the registration require- ments were upheld. He said he expected to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He also took issue with Boas- berg's use of the Navy Yard case and other crimes com- mitted with guns. "Our point is the restric- tions on law-abiding people doesn't help that situation," said Halbrook, who repre- sents the group that includes Dick Heller, the man who challenged the city's hand- gun ban and won before the U.S. Supreme Court. Only six states and the District require the registra- tion of weapons, according to the San Francisco-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The District and Hawaii are the only places in the country where the re- quirement applies not only to handguns but also to ri- fles and shotguns. Restrictions in the Dis- trict also include that a res- ident can only register one pistol a month. A required training and safety class is free, takes about 30 minutes to one hour to complete and can be taken online or at the police department. COURT Judge upholds DC gun registration law By Jim Salter The Associated Press ST. LOUIS The Associated Press and four other news organizations filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the secret way in which Mis- souri obtains the drugs it uses in lethal injections, ar- guing the state's actions pro- hibit public oversight of the death penalty. The lawsuit asks a state court judge to order the Mis- souri Department of Correc- tions to disclose where it pur- chases drugs used to carry out executions along with detailsabout the composition and quality of those drugs. "We assert that there is a constitutional right for the public to know the drugs that are used when a state puts someone to death," said Dave Schulz, an attor- ney for the news organiza- tions and co-director of the Media Freedom and Infor- mation Access Clinic at Yale Law School. A spokeswoman for Mis- souri Attorney General Chris Koster, Nanci Gonder, declined to comment when asked Thursday about the lawsuit. Missouri is among the many U.S. states that re- fuse to disclose where they purchase execution drugs, their makeup and how they are tested. The sourcing of execution drugs has become an issue nationwide since major drug- makers, many based in Eu- rope, began to refuse selling their products if they were to be used in an execution. Many states have turned to compounding pharma- cies, which are not as heav- ily regulated as traditional pharmaceutical companies but are able to make the re- quired drugs. Several have refused to name their sup- plier, sometimes citing se- curity concerns and threats to the pharmacies. Six men have been exe- cuted in the state with the single drug pentobarbital since November. Another execution is scheduled for Wednesday, when Russell Bucklew is set to die for kill- ing a romantic rival as part of a crime spree in southeast Missouri in 1996. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT Media challenge execution secrecy N EWS D AILY REDBLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 PHONE: (530)527-2151 FAX: (530) 527-5774 545 Diamond Avenue • P.O. Box 220 • Red Bluff, CA 96080 Support our classrooms, keep kids reading. DONATE YOUR VACATION newspaper dollars to the Newspaper In Education Program HELP OUR CHILDREN For more details call Circulation Department (530) 527-2151 | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014 4 B