Credits: Kenneth ( kennethogmarie )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivcsZ38KMUU

The next day, Chiang was sent to the Taipei Police Department, where he was questioned by police and military police. As investigators did not make any progress after investigating the murder for three weeks, on Oct. 2 Chen ordered the counterintelligence unit to take over the case. The unit immediately subjected Chiang to 37 hours of interrogation and torture. He cried out that he was not innocent and that he would remember every person’s name who tortured him and who falsely accused him of rapping the litter girl.  He wrote letters to his family with names of everyone who had betrayed him and tortured him.  Two days later after being tortured, Chiang confessed to the crime and the air force closed the investigation. Chiang was executed on Aug. 13, 1997 by lethal injection to put him to sleep then he was shot in the head.

In May last year, the Control Yuan censured a military court over the case, citing seven major flaws in the trial.  The next month, -Prosecutor-General Huang Shyh-ming (黃世銘) announced the creation of a task force to reopen the investigation.  Investigators said they reviewed material evidence in the case, including fingerprints, a bloody palm print and DNA from a pubic hair sample found on the girl’s right thigh.  They compared that evidence with the prints and DNA of service members in the air force at the time.

Investigators said they had found DNA and palm prints belonging to Hsu Jung-chou (許榮洲) at the scene of the crime.  Taipei prosecutors on Friday arrested Hsu and the Taipei District Court approved a request by prosecutors for his detention. Hsu has since confessed to the crime.

The President of Taiwan Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday visited the family of Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶), who was wrongfully executed by the military 14 years ago for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl, and promised to clear Chiang’s name in a speedy manner. Ma apologized to Chiang and his family on Monday through Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), as well as a posting on his Facebook page.  After visiting the family, Ma told reporters that Chiang’s mother and uncle said they cared more about clearing his name than receiving compensation.  Unfortunately Chiang’s father passed away a few years ago never knowing that his son has finally been cleared.  Also it turns out that the so called “evidence” against Chiang was tissue in the bathroom that had his DNA.  They alleged it was his sperm but now the truth is out and it was not his sperm but rather snot from his nose.

Video of the President visiting the family (in Chinese)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qltayqMnok

Video describing the torture and the letters he wrote during his time in jail (in Chinese)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3bic776owo

But now, imprisoned for the last seven years, he speaks of a different kind of education, like the things you learn about yourself when you’re chained to a fence for 12 hours during a prison riot. “Now that’s excruciating, hands behind your back, handcuffed to a fence,” describes Andrew. “And stuff like that, you learn things; you learn to experience it.”

He appears fit and healthy, but when asked about prison life, his face tightens. “This is no place to live,” Andrew says. “This is literally an animal farm. We’re in here like animals in a zoo.” He credits having some peace of mind from a structured group of supporters from the Korean American community who visit him often. Indeed, Andrew came from what he describes as a typical KA household. The Suhs were a strong Catholic family, well-known throughout the KA community of Chicago, the majority of which has followed Andrew’s story with keen interest. When Gov. George Ryan suspended all executions in Illinois in 1999, supporters from the community came forward with a petition for executive clemency to reduce his sentence. Andrew claims that part of the reason he refused to testify against Catherine during their trial in 1996 was that he feared she would be given the death penalty. With the death penalty commuted, he is now revealing his full story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A4_yG3UG3Q

His childhood included a series of tragic setbacks. Andrew watched his father die of stomach cancer when he was just 11 years old. Then in 1987, Andrew’s mother, Elizabeth Suh, was found slain in her dry cleaning store in Evanston, Illinois. She had been stabbed 35 times and her throat slit. Detectives suspected Catherine, then 17, who frequently fought with her mother ever since the father passed away in 1985. She was a rebellious teenager with a 25-year-old boyfriend, O’Dubaine, and his not being Korean had been a source of some of the fighting. Catherine had always been an angry child. Andrew recalls that she was always “high-strung. Eccentric, I think, would be an appropriate word.”

The police, however, couldn’t find any proof, and the case went unsolved. Catherine and Andrew inherited an estate worth $800,000.

For Andrew, it didn’t matter. He was devastated. “I lost it. I just didn’t care about anything anymore,” he says. Catherine, who turned 18, assumed the role of guardian. At first, Andrew resisted, but he eventually succumbed to his sister.

“In a weird way,” he says, “it was kind of relieving.” Thirteen years old and bereft of parents, he let Catherine take control of him. She took care of the bills and the house and attended Andrew’s PTA meetings. “I’m all you have left,” she told him. “I’m your parent now.” Andrew just wanted to be a kid again, so he devoted himself to doing well in school. Whereas he used to show his parents his report card, he now showed the good grades to his sister, in the hopes of some kind of praise and affirmation. Soon thereafter, O’Dubaine moved in with Catherine and Andrew, and the three managed to function as a substitute family to replace the one that had been brutally torn apart. O’Dubaine showed Andrew how to drive stick shift and how to change the oil in his car. Both O’Dubaine and Catherine renovated their home and ran a nightclub with money invested from the mother’s insurance policy. Andrew says O’Dubaine became something of a “father figure.”

Then, during the summer of 1993, after Andrew’s freshman year in college, Catherine took her brother out to dinner and told him some shocking news: She said that O’Dubaine had killed their mother for the insurance money. Stunned, he wanted to go to the police, but Catherine refused, saying that it was she who had told O’Dubaine about their mother’s substantial life insurance policy in the first place. Andrew ran out into the street, crying. Catherine followed him, and then began urging her little brother to kill O’Dubaine. “She said, ‘This is what you have to do. You have to kill him,’” Andrew recalls. “And I couldn’t muster the courage to do it. To me, that was like past anything I’d even comprehend to do. But it made sense to me at the time, where you have to do it. If you don’t, what kind of son are you? And she kept calling and calling and calling, and then I don’t know, I just obeyed, I guess.”

Observers have remarked how it seemed as though Andrew was under his sister’s spell, but perhaps it had more to do with the trauma of his mother’s murder that led him to transfer all his trust and loyalty to his sister. Andrew knows it’s difficult to understand, but he says, “I loved my parents to the point where nothing else mattered but them. And to have that taken from you like that and to find out that someone you trust [O'Dubaine] would betray you like that. That is the most hurtful thing I can imagine. I would never want anyone to experience that.” Andrew now believes that Catherine planned the murder and O’Dubaine executed it. But O’Dubaine was never charged with the murder of the mother; he wasn’t even a suspect. So Andrew is sometimes plagued with uncertainty: Did O’Dubaine really kill his mother?

“There are always doubts,” Andrew admits. And he is remorseful about the pain he’s inflicted on O’Dubaine’s family.

“I know they hate me…. I understand they lost a son. You can’t ever, ever change that. The only thing I can do is say, ‘I’m sorry you lost a son, I’m sorry you lost a brother. I shouldn’t have done that. But I can’t do anything about it now. And I know that.’”

Andrew adds, “But the thing is, I know that [Catherine and O'Dubaine] are both responsible [for my mother's murder], because they were with each other at the time.” He points out that his sister exerted tremendous control over not only him but over O’Dubaine as well.

“Even at my trial I remember she had some guy on the phone barking like a dog,” says Andrew. “I mean, the guy openly admitted in open court, ‘Yeah, I used to do that for her.’ And I remember I was sitting there, thinking, ‘Wow, that’s some serious control to do that.’”

At their trial (Andrew and Catherine were co-defendants), Andrew refused to testify against his sister, fearing that she would be sentenced to death. Andrew’s former attorney, Michael Goode, states, “Anytime he’d see Catherine, she’d yell at him in Korean, and he’d turn from an intelligent man into this little kid who wouldn’t talk to me.”

After years of reflection, he sees how he “slowly but steadily became hers.”

Under constant urging from his sister to kill O’Dubaine, he flew back from Rhode Island to Chicago on Sept. 25, 1993. Catherine picked him up, drove him to their house, and told him to wait in the garage. She had already placed a loaded gun and a return ticket in the garage. At 7 p.m., O’Dubaine unwittingly walked in, thinking that he was just picking up his car. Catherine had called him, saying her car had broken down. “I knew what I was going to do, but it was almost surreal to me,” says Andrew. “Nothing made sense.”

Andrew fired one shot, thought he heard O’Dubaine groan, “Oh sh_t,” and then shot him again. Andrew threw the gun away in the alley and sped off in the car, abandoned it a few miles later, and took a cab to the airport.

Andrew has been haunted by the murder ever since. He goes back to the night of the event at least once every couple of days. When asked about what guilt he feels, he pauses and breathes out slowly, “Murder is a horrible thing, no matter what the purpose is for. You’re ending somebody’s life; that’s a horrid thing to do…. You never, ever forget that. It’s a life-altering moment.”

After the shooting, he remembers going completely numb. “In the plane going back, I was shaking. I think I was numb for a good week,” remembers Andrew. Back at school in Rhode Island, he didn’t eat or go to class; just sitting dazed for hours. When he was finally arrested, he says that it was a relief. Andrew and his sister were both charged with the murder, but Catherine fled to Hawaii under the alias Tiffani Escada. The media had a field day: an evil sister who manipulated her younger brother to slay her boyfriend. ABC made a TV movie, “Bad To The Bone,” starring Kristy Swanson. Andrew was in prison when he saw his sister on “America’s Most Wanted.”

“At that time in my life, I was like, ‘Don’t get caught.’ Even though she abandoned me, she was still my sister,” says Andrew. “Of course, there were times when we had fights and arguments all the time, but you don’t remember those things. You remember the tender moments where you ate lunch or dinner together or a moment like that…. You cherish moments like that.” Catherine eventually turned herself in to the FBI. She is serving a 100-year term at an Illinois correctional facility. Andrew wrote to her in prison, but he received a return letter that said: “I don’t know who you are. Leave me alone. I don’t have a brother.” Reports are that she is mentally incapacitated, having spent time in the prison’s psychiatric ward.

It is the final chapter in a sad story. Going back to his favorite novel, Andrew brings up the fact that Gatsby ultimately dies at the end. “It’s tragic to a point, but he died believing in something and somebody. And to me that romantic vision is beautiful to the point where that is something somebody should aspire to do.” He pauses. “My case was kind of different. Catherine was my Daisy, I guess you could say. And Daisy turned her back on Gatsby, too, at the end. So it’s kind of like a lose-lose situation. But at the time it seemed right.” He gives a wan smile. “That’s the way I look at that.”

This TV biopic traces the tumultuous life of Lady Choi Sook-bin, who was born as a lowly commoner but entered the royal palace to become a royal concubine where she shone ever so brilliantly. The life of her son, who is fathered by King Sook-jong, is also depicted as he transforms into the next king!  Lady Choi Sook-bin gingerly and wisely maneuvers through the deadly political infighting in the royal courts in order to survive and protect her son, who was fathered by the king. She raises her son into a well-balanced and educated person though strict discipline!

Starring

Dong Yi (actress Han Hyo-joo) After her father and brother were executed for crimes that they did not commit, she becomes orphaned at a young age. Through sheer personality, she elevates her status by having herself picked as a palace servant. Cha Cheon-soo is utterly devoted to her and will do anything to protect her. While waiting on court ladies as a palace servant, she is noticed by King Sook-jong and has his son. Their son Prince Yeon-ing later becomes a king. She becomes embroiled in a fierce battle against Queen Jang Hee-bin over whose son will ascend the throne.

King Sook-jong (actor Ji Jin-hee) He succeeds in reasserting the royal powers of the throne, which had been weakened by court politics. Ascending the throne at the tender age of 14, he grows into a charismatic and excellent leader. He has a strong will to get things done and strikes fear among his subjects. He is impressed with Dong Yi’s charming personality and intellect and later falls deeply in love with her.

	Queen Jang Hee-bin (actress Lee So-yeon) She is much beloved by King Sook-jong but the Queen Mother detested her and had her exiled from the palace. She comes out of exile later on and returns to the palace, whereupon she bears a son to the king. She has a bitter rivalry against Dong Yi throughout the episodes and always opposes Dong Yi on every matter they confront.

	Cha Cheon-soo (actor Bae Soo-bin) During the day, he works at the royal police station, inspecting bodies suspected of dying from foul play, while at night, he assumes the identity of the leader of the underground Geomgye secret society that fights corruption and misdeeds. He dedicates himself to protecting Dong Yi, whom he loves dearly.

Well recently a  South Korean man has been fined one million won ($865) for making discriminatory remarks against an Indian professor.  The conviction is the country’s first involving racist remarks towards a foreigner, Incheon District Court officials told local media.

The man yelled racist comments and said “Arab! Arab!” at the Indian man while on a bus in July, the judge said.  The professor felt publically insulted by the comments, he added.  The 31-year-old South Korean had objected to Bonogit Hussain talking loudly on a bus.  Mr Hussain had been in South Korea since 2007 and had studied for a master’s degree from Seoul’s SungKongHoe University, later working as a research professor there.  Park could have faced up to one year in prison and 2 million won in fines for public insult, Associated Press reported.

The BBC reported that there are dozens of treatment centres offering to wean youths, mostly boys, from spending hours on the web.  Many of them are military-style boot camps that rely on tough programes of physical exercise and counseling.  Two boys were beaten at separate camps earlier this year, one died and the other was severely injured.  “When intervening to prevent improper use of the internet we should… strictly prohibit restriction of personal freedom and physical punishments,” the ministry said in a draft guideline quoted by Reuters news agency.

In July, the ministry of health formally banned the use of electroshock therapy as a treatment option.  There was a public outcry after 15-year-old Deng Senshan died in August less than 24 hours after arrival at the Qihang Salvation Training Camp in Guangxi province.Days later, 14-year-old Pu Liang was put in a Sichuan hospital in a series condition after allegedly being beaten by his boot camp’s principal and other students.  Some estimates suggest up to 10% of the country’s 100 million web users under the age of 20 could be addicted, and a growing number of rehabilitation services have sprung up to deal with the problem.

Some define an internet addict as anyone who is online for at least six hours a day and has little interest in school.  The goal of intervention is… to urge the target people to use the internet in a healthy way,” the ministry of health statement said.  “It’s not to stop them from using the internet.”

October 28, 2009 “BBC” — The US military in Afghanistan is to be allowed to pay Taliban fighters who renounce violence against the government in Kabul.   The move is included in a defense bill which President Obama is set to sign.  Such payments have already been widely used by US commanders in Iraq, but it is the first time the system is being formally adopted in Afghanistan.  Early on Wednesday, Afghan troops were engaged in a shootout with suspected militants at a house in Kabul.

A day earlier eight US soldiers were killed in bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan.  The deaths make October the deadliest month for American forces in the eight-year war in Afghanistan.  President Obama is yet to decide whether to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan.  Mr Obama has said he will not risk their lives “unless it is absolutely necessary”.
The latest attacks come amid heightened tension in Afghanistan in the run-up to the second round of a presidential election marred by widespread fraud in favour of incumbent President Hamid Karzai.

The Commander’s Emergency Response Programme, or Cerp, was set up to give the US military the means to clear roads, dig wells and provide other urgent humanitarian assistance to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, the BBC’s Richard Lister in Washington says.  But in Iraq, the money can also be given to insurgents provided they switch sides. Backers of the Cerp scheme say it enabled some 90,000 formerly hostile Iraqis to form local militias and protect their towns from militants, our correspondent says.  He adds that now the same authority is being given to US commanders in Afghanistan.  A clause in the annual defense appropriations bill says they can use the money to support the “re-integration into Afghan society” of those who have renounced violence against the Afghan government.

Although $1.3bn (£691m) has been authorized for the fund as a whole, no specific sum has been allocated to the re-integration programmes, our correspondent says.  The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, Senator Carl Levin, has said he envisages the money being used to pay former Taliban fighters to protect their communities.

Doubts had been raised about whether the finding was significant.

But new data published at a conference in Paris indicates that, while small scale, the findings are robust and statistically significant.

However, the scientists say they do not understand what is causing the effect, and it seems to offer less protection to those most at risk.

Despite these drawbacks, Colonel Nelson Michael from the US military HIV research program it is still a small step in the right direction.

He said: “It’s important that people understand that this is a scientific advance, a scientific breakthrough.

“It is not a public health breakthrough; there is not a vaccine that is around the corner.

“We now, after 26 years of trying, believe that we can go down that road with confidence that we will be able to develop a vaccine that is globally effective.”

Doubts raised

Despite their initial joy when the first results from the Thai trial were announced, many scientists were concerned that the protective effect was very small.

Among the 8,000 of so who got the vaccine, 51 became infected with the virus.

Among those who received a placebo, 74 got the infection.

However, the trials sponsors, the US military and the Thai government said the 31.2% protective effect was statistically significant and real.

As more data slowly emerged some scientists began to have doubts about how robust this effect really was.

When those who had not taken all their vaccines were excluded from the trial the numbers lost their statistical power.

Many experts were concerned that the data had not been subject to a rigorous examination by other scientists.

Read more

Many questions

Now that review has taken place. And it indicates that the original findings still stand – but there are more questions than answers.

These results are an incredible opportunity for scientists to discover new clues about HIV and learn how a HIV vaccine could work in practice Deborah Jack National Aids Trust

The scientists based their conclusions on an analysis of the entire population in the study, excluding just seven people who were found to be infected on the first day of the trial.

The researchers say this is the most robust way of looking at the study.

They also published details of two other analyses of the trial, which excluded people who had not taken all their medication.

Both of these showed effects that were not statistically significant.

Among the scientists at this meeting there was a real sense of excitement about the findings.

Dr Nicola Frahm, associate laboratory director for the HIV Vaccines trials network in Seatlle, Washington, said: “Oh my God, it’s amazing.

“There is hope, there is a vaccine that prevented acquisition, the signal is very weak but this is the first time to show any effect on acquisition at all, so for the HIV community it’s an amazing day.

“The real question is to how biologically significant is this?

“The significance that has been established in this trial is that there is a 5% chance that this is a fluke.

“So we are 95% certain that what we are seeing is real and not down to pure chance. And that’s great.”

No use in Africa

The researchers point out that this vaccine would not work in Africa where the rates of HIV infection are the highest.

They say that a commercial product is still many years away and caution that prevention and education are the best protection against the infection in the medium term.

Colonel Jerome Kim is HIV vaccines product manager for the US Army.

He said: “We had something that protected a third of the people exposed to the virus in Thailand.

“It is not a globally effective vaccine; it can not be used outside of Thailand.

“Until we answer those other scientific questions the idea of using this vaccine in other parts of the world or testing it, is science rather than public health.”

Deborah Jack, chief executive of NAT (National Aids Trust), said: “The Thai trial is a milestone in the search for a vaccine against HIV.

“These results are an incredible opportunity for scientists to discover new clues about HIV and learn how a HIV vaccine could work in practice.”

China vs America

As in much of Africa, China is heavily engaged in post-war Liberia, rebuilding roads with funding from the World Bank, managing hotels and restaurants, trading in medicines and other businesses.

CHINA IN AFRICA China is Africa’s second-biggest trading partner, behind US Between 2002 and 2003 two-way trade doubles to $18.5bn By 2008 trade tops $100bn – China exports $51bn, imports $56bn Almost all imports come from oil-rich nations: Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, and Sudan Sources: China Daily, Reuters, Council on Foreign Relations

Chinese mineral firm China Union became the largest investor in Liberia when it signed a $2.6bn deal to go into iron-ore mining earlier this year.

There is even a Chinese-language radio station broadcasting across the country for the increasing number of migrant workers and expatriates.

The growing trade ties explain why the Chinese embassy and the Ministry of Youth and Sports have decided to put on free two-hour classes in the afternoon, five days a week.

Although attendances for the first few classes were sparse because of torrential rain in Monrovia, the students who did turn up were serious about the task.

John Cooper, 57, from Monrovia, says the lessons reflect Liberia’s changing political allegiances.

“Traditionally Liberians are closer to the Americans than we are to the Chinese, but the irony is that the Chinese are more open to us than the Americans are,” he says.

“If the Chinese stay here with us for about 25 years, it will be good for us.”

A middle-aged woman attending the lessons agrees that the classes are important for the country.

“In Liberia we speak only English and instead of learning French, we play with French – it is just too bad for a nation,” she says.

For others, like 40-year-old Tubman Nyennety, the motivation for doing the class is driven by personal ambition.

“We need to learn Chinese because you never tell when you will have the opportunity to travel to China,” he says.

Another student, Musu Woodfor, recalls the difficulties she faced when she fled the civil war to Liberia’s French-speaking neighbours.

“We learn French, so why not Chinese? The language barrier was a problem when we travelled as a result of the war.”

Read more….

Accords unread

Although Chinese officials will be heartened by the positive views expressed by the students, they are also hopeful that members of Liberia’s government will take up the classes.

Liberia prepared a rapturous welcome for Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2007

Chinese ambassador Zhou Yuxiao, who helped to set up the classes, says the lack of Chinese language skills among government officials can be a problem.

“Even in the Foreign Ministry in Liberia, nobody can speak Chinese ,” he says.

“When [officials] visit China, they have to have an interpreter from the Chinese side only; there is discrepancy.”

He says he is unhappy that Liberian officials cannot understand Chinese versions of the numerous bilateral agreements they sign.

“No Liberians can read the documents they sign, they don’t understand the Chinese copy, they just sign it as it is,” he says.

“It’s not fair, [you should] check the document that you are signing.”

Liberia’s Ministry of Youth and Sports agree that the language barrier is a problem.

“Chinese are here in construction work, etcetera,” says ministry spokesman Macaulay Paykue.

“If we have to deal with these people and they have to deal with us, it is only prudent that we understand each other.”