Quake rolls across Baja

The magnitude 7.2 temblor topples buildings and is blamed for at least two deaths. Damage is worst in the border cities of Calexico and Mexicali.

By Tony Perry and Tracy Wilkinson

April 5, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City and Mexicali, Mexico

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake rocked Mexico's Baja California peninsula Sunday, jolting millions of people from Los Angeles and San Diego to Phoenix and scattering destruction along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Emergency services in both the U.S. and Mexico scrambled to assess the extent of casualties and damage, including fallen buildings, buckled roads, cracked water canals, fires and telephone and electrical outages. It appeared that most of the damage was in the twin border cities of Calexico, Calif., and Mexicali, Mexico, where at least two people were reported killed and several injured.

Witnesses on both sides of the border reported feeling a strong, rolling series of shakes that unleashed panic in a dozen or more towns and cities. Families in the middle of Easter lunches were sent running for cover.

"It's really ugly here," Olga Jimenez, 29, a water-company worker in Mexicali, said by telephone as her house continued to shake around her and ambulance and police sirens wailed in the background. "We felt a really big shake. The walls on houses fell down and people were running in the streets screaming."

A new four-story parking garage at Mexicali's state government headquarters partly collapsed, along with part of the city's courthouse, residents said. Patients were evacuated from the main hospital for fear of structural damage.

At least one person was killed in Mexicali by falling debris, Alfredo Escobedo, head of local emergency services, told reporters. A second man was killed when he panicked as the ground shook, ran into the street and was struck by a car.

Miguel Coronado, 48, who was in Mexicali with half a dozen relatives visiting family for Easter, said the quake "shook so strong that some people fell down. Some people got hysterical, and others started praying."

On Sunday night he joined a flood of people walking over the border from Mexicali into Calexico, after the crossing was closed to northbound vehicular traffic. People streamed across carrying babies, lugging laundry bags and pushing suitcases and elderly relatives in wheelchairs.

"It's a disaster over there," said Nayeli Ramirez, 17, after crossing into Calexico. "Buildings are tipped up. Cars are smashed. It's horrible. Everyone is running."

In Calexico's older central district, windows were broken and goods had tumbled off store shelves. Glass and plaster were everywhere. By Sunday evening, some merchants were already sweeping up as inspectors red-tagged buildings to keep people out until damage surveys could be completed.

"Calexico has suffered a devastating hit," said City Manager Victor Carrillo. "Our downtown is shut down, and people everywhere are afraid."

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the magnitude of the quake at 7.2 -- equal to the force that devastated the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince in January. It hit about 3:40 p.m. local time, lasted about 35 seconds and was followed 16 minutes later by a magnitude 3.9 shaker near Borrego Springs, Calif., and, separately, a magnitude 4.1 temblor six miles southwest of Malibu in the Pacific Ocean.

It was the third major quake in the Western Hemisphere in the last three months: In addition to the Haiti disaster, in which more than 200,000 people were killed, central and southern Chile were hit by one of the most powerful seismic events in history when an 8.8 quake struck on Feb. 27, killing about 700 people.

The epicenter of Sunday's main quake was near the Mexican town of Guadalupe Victoria, a wine-producing region about 30 miles south of Mexicali-Calexico and 220 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Bridges collapsed around the town and concrete irrigation canals were badly damaged. At about six miles underground, it was a relatively shallow quake, which enhances the potential for devastation.

In Mexicali, Calexico and even parts of San Diego County, electrical power failed, water was cut and gas leaks were reported. The Mexican federal electrical company said transmission lines from Tijuana, the Rosarito substation and the lines that connect Baja California to Imperial Valley, Calif., were all affected.

Electricity and water delivery are now functioning in Calexico and elsewhere in Imperial County. But Mexicali is still without electricity or water delivery.

In Los Angeles, seismologist Lucy Jones of the USGS said the fault involved in Sunday's quake was probably the Laguna Salada, which is about 43 miles long and straddles the California-Mexico border. A magnitude 8.2 quake occurred on the same fault in 1890, Jones said, centered in a location north of Sunday's temblor. Geologists will need to physically observe the fault before making a definitive determination of the quake's origin, she added.

The quake moved from the southeast toward the northwest, explaining why Southern California felt it so strongly.

Occurring at the junction between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates that grind against each other in California and Baja California, the quake occurred on a strike-slip fault, which splices vertically through the Earth's crust causing the surface land to move horizontally.

The area has been seismically active for the last year, and there were several foreshocks that occurred beginning last Wednesday, with magnitudes of 3 and 4, Jones said.

"This area is a very active area. There have been swarms at many times," Jones said.

No significant damage or injuries were reported in Los Angeles. The L.A. Fire Department said it saw a slight increase in 911 calls mostly associated with automatic alarms and stuck elevators. LAFD and San Diego authorities reported that their checks of highways, overpasses and other infrastructure revealed no damage.

Still, the shaking in Los Angeles lasted a disconcertingly long time.

"When it first started, it felt like I was on a roller coaster," said Jennifer Hayne, 59, of Hemet. "It slowed down, then it picked up even faster for about a minute."

In Orange County, rides at both Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm were shut down briefly for inspection.

Two major power outages were reported in the San Clemente region and Borrego Springs, leaving thousands of customers in the dark for several hours, said Jennifer Ramp, a spokeswoman for San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

In El Centro, Calif., extensive damage was reported, including multiple gas leaks, water main breaks and collapsed chimneys and balconies, said Fire Capt. Chad Whitlock. Several mobile homes were knocked off their foundations and were without water and power.

In Imperial County, Imperial Irrigation District officials report no major damage to the complex All-American Canal system that provides water to residential users and farmers in one of the major food-producing areas of the U.S. Minor damage was reported to some laterals and gates but IID crews worked through the night on repairs so that delivery was not interrupted.

By far, it seemed the Mexican side of the border was hardest hit, suffering what Jones said was the strongest quake to hit the region in 18 years.

At the Playa Club Hotel in San Felipe, a popular vacation destination for American travelers, workers and guests were alarmed but quickly recovered. No damage was reported in the town, but Internet and cellular telephone communications were interrupted.

Tijuana, on the western side of the peninsula across from the epicenter, appeared to have escaped damage, but the road between it and Mexicali was damaged, the Mexican Interior Ministry said.

In Ensenada, some buildings were evacuated as a precaution, the fire department said.

At Mexicali's main hospital, windows were shattered, floors and walls cracked. Patients were evacuated from the seven-story building onto the hospital grounds, where they were gathered under a large plastic awning.

At a makeshift maternity ward on the hospital grounds, obstetrician Dr. Cesar Martinez said nine babies had been born since the quake struck, two more women were in the final stages of delivery and more women in labor were arriving.

"The shaking made the babies drop and the mothers to go into labor," Martinez said. "We never have this many on a Sunday afternoon."

No quake-related injuries had appeared, but the trauma was settling in.

"It shook so hard," 16-year-old Kassandra Ornelas said, "we thought the Earth was going to open up."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg-quake5-2010apr05,0,1839887,print.story

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20 million people felt Mexicali earthquake; big aftershocks are 'likely,' Caltech says

Caltech seismologists said Sunday's magnitude 7.2 Mexicali earthquake was the strongest to strike the region in nearly two decades and that an estimated 20 million people felt it across the Southwest U.S. and Mexico.

Caltech scientist Lucy Jones said an aftershock in the 6-magnitude range is "reasonably likely" in the next few days, and the chance of quake larger than 7.2 magnitude is fairly unlikely but still possible.

Information about quake damage in Mexico remains sketchy. According to Reuters, there have been reports of people trapped in elevators, collapsed retaining walls and power outages in and around Mexicali.  Telephone lines were down and items fell off of shelves and bookcases, according to reports.

Photos from Mexicali showed structural damage to some buildings and ruptured roads.

In San Diego County, officials said no injuries have been reported so far.  But authorities are looking into reports of shattered glass and items falling off of shelves.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said their preliminary inspections of major infrastructure -- such as tall buildings, freeway bridges and stadiums -- found no problems.

"All fire stations completed their district drive-through assessment with no significant damage or injuries reported. LAFD had a slight increase in 911 call load mostly associated with automatic alarms and stuck elevators. Again no significant damage or injuries reported," the LAFD said in a statement.

San Diego County officials also said they found no significant damage. There were reports of people stuck in elevators. LAFD officials said they found broken elevators -- but no one stuck inside. Rides were temporarily closed at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim.

The temblor struck at 3:40 p.m. about 108 miles east of Tijuana. In Los Angeles, the shaking lasted for several seconds.

Jeniffer Haynie, 59, of Hemet was sitting by the side of her bed reading the newspaper and got up when the ground began moving.

“When it first started it felt like I was on a roller coaster,” Hayne said in a phone interview. “It slowed down, then it picked up even faster for about a minute.”

As the ground shook, she said, she grabbed her Brussels griffon, Chewbacca, and told him to hang on. The quake lasted for about a minute, Hayne said. “That's a long time for an earthquake,” she said.

This part of Baja California -- near Mexicali -- has experienced regular seismic activity -- mostly small quakes but also some strong ones. Guadalupe Victoria has recorded numerous minor quakes in the last few weeks.

Hundreds of people so far have reported it on the "Did You Feel It" reporting system at the U.S. Geological Survey.  Tell us if you felt it too .

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/04/20-million-people-felt-72-mexicali-earthquake-big-aftershocks-likely-caltech-says.html#more

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Magnitude 3 earthquake hits Malibu, one of several California temblors after 7.2 shaker near Mexicali

A magnitude 3 earthquake struck the Santa Monica Bay this afternoon, a short time after a magnitude 7.2 temblor struck Mexicali.

Caltech seismologists upgraded the Santa Monica quake to magnitude 4.1 and said it's connected to the Mexicali temblor.

The bay quake occurred about six miles south of Malibu around 4:10 p.m. There were no reports of damage or injuries.

Since the Mexicali quake, there have been other temblors around California, including several in Northern California and one in Julian, a backcountry town in San Diego County. There have also been aftershocks of the Mexicali quake centered in Mexico.

The part of Baja California struck today has experienced regular seismic activity -- mostly small quakes but also some strong ones. Guadalupe Victoria has recorded numerous minor quakes in the last few weeks.

Caltech seismologists were still studying the details of the temblor, trying to connect it to a specific fault. They said it's possible that the quake was so large that it ruptured all the way into California.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/04/30-earthquake-hits-malibu-one-of-several-california-temblors-after-72-shaker-near-mexicali.html#more

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All of the victims were men, said Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese, commanding officer of operations at the Valley bureau. He said three of the men were pronounced dead at the restaurant, another later died at a local hospital. Two others were also wounded and are expected to survive.

[Updated at 2:04 p.m.: The Los Angeles Police Department have released the identities of the four men killed as Hayk Yegnanyan, 25, Sarkis Karadjian, 26, Harut Baburyan, 28, and Vardan Tofalyan, 31. Coroner and police officials are trying to determine where the men live, said Officer Sara Faden. ]

"We don't have a crazed gunman running around North Hollywood that presents an immediate threat to public safety, to anyone in their homes or businesses in the area," Albanese said. "However, this is also not a random act of violence, this was an intentional act."

The Hot Spot Cafe, a Mediterranean restaurant on Riverside Drive, was packed with customers when a man walked in and opened fire around 4:40 p.m., according to police officials.

Investigators were also trying to determine the exact number of shooters and whether the gunman walked into the restaurant or was inside the restaurant shortly before the gunfire broke out. They snapped photographs outside the restaurant, including the sidewalk and parked cars, as well as inside. Riverside Drive was closed off between Colfax and Irvine avenues.

"This is a peaceful community that doesn't usually have to experience this kind of a shocking crime," said Councilman Paul Krekorian, whose district includes North Hollywood. "We will get to the bottom of this," Krekorian said.

Law enforcement sources, who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing investigation, said they believed the shooting might have involved Armenian gangs.

But they also said they have no evidence that the victims were involved in gangs, noting that the case was in its early stages. The shootings come after a series of killings in the last two weeks that have diminished gains made this year in reducing the city's homicide rate.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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OPINION

Policing prisons

Action is long overdue to stop sexual assaults in America's correctional facilities.

By Connie Rice and Pat Nolan

April 5, 2010

Prison rape is an uncomfortable subject rarely covered in newspapers, a laugh line on late-night television. But the reality is that rape in our prisons is a national scandal. A study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2007 found that more than 60,000 adult inmates and -- even worse -- 1 in 8 juveniles in custody had been sexually assaulted in the previous year.

Nearly a year ago, the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission issued a strong report on the scope of the problem and what must be done to address it. But for its proposed reforms to be implemented, we must overcome the inertia and resistance to change within our prison system. Efforts to set standards for prison officials and establish the means to hold them accountable for ending prison rape remain bottled up in the Justice Department bureaucracy.

Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. is committed to ending prison rape. But instead of taking immediate action, he is allowing bureaucrats to spend another year redoing the work already completed by the Prison Rape Commission. Meanwhile, more adults and juveniles in our prisons will be sexually assaulted.

We urge Holder to change course. He should review the proposed standards and then implement them unless he finds a compelling reason to alter them. Holder has the authority to move the nation's prisons out of the dark ages where sexual assaults are condoned, and to a new policy of zero tolerance for sexual violence.

The two of us come from very different backgrounds. One of us -- Connie Rice -- is a civil rights attorney who has worked closely with liberal allies in the Democratic Party. The other -- Pat Nolan -- is a former Republican leader in the California Assembly with roots in conservative politics. But we both believe the prison system is broken. And both of us are deeply troubled that men, women and children in the state's custody are not being protected.

We are not the only political odd couple on this issue. It was the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Democrat, and Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican, who jointly co-sponsored the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which passed unanimously and was signed by President George W. Bush in 2003. That legislation established the Prison Rape Commission and required the report issued last year.

But the commission's report was intended only as a first step. We now need to take the actions proposed in the report and hold prison officials accountable for results.

The commission took several years to do its work, holding hearings across the country and listening to hundreds of experts and corrections officials. It heard testimony from victims who had been left vulnerable to predators and who then were left nearly helpless to recover from brutal attacks. Dedicated corrections officials testified about how they tried to overcome systemic problems. The commission distilled these real-life experiences of tragedy and triumph into recommendations.

The standards proposed by the commission are straightforward. They require, for example, assessing which inmates are more vulnerable to being raped, and they call for isolating likely predators. Because guards also commit sexual assaults, the report called for pat-downs and strip searches to be conducted by an officer of the same sex, except in exigent circumstances. It also called for each rape be treated as a crime. You would think prison administrators would not have to be told such a thing.

Both of us know from experience that changing entrenched bureaucracies is never easy. Many prison officials who originally denied that rapes in prisons were occurring now minimize the problem. And they exaggerate the costs of prevention. Basically, they do not want standards that will hold them accountable. True to formula, they do not oppose the proposed standards outright but want to water them down. Prison bureaucrats have called for more hearings and studies to cover the same ground.

The Prison Rape Elimination Act statute did not put bureaucrats at the Justice Department in charge of developing standards because Congress did not trust them to do so. And for good reason: The Justice Department for years pretended that prison rape was a myth. That's why Congress made the attorney general, not these bureaucrats, responsible for reviewing and adopting the standards.

It is time for the nation's chief law enforcement officer to assume the role Congress asked him to take on and send a message that prison rape will no longer be tolerated.

Connie Rice is a civil rights attorney in Los Angeles. Pat Nolan is vice president of the group Prison Fellowship and served on the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rice5-2010apr05,0,3843902,print.story

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Assault charges filed against deputies accused of punching and kicking inmate

L.A. County prosecutors have built their case around a sheriff's deputy who told investigators he witnessed the beating and later met with other deputies to discuss how to cover it up, records show.

By Jack Leonard

April 5, 2010

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has quietly filed assault charges against three sheriff's deputies accused of punching and kicking a jail inmate after he was disrespectful to a guard, according to court records.

Prosecutors have built their case around a sheriff's deputy who told investigators he witnessed the beating and later met with other deputies to discuss how to cover it up, the records show.

The charges mark a rare criminal filing against deputies working in the jails: It is the third excessive-force prosecution of jail deputies in a decade, according to law enforcement records and interviews. Inmates frequently allege that deputies have used excessive force, but law enforcement officials say such cases are difficult to prove or prosecute.

Inmate Gabriel Vasquez had a fractured cheekbone and injuries to his left ear, rib cage and face in the January 2006 incident. Sheriff's investigators initially discounted his claim that deputies caused the injuries, concluding that they were either self-inflicted or caused by other inmates, according to court records.

But investigators reopened the case after learning that a deputy who had denied seeing any injuries to Vasquez later admitted during a job interview with another police agency that he had lied about a use of force in the jail.

In a second interview with internal affairs, the deputy, Ryan Lopez, said three deputies took part in the beating. Lopez testified before a grand jury last year and was offered immunity from prosecution in exchange for truthful testimony, records say.

Prosecutors filed assault charges in September against Lee Simoes, 34; Humberto Magallanes, 29; and Kenny Ramirez, 30. The three deputies have pleaded not guilty and are on administrative leave without pay.

"This is another stark reminder that nobody is above the law," said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

The district attorney's office typically releases a press statement when serious charges are filed against law enforcement officers but did not do so in this case. "We feel that the public has a right to know about these cases," said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman in the district attorney's office. She said the Justice System Integrity Division, which is handling the case, did not notify her about the filing, despite an office policy requiring such notice.

Vicki I. Podberesky, an attorney representing Ramirez, said the accused deputies deny using force on the inmate. Vasquez, she said, told jail staff that he suffers from hallucinations, hears voices and has a history of mental illness.

Podberesky said she believed it was highly unlikely that deputies would hurt an inmate without writing a report to justify their use of force.

"To beat somebody up and throw him in a cell and wait for the next round of deputies to come on duty, it just doesn't make any sense," she said.

Peter J. Eliasberg, managing attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said his organization receives an average of three or four inmate complaints about excessive force each week. Many of those who complain to the ACLU later decide not to report to the Sheriff's Department, fearing retaliation, he said.

Michael Gennaco, the chief attorney with the Office of Independent Review, which monitors discipline of sheriff's deputies, said such complaints are less common today than they were 10 or 20 years ago. He said the department has strengthened enforcement of rules that require deputies to write reports when they use force and prohibit them from entering an unruly inmate's cell without a supervisor.

Gennaco, a former assistant U.S. attorney, said prosecuting jail deputies is difficult because such cases usually must rely on the word of inmates. "Juries don't like to feel that people who are supposed to be protecting us and keeping us safe . . . are suddenly violating the law," he said.

In 2005, a federal jury acquitted two deputies of violating the civil rights of two alleged gang members who said they were beaten while handcuffed in jail. A year later, Deputy Marco Rivas was convicted of misdemeanor assault for repeatedly kicking an inmate in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility.

The inmate at the center of the latest prosecution is hardly a stranger to jail. Vasquez's past convictions include theft, making criminal threats and illegally possessing an assault rifle. Today, he is serving a seven-year prison sentence for robbery, prison records show.

On Jan. 3, 2006, according to court records, Vasquez was moved from a module at Men's Central Jail after he made an obscene gesture at a custody assistant. A day later, he complained that several deputies had attacked him during his transfer to a disciplinary area of the jail. He named one deputy as the main assailant and said another -- Lopez -- later ignored his request for medical help and told him to "suck it up."

Internal affairs investigators concluded that the deputy whom Vasquez had named as his chief assailant was not on duty at the time. Vasquez was disciplined for making a false allegation and the case was closed, according to court records, which didn't elaborate on his punishment.

But in August 2006, sheriff's investigators received a tip from Chino police.

Investigators learned that Lopez, who had previously said he knew nothing about a beating, took a polygraph exam as part of a job application with the Chino Police Department. Podberesky said the exam report detailed several admissions by Lopez, including that he shoplifted as a child, had sex with a 16-year-old when he was 19, smoked marijuana and had recently driven to work at the jail after a night of drinking.

But it was another admission that interested internal affairs investigators: Lopez said that to cover for fellow deputies, he had lied about a recent use of force against an inmate.

Sheriff's investigators confronted Lopez, who again insisted he had not seen anything. But after investigators told him they knew of the polygraph exam, Lopez said he wanted to consult with the people he was covering for before he revealed what happened, according to court records. But investigators ordered him to provide the names of the deputies who were involved in the incident.

In addition to the three deputies who were charged, Lopez named four others he said were present during the beating. After the assault, Lopez said, he met with some of the deputies to discuss their "story line" and what each would say if interviewed, according to court records.

A sheriff's spokesman said Lopez remains with the department but has been reassigned to desk duty.

Lopez's attorney, Adam L. Marangell, said that the courtroom was the proper venue for raising his client's admissions in the polygraph exam but that Lopez was "simply answering honestly all questions that were asked."

"Any mistakes made by Deputy Lopez in the past have been more than remedied by his full and forthright cooperation with the district attorney's office," Marangell said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jail-beating5-2010apr05,0,7531152,print.story

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More than 100 found alive in flooded Chinese mine

Rescuers cheer as some of the workers trapped for more than a week are brought to the surface.

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

April 5, 2010

XIANGNING, China

More than 100 Chinese miners were pulled out alive Monday after being trapped for more than a week in a flooded coal mine, sparking cheers among the hundreds of rescue workers who had raced to save them and almost given up hope.

A live state television broadcast counted off the number of survivors brought above ground -- 114 -- as miners wrapped in blankets were hurried to waiting ambulances that sped wailing to nearby hospitals.

Rescuers in tears hugged each other at the scene, which was broadcast on national television. The sudden surge in rescues was a rare piece of good news for China's mining industry, the deadliest in the world.

"A miracle has finally happened," a rescue headquarters spokesman, Liu Dezheng, told reporters Monday morning, after the first nine miners were taken out shortly after midnight. "We believe that more miracles will happen."

The stream of survivors started about two hours later.

"This is probably one of the most amazing rescues in the history of mining anywhere," said David Feickert, a coal mine safety adviser to the Chinese government.

The miners were in their eighth day underground when rescuers were finally able to reach them.

As the wave of rescues began, state television said rescuers were preparing to pull as many as 70 to 80 miners out of the mine, though conditions underground remained complicated by high murky water. A total of 153 workers had been trapped.

Families of the survivors were thrilled. "He called and managed to say my sister's nickname, 'Xiaomi,' so we know it's really him and that he's alive," said Long Liming, who said he received a call around midday from his rescued brother-in-law Fu Ziyang.

A doctor then took the phone and said Fu had to rest, Long said. "He was trapped underground for so long, so he's very weak. But we are very relieved to know that he made it out safely."

The first rescue early Monday morning had seemed beyond hope for days before crews finally heard tapping from deep underground Friday.

The miners had been trapped since March 28 when workers digging tunnels broke into a water-filled abandoned shaft. Rescuers then scrambled to understand the complicated situation underground. Some workers appeared to be trapped on upper platforms of the mine by a V-shaped shaft that was swamped with water.

The challenge has been to pump out enough water to even enter the mine safely. Divers who entered Saturday afternoon came back within a couple of hours, saying the black, murky water made reaching the platforms very difficult.

It was unclear Monday how deep into the mine the rescued workers had been found.

"The miners in the lowest levels will be in the most extreme danger," Feickert said. "Just think of a tall building, with people on different floors, if that suddenly filled up with water."

Some of the soaked miners had hung from shaft walls by their belts for days to avoid falling into the water when asleep. Hundreds of rescuers were underground with hopes that glimpses of swinging lights and new tapping sounds meant even more survivors could be found.

Liu said the first batch of nine rescued miners were in stable condition. The state-run Xinhua News Agency said all nine were conscious and could say their name and hometown, but their bodies had suffered from being soaked for so long. Television footage showed at least one miner was brought out barefoot.

Liu Qiang, a medical officer involved in the rescue, said the survivors had hypothermia, severe dehydration and skin infections from being in the water so long. Some also were in shock and had low blood pressure.

China Central Television said one of the newly rescued workers still was holding his mining lamp.

A preliminary investigation last week found that the mine's managers ignored water leaks before the accident, the State Administration of Work Safety said.

China's coal mines are the world's deadliest. Accidents killed 2,631 coal miners in China last year, down from 6,995 deaths in 2002, the most dangerous year on record, according to the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-china-mine5-2010apr05,0,7203440,print.story

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From the Daily News

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Internet chats point to Indonesia links to al-Qaida

"Come to Pak," he is told by "SAIF-a," the Pakistani at the other end. "The seniors say, send one of your boys here to represent your group."

But beware, "SAIF-a" warns. With the U.S. stepping up its rocket attacks, "The brothers are very worried, in Waziristan all missiles hit very accurately. It means someone inside is involved."

The exchange appears in transcripts of Internet chat sessions recovered from the computer of Muhammad Jibriel, identified in the documents as the man suspected of using the screen name "thekiller." Jibriel, a 26-year-old Indonesian and well-known propagandist for al-Qaida, is on trial, accused of helping fund last year's twin suicide bombings at luxury hotels in his country's capital, Jakarta. He claims the transcripts are fabricated.

The 40 pages of conversations are in a police dossier that provides a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Jemaah Islamiyah, Southeast Asia's main extremist group, suggesting it and allied networks in the region have more international links than was previously assumed.

Since the chats took place, from mid- to late-2008, a sustained crackdown on Southeast Asian groups has continued, resulting in the arrest of Jibriel and the execution of the man identified in the police dossier as one of his most prominent conversationalists.

But the chats refer to other people engaged in contact with international extremists, and experts believe such ties likely continue.

"The transcripts are a wake-up call," said Sidney Jones, a leading international expert on Southeast Asian terror groups. "They show that Indonesian links to Pakistani and Middle Eastern terror groups are real and dangerous."

The 800-page police dossier was given to lawyers and judges involved in Jibriel's juryless trial but is not part of the indictment. It was obtained by The Associated Press from someone close to Indonesian law enforcement who requested anonymity.

Indonesian police declined to discuss the chat sessions or say whether any Indonesian militants had left for Pakistan.

The participants talk about sending money and recruits to al-Qaida. They discuss in detail the progress of a credit-card fraud involving several Western banks to fund terror activities. They refer to allied militant cells or contacts in Cairo, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

The man identified as Jibriel reminisces fondly about time spent in "Kash" (Kashmir), where he says he was taught to fire sniper rifles and shoulder-held rockets. He mentions a trip he made in late 2007 to the Pakistani region of Waziristan where he met with al-Qaida and Taliban leaders, including someone called Abu Bilal al Turki.

The chats are in a mix of Indonesian, English, Urdu and Arabic. Some of what is said seems to be in code. Slang, shorthand and "smiley face" emoticons stud the text.

The communications take an extraordinary turn as they are joined by "istisyhad," identified in the police dossier as Imam Samudra, a mastermind of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing. At the time of the chats he was on Death Row, yet he was communicating from his cell on a smuggled laptop.

The police dossier says Jibriel used several aliases to talk to Samudra, even seeking advice on his turbulent relationship with a militant sympathizer he wants to marry. At one point he asks Samudra "to pray that she and I stay strong and become a great jihad partnership."

In another chat he offers to help Samudra keep in touch with al-Qaida from death row. Samudra was executed by firing squad in 2009.

The prosecution is leaning heavily on an e-mail hacked by the FBI at the Indonesians' request in which Jibriel allegedly asks his brother in Saudi Arabia for money to finance what he claims will be the biggest attack since 9/11 and talks about giving the funds to the organizer. The reference is to the twin hotel attacks, in which seven people died.

Jibriel has claimed the e-mail is fabricated and says the same of the chats.

"The police have made this up," he said, speaking to the AP through the bars of a cell before a recent court hearing. "I know about technology, and I know how easy it is to create something on a computer."

Occasionally a mordant sense of humor creeps into the chatter. "Thekiller" talks with someone offering to forge an ID for him. What name would he like - "that of an unbeliever or a Muslim"?

"Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," the late founder of al-Qaida in Iraq, he jokingly replies. "There is no way that will arouse suspicions."

In one conversation with Samudra, "irhaab -007", another name allegedly used by Jibriel, dwells on sending recruits to Waziristan, apparently to work with al-Qaida's media wing.

"I have still got my `pass' to Pakistan, his name is Muhammad Yunus," he writes. "But the big AQ (al-Qaida) guys here do not agree that everyone should leave. We have to look at our guys and choose, based on their abilities because people there don't want any hassle.

"At the very least they have to be prepared to stay a long time, 2 or 3 years," he writes.

Jemaah Islamiyah was formed by Indonesians after they returned home from fighting and training in Afghanistan and Pakistan during the 1980s and 1990s. After 9-11, when al-Qaida began expanding into Southeast Asia, it used those connections to send money and expertise and to recruit volunteers, but was assumed to have largely given up after the crackdown that followed the Bali bombings.

Jibriel's father is an Afghan-trained cleric accused by the U.S. of being a Jemaah Islamiyah leader. In the early 2000s, Jibriel and a small group of other Southeast Asians lived in the Pakistani city of Karachi, and some of them were detained on suspicion of having al-Qaida links.

In Karachi, Jibriel attended a boarding school later linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group accused of being behind the 2007 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people died. The Australian government has said the Southeast Asians also attended Lashkar training camps in Pakistani Kashmir when they were living in Karachi.

Returning to Indonesia in 2004, Jibriel made no attempt to hide his profile. He set up a well-funded online network with content praising terrorist attacks around the world, as well al-Qaida and Taliban propaganda videos.

As he arrived at a recent trial session, he was greeted by supporters brandishing their fists and praising God.

To the AP, Jibriel claimed that in Karachi he knew Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-professed 9-11 mastermind. Yet he also revealed a love of Hollywood films and a taste for expensive Western restaurants.

Throughout the chats, participants reveal the ever-present fear of infiltrating spies.

"It is difficult to trust anyone. Many of our men are in jail," "thekiller" tells "SAIF-a, adding: "Even the fact a guy has memorized the Quran is no guarantee."---

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_14819715

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From the New York Times

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U.S. Admits Role in Killing of Afghan Women

KABUL, Afghanistan — After initially denying involvement or any cover-up in the deaths of three Afghan women during a badly bungled American Special Operations assault in February, the American-led military command in Kabul admitted late on Sunday that its forces had, in fact, killed the women during the nighttime raid.

The admission immediately raised questions about what really happened during the Feb. 12 operation — and what falsehoods followed — including a new report that Special Operations forces dug bullets out of the bodies of the women to hide the nature of their deaths.

A NATO official also said Sunday that an Afghan-led team of investigators had found signs of evidence tampering at the scene, including the removal of bullets from walls near where the women were killed. On Monday, however, a senior NATO official denied that any tampering had occurred.

The disclosure could not come at a worse moment for the American military: NATO officials are struggling to contain fallout from a series of tirades against the foreign military presence by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai , who has also railed against the killing of civilians by Western forces.

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal , the American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has tried hard, and with some success, to reduce civilian casualties through new rules that include restricting night raids and also bringing Special Operations forces under tighter control. But botched Special Operations attacks — which are blamed for a large proportion of the civilian deaths caused by NATO forces — continue to infuriate Afghans and create support for the Taliban .

NATO military officials had already admitted killing two innocent civilians — a district prosecutor and a local police chief — during the raid, on a home near Gardez in southeastern Afghanistan. The two men were shot to death when they came out of their home, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, to investigate.

Three women also died that night at the same home: One was a pregnant mother of 10 and another was a pregnant mother of six. NATO military officials had suggested that the women were actually stabbed to death — or had died by some other means — hours before the raid, an explanation that implied that family members or others at the home might have killed them.

Survivors of the raid called that explanation a cover-up and insisted that American forces killed the women. Relatives and family friends said the bloody raid followed a party in honor of the birth of a grandson of the owner of the house.

On Sunday night the American-led military command in Kabul issued a statement admitting that “international forces” were responsible for the deaths of the women. Officials have previously stated that American Special Operations forces and Afghan forces conducted the operation.

The statement said that “investigators could not conclusively determine how or when the women died, due to lack of forensic evidence” but that they had nonetheless “concluded that the women were accidentally killed as a result of the joint force firing at the men.”

“We deeply regret the outcome of this operation, accept responsibility for our actions that night, and know that this loss will be felt forever by the families,” said Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay, a spokesman for the NATO command in Kabul.

The admission was an abrupt about-face. In a statement soon after the raid, NATO had claimed that its raiding party had stumbled upon the “bodies of three women who had been tied up, gagged and killed” and hidden in a room in the house. Military officials had also said later that the bodies showed signs of puncture and slashing wounds from a knife, and that the women appeared to have been killed several hours before the raid.

And in what could be a scandalous turn to the investigation, The Times of London reported Sunday night that Afghan investigators also determined that American forces not only killed the women but had also “dug bullets out of their victims' bodies in the bloody aftermath” and then “washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened.”

A spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, Zemary Bashary, said that he did not have any information about the Afghan investigation, which he said remained unfinished.

In an interview, a NATO official said the Afghan-led investigation team alerted American and NATO commanders that the inquiry had found signs of evidence tampering. A briefing was given by investigators to General McChrystal and other military officials in late March.

“There was evidence of tampering at the scene, walls being washed, bullets dug out of holes in the wall,” the NATO official said, adding that investigators “couldn't find bullets from the wounds in the body.”

The investigators, the official said, “alluded to the fact that bullets were missing but did not discuss anything specific to that. Nothing pointed conclusively to the fact that our guys were the ones who tampered with the scene.”

A senior NATO official denied Monday there was any effort to tamper with evidence.

“We have discovered no evidence in our investigation that any of our forces did anything to manipulate the evidence at the scene or the bodies,” said Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, the deputy chief of staff for communications for General McChrystal.

Several bullets that were fired but had not struck either of the two men were removed from the walls, Admiral Smith said. But he said that was done “to make sure what kinds of rounds they were.”

NATO officials have also rejected allegations that the killings were covered up. But it was not immediately clear on Sunday night how troops who shot the women and later examined their bodies would not have recognized that it was their bullets that killed them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/asia/06afghan.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

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13 Inmates Escape in Mexico as Armed Men Storm a Prison

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (AP) — Armed men stormed a prison in the northern border city of Reynosa, freeing 13 inmates, the attorney general's office said Sunday.

The escape on Friday was the second mass jailbreak in less than two weeks in Tamaulipas State, which has been hit by a new wave of battles among feuding drug gangs.

Thirty-one guards have been detained for questioning, according to an official in the attorney general's office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under the agency's policy.

Three prisoners were shot to death in the raid, but it was unclear who killed them.

The Tamaulipas government had reported the raid and the deaths of the three prisoners late on Friday, but it did not mention the escapes. Its three-sentence statement said the armed men arrived in 10 cars and exchanged gunfire with guards.

Nobody at the offices of the Tamaulipas governor, the state prosecutor or the public safety department could be reached for comment on Sunday.

Eleven of the escapees were in prison on federal charges, even though they were being held at the state institution, according to the official at the attorney general's office. Reynosa is across the border from McAllen, Tex.

On March 26, 40 inmates escaped from a prison in Matamoros, a Tamaulipas city across the border from Brownsville, Tex. The prison director was under investigation, and 50 employees were held for questioning.

Such escapes are common from Mexican state prisons, where guards are often either bribed or too frightened to resist heavily armed gangs that arrive to free allies or to kill rivals.

On Saturday night, three people were killed in a shootout between soldiers and armed men near the border city of Nuevo Laredo, the Tamaulipas government said on its Web site. One of those killed was a bystander, the statement said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/world/americas/05mexico.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Ranchers Alarmed by Killing Near Border

DOUGLAS, Ariz. — Sooner or later, they all feared, one of them would be killed.

The ranchers, retirees and others who prefer to live off the grid in the vast desert near the Mexican border regularly confront the desperate and dehydrated illegal border crossers, who knock on their doors for directions and water, and lately more of the less innocent, who scurry across their land or lie low in the brush, stooped with marijuana and other drugs bundled on their backs.

Now, according to the leading police theory, the inevitable has occurred, whipping up a political storm and sending a shiver through a community not easily shaken.

Robert N. Krentz Jr., 58, the scion of one of the best-known and oldest ranching families here in southeast Arizona, was found shot to death March 27 on his vast, remote ranch north of here after radioing to his brother that he was aiding someone he believed to be an illegal immigrant.

Mr. Krentz went missing shortly after that call, and the police found his body several hours later in his all-terrain vehicle, his guns untouched in the back, his dog shot and critically wounded. Fresh footprints led from the scene to the Mexican border 20 miles away.

Given Mr. Krentz's radio transmission, the footprints and heavy drug and illegal immigrant trafficking in that area, investigators are working on the assumption that he encountered a smuggler, possibly heading back to Mexico.

“You never know who you're dealing with out here because you get all kinds of traffic through here,” said William McDonald, a fellow rancher on the vast mesquite scrubland pocked with canyons and scattered mountain ranges floating on the horizon like islands.

Mr. McDonald and other residents said that in the last year or two the traffic had taken a more sinister turn, with larger numbers of drug smugglers, many clad in black and led by armed scouts.

“It was only a matter of time,” he said. “Everything was in place for something like this to happen.”

Sheriff Larry A. Dever of Cochise County said if it was related to smuggling, it would be the first such killing of a rancher in more than three decades. But as local, state and federal investigators pore over the case, no motive has been ruled out, Sheriff Dever said.

Mr. Krentz's family, in a statement last week, said they had little doubt that the killing was related to smuggling. They went on to vent frustration at what they said was a lack of concern by federal leaders.

“We hold no malice towards the Mexican people for this senseless act but do hold the political forces in this country and Mexico accountable for what has happened,” the family said. “Their disregard of our repeated pleas and warnings of impending violence towards our community fell on deaf ears shrouded in political correctness. As a result, we have paid the ultimate price for their negligence in credibly securing our borderlands.”

Arizona, where the border authorities arrest more people and seize more drugs than in any other state, has long been a flashpoint for the immigration debate, and ranchers as a whole have been in the thick of it. Some have allowed armed civilian patrol groups to use their property to help catch border crossers.

The mere possibility that a rancher died at the hands of a smuggler led a host of politicians facing election challenges this year — including Senator John McCain and Gov. Jan Brewer, both Republicans, as well as Representative Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat who represents the area — to quickly condemn the killing and to call for tighter border enforcement.

They demanded, among other things, that the federal government post National Guard troops on the border, a move that Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico made on his own last week, ordering his state Guard commander to send an untold number of troops there to help keep watch.

Although as Arizona governor she supported a limited Guard deployment on the border and pleaded with the Bush administration to keep them there when the temporary deployment was up in 2008, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has not backed the idea now.

Instead, the department said it had increased its own resources at the border in the last year and had offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Mr. Krentz's killer.

“We are carefully monitoring the situation, and will continue to ensure that we are doing everything necessary to keep communities along the Southwest border safe,” a spokesman, Matthew Chandler, said in a statement.

Such assurances get a skeptical greetings here, where everybody has a story about an encounter with immigrants or smugglers.

The parched man who still waited for the rancher to come home before using his water tap. The group of smugglers using a catapult to fling marijuana bundles over the fence. The community clean-up that yielded two pickup truck loads of burlap from smugglers who had unbundled marijuana packages. And more recently, the series of break-ins and thefts.

Residents said they believed that the completion of a segment of the border wall near Douglas shifted smuggling traffic farther east in the last couple of years to more remote, rugged areas along the New Mexico border.

The area is guarded by two divisions of the Border Patrol who use different types of radios and have had trouble communicating with each other, officials at the agency have acknowledged. In addition, ranchers said, many of the agents are newly hired and unfamiliar with the area, slowing response times.

While some believe that the border wall completed in the last few years has slowed down large groups, many others have little faith in it.

Bill Odle, who lives about 400 feet from the border, drove along the fence last week, pointing out spots where smugglers have cut it and scaled it, sometimes bringing ladders to speed their way.

“It doesn't work in stopping people, but it does stop wildlife,” Mr. Odle said.

But another rancher, Richard Hodges, who said he had received threats from smugglers for reporting them to the Border Patrol, believes that the fence does at least slow down traffic, particularly the large groups.

Mr. Hodges once let a civilian patrol group erect a fence near the border on his property, but the group, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps recently disbanded and the fence is being taken down.

By all accounts, Mr. Krentz never got caught up in border politics. A bear of a man with a reserved nature, he could seem imposing at first glance but almost always rendered help to those who needed it, friends and family said. He inherited the 35,000-acre ranch from his father — it has been in the family since 1907 — and in 2008 it was inducted into the Arizona Farming and Ranching Hall of Fame .

“He was a typical ranch kid,” said Wendy Glenn, a neighbor and longtime friend who said she heard Mr. Krentz's last transmission on her radio.

Now, like others, Ms. Glenn said she planned to be more cautious. “Usually if somebody needs help, you walk up to them and help them,” she said. “We won't just walk up and offer help anymore.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/us/05arizona.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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For the Battle-Scarred, Comfort at Leash's End

WASHINGTON — Just weeks after Chris Goehner, 25, an Iraq war veteran, got a dog, he was able to cut in half the dose of anxiety and sleep medications he took for post-traumatic stress disorder. The night terrors and suicidal thoughts that kept him awake for days on end ceased.

Aaron Ellis, 29, another Iraq veteran with the stress disorder, scrapped his medications entirely soon after getting a dog — and set foot in a grocery store for the first time in three years.

The dogs to whom they credit their improved health are not just pets. Rather, they are psychiatric service dogs specially trained to help traumatized veterans leave the battlefield behind as they reintegrate into society.

Because of stories like these, the federal government, not usually at the forefront of alternative medical treatments, is spending several million dollars to study whether scientific research supports anecdotal reports that the dogs might speed recovery from the psychological wounds of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In dozens of interviews, veterans and their therapists reported drastic reductions in P.T.S.D. symptoms and in reliance on medication after receiving a service dog.

Veterans rely on their dogs to gauge the safety of their surroundings, allowing them to venture into public places without constantly scanning for snipers, hidden bombs and other dangers lurking in the minds of those with the disorder.

In August, Jacob Hyde got his service dog, Mya, from Puppies Behind Bars, a program based in New York State that uses prisoners to raise and train dogs for lives of service. The organization has placed 23 dogs with veterans with P.T.S.D. in the last two years, training them to obey 87 different commands.

“If I didn't have legs, I would have to crawl around,” said Mr. Hyde, 25. “If I didn't have Mya, I wouldn't be able to leave the house.”

If Mr. Hyde says “block,” the dog will stand perpendicularly in front of him to keep other people at a distance. If he asks Mya to “get his back,” the dog will sit facing backward by his side.

The dogs are trained to jolt a soldier from a flashback, dial 911 on a phone and even sense a panic attack before it starts. And, perhaps most important, the veterans' sense of responsibility, optimism and self-awareness is renewed by caring for the dogs.

The dogs help soldiers understand “what's happening as it's happening, what to do about it, and then doing it,” said Joan Esnayra, a geneticist whose research team has received $300,000 from the Defense Department to study the issue. “You can use your dog kind of like a mirror to reflect back your emotional tenor.”

The dog is also often the first visible manifestation of a former soldier's disability. Because people are curious about the animal, the veteran gets an opportunity to talk about his condition and his war experiences, discussions that can contribute to recovery. More broadly, the dogs help increase public awareness of P.T.S.D., which the Veterans Affairs Department said affects about one quarter of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with whom it has worked.

Under a bill written by Senator Al Franken , Democrat of Minnesota, veterans with P.T.S.D. will get service dogs as part of a pilot program run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Training a psychiatric service dog and pairing it with a client costs more than $20,000. The government already helps provide dogs to soldiers who lost their sight or were severely wounded in combat, but had never considered placing dogs for emotional damage.

But there is debate within the emergent field about the appropriate time to pair a veteran with a dog. Sara Meisinger, the chief of occupational therapy at the warrior transition unit at Walter Reed Army Medical Center , said a service dog should be used only in the final stage of treatment, after a soldier has accomplished as much as possible with traditional therapy. Many experts say the veterans should be living on their own for at least a year before they receive a dog.

But when Gloria Gilbert Stoga, who runs Puppies Behind Bars , received an application from Maj. James Becker, she decided, with support from his doctors, to take a chance on a veteran who had just left inpatient care.

Major Becker, 45, suffered two severe brain injuries in separate explosions, earning two Purple Hearts in his three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. When he came home last winter, his 24-year-old daughter, also an Iraq veteran, was being treated for leukemia.

In Major Becker's mind, home started to resemble Afghanistan's Helmand Province. His P.T.S.D. symptoms worsened, and a suicide attempt in July landed him in San Diego Naval Medical Center for seven months. A few weeks after leaving the San Diego hospital, Major Becker flew to New York to collect his dog, Annie, and participate in a two-week training session with Puppies Behind Bars. Still, he said he spent a lot of time alone in his room “because it's easier to deal with four walls than it is to come out and deal with crowds.”

But within days, Annie was beginning to pull him out of his shell. “She helps me meet people,” he said, describing how people are attracted to the dog.

He added, “I like to think it's going to get better.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/us/04dogs.html?ref=us&src=me&pagewanted=print

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