10 
news without borders
briefs
10,000 quarantined
after plague outbreak
BEIJING: A town of 10,000 people in
north-west China has been placed un-
der quarantine after one person died
from pneumonic plague and eleven
others were infected, according to
local health authorities.
A 32-year-old herder from
Ziketan Town, in the Hainan Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture, died from
the infection, according a statement
released on the website of the Qinghai
Province Health Bureau. The infected,
mainly relatives of the deceased, have
been isolated in designated hospitals
where they are receiving treatment,
the bureau said. – dpa
Stage collapses during
storm, one killed
WASHINGTON: One person was
killed and at least 15 others were
injured on Saturday when the main
stage collapsed during a heavy
storm at a country music festival
near the western Canadian city of
Edmonton, news reports said. An
unknown number of concent-goers
were trapped when the stage at
the Big Valley Jamboree fell down in
Camrose, Alberta, 95km south-east
of Edmonton, the Calgary Herald
reported. Witnesses were quoted
as saying “hail the size of marbles”
hit the site, forcing the evacuation
of the concert site. – dpa
Chinese police arrest
319 in Xinjiang probe
BEIJING: Police in the northwest
Chinese region of Xinjiang have ar-
rested 319 people in connection with
disturbances that left at least 197
people dead, Xinhua news agency
said yesterday. Urumqi Public Security
Bureau said the detentions came “af-
ter information was received from the
public or obtained through the police
investigation”, Xinhua reported. The
arrests were made “in Urumqi or in
other parts of Xinjiang”, the statement
said, adding “suspects would face
charges in connection with the riot
that left 197 people dead”. – AFP.
Plane with 16 people
missing in Papua
JAKARTA: A small plane with 16
people on board went missing in
Indonesia’s eastern province of
Papua yesterday, the state Antara
news agency reported. The Twin
Otter plane, belonging to Merpati
Nusantara Airline, was travelling
from Sentani airport in Jayapura,
to Bintang district’s Oksibit airport,
Antara said. – dpa
People gather outside the CNB Radio headquarters in Caracas. The first of 34 radio stations
ordered shut by the Venezuelan government went off the air on Saturday.
Venezuela begins shutdown
of 34 radio stations
CARACAS: More than a dozen of
34 radio stations ordered shut by
the Venezuelan government went
off the air on Saturday, part of
President Hugo Chavez’s drive to
extend his socialist revolution to
the media.
The association of radio
broadcasters said 13 stations had
stopped transmitting, following an
announcement on Friday night by
government broadcasting watch-
dog Conatel that 34 radio outlets
would be closed because they
failed to comply with regulations.
Critics said the crackdown in-
fringed on freedom of speech and
that owners were not given the
right to a proper defence.
“They’re closing the space for
dissidents in Venezuela,” William
Echeverria, head of the National
Council of Journalists, told RCTV, a
private cable TV station, which did
not have its broadcasting license
renewed in 2007.
Chavez defended the closures,
calling them part of the govern-
ment’s effort to democratise the
airwaves.
“We haven’t closed any radio
stations, we’ve applied the law,”
Chavez said on state television.
“We’ve recovered a bunch of sta-
tions that were outside the law,
that now belong to the people and
not the bourgeoisie.”
Chavez supporters say they
are waging a “media war” against
private news companies and have
denounced in recent days what
they say is a renewed offensive
by privately owned domestic and
international media to discredit
Venezuela.
Diosdado Cabello, the public
works minister who also oversees
Conatel, said some of the radio
stations were shut because they
did not have their broadcasting
licenses renewed and others
transferred them illegally to new
owners.
Conatel delivered an order to
CNB radio in Caracas before dawn
for its five stations to stop transmit-
ting by 8am, the station said on its
website.
At CNB’s headquarters in down-
town Caracas, hundreds of CNB
employees and government critics
gathered to protest the shutdown.
Some later marched to Conatel.
CNB said it would continue
to broadcast on its Internet site,
www.cnb.com.ve.
“This government has turned
into a mutilator of rights,” Juan
Carlos Caldera, of the opposition
political party Primero Justicia,
said on Globovision TV.
One of the stations to cease
theSun | MONDAY AUGUST 3 2009
China’s
Cosplay craze
blurs fantasy
and reality
SHANGHAI: The skeleton warriors
briefly stumbled backward but kept
lumbering toward 23-year-old Zhao
Jing (pix) as she blasted them with two
oversized six-shooters in a battle set to
pounding music.
Fantasy and reality blur at ChinaJoy,
the country’s largest annual video
game exhibition, as teams of dozens of
young people re-enact favourite video
games and Japanese manga and anime
cartoons on a game-show-like stage.
It began in Japan, but Cosplay, short
for costume role-playing, is a growing
phenomenon in China with more than
20,000 people entering competitions
this year, according to ChinaJoy, organ-
isers of the national championships.
Zhao’s 36-member team from the
eastern city of Hangzhou rehearsed
three to five hours daily for months
perfecting their 12-minute performance
of “Soul of the Ultimate Nation”.
“I can’t take a stable, full-time job,”
Zhao said, explaining the degree of her
commitment after seven years of com-
peting in Cosplay tournaments from
March to August.
Her effort earned her
the chance to represent
China last year at the
World Cosplay Summit
international champi-
operations was Radio Bonita 1520 onships in Aichi, Ja-
AM in the city of Guatire, 40km pan, where her team
from Caracas. was placed second
“Fifteen years after my father among 14 national
died, they tell me (broadcasting) teams. This year’s
licenses can’t be inherited, we’re world champion-
shocked,” Felix Ali Obelmejia, ships took place
director of Radio Bonita, told yesterday (Aug 2)
Globovision. in Aichi.
Another 120 radio stations National champi-
were being investigated for ad- ons win 10,000 yuan
ministrative irregularities and (about RM3,780) while
the radio frequency of stations the top international
being shut down would be team wins ¥100,000
transferred to new commu- yen (RM5,200),
nity broadcasters, Cabello according to Chi-
had said. naJoy. The
Venezuela’s attorney number of
general presented this national-
week draft legislation level com-
that would establish petitors
prison sentences for rose to
anyone who provides 1,000 this
false information that year from
600 last
harms the interests
of the state. Rights year.
groups harshly criti- “Other
cised the proposal. girls like
As part of his going to
drive to remake bars at
Venezuela as a so- night or shopping ...
cialist country, Chavez has what makes me happy
expanded the number of is watching cartoons
publicly owned television and playing the char-
and radio stations since acters I like on stage,”
1999. – Reuters Zhao said. – AFP