China's 'godmother' sentenced to 18 years in prison

Saturday, November 21, 2009 8:27 PM

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Wednesday, November 04, 2009

BEIJING, China (AP) - Dubbed the "godmother" of the Chinese underworld, she was notorious for her toughness and a lavish lifestyle that reportedly included luxury villas and a stable of 16 young lovers.

Her criminal reign ended yesterday when Xie Caiping, 46, was sentenced to 18 year in prison for running illegal casinos and bribing government officials. Her trial was one of a series of gang prosecutions in the south-western city of Chongqing that have featured lurid testimony about sex, corruption and the violent underworld.

Xie is the only female gang boss to be tried as part of a month-long crackdown on local gangs, known as "black societies", in the sprawling south-western megacity of 30 million. The trials have exposed the tangled web of links between government officials and police officers who sought to provide cover for the crime syndicates.

Besides her luxury homes, Xie reportedly enjoyed her own Mercedes-Benz and "retained 16 young men for personal entertainment", local media reported. Yesterday, her driver Luo Xuan, 29, who was also her lover, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for his role.

Wearing an inmate-assigned vest of bright orange, the short-haired and plain-faced Xie was grim and emotionless as she was led out of the No 5 Intermediate People's Court after the sentencing.

Xie had been protected for years because she was the sister-in-law of the city's long-serving deputy police chief, Wen Qiang, who was detained for investigation by the ruling Communist Party in August. Wen, who is regarded as being at the heart of an extensive network of protection of local gangs for over a decade, will go on trial later in the month.

African countries boycott UN climate meetings

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - African countries boycotted meetings at UN climate talks yesterday, saying that industrial countries had set carbon-cutting targets too low for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

The action forced several technical meetings to be cancelled at this week's UN climate talks in Barcelona. Delegates warned that, unless the African protest was settled, it could set back the timetable for concluding a new climate change pact at a major UN conference next month in Copenhagen.

The 50 or so African countries said they would only discuss pledges submitted by wealthy countries, and that talks on other issues including carbon offsets and action by developing countries should not move forward until there is full commitment by industrial countries.

"I don't think we can get to a result in the way we're going now," said Algerian negotiator Kamel Djemouai, who chairs the Africa group. "We cannot prejudge what will happen next until we see the reactions of others."

It was the first time the Africans have taken such concerted action at the UN climate talks, but they have been co-ordinating their position over the past year to ensure unity in the final lead-up to the Copenhagen conference, said Antonio Hill of Oxfam International.

Scientists say industrial countries should reduce emissions by 25 to 40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020, but targets announced so far amount to far less than the minimum.

The African walkout stymied only part of the talks, which operate in two parallel bodies. Negotiations on the overall shape of a deal and on financing for poor countries continued uninterrupted.

European delegates met leaders of the African group for two hours, but failed to persuade them to return to the committee rooms. A broader meeting was called to try to break the impasse.

N Korea claims to beef up nuclear arsenal

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea claimed yesterday that it has successfully weaponised more plutonium for atomic bombs, a day after warning Washington to agree quickly to direct talks or face the prospect of a growing North Korean nuclear arsenal.

The announcement underlined Pyongyang's impatience over securing one-on-one talks with Washington, as well as the difficulties in dealing with a regime that resorts to threats and provocations to get what it wants.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said North Korea had finished reprocessing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, which experts say would provide enough weapons-grade plutonium for at least one more nuclear bomb.

The claim may not mean much, since North Korea is believed to already have enough weaponised plutonium for half-a-dozen nuclear weapons. But the timing - a day after Pyongyang warned it would beef up its nuclear arsenal if the US refused to agree on bilateral talks - shows the communist regime is flexing its atomic might to push Washington to act, analysts said.

"North Korea is trying to show off its nuclear might as a way to pressure the United States to agree to the talks," said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University.

The US Embassy in Seoul said it had no comment.

North Korea has long sought direct nuclear negotiations with the US, believing that it is the easiest, fastest and surefire way of ensuring the survival of the totalitarian regime and win economic concessions to rebuild its moribund economy.

On Monday, North Korea's foreign ministry warned that "if the US is not ready to sit at a negotiating table with the (North), it will go its own way", an apparent threat to bolster its nuclear arsenal.

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