2007-01-13 CRI Roundup

Hello and welcome to this edition of CRI Roundup. I'm Mike Patterson in Beijing. Today is Saturday the 13th of January. Let's take a look back on some of the main events of the past week in China and around the globe.

The Communist Party of China intensifies its crackdown on corruption.

Chinese police raided a terrorist training camp in Xinjiang.

And the US government lays out its new strategy in Iraq.

For all this and more, stay tuned.

The Communist Party of China has warned that members who gamble and are involved in illegal property deals will be the focus of an intensified crackdown on corruption.

A three-day meeting of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection reviewed the work of the past year and outlined anti-corruption and party building tasks for 2007.

In the coming year, discipline inspection commissions at all levels will step up inspections and supervision of major issues that have a direct bearing on the public interest.

Chinese police raided a terrorist training camp in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Police killed 18 suspects and arrested 17. One policeman was killed and another wounded. Police say the training camp was operated by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

The group was labeled a terrorist organization by the United Nations in 2002. It's believed more than one thousand members of the group have been trained by al-Qaeda.

Wu Heping of China's Ministry of Public Security says China will show terrorists no mercy and continue to make unremitting efforts to combat terrorism.

"Terrorist organizations use violence and engage in activities that harm national security, sabotage social stability and endanger people's lives. The Chinese police will continue to keep a close watch on terrorism to safeguard the security of China's border regions and protect people's properties and lives."

US President George W. Bush laid out his new strategy on Iraq.

During the State of the Union address on national television Wednesday, Bush called the current situation in Iraq unacceptable.

The president acknowledged he made a mistake by failing to order a military buildup in Iraq last year. He also announced his decision to send more troops there.

"I've committed more than 20 thousand additional American troops to Iraq. The vast majority of them, five brigades, will be deployed in Baghdad. These troops will work alongside Iraqi units and be embedded in their formations."
Bush says additional troops can help break the cycle of violence in Iraq and allow US troops to come home earlier.
However, Bush's plan has drawn much criticism from the Democrats.

In Indonesia, a piece of the missing Adam Air Boeing 737 was found.

The jet disappeared with 102 people on board. After days of searching, a horizontal stabilizer from the plane was found on a beach on southern Sulawesi.

A senior air force officer says the stabilizer was discovered by a local fisherman. The discovery shifted the focus of the search to waters off western and southern Sulawesi.

The Adam Air jet went missing on a flight from Java to Sulawesi about an hour before it was due to land. The last message from the pilot said they had encountered very bad weather.


And with that we conclude this edition of CRI Roundup. Remember, if you have any comments or suggestions, or would like to listen to any of our programs online, you can log on to our website – crienglish.com.

I'm Mike Patterson in Beijing. Thanks for listening. Stay tuned for more on China Radio International.