China Tops List of World’s Deadliest Roads for 11th Consecutive Year

For the 11th consecutive year, China has topped the list in number of traffic deaths — 5.1 for every 10,000 motor vehicles. The Xinhua News Agency report Friday says government statistics show nearly 82,000 road deaths in China last year.

Xinhua said the world average was two deaths per 10,000 vehicles. U.S. government statistics reported about 1.7 fatalities per 10,000 registered vehicles in 2006.

Private car ownership in China has soared along with the country’s economic boom. But overloaded vehicles, reckless driving and poor road conditions are still common and frequently lead to fatal crashes.

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Problems creep out past official front in China

Last month, Olympic organizers were showing off a new basketball arena and denied that any residents were forcibly evicted to build the many sites for the Summer Games. But the Olympic Media Village sits where Li Yukui and his neighbors had to leave their homes.

Olympic officials promised to clean Beijing’s severe air pollution, but an Ethiopian runner said last week that he won’t run the marathon because breathing the air could harm his health.

And the neighborhood volunteers touted for learning English to give directions to visitors instead spend their time monitoring residents and even confronted one pregnant woman about whether she was violating China’s one-child policy.

Five months before the Olympics, China is discovering the difficult line between promotion of its many successes and concealment of deep problems that dog the communist nation.

China’s crackdown on pro-independence protests in Tibet is just one front of this struggle. The world’s most populous nation wants to present a united image of harmony and prosperity. But the ruling Communist Party, which bristles at outside criticism, sometimes contains dissidents and ignores human rights complaints.

“You host an international event like this, you open yourself up to international scrutiny. China underestimated the risks,” says David Zweig, director of the Center on China’s Transnational Relations in Hong Kong. “China is hoping to say, ‘We’re doing great,’ and they are, on many fronts. But on other fronts, they are vulnerable.”

After Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia said he would skip the Olympic marathon because of pollution, Beijing announced it would close every construction site and ban half the cars from the roads before the Games on Aug. 8-24.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao admitted this week that “problems of one kind and another in preparing for the Olympic Games are unavoidable.” At his first news conference of the year Tuesday, he remained upbeat about the Olympics: “I believe the smiles of 1.3 billion people will be reciprocated by the smiles of the world’s people.”

‘The truth, but not the whole truth’

At the Games, “you will see skyscrapers, spacious streets, modern stadiums and enthusiastic people. You will see the truth, but not the whole truth, just as you see only the tip of an iceberg,” human rights activist Hu Jia and Beijing lawyer Teng Biao, wrote in an open letter published on websites of human rights groups and elsewhere last September.

Tuesday, Hu was tried in a Beijing court for “inciting subversion of state power.” Teng was taken by police to the suburbs, so he could not attend the trial.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other world figures have pressed Beijing on Hu’s case. Wen said at his news conference that the matter would be “handled according to the law,” and he denied there was a crackdown on dissidents before the Games.

Teng, who was detained for two days last week, disagrees. “Look at Hu Jia, Yang Chunlin and others who have been arrested because of the Olympics,” he says. Yang, a land rights activist who organized a petition drive titled “We want human rights not the Olympics,” was tried last month for the same crime as Hu. Five other Beijing lawyers wanting to attend Hu’s trial were detained briefly.

“There was an instruction at a senior level to prevent us attending,” lawyer Zhang Tianyong says.

“It is highly possible that people like myself will be detained this August during the Games,” Zhang says. “They are illegally infringing our basic freedoms, but I will continue to offer people legal help.”

Violating the government’s code of silence can bring severe consequences. Li Yukui and his neighbors say their homes are now the Olympic Media Village. Li says he was forcibly evicted, and his wife was sent to a labor camp after they protested the way the government calculated compensation for their property.

The government closely controls what people can see on TV or read in the newspapers. When CNN broadcast images of Tibet protests during the past week, TV screens went blank. In recent days, websites such as YouTube have been blocked.

“There has definitely been a ratcheting up of both website blocking and the technology they have to filter and slow down information,” says Jeremy Goldkorn, the Beijing-based editor of the website danwei.org.

Restaurant owner Sun Ruonan says there have been positive changes. “A few years before, I could not even think of opposing a government policy, let alone actually say something. So there has been progress, but much still needs to be changed and improved.”

Sun is fighting to save her old family restaurant from demolition near Tiananmen Square. Her building is the last on her street after developers bulldozed neighbors’ homes.

“There is no transparency about how this area will be developed. The officials don’t act according to the law but for personal gain,” she says.

Minutes after Sun began talking with a USA TODAY reporter, policeman Zhao Liang demanded to see the reporter’s credentials and warned Sun to “be very careful what you say, don’t just say whatever you like.”

Volunteer patrols

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games recently showed off neighborhood volunteers who wear bright red armbands and normally patrol Beijing’s streets. Wang Naijin, 53, is one of the volunteers, typically retirees.

“One of our duties is monitoring family planning,” Wang explains. “To give you an example, last year, I spotted a woman with a swelling belly, but she already had a daughter. I went to see her and her husband many times, to urge her not to have the baby. They said they still wanted a son, but in the end, I persuaded them, though we can’t use force.”

A U.S. State Department report last week highlighted forced abortions as one example of China’s “poor” human rights situation.

China’s Health Ministry acknowledged the problem when lawyer Chen Guangcheng exposed the issue in an area of Shandong province in 2005. Chen was later jailed for four years.

Outdoor cafes and bars on Sanlitun, a popular Beijing street, bar people from sitting outside to prevent any public disturbance.

“It is much stricter this year,” says Wang Huayou, who manages an ice cream store. “The police are worried about any kind of incident. We don’t know if we will be able to have outdoor seating during the Games. Our foreign guests like to sit outside, but the city management officials won’t let us.”

Bomb explodes in Bulgaria, no injuries reported

A bomb was detonated late on Tuesday near the building where Bulgarian regional police chiefs were holding their annual meeting in Plovdiv, the country’s second-largest city, local Sofia News Agency reported Wednesday.

Bulgarian Interior Minister Rumen Petkov and Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev were also at the meeting, authorities said.

The explosive device was detonated to destroy a lawyer’s office, situated in a newly constructed residential building. Fortunately, the blast did not claim any victims but caused serious damage to the whole building.

The area has been cordoned off by police while officers make a second analysis of the scene. An investigation into the incident is underway

Woman Who Died On Flight Was Ignored

John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York

CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook examines various health issues and treatments.(AP) American Airlines on Monday insisted it tried to help a passenger who died after complaining she couldn’t breathe, and disputed the account of a relative who said that she was denied oxygen and that medical devices failed.

The airline said the oxygen tanks and a defibrillator were working and noted that several medical professionals on the flight, including a doctor, tried to save the passenger, Carine Desir, 44, who had heart disease.

“American Airlines, after investigation, has determined that oxygen was administered on the aircraft, and it was working, and the defibrillator was applied as well,” airline spokesman Charley Wilson said Monday.

Desir had complained of not feeling well and being very thirsty on the Friday flight home from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after she ate a meal, according to Antonio Oliver, a cousin who was traveling with her and her brother, Joel Desir. A flight attendant gave her water, he said.

A few minutes later, Desir said she was having “trouble breathing” and asked for oxygen, but a flight attendant twice refused her request, Oliver said.

“Don’t let me die,” he recalled her saying.

He said other passengers aboard Flight 896 became agitated over the situation, and the flight attendant, apparently after phone consultation with the cockpit, tried to administer oxygen from a portable tank and mask, but the tank was empty.

Her last words were, ‘I cannot breathe.’
Antonio Oliver, cousin of passenger Carine Desir
Oliver said two doctors and two nurses were aboard and tried to administer oxygen from a second tank, which also was empty. Desir was placed on the floor, and a nurse tried CPR, Oliver said. A defibrillator, which he called a “box,” also was applied but didn’t function effectively, he said.

Oliver said he then asked for the plane to “land right away so I can get her to a hospital,” and the pilot agreed to divert to Miami, 45 minutes away. But during that time Desir collapsed and died, Oliver said.

“Her last words were, ‘I cannot breathe,”‘ he said.

There were 12 oxygen tanks on the plane and the crew checked them before the flight took off to make sure they were working, Wilson said. He said at least two were used on Desir.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires commercial flights to carry no fewer than two oxygen dispensers. The main goal of the rule is to have oxygen available in the event of a rapid cabin decompression, but it can also be used for other emergencies. It is up to the airlines to maintain the canisters.

Wilson said Desir’s cousin flagged down a flight attendant and said the woman had diabetes and needed oxygen.

“The flight attendant responded, ‘OK, but we usually don’t need to treat diabetes with oxygen, but let me check anyway and get back to you.”‘

Wilson said the employee spoke with another flight attendant, and both went to Desir within one to three minutes.

“By that time the situation was worsening, and they immediately began administering oxygen,” he said.

Wilson said the defibrillator was used but that the machine indicated Desir’s heartbeat was too weak to activate the unit.

An automated external defibrillator delivers an electric shock to try to restore a normal heart rhythm if a a particular type of irregular heart beat is detected. The machines cannot help in all cases.

Wilson said three flight attendants helped Desir, but “stepped back” after doctors and nurses on the flight began to help her.

“Our crew acted very admirably. They did what they were trained to do, and the equipment was working,” he said.

Desir was pronounced dead by one of the doctors, Joel Shulkin, and the flight continued to John F. Kennedy International Airport, without stopping in Miami. The woman’s body was moved to the floor of the first-class section and covered with a blanket, Oliver said.

Desir died of complications from heart disease and diabetes, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office.

Shulkin, through his attorney, Justin Nadeau, declined to comment on the incident.

FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette said the agency was closely following the details of the incident.

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