Blasts hit Chinese internet cafes (2 reported killed)

BBC News International ^ | Saturday, 6 May 2006

[bd476]

At least two people have been killed and four injured in blasts at two internet cafes in the city of Hefei, Chinese state media has reported.



The explosions occurred at about 0930 (1330 GMT) on Friday, Xinhua news said.

The incidents left the two cafes, which are just 10 metres apart, strewn with broken glass and debris, the Anhui Daily newspaper said on its Web site.

Small-scale explosions are common in China and are often blamed on rival business groups.

The explosions in the capital of Anhui province took place about 10 minutes apart, the Anhui Daily newspaper reported.

Witnesses in the newspaper spoke of injured people covered in blood fleeing the scene.

"This is a serious matter and the cause is still being investigated," an unnamed official at Hefei's city government office was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

[PureSolace]

local crime rings? "Protection Money" didn't get paid this month?

[MedicalMess]

The mob is alive and well in China.

[bd476]

TMC Net

May 05, 2006

Police investigate blasts at two Chinese Internet cafes; no casualties reported

The Associated Press

Police in central China were investigating explosions at two Internet cafes, the government said Saturday. No deaths or injuries were reported.

The blasts occurred in Hefei, the capital of Anhui province, around 9 p.m. (1300 GMT) Friday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It did not give further details.

Duty officers who answered the telephone Saturday at the Hefei government office and city's public security bureau would only confirm the explosions. Both said they had no other information and that the cases were under investigation.

The two sites have been cordoned off, according to a news site run by the Anhui Daily, a local newspaper.

Police investigate blasts at two Chinese Internet cafes; no casualties reported

[AntiGuv]

Either that or someone's Everquest character got ambushed..

[bd476]

Xinhua Online China View

Internet cafe blasts reported in Anhui

www.chinaview.cn 2006-05-06 09:29:45

HEFEI, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Police in east China's Anhui Province received reports of blasts at two Internet cafes in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, early Saturday morning.

The blasts occurred at about 9:00 p.m. Friday at two Internet cafes at Meiling Avenue in the city proper of Hefei.

Local officials rushed to the two sites to organize rescue operation after the blasts. So far, there is no report on the casualty of the two accidents, and the cause of the blasts is under investigation.

Enditem
Editor: Zhang Lihong

Internet cafe blasts reported in Anhui

[bd476]

TMC Net

Blasts at two Chinese Internet cafes kill at least two, injure 4, official says

May 06, 2006

By AUDRA ANG Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

Explosions rocked two Internet cafes in central China, killing two people, injuring four others and leaving the premises spattered with blood and littered with broken glass and other debris, a local official and state media said Saturday.

Authorities refused to say if bombs were involved in the blasts, which occurred Friday night about 10 minutes apart at two cafes within meters (yards) of each other in Hefei, the capital of Anhui province. No motive was immediately apparent for an attack on the premises.

Such incidents are rare in China, although explosives are widely available and reports of their use in criminal acts have risen in recent years.

"The casualties include two dead and four injured people," said a man who answered the telephone at the Hefei city government office. He refused to give his name or any other details.

"This is a serious matter and the cause is still being investigated," he said.

An officer at the public security bureau in Hefei who gave only his surname, Li, said he "wasn't clear" if explosives had been detonated.

A woman who answered the telephone at the Hefei First Aid Center, where the injured were taken, would not release details on them.

Chinese local government officials frequently refuse to identify themselves to reporters because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

China has the second largest Internet population after the United States, with more than 100 million users. Even the smallest towns have cybercafes, which are often packed with young people chatting online or playing games.

The Ju Xing and Hao Yu Internet cafes are located about 10 meters (33 feet) from each other on Meiling Avenue, one of Hefei's main streets, said the state-run Anhui Daily newspaper on its Web site.

The blasts occurred about 10 minutes apart, drawing hundreds of onlookers to the site, it said. The official Xinhua News Agency said they happened about 9:30 p.m. (1330 GMT).

A woman who was walking past Ju Xing at the time of the explosion said she saw glass and cement spray from the cybercafe, according to Anhui Daily.

"When we heard the first explosion, we thought firecrackers were being set off," an unnamed resident was quoted as saying by the newspaper. "The second one went off about 15 minutes later. It was very loud. It sounded like a bomb exploded."

Another resident said they saw panicked customers running out after the first explosion. A girl in her 20s covered with blood screamed "What's happening?" before collapsing, the newspaper said. She was later helped away by passers-by.

Inside Ju Xing, "blood, glass and cement covered the floor," the report said.

News photos showed gloved officers sifting through the rubble, which included overturned chairs, computers, chunks of concrete and shards of blue glass. Iron bars on the windows -- a common security feature in Internet cafes -- had been twisted by the explosions and pipes were exposed in the ceiling.

Ju Xing had about 70 to 80 computers while Yu Hao had about seven small rooms that could accommodate 10 people each, Anhui Daily said.

The second explosion happened in one of the small rooms, leaving a meter-wide (3.3 foot-wide) crack in the ceiling, it said.

A customer, who was identified only by his surname Liu, said he was using a computer in Ju Xing when he heard a loud bang and felt pain in his face.

He said the inside of the room "was like a whirlwind," with glass and cement flying everywhere.

"It was like an explosion in the movies," he told the newspaper.

Blasts at two Chinese Internet cafes kill at least two, injure 4, official says

[bd476]

PureSolace wrote: "local crime rings? "Protection Money" didn't get paid this month?"

Well it probably wasn't Google.

[bd476]

MedicalMess wrote: The mob is alive and well in China."

I was thinking the operative word here was Internet.

[Spktyr]

Depending on who the casualties turn out to be, I'd say someone in the Chinese internal security directorate just took out a couple of dissidents.

[bd476]

A Chinese woman sits in an internet cafe in China. China has the second largest internet population after the United States. (CBS)

[bd476]

I think you're probably right, Spktyr.

[Ronin]

The "tongs" and "triads" have never died in China. They blend in and adapt.

[Spktyr]

A setup like this does not make sense for organized crime.

It does, however, make a lot of sense if you assume the Chinese internal security apparatus did it. Unfortunately.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Jumped the shark over state firewall, heads exploded upon first viewing of porn sites.

[bd476]

Ping of concern for all who may have loved ones in country.

[Cementjungle]

Small-scale explosions are common in China and are often blamed on rival business groups

That's interesting.

[bd476]

Ping of concern for anyone who might have loved ones in country.

[bd476]

Well there's also the case of poorly stored fireworks wiping out half a village, an elementary school, etc. Those type of "accidents" have occurred a few times in the past couple of years.

[bd476]

Express India

Yahoo cited in jailing of China Internet writer

Posted online: Friday, April 28, 2006 at 1452 hours IST

Beijing, April 28: Yahoo Inc has been cited in a Chinese court decision to jail a dissident Internet writer for 10 years for subversion in 2003 -- the fourth such case to surface implicating the US Internet giant. Emphasis added.

Wang Xiaoning, born in 1951, was convicted of the charge of "incitement to subvert state power" after e-mailing electronic journals advocating a multi-party system, the New York-based watchdog Human Rights in China (HRIC) said in a statement.

Wang's journals, called Democratic Reform Free Forum and Current Political Commentary, included essays written under his real and pen names and by others advocating democratic reform.

Evidence cited in the verdict included "information provided by Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. stating that Wang's "aaabbbccc" Yahoo Group was set up using the mainland China-based e-mail address bxoguh@yahoo.com.cn.", HRIC said.

Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. also confirmed that the e-mail address ahgq@yahoo.com.cn, through which Wang sent messages to his Yahoo Group, was a China-based account, it said.

But the verdict did not indicate whether Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd.or Yahoo China -- which is now operated by mainland China-based Alibaba.com -- provided specific information regarding Wang's identity, the watchdog said. Pauline Wong, a spokeswoman for Yahoo Hong Kong, said she did not have any details about Wang's case.

"The Chinese government has never approached Yahoo Hong Kong for any information, and Yahoo Hong Kong has never given any information to the Chinese government," Wong said.

She could not speak for Yahoo China, but said Yahoo companies worldwide are required to comply with local law.

"Wherever law enforcement bodies request information, we would not know the nature of the investigation," she said.

But she added: "We definitely condemn punishment of any activity internationally recognised as freedom of expression, whether that punishment takes place in China or anywhere else in the world."

The verdict stated that following a search of Wang's home on Sept. 1, 2002, police found the offending essays in personal computer files and records of his e-mail traffic, it said.

The verdict also noted that in 2001, administrators of Wang's Yahoo Group noticed the political content of Wang's writings and did not allow him to continue distribution, HRIC said. He then began distributing his electronic journals by e-mail to individual e-mail addresses, HRIC said.

The prosecution's evidence also included statements by two witnesses who had communicated with Wang by e-mail after reading his essays in e-mail or on Web sites, HRIC said.

The case is the latest in a string of examples that highlight the friction between profits and principles for Internet companies doing business in China, the world's number-two Internet market.

Web search giant Google Inc. has come under fire for saying it would block politically sensitive terms on its new China site, bowing to conditions set by Beijing.

In December, Microsoft Corp. shut down a blog at MSN Spaces belonging to outspoken blogger Michael Anti under Chinese government orders.

Yahoo cited in jailing of China Internet writer