JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The loose hacking collective Anonymous claimed Thursday it was behind a mass attack on Chinese websites in which the front pages of some of the websites were replaced with a threatening message to the Chinese government and instructions to the Chinese people on how to beat the government's censorship.
Through their Anonymous China twitter feed, the hacking group announced the attack and claimed it hit a total of nearly 500 sites -- including a handful of sites that appeared to be government domains.
"Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible, today websites are hacked, tomorrow it will be your vile regime that will fall," the Anonymous message on the sites reads both in English and Chinese.
The message also claimed Anonymous stood with the Chinese people and provided instructions on how to use free anti-censorship programs. "We must all fight for your freedom," it said.
As of this report, several of the government sites were still down but others had apparently been restored.
"China and all World we are just getting started," Anonymous China said on Twitter.
Anonymous, a loosely affiliated group of so-called hackivists, has drawn the ire from governments around the world for their anti-establishment tactics, which have included defacing websites including CIA.gov, attacking major financial institutions like Mastercard and Paypal and even listening in on an FBI-Scotland Yard conference call about anti-Anonymous operations.
The group was dealt a blow by law enforcement last month when it was revealed that a high-profile member of the Anonymous sub-group LulzSec, Hector Monsegur known online as "Sabu," had been working with authorities for months, resulting in the arrest of five of his cyber comrades, believed by law enforcement to be some of the most sophisticated hackers in the world.
Greg Wood-Pool/Getty Images(DARWIN, Australia) -- Two hundred U.S. Marines arrived in northern Australia Wednesday, the first deployment of an estimated 2,500 troops the Pentagon has promised to bolster American presence in the region.
President Obama made the deal during a trip to Australia last November. At the time, Obama told that nation’s parliament, “The United States will play a larger and long-term role in shaping [the Asia-Pacific] region and its future."
The deployment, which was done with the approval of Asia-Pacific allies, recognizes China's growing military and economic influence that threatens not just surrounding nations but the U.S. as well.
Upon the Marines' arrival in Darwin, Defense Minister Stephen Smith strongly dismissed speculation that his continent is acting as America’s “deputy sheriff” as some critics have suggested.
As a continuation of the six-decade military alliance with Washington, Australia said it would consider allowing the U.S. military to fly long-range spy drones over its territory.
C-Span(WASHINGTON) -- Actor George Clooney argued before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that what happens in conflict-torn Sudan matters to Americans economically.
“South Sudan is shutting off its oil,” Clooney said. “Six weeks ago the South shut down their oil production. They just stopped. And overnight China lost 6 percent of its overall oil imports which means they have to go elsewhere and that raises the price of oil.”
Clooney called on the United States Senate to help toughen the sanctions on the Khartoum government, a government he says is committing “war crimes” against civilians, a bill similar to the House-passed “Sudan Peace Security and Accountability Act.”
Clooney asked the Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee to increase America's engagement in “real diplomacy” starting with China to help solve the cross-border issues together, for “good-solid economic reasons” for both countries. He called on the Obama administration to send a high-level envoy to China to work together on this.
“We can take this moment and engage with China I think for the first time,” Clooney said. “There are economic reasons to do this for both of us and it seems to me that we can use this opportunity, this window of opportunity before it gets too long, too late, by sending a high-level envoy.”
Clooney was just back from a trip to the violent border region between Sudan and South Sudan where he observed the aftermath of Omar al-Bashir’s bombs being dropped on villages and civilians in the Numa Mountains. Aided by a short video of his trip last week, Clooney told the story of villagers forced to dwell in caves out of “constant drip of fear” from the aerial attacks.
“We found children filled with shrapnel including a nine year old boy who had both of his hands blown off,” Clooney said of his trip. “It is a campaign of murder and fear and displacement and starvation.”
John Prendergast, founder of the Satellite Sentinel Project, which uses satellite images to monitor southern Sudan as an “anti-genocide paparazzi” also spoke alongside Clooney. Prendergast says the satellite images are used to “create evidence or future arrest warrants and prosecutions based n the crimes that are being committed now."
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH., wanted to know if, given the popularity of the video, Clooney is contemplating a “stop Kony-like” video for Sudan.
Clooney said he was surprised by the response to the video and noted the powerful role that social media can have in raising attention world-wide to all atrocities.
But Clooney noted that there is “donor fatigue,” and “misery fatigue,” and that big pushes around singular events are extremely important to keep momentum going.
Clooney will meet with President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton later this week.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- President Obama Tuesday stepped up efforts to enforce U.S. trade rights with China, announcing new plans to challenge China’s export limits on rare earth and other minerals key to high-tech manufacturing.
“We want our companies building those products right here in America. But to do that, American manufacturers need to have access to rare earth materials which China supplies,” the president said at the White House Rose Garden.
“Now, if China would simply let the market work on its own, we’d have no objections. But their policies currently are preventing that from happening. And they go against the very rules that China agreed to follow,” he said.
In an effort to level the playing field, the United States, Japan and the European Union are pressing the World Trade Organization to force China to ease its restraints on exports of rare earth, which is crucial to the production of hybrid batteries, wind turbines and cellphones.
The president cast the move as part of his broader effort to enforce global trade rules.
“Our competitors should be on notice: You will not get away with skirting the rules,” he said. “When we can, we will rally support from our allies. And when it makes sense to act on our own, we will.”
The White House action comes as the president faces election-year attacks from his Republican rivals for not being tough enough on Beijing. While the administration prefers dialogue to tackle trade issues, the president made clear Tuesday that “when it is necessary, I will take action if our workers and our businesses are being subjected to unfair practices.”
The administration denied politics were involved in Tuesday’s announcement.
“The fact is we’ve been at this for three years because it’s the right thing to do,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters.
David J. Sams/Getty Images(BEIJING) -- The 40-million fans who have been faithfully tuning into China’s death row reality show, Interviews Before Execution, may have watched the last episode without knowing it.
Legal TV Channel, the station in central China’s Henan province that produced and broadcast the show for the last five years, confirmed to ABC News that it has been abruptly canceled due to “internal problems” and will not be seen again.
A spokesman at the station said that a new program on legal affairs will be broadcast in its place, but could provide no further details. Requests for an interview with the host of Interviews Before Execution, Ding Yu, were denied.
The cancellation comes at the end of a week in which the show made international headlines for the first time.
Both the BBC and PBS International own the rights to a documentary film, Dead Men Talking, produced by a film company in China, which goes behind the scenes for an up close look at how the show is made. BBC2 has plans to air the show next week.
Articles in the Daily Mail, New York Times, ABC News and numerous other outlets described the show as a one-of-a-kind reality series on a dark topic: death row inmates just before they die.
The host, journalist Ding Yu, interviewed more than 200 Chinese men and women, sometimes just hours before they were put to death. The majority of convictions were for murder under often gruesome circumstances.
According to the Daily Mail, the show was approved by the government as a deterrent to would-be criminals. Convicts were chosen by a judiciary committee for Ding for being “suitable subjects to educate the public.”
The show was not broadcast nationwide. Few people know of it outside of Henan province in central China.
China is the only country that does not release the number of people executed each year, despite international calls to do so by groups such as Amnesty International.
It is estimated that about a thousand people are put to death each year. That number cannot be confirmed, but puts China well ahead of any other country by far. Fifty-five crimes are punishable by death there.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(LONDON) -- A Chinese company has seemingly accomplished the impossible, putting up a 30-story building in half as many days. Broad Sustainable Building finished construction on the 30-story hotel prototype in the city of Changsha after only 15 days of construction.
The construction was able to proceed so fast because the foundation was laid ahead of time and the building was largely factory manufactured. Once the pieces were shipped to the site all that was left was for the construction workers to put it all together, which they did at record speed.
According to Broad Sustainable Building’s website, the building was 93 percent factory made, a process which they say eliminates the risks associated with design and construction quality, budget and construction delays.
Critics, however, question the safety the building, pointing to the lack of oversight and pace at which it went up.
Broad Sustainable Building has attempted projects like this before, building a 15-story hotel in just a week as well as a six-story pavilion in less than a day. However, this is the first time they have attempted a project of this magnitude.
The company claims that their building method is environmentally efficient, reducing waste and greenhouse gas emissions.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(BEIJING) -- While the rest of the world is watching what happens on American Idol, China has been watching what happens on death row.
For the last five years, a surprising show has been building a steady audience now estimated to be at 40 million viewers. Interviews Before Death is a government-approved television series hosted by a popular young journalist, Ding Yu.
Each week, Ding Yu goes into a prison to interview a man or a woman awaiting execution. Some of her subjects have just hours left, others have days. She speaks to them about the mundane facts of life on the inside as well as the gruesome details of the crimes that put them there. Their stories are broadcast in primetime in China’s central Henan province.
Now, the BBC and PBS are airing documentaries that go behind the scenes of filming and production. The BBC2′s The Execution Factor will air Monday night and Dead Men Talking will be broadcast by PBS International. The latter was produced by the Chinese production company LIC.
PBS warns that the documentary is not for the faint-hearted.
“Almost all of the interviewees are perpetrators of horrific violent crimes, including a gay man who defiled his mother’s dead body after having murdered her; a group of career criminals that mistakenly kidnapped a young girl from a poor family but raped and killed her anyway; and a woman who burned her husband to death after having been physically abused for many years. The issues explored are both intriguing and complex. The subject is brutal and sad. One may even say the series itself is exploitative; however, it is Ding Yu’s passion for truth that is the driving force for the continued production of the series.”
The trailer indicates that emotions run high. Parents are seen saying goodbye to a son. Nearly half of the prisoners Ding Yu interviews are women and many are mothers.
The films also looks at the toll the series took on Ding Yu. She has interviewed more than 200 men and women on death row. She has said she pays an emotional price for her work, telling PBS, “I witness their thoughts before death.”
But she also comments freely, at one time coming face to face with a prisoner and telling him, “Fortunately, you are in jail. You are dangerous to society.”
The Chinese government reportedly approved the series on the argument it could be seen as a crime deterrent. In China, according to the BBC, 55 crimes carry the death penalty. They range from theft to murder. Amnesty International believes China to be far and away the world leader in carrying out the death penalty.
Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Hide your dogs, hide your cats! The discovery of monstrous “Jurassic fleas” in Northern China is enough to make even Twilight’s vampires quiver.
A team of researchers has unearthed the fossilized remains of blood-sucking mini-beasts dating back at least 65 million years. They found them to be especially suited for sinking their teeth into dinosaurs. Nearly an inch long, the prehistoric critters were more than ten times the size of today’s average household flea.
“It really appears as though they were specialized for working their way into some heavy hides,” said Michael Engel, a palaeoentomologist at the University of Kansas who co-authored a study on the discovery. “It was a big critter. I can’t even imagine coming home and finding my miniature schnauzer with one or more of these things crawling around on it.”
When thirsty, these fleas were built to feast. They had stout “sucking siphons” used to pierce the tough hides of feathered dinosaurs such as the Pterosaurs. Unlike the fleas you may find on Fido, these creatures were not able to easily hop from meal to meal. Instead, researchers believe their hind legs were designed to take running leaps, enabling them to latch onto their prey.
Once feasting, their strong mouths may have made it hard for even a dinosaur to shake them loose.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(MIAMI) -- Over the course of three days, the All-China Job Fair will see more than 800 pilots looking for more lucrative work, from more than half a world away.
Ten Asian airlines are scouring the United States looking for experienced pilots to keep up with the growing demand for air travel in China. It's estimated that China will need up to 18,000 new pilots within the next 10 years.
The airlines will likely hire at least 200 pilots during the fair, with some pilots interviewing, completing simulator testing and accepting jobs -- with better benefits and higher salaries -- in one day. Salaries for the pilots in China will range from $14,000 to $16,000 a month.
Doug Lister is a pilot with more than 30 years of experience, who spent most of his career with American Airlines.
"Hopefully, there are other airlines that can appreciate the experienced pilots," he told ABC News' Miami affiliate WPLG.
Lister said that with his company currently making massive cuts, there is no choice but to look for work in other countries.
"There is a pilot shortage in China," Ron Yank of Shenzhen Airlines, told WPLG. "So, it's a good opportunity in the U.S., since U.S. airlines are cutting jobs and people are looking for jobs. We can get good pilots here."
The job fair was in Miami on Thursday and Friday. It then moves to Las Vegas, where it concludes on Sunday.
Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post(NEW YORK) -- South of Shanghai, in Zhejiang province, China is a four-lane highway that runs the coastline of the East China Sea. This is Yangtze River Delta territory. The wet land and accessible port make this part of China attractive to a whole host of industries. Some say that in Zhejiang province the land is so fertile even the farmers are rich.
Jeremy Lin, the overnight star of the New York Knicks, can trace his roots to Zhejiang province through his maternal grandmother, Lin Chu Muen. The area has been attracting immigrants for hundreds if not thousands of years. One of them was Jeremy Lin’s great-grandfather.
Lin’s grandmother left Pinghu in the late 1940S to settle in Taiwan. She calls Taiwan home, but she has never forgotten Pinghu. She has made sure that her hometown, now known as the City of Hope, also has a place in her grandson’s heart.
The road into Pinghu is where Lin-Sanity begins.
In a city of an estimated 800,000 people, according to the local government guidebook, 3,000 attend Pinghu High School. It is a massive, concrete campus without central heating. Open-air hallways are frigid and students stay bundled throughout the day. But mention the name Jeremy Lin and the warmth in their hearts is obvious.
Members of the basketball team are his biggest fans.
“Crazy Lin!” says the team captain, Zhee Chen.
“Super Lin!” says his teammate.
“Lin Shu How!” says the principal.
Lin Shu How is Jeremy Lin’s Chinese name. According to the principal, it translates as “undefeated.” The principal, also a chemistry teacher, says that when Lin’s NBA games are broadcast on CCTV everyone in Penghu turns out to watch them, no matter what time it is. Pinghu is 13 hours ahead of tipoff in New York’s Madison Square Garden, so this makes for some early morning cheering in the Yangtze River Delta.
Last May, Lin came to visit Pinghu High School with his family. His grandmother created a scholarship for needy students at Pinghu long before Jeremy was famous. His visit last year also happened to be long before his image graced the cover of any national sports page. Just 10 months ago, it is possible more people in Pinghu knew his name and connected it to basketball than in New York.
That is no longer the case, but in Pinghu they still feel a connection.
“Although he was born in America,” says English teacher Yan Hai Bin, “they feel he is a part of Pinghu.”
He agrees it is exciting to watch a ‘hometown hero’ reach the highest levels of the NBA.
“What inspired students most I think was his love of the sport, of basketball. Students are all impressed by his dream, by his persistent spirit,” he says.
The captain of the Pinghu High School Boys Basketball team agrees.
“I think he really loves the game and he likes his teammates, and he loves New York,” says Zhi Chen.
He is not alone. Students asked cited Lin’s hard work, his kindness and his determination. They are principles that fit in well with the school.
“We have the same principles,” says the head of the school Zhung Zhon Lia. “Our focus is on teamwork and cooperation.”
In a classroom on a Thursday afternoon the students, like any teenager in America, are growing weary. Everyone stops to participate in the mandatory eye rest and massage that takes place every day in Chinese high schools. In row after row the students stop to rub their eyes and face for five minutes.
When they are finished they are asked, “Do you know who Jeremy Lin is?” And each and every one of them says, “Yes, of course.” Is he a hard worker? “Yes, of course!” Is he handsome? Pause. The formerly prim and proper audience bursts into giggles.
Handsome or not, Jeremy Lin is popular at Pinghu. He instills a special kind of confidence, the kind that comes with knowing that something very big (namely, the Knicks’ latest phenom) will always be a part of something a world away but nonetheless connected.
On this frigid day the courts are crumbling, the nets are frayed and the hoops are rusty. But none of that matters. The basketball players shed their winter coats and stay on the court for hours.
Jeremy Lin may be a brand new super star, but in Pinghu he is an old friend.
“We are proud of him,” says Zhi Chen.
With that he takes the ball from a friend, and takes a shot.
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JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The loose hacking collective Anonymous claimed Thursday it was behind a mass attack on Chinese websites in which the front pages of some of the websites were replaced with a threatening message to the Chinese government and instructions to the Chinese people on how to beat the government's censorship. 
