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And Then There Were 74

Sohail Mohammed, an immigration lawyer who has represented dozens of detainees held in jails in northern New Jersey. Photos by The Associated Press.

More than 1,000 post-Sept. 11 detainees released, feds say

The government has released most of the detainees it picked up as part of its investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks, officials announced last week.

Of the more than 1,100 detainees, only 74 remain in custody, Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said July 11. Most have been deported, though some were released after being cleared of criminal involvement in the attacks.

Russ Bergeron, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said 38 of the remaining detainees are about to be deported. That would leave 36 people being held by the government.

“These numbers speak for themselves,” said Sohail Mohammed, an immigration lawyer who has represented dozens of detainees held in jails in northern New Jersey. “Ninety-five percent have been released, and not a single one has been charged in the World Trade Center attacks — not one.

“Right from the start, I said racial profiling is not an effective law-enforcement tool,” he said. “Are we more secure now than we were before? No.”

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the government and two New Jersey counties over the unprecedented secrecy surrounding the identities and treatment of detainees.

“Obviously they’re not terrorists, because you don’t deport terrorists,” said Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the Newark branch of the civil rights group.

Still, one U.S. intelligence official told the conservative Washington Times last week that about 5,000 people in the United States — mostly Middle Eastern and South Asian men — may be tied to or sympathetic toward the al Qaeda terrorist group.

The number, larger than any previously reported, includes some who may unwittingly be close to terrorists and have clues about their activities, the official said on the condition of anonymity.

But another U.S. official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, called the 5,000 figure “ridiculously high.”

—Wayne Barry and Christopher Newton, the Associated Press

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Ethnic Publications on the Rise in NYC

The number of newspapers and magazines published in New York City has grown to 270 publications, targeting an increasingly diverse population, according to a survey released last week.

The survey by the Independent Press Association-New York said more than 60 ethnic groups publish newspapers or magazines in 42 languages. Nearly half use a language other than English, and 14 percent use more than 1 language.

The survey, released July 10, found six dailies are published for New Yorkers of Chinese descent, five for Koreans, four for Hispanics and three for Poles. Other dailies serve blacks, Greeks, Israelis, Italians, Russians and Serbs.

A survey last year found 198 ethnic publications in the city, or roughly triple that of a decade ago. A significant portion of the publications began in the 1990s.

The growth reflects the intricate diversity within the city’s ethnic groups. In the Asian and Hispanic categories, for example, immigrants are coming from more countries rather than in mass numbers from a few places.

New York has always had an ethnic press, but it has ebbed and flowed in size and composition, said Abby Scher, director of the press association.

There are 8 million people in New York. According to the census, the city has the greatest number of foreign-born residents at 2.8 million, or 36 percent of the city’s population. Of that total, 44 percent entered the country in the past decade.

— AP

TOURISM

Agency reaches agreement to promote Hawai‘i to Chinese

The Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau last week announced an agreement with Hainan Airline Group, China’s fourth-largest airline, to promote tourism from China to Hawai‘i.

Aside from promoting tourism, the state agency also will assist Chinese with applications for tourist visas, the Visitors and Convention Bureau said in a news release July 9.

“For the past several years, HVCB has been diligently laying the groundwork to position Hawai‘i as a primary travel choice for Chinese visiting abroad,” said Tony Vericella, president and chief executive officer of the Visitors and Convention Bureau. “The agreement with Hainan Airline Group is another important step in the focused marketing efforts to enhance Hawai‘i’s standing with China’s travel industry.”

In addition to general tourism, the Hawai‘i agency will also target specific niche groups such as environmental tourists, sports fans and those interested in the life of former Hawai‘i resident Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the 1911 revolution that ended imperial rule who is revered as the founder of modern China.

Chen Feng, chairman of Hainan Airline Group, said the agreement could boost Chinese visitors to Hawai‘i by several hundred thousand a year.

“One million or more visitors is not out of the question, as that is a small proportion of China’s total demand for overseas travel,” he said.

The Visitors and Convention Bureau said statistics from the China National Tourism Administration show 10.5 million Chinese traveled abroad in 2000, a 13 percent increase over the previous year.

— AP

Chinese American artist Cai Guochiang seeks to turn a group of underground bunkers in outlying Taiwanese-held Kinmen Island into a museum.

ART LOVER

APA Artist Has Big Plans for Taiwan Bunkers

An artist is seeking to turn a group of underground bunkers in outlying Taiwanese-held Kinmen Island into a museum, a local newspaper reported last month.

Cai Guochiang, a Chinese American artist, hopes to hold an inaugural exhibit in which 16 artists from Taiwan and China will interpret the often prickly relations between Taiwan and China, the China TimesAreported. The project needs the approval of Taiwan’s military.

Military officials could not be reached for comment, but the Defense Ministry has said previously it plans to open part of the bunkers on Kinmen as a tourist attraction.

Taiwan and China split amid a civil war in 1949. Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province and has often threatened to use force if Taiwan formally declares independence.

Âinmen Island, 10 kilometers (six miles) from China’s southern coast, was once heavily fortified and off limits as a frontline of Taiwan’s defenses against possible attack from mainland China.

But the easing of military tensions with China in recent years has allowed tourism and trade between the Taiwanese island and China’s southern cities to flourish.

— AP

NEWSMAKER

APA Wins World Piano Competition

A 30-year-old Maryland man won the first-place gold medal and $10,000 in the 2002 World Piano Competition.

Oon Joo Chung of Baltimore, a native of Korea, gets the chance to perform at Lincoln Center in New York City for winning.

The competition last week at the Aronoff Center for the Arts in Cincinnati was sponsored by the American Music Scholarship Association of Cincinnati.

The silver medal for second place went to Daria Robotkina, 20, of New York. Robotkina, formerly of Kazan, Russia, also received $3,000.

Oxana Mikhailoff, 30, of Scarsdale, N.Y., won third place. She is a native of Vladimir, Russia.

About 350 pianists ages 18 to 30 representing 33 countries applied to compete. Twelve musicians competed in the Cincinnati finals.

— AP