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NEW YORK (AP) -- Tibetan protesters clashed with police outside the Chinese Consulate in Manhattan on Saturday, leaving people on both sides injured, according to police and witnesses.
A sidewalk by the consulate on West 42nd Street was littered with shattered glass after demonstrators pelted the building with rocks, witnesses said.
"Stop the killing in Tibet!" several hundred protesters shouted after the clash with police, who had tried to contain the crowd after some picketers began throwing the rocks.
Saturday marked the second day of protests in New York and around the world over a crackdown by Chinese troops on rioting Buddhist monks in Tibet.
In New York, the demonstrators called for a boycott of the summer Olympics in Beijing, saying the Chinese government is violating human rights in Tibet and killing protesters there.
"We are here in sympathy and solidarity with our brothers and sisters," said Yon Ten, a Manhattan hospital worker. "We came to protest peacefully, but they are killing our people in Tibet."
In China, demonstrations against Chinese rule of Tibet are the largest and most violent in the region in nearly two decades, spreading to neighboring Nepal, India and other countries.
China's official Xinhua News Agency issued terse reports in English only, saying people had been hospitalized with injuries and vehicles and shops burned.
In New York, police "pushed us to the ground, without warning," said Ngawang Palden, a Manhattan paralegal with a bloody gash on his finger.
Police said they made several arrests and some officers were injured. But they could not immediately give any other details.
"It's very difficult to control these emotions," said protest organizer Tenzin Dorjee. "We've been trying to control the crowd."
He said eight people were arrested while some were beaten up.
The Chinese Consulate is a site where Tibetan groups protest regularly, and they usually have a good working relationship with the police, Dorjee said.
He added: "This is very unusual for us, but people here are feeling completely helpless in the face of the oppression that is taking place in Tibet."
The late-morning clash was short-lived and the Tibetans continued to demonstrate peacefully outside the West Side building into the afternoon.
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Mar 13 12:44
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Hundreds of Hmong are rallying to call attention to the persecution of relatives in their native Laos.
The protesters came from around Wisconsin to peacefully protest at the Capitol on Thursday.
The Hmong fought alongside the U.S. against Communists during the Vietnam War era.
After the war ended in 1975, many of them fled to the U.S. to escape persecution from the Laotian government. They settled in large numbers in Wisconsin, Minnesota and California.
Protester Zablong Vang of Appleton says he wants the U.S. government to do more to stop the persecution. He says those left behind in the jungles of Laos are being killed and starved by Communists.
A similar rally was happening Thursday at the Capitol in Minnesota.
Mar 13 17:23
By JANIE McCAULEY
AP Sports Writer
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PHOENIX (AP) -- A line of people waited around the dugout to have a word with Kurt Suzuki, Oakland's personable first-year catcher.
He is suddenly much more popular, and handles each request for his time with a sincerity not always seen in his sport. And what a thrilling change this is for the 24-year-old Hawaiian who regularly sports a sunny smile. Suzuki will make his first opening day roster in the big leagues -- and it is a bigger deal for him this year than it would have been any other.
He grew up on Maui but his father's parents are from Japan, where the Athletics will open the season March 25, with the first of two games against the World Series champion Boston Red Sox. His folks will make the trip from the Aloha State, along with his maternal grandparents.
"Everyone has been telling me they're so excited," Suzuki said before catching a Cactus League game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday. "For me, it's great because I get to break camp with the team and be out there opening day. It's awesome. Last year I didn't get to make it. It's a kid's dream."
He still gets kidded that he's related to Seattle Mariners star Ichiro Suzuki, but their last name is about as common in Japan as Smith is here in the United States. Suzuki plays along on occasion.
"I would mess around with them sometimes," he said with a grin.
Jokes aside, Suzuki is using this final week before the team departs from the desert Tuesday for Tokyo to tweak a few things and further get to know his pitchers and their tendencies. Suzuki is hitting .308 this spring but is 1-for-14 over his last five exhibition games after hitting safely in his first four.
"He's similar to a new quarterback coming in," second-year A's skipper Bob Geren said. "But he's very sharp. He keeps improving every game. He has a sense of confidence walking around the clubhouse, and you see that confidence when he's catching. He talks to pitchers between pitches, plays and innings, and I think the pitching staff is comfortable with him. He brings a lot of positives to the position."
Suzuki has caught nine innings a couple of times, and insists his body feels ready for the grind of a 162-game season. The A's got an off day in Arizona on Thursday.
"I'm just fine-tuning some things," Suzuki said. "It's getting comfortable with the pitchers and just the basic stuff for all catchers."
Suzuki arrived at spring training last month with the mentality that he still had to go out and win the starting job. After the A's dealt durable veteran Jason Kendall to the Chicago Cubs last summer, Suzuki caught 68 games for Oakland. He batted .249 with seven home runs, 13 doubles and 39 RBIs and made only two errors.
That experience helped him get a feel for what to expect this season.
"The first time I got out there, Kendall told me that it's the same thing as the minor leagues except there are more people, which was true," Suzuki said.
He will be a key face in the A's rebuilding movement -- but isn't about to say that means Oakland will take its lumps in the AL West. General manager Billy Beane traded away several popular players this winter to reload the franchise's farm system.
While Justin Duchscherer -- moved into the A's rotation for 2008 -- has only thrown one inning to Suzuki so far, he likes what he's seen. Kendall took so much pride in calling games that the pitchers didn't care if he threw out runners or never hit a home run.
Suzuki has shown similar traits already.
"He's one of those guys who wants to learn and study to become one of the better game callers," Duchscherer said.
Other pitchers also like Suzuki's approach.
Right-hander Rich Harden and Suzuki have talked about how fun it will be to play together considering Harden was hurt late in 2007 and hasn't been caught by Suzuki in a game that counts.
"He receives the ball really well," Harden said.
Suzuki has become more vocal in pitcher-catcher meetings, too. That's an encouraging sign to Geren because "you can tell he has something to say."
"If you look back a year ago, I'm sure in that meeting he'd be really quiet," Geren said. "There's a certain energy level to him."
Suzuki has the advantage of a pair of former big league catchers in Geren and bench coach Don Wakamatsu constantly helping him with his craft.
"I can't see anybody in a better position," he said. "I have two guys who are great to tutor me and mentor me in my first year in the big leagues."
Mar 12 23:25
SUDHIN THANAWALA
Associated Press Writer
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HONOLULU (AP) -- Hawaii tourism officials want workers in the hospitality industry to learn the customs and cultures of China and South Korea, which are expected to be the state's next big sources of foreign arrivals.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority plans to launch a cultural training program later this year so industry workers can better serve tourists from the two Asian nations, said Muriel Anderson, vice president, tourism product development with HTA.
Anderson said Kapiolani Community College, which offers degrees in hospitality and tourism, is currently putting together a proposal for the program.
Money for the program would come out of the tourism authority's budget for work force initiatives, she said.
"We want to provide information about the expectation of visitors from these markets and what we can do to better service them," Anderson said. "Pretty much like we did years ago for the Japanese market."
Hawaii tourism officials are looking to China and South Korea to help offset continuing declines in the number of visitors from Japan, the state's largest source of foreign tourists.
The interest in those markets comes at a time when the overall number of tourists to Hawaii is also declining behind a sputtering U.S. economy and rising fuel costs. Nearly 7.4 million visitors came to the islands last year, a drop of 1.2 percent from 2006.
Officials are forecasting a further decline this year.
The number of Japanese visitors has also gone down since a peak of nearly 2.2 million in 1997. Last year, about 1.3 million Japanese visitors came to Hawaii and fewer are expected this year.
State officials are hopeful the federal government will add South Korea to its list of visa waiver countries, which includes Japan. They say that could see the annual number of South Koreans visiting the state -- currently around 35,000 -- quadruple over the next few years.
The state is also expecting more travelers from China.
"The visitor industry needs to be ready when they come," said Ron Umehira, chairman of the Hospitality and Tourism Education program at Kapiolani Community College.
Umehira said the college introduced a course in Japanese language and culture about a decade ago to meet industry demands for workers familiar with Japan.
The semester-long course teaches students Japanese phrases and etiquette, such as handing customers change on a tray and not directly by hand.
The South Korean and Chinese courses the college is developing for its HTA proposal would be similar, Umehira said. The proposal will also include an abbreviated Japanese course, he said.
The courses would likely be offered to industry workers at hotel sites, he said.
"There are cultural nuances that we as people that live here are not aware of," said Marsha Wienert, state tourism liaison. "It's important to us as an industry to prepare our product to meet the demands of those market segments."
Murray Towill, president of the Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association, said he welcomed the program, calling it a "valuable step" to prepare for visitors from South Korea and China.
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