Japan scrambles fighter jets over disputed islands

By Yoko Wakatsuki and Alex Zolbert, CNN

updated 3:28 AM EST, Thu December 13, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• A Japanese Coast Guard vessel spots the Chinese plane near the islands


• Japan says it sent four F-15 jets and another aircraft to the area


• This is the first time the island dispute has involved aircraft

Tokyo (CNN) -- Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese plane was seen Thursday near small islands in the East China Sea that are claimed by both countries.

This is the first time the dispute over the islands, which Japan calls Senkaku and China refers to as Diaoyu, has involved aircraft.

Chinese government ships have repeatedly entered the waters around the remote, rocky islands since the Japanese government announced in September it was buying several of the islands from private owners.

Japanese Coast Guard vessels have engaged in games of cat and mouse with the Chinese ships, with both sides broadcasting messages to one another insisting they have territorial sovereignty over the area.

On Thursday morning, a Japanese Coast Guard patrol vessel spotted the Chinese government plane in airspace around the islands, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said.

Japanese Self Defense Force sent four F-15 jets and another aircraft to the area, Fujimura said, describing the Chinese plane's entry into the area as "extremely regrettable." Japan has lodged a protest with the Chinese government through diplomatic channels, he said.

The Japanese government's acquisition of the islands in September also set off several days of violent anti-Japanese protests across China and soured economic ties between the two Asian nations.

There was no immediate reaction from China about the incident.

Part of complete coverage on

Asia's disputed islands

Although claims of occupation and administration stretch back centuries, all of the disputes exist, to some extent, as legacies of imperial Japan's expansion through East Asia.

CNN looks at the main flashpoints as tension simmers between rival countries over a series of scattered and relatively barren islands.

updated 3:54 AM EST, Thu November 15, 2012

China uses perceived provocations as a chance to change the status-quo in its favor, writes Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt.

updated 10:33 AM EST, Wed November 28, 2012

Southeast Asia's top diplomat has warned that the South China Sea disputes risk becoming "Asia's Palestine"-- a violent conflict that destabilises the whole region.

updated 6:45 AM EDT, Thu September 20, 2012

The temptation of patriotic blustering is hard for either side to resist, but both countries have a lot to lose, writes Jeffrey Kingston.

updated 4:41 AM EDT, Tue September 18, 2012

The current wave of anti-Japanese protests sweeping China can be traced back to April and the firebrand governor of Tokyo.

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L.A. campus lockdown ends, suspect still at large

Updated 3:45 a.m. ET

LOS ANGELES Students at Cal State Fullerton who barricaded themselves inside classrooms and dorm rooms Wednesday were given the all clear early Thursday by campus officials.

They were told Wednesday afternoon to prepare to stay put into the night as police searched for one of two suspects who was still on the loose after a jewelry store-pawn shop robbery-shooting.

The other suspect was believed to have fled to somewhere in the city of Fullerton, according to CBS Los Angeles station KCBS-TV.

Another suspect was caught after a high-speed pursuit that spanned three counties and ended on a baseball field where Los Angeles' police chief was giving away toys, and two other suspects were apprehended shortly after the robbery, police said.

Fullerton police told KCBS the search of the campus failed to find the suspect.

The search was centered on three buildings along Nutwood Avenue on the southeast edge of the campus, said Chris Bugbee, the school's director of public relations. Students were alerted via text message at about 4 p.m. and told to stay where they were with doors locked.

Police believed at least one suspect fled into Mihaylo Hall at the university's College of Business, where some occupants were evacuated.

SWAT officers were clearing Mihaylo Hall room by room, which was expected to take several hours.

At least one person fired a handgun while attempting to rob the combination pawn shop and jewelry store in Moreno Valley just after 3 p.m., according to Riverside County sheriff's Cpl. Angel Ramos. One person was shot, and the victim's condition was unknown.

Five suspects fled the robbery in a gray Lexus and were stopped by police in Fullerton when the Lexus rear-ended a vehicle near the school. Two people were detained soon after the crash. Three others ran off.

"They ran right at me, I decided to get out of their way, I did not know if they were armed or not," said student Shaun Kintaudi, who was on his way to take a test. "I decided it was best to run away from them and let the cops do their job."

The suspects were considered armed and dangerous, said Fullerton police spokesman Jeff Stuart.

All students were safe the entire time, school officials said. Some students posted photos to Twitter and Facebook of their locked-down classrooms and dorm rooms with doors barricaded as they waited inside, watching the news on their laptops.

Two student news anchors stuck in their campus television studio were posting video reports at the school newspaper's website as they got updates via text messages.

They said they had been rehearsing for just such an event.

"About a week ago we were doing live shots, and now we are actually doing live shots with a tragic situation," journalism major Cara Seo said in a video.

All evening classes and activities were canceled Wednesday. The campus is in its final week of classes before final exams.

One of the suspects who fled after the crash near campus carjacked a silver sedan and drove onto westbound state Route 91, speeding erratically through rush hour traffic until exiting onto surface streets nearly 30 miles away in Los Angeles County. The victim of the carjacking was not hurt, Stuart said.

The suspect crashed the car, sprinted through a lawn and hopped a fence near a housing project in Watts. He surrendered to dozens of officers on a baseball diamond at a recreation center where Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck was giving away toys to hundreds of young children.

"He picked the wrong rec center to run into today," said LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith.

"All of a sudden, we were there with the little kids and saw the bad guy jump over the fence being chased by an army of county sheriff's across the baseball field," Smith told KCBS.

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New drug lifts hard-to-treat depression in hours

A new class of drugs that changes the way neurons interact in the brain can rapidly lift people out of depression

E. O. Wilson and poet laureate on altruism and mystery

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Mass protest as Michigan curbs union rights

CHICAGO: Thousands of protesters descended on Michigan's state capitol Tuesday as lawmakers prepared to pass union-curbing "right-to-work" legislation in a state seen as the heart of the labor movement.

The measure would weaken unions by allowing workers who get the same wages and benefits as union members to decline to pay any union dues.

Democratic lawmakers begged their Republican colleagues not to pass the controversial bill, which they warned would unleash deep social and political strife.

"There will be blood. There will be repercussions," state representative Douglass Geiss told the chamber.

Geiss reminded his colleagues of the violent clashes that accompanied the struggle to form unions in the 1930s and warned that people feel just as strongly about solidarity today.

"If ten people walk in and say I'm not going to pay dues anymore, there's going to be fights," he warned.

State representative John Switlaski lashed out at the fact Republicans were pushing the bill through in a lame duck session using a parliamentary maneuver that limits debate and means Democrats can't stop it unless they regain control in the 2014 election.

"The next two years are going to be terrible. They're going to be ugly," Switlaski said.

"I think we should pause and take a step back... let the people have a say. we'll vote for it. Put it on the ballot."

Republican state representative Lisa Lyons insisted the law was about giving workers their constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of association.

"We are witnessing history in the making," she said. "This is the day that Michigan freed its workers."

Boos and chants of "veto" poured into the chamber from the gallery after the House voted 58-51 to pass the bill, sending it to Governor Rick Snyder for final approval.

Hundreds of union members and supporters crowded into the capitol dome, blowing whistles and chanting "the people are united" and "What's disgusting? Union busting!"

Thousands more shivered in the cold outside, television news footage showed.

"The right-wing forces in Michigan are trying to take power away from working families," United Auto Workers union chief Bob King told reporters.

"They want working families to have less income, less security. This is about partisanship, not bringing the state together."

Currently, the state operates a "closed shop" policy that requires workers who profit from collective bargaining to pay fees but does not make it mandatory for them to become union members.

The right-to-work law creates an incentive for people not to join the union in what is known as the "free rider" problem because it allows them to benefit from collective bargaining without paying for it.

Snyder insists the law is necessary "to maintain our competitive edge" and attract new jobs, especially after neighboring Indiana became the 23rd US state to enact right-to-work legislation earlier this year.

But while business may profit from weakening unions, the real motivation for lawmakers is political, said Roland Zullo, a labor relations expert at the University of Michigan.

"This whole right-to-work thing is retribution," Zullo told AFP. "It's really about the fact that unions in Michigan were very important actors in helping to elect Democrats this last election."

Unions are a key source of financial and grassroots get-out-the-vote support for President Barack Obama's Democrats, and he was quick to slam the controversial bill in an appearance at Michigan auto plant Monday.

"You know, these so-called right-to-work laws -- they don't have to do with economics: they have everything to do with politics," Obama told a cheering crowd of unionized workers.

"What they're really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money."

-AFP/ac

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Angry with Obama, GOP regroups for next political war

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Sen. Graham says President Obama is in for a "rude awakening"


• Graham: "We're not going to raise the debt ceiling" without deficit reduction


• Obama says the nation's credit standing shouldn't be a political issue


• Polls show most Americans back the president on raising taxes on the rich

Washington (CNN) -- They are losing the battle over higher taxes on the wealthy, so now Republicans are threatening a political war next year when it comes time to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

With cracks appearing in their anti-tax facade and polls showing most Americans favoring President Barack Obama's stance in fiscal cliff negotiations, GOP legislators are starting to advocate a tactical retreat to fight another day.

Conservative Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, promised the newly re-elected Obama a "rude awakening" next year if the president forces through his plan for high-income earners to pay more taxes without agreeing to substantive steps to reduce the nation's chronic federal deficits and debt.

"In February or March, you have to raise the debt ceiling," Graham noted Monday on Fox News. "And I can tell you this: there's a hardening on the Republican side. We're not going to raise the debt ceiling. We're not going to let Obama borrow any more money or any American Congress any more money until we fix this country from becoming Greece."

Another GOP senator, Bob Corker of Tennessee, said his side should give Obama the short-term tax plan he seeks and focus next year on spending cuts and reforming entitlement programs including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as broader tax reform.

Survey: 70% want compromise

Three weeks remain to cut a deal before the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts of the fiscal cliff go into effect on January 1.

Without a deal during the current lame-duck session of Congress, everyone's taxes go up and economists warn the impact of the fiscal cliff could cause another recession.

However, the administration has signaled it can delay some of the effects to allow time to work out an agreement when a new Congress convenes in January.

Obama has held a campaign-style series of public events to back his call for extending Bush-era tax cuts for 98% of Americans while allowing rates to return to higher 1990s levels on income over $250,000.

The issue was central to his re-election in November and Obama made clear on Monday that he intended to adhere to his belief that the wealthy must contribute more.

"I'm willing to compromise a little bit," Obama said at a Michigan diesel engine plant. However, he said higher tax rates on the the top income brackets was "a principle I'm not going to compromise on."

The president's public push appears to be working as polls show most Americans back the president's position.

A new Politico/George Washington University survey on Monday said 60% of respondents supported Obama's proposal compared to 38% who opposed it, the latest of four surveys in the past two weeks showing public backing.

On Tuesday, a Gallup poll showed that 70% of adult Americans want Congress and the White House to reach a compromise that would avoid the fiscal cliff. A similar Gallup poll last week said 62% wanted compromise.

The deficit reduction debate hinges on the tax issue, with Republicans opposing any increase in tax rates in their quest to shrink government while Obama and Democrats want to secure more tax revenue as part of a broader package.

Both sides call for eliminating tax deductions and loopholes to raise more revenue, but Obama also demands an end to the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 for the top brackets.

Republicans oppose the return to higher rates, saying it will inhibit job growth because small business owners declare their profits as personal income and therefore would face a tax increase.

In response, Obama and Democrats note that their plan -- already approved by the Senate and needing only House approval to be signed into law by the president -- affects just 2% of taxpayers and 3% of small business owners.

While Republicans argue those small business owners account for about half of all business income, Democrats say that's because they include law firms, hedge funds traders and other high-income operations.

Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met face-to-face on Sunday for the first time since November 16. It also was their first one-on-one meeting in more than a year, when deficit talks broke down.

The outline for a deal has become clear in recent weeks. Both sides agree that more revenue from taxes should be part of the equation, with Obama seeking $1.6 trillion and Republicans offering $800 billion.

A source close to the talks said Tuesday that the White House had floated the idea of dropping the revenue target to $1.2 trillion, then went up to $1.4 trillion on Monday.

Boehner's side wants additional revenue to come from tax reform, such as eliminating some deductions and loopholes, while Obama demands the higher rates on income over $250,000 for families as part of the equation.

Boehner and Republicans also seek savings from entitlement programs totaling another $800 billion or so, while Obama has proposed $400 billion in reduced entitlement costs. Social Security would not be included in the president's plan.

Another sticky issue -- whether the need to raise the federal debt ceiling early next year should be part of the discussion -- also remains unresolved. Obama says absolutely not, while Boehner says that any increase in the federal borrowing limit must be offset by spending cuts.

Graham's comments Monday showed that Republicans plan to regroup around negotiations to raise the debt ceiling, which allows the government to borrow more money to pay its bills.

He noted that Obama proposed making permanent a process originated by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell that would allow the president to increase the debt ceiling and Congress to then try to block it -- an unlikely scenario given Democratic control of the Senate.

"That's going nowhere," Graham said, adding: "He's not king. He's president."

It remains unclear if a deal will happen before the end of the year or if the negotiations will carry over into 2013, after the fiscal cliff takes effect.

Without action now on the fiscal cliff, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that middle-class families would pay about $2,000 a year more in taxes. Even with a deal, revisions in the tax code and other changes would mean everyone pays a bit more starting next year.

All signs point toward a two-step approach sought by Obama, with initial agreement now on some version of his tax plan with targets set for comprehensive negotiations on a broader deficit reduction deal in the new Congress next year.

Such an outcome would put off the main worry of the fiscal cliff -- expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts that would result in higher rates for everyone.

Obama and Democrats say they would then be ready to negotiate significant savings from entitlement programs, while Republicans say they need to first see commitment on entitlement reforms before accepting any higher tax rates.

Some in Congress warn that the legislative process will need at least a week to work through potentially complex measures from any proposed deal, meaning a de facto deadline of Christmas Day at the very latest exists for negotiators.

At the same time, voices from inside and outside the process say something must happen now.

CNN's Dana Bash and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

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Mandela "responding" to treatment for infection

JOHANNESBURG South Africa's former President Nelson Mandela is suffering from a recurring lung infection and is responding to medical treatments, the nation's presidency said Tuesday.

The ailing Mandela, 94, has been hospitalized since Saturday for medical tests at 1 Military Hospital near South Africa's capital, Pretoria.

34 Photos

Nelson Mandela

The announcement ended speculation about what was troubling the ailing anti-apartheid icon. Government officials had declined repeatedly to say what caused the nation's military, responsible for Mandela's care, to hospitalize the leader over the last few days. That caused growing concern in South Africa, a nation of 50 million people that largely reveres Mandela for being the nation's first democratically elected president who sought to bring the country together after centuries of racial division.

The tests Mandela underwent at the hospital detected the lung infection, said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj in a statement.

"Madiba is receiving appropriate treatment and he is responding to the treatment," Maharaj said, referring to Mandela by his clan name as many do in South Africa in a sign of affection.

In January 2011, Mandela was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital for what officials initially described as tests but what turned out to be an acute respiratory infection. The chaos that followed Mandela's stay at that public hospital, with journalists and the curious surrounding it and entering wards, saw the South African military take charge of his care and the government control the information about his health. In recent days many in the press and public have complained about the lack of concrete details that the government has released about Mandela's condition.

Mandela has had a series of health problems in his life. He contracted tuberculosis during his years in prison and had surgery for an enlarged prostate gland in 1985. In 2001, Mandela underwent seven weeks of radiation therapy for prostate cancer, ultimately beating the disease.

In February, Mandela spent a night in a hospital for a minor diagnostic surgery to determine the cause of an abdominal complaint.

Mandela was a leader in the struggle against racist white rule in South Africa and for preaching reconciliation once he emerged from prison in 1990 after 27 years behind bars. He won South Africa's first truly democratic elections in 1994, serving one five-year term. The Nobel laureate later retired from public life to live in his remote village of Qunu, in the Eastern Cape, and last made a public appearance when his country hosted the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.

Mandela disengaged himself with the country's politics fairly successfully over the last decade and has grown increasing frail in recent years.

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Closing Tax Loopholes Not Enough to Avert 'Cliff'?

Closing "corporate tax loopholes" sure sounds good to the average, non-corporate American -- so good, in fact, that politicians talk about it all the time.

House Speaker John Boehner's fiscal-cliff proposal purports to raise $1.6 trillion in revenue by "clos[ing] special-interest loopholes and deductions while lowering rates."

The White House, meanwhile, has complained that Boehner hasn't offered specific loopholes to cut.

On the other side of the aisle, House Democrats have repeatedly offered up "closing overseas tax loopholes" as a means to pay for spending bills -- a plan Republicans routinely reject. In the last two and a half years, President Obama has often been heard griping about writeoffs for corporate jets.

For both Republicans and Democrats, "corporate tax loopholes" are an old saw. But, like most things in politics, raising revenue from "loopholes" gets a bit stickier when the specifics are hashed out.

A misconception about tax "loopholes," some experts say, is that they're loopholes -- gaps in the tax law that corporations have exploited against the law's intent.

Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo; Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

Fiscal Cliff Battle: President Obama vs. Speaker John Boehner Watch Video

"Most of these proposals were not 'loopholes,' these were incentives," said Eric Toder, co-director of the left-leaning Tax Policy Center.

For example, take the research-and-development tax credit. During the campaign, both Obama and Mitt Romney suggested making it permanent.

"One wouldn't call the research credit a loophole," Toder said.

Cashing in by closing the biggest "loopholes" could be a politically fraught endeavor. To generate meaningful revenue, House Republicans would have to sign off on measures that raised it from taxing the overseas profits of multinational corporations, from ending immediate writeoffs of equipment purchases, or from ending a credit for domestic manufacturing.

When the Joint Committee on Taxation scored some of these provisions, as part of a tax-reform bill pushed by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and then-GOP-senator Judd Gregg, it found the government could save significantly:

Savings Over 10 Years: 2011-2021

Taxing Overseas Profits of Multinational Corps: $582.7 billion. In other words, the "overseas tax loophole" Democrats are fond of trashing. While most countries with large economies tax only profits made at home, the U.S. code taxes all income everywhere. To offset the different, U.S. multinational corporations receive credits to prevent double taxing. They also can defer paying any tax on foreign income, until they transfer the money back to the United States.

Taxing that profit could generate significant revenue. But this could be controversial, and large corporations would fight it. A senior aide to one business lobbying group said ending foreign-income deferral would amount to double-taxing U.S. companies and put them at a disadvantage to foreign competitors; one supporter of ending deferral suggested U.S. companies have been able to hide profits overseas, avoiding taxes altogether.

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Doha summit launches climate damage aid

The latest summit to stop climate change, held in Doha, Qatar, over the past two weeks has been roundly slammed. Little was agreed to curb greenhouse gas emissions and the latest modelling, carried out by the Climate Action Tracker consortium shows global averages temperatures are still set to rise by at least 3 °C above pre-industrial levels.

There was one breakthrough: developing countries won a promise from developed ones that they would compensate them for losses and damage caused by climate change. The deal offers the promise of large amounts of climate aid. But first, science will have to catch up with politics.

All countries will suffer from climate change. There will be consequences even if humanity slashed its emissions and stopped temperatures rising more than 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, the stated goal of the UN negotiations. In actual fact, with emissions rising faster than ever, a 3 or 4 °C rise is likely this century.

The consequences will be manifold. Deserts will spread and lethal heatwaves become more frequent. Changes in rainfall will bring droughts, floods and storms, while rising seas will swamp low-lying areas, obliterating valuable territory. Food production will fall.

Before Doha kicked off, the charities ActionAid, CARE International and WWF released a report arguing that rich countries should compensate poor countries for such damages. Tackling the Limits to Adaptation points out that climate change will cost countries dearly, both economically and in less tangible ways such as the loss of indigenous cultures.

Two-pronged approach

So far, climate negotiations have taken a two-pronged approach to the problem. On the one hand, they have sought to create incentives or imperatives to cut emissions. On the other, they have established a pot of money for poor countries to pay for measures that will help them fend off the unavoidable consequences of climate change – such as sea walls and irrigation systems.

That, according to some, leaves a third element missing. Helping those who suffer the consequences of climate change is a moral obligation and must be part of any treaty on climate change, says Niklas Höhne of renewable energy consultancy Ecofys. The idea of climate compensation has been around since the early 1990s, when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was negotiated.

In Doha, a coalition including China, the Alliance of Small Island States and the G77 group of developing countries pushed for it to revived.

They proposed a scheme that would decide when countries had suffered climate harms, and compensate them. It would be a form of insurance, and the greatest international aid scheme ever. The idea gained momentum after Typhoon Bopha struck the Philippines last week, and that country's negotiator Naderev "Yeb" Saño broke down in tears during a speech. And, although developed nations had little incentive to agree, the conference concluded with a promise to set something up next year.

Compensation poses a fundamental challenge to climate science, which still struggles to work out if trends and events are caused by greenhouse gases or would have happened anyway. "We can't say that an individual event was caused by climate change," says Nigel Arnell of the University of Reading, UK. "What we can do is say that the chance of it happening was greater."

Systematic tests

Some climatologists are now running systematic tests to decide whether extreme weather events are caused by climate change. They run climate models with and without humanity's emissions. If the odds of a particular event are different, it suggests it was at least partially driven by emissions. By this measure, the 2003 European heatwave and 2011 Texas drought were both made more likely by human emissions.

But this science is in its infancy. We can confidently attribute large-scale trends and temperature changes, says Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. But changes in rainfall, and short-term events like hurricanes, are harder because we do not really understand them. Trenberth speculates that superstorm Sandy would not have flooded the New York subways without climate change, but says it's not possible to prove.

Arnell says that might prove unworkable. Gradual changes – such as rising sea levels, melting glaciers and ocean acidification – are easy to attribute to climate change but their consequences difficult to cost; sudden events are easy to cost but difficult to attribute.

There may be another possibility. Rather than examining individual events, climate models could predict the extra climate-related costs each country would experience, allowing regular payouts. "That would be a way round it," says Arnell. Delegates at next year's conference will have to consider these questions.

Positive step

Harjeet Singh of ActionAid in New Delhi, India, calls the Doha deal "a positive step forward". But it is only an agreement in principle: no money was committed, and even a promise to do so in the future was left out of the final text. Edward Davey, the UK's secretary of state for energy and climate change, said it was "far too early" to talk about committing money. "We aren't saying there should be compensation," he said.

Singh says the developed world would save money by cutting emissions now, rather than letting temperatures rise and then paying compensation. Small island states were keen to get an agreement on loss and damage because emissions cuts are going so slowly, making dangerous climate change almost certain. The Doha agreement is a first step towards dealing with the consequences of that failure.

On 'other business'

Aside from agreeing to make compensation available for loss and damage, the Doha summit achieved little. Nearly two decades ago, the world's governments set out to agree a binding deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Doha included some baby steps towards a deal in 2015, but that is not guaranteed and in any case will come too late to stop dangerous climate change. Only Lebanon and the Dominican Republic made new emissions pledges.

The talks were bogged down in rows over financing. In a deal that was separate to the adaptation fund, developed countries had promised in 2009 to deliver $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor nations prepare for climate change. Between 2009 and 2012 they allocated $10 billion a year. In Doha they refused to say how they would scale that up, simply promising to "continue" – leaving developing countries unsure if or when they would get more.

The Kyoto protocol was renewed until 2020, but its global effect is likely to be limited. Its value is partly symbolic, to show that binding agreements can be reached, and as one of many small and medium-scale projects to cut emissions.

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Football: Police hunt for Ferdinand coin throw culprit

LONDON: Police said on Monday that they were working to track down the person responsible for throwing a coin at Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand during Sunday's Manchester derby.

Ferdinand was left with blood streaming down his face from a cut above his eye after being struck by a coin as he celebrated Robin van Persie's injury-time winner in United's 3-2 victory at Manchester City.

Greater Manchester Police said that they had made 13 arrests and charged nine people over offences that occurred before, during and after the match.

"To have just 13 arrests for a crowd of this size and a match of this proportion is a testament to the policing operation we put in place," said Chief Inspector Steve Howard.

"Despite fierce rivalry and high tension, there was no major disorder. However, we will continue to investigate the coin-throwing incident and are determined to work with the club to bring the perpetrator to justice."

The Football Association (FA) are also investigating the incident.

Among the people charged were two men accused of entering the field of play during the game.

City goalkeeper Joe Hart had to restrain one fan from getting at Ferdinand after the coin-throwing incident, prompting the United defender to thank his one-time England colleague on Twitter.

The supporter, 21-year-old landscape gardener Matthew Stott, expressed regret for his behaviour on Monday.

"I would like to apologise to all those affected by my actions yesterday (Sunday), particularly Mr Ferdinand and the other players," he said in a statement released by his lawyers.

"I am extremely ashamed of my actions. I have let myself down, my family down, my fellow fans down and Manchester City Football Club."

Despite his apology, City cancelled Stott's season ticket for the rest of the season and said he would be given a lifetime ban from the club if found guilty of pitch encroachment.

"His season card has been immediately removed for the rest of the season and he has been charged to appear at court. If he is found guilty, he faces a lifetime ban," said a City spokesman.

A 30-year-old man has also been charged with what police said was a "racially aggravated public order" offence.

All the people charged are due to appear before magistrates in Manchester on January 4 next year.

FA chairman David Bernstein said the crowd trouble that marred the game was "deplorable" and called for strict punishments to be meted out to those responsible.

"It is deplorable to see those incidents and to see Rio Ferdinand with blood on his face is absolutely terrible," he told Sky Sports News.

"I think it's disturbing that we're seeing a recurrence of these types of incidents. We've had racial abuse issues, the odd pitch incursion, things being thrown at players -- it's very unacceptable and has to be dealt with severely."

He added: "I believe that if necessary these people need to go to the court and be banned for life, if they're found out."

Meanwhile, Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) chief executive Gordon Taylor said there was a case to be made for erecting nets to protect players from missiles thrown by supporters.

"I think you've got to give consideration to possibly, as has been suggested, some netting in vulnerable areas, be it behind the goals and round the corner flags," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

United's victory took them six points clear of defending champions City at the top of the Premier League table.

-AFP/ac

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DJs 'heartbroken' and 'sorry' over prank gone wrong

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Michael Christian says he's "gutted, shattered and heartbroken"


• It's "gut-wrenching" that the prank apparently led to nurse's suicide, Mel Greig said


• Pair says decision to air recorded prank call was not theirs

(CNN) -- The two Australian radio personalities who made the prank phone call to a British hospital where the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was admitted expressed deep remorse Monday for making the call, which led to the apparent suicide of a nurse who spoke to the pair.

Mel Greig and Michael Christian, both crying at times, told two Australian television shows Monday that their thoughts are with the family of Jacintha Saldanha, the 46-year-old nurse who put the prank call through to the ward where the duchess was.

Saldanha apparently committed suicide Friday.

"I'm very sorry and saddened for the family, and I can't imagine what they've been going through," Greig said on the program "Today Tonight."

Christian described himself as "gutted, shattered and heartbroken."

"For the part we played, we're incredibly sorry," Christian told "Today Tonight."

The pair said the idea for the call came out of a production meeting before their 2DayFM show, the idea being to capitalize on what was the hottest topic in the news, Catherine's pregnancy.

Both stressed that while they made the call to King Edward VII Hospital, they did not have a say on whether it went to air. The call was recorded and then went through a vetting process at their network, Southern Cross Austereo, before it was broadcast, they said.

"This was put through every filter that everything is put through before it makes it to air," Christian said in an interview with the program "A Current Affair."

But Christian said he did not know what that vetting process entailed.

"I'm certainly not aware of what filters it needs to pass through," he said.

"Our role is just to record and get the audio," Christian told "A Current Affair."

Greig and Christian said they never expected the prank call to be successful.

Death casts glare on 'shock jocks'

Posing as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, the pair said they thought their bad accents would give them away and they'd be hung up on by whoever answered the phone at the hospital.

"We wanted to be hung up on with our silly voices," Greig said.

"We assumed that we'd be hung up on, and that would be that," Christian said.

But they were put through to the duchess's ward and given details of her medical condition.

"It was never meant to go that far. It was meant to be a silly little prank that so many people have done before," Greig said.

It was Saldanha who put the call through.

"If we played any involvement in her death, then we're very sorry for that," said Greig, who described how she found out about Saldana's apparent suicide.

"It's the worst phone call I've had in my life," she said, fighting tears.

"There's not a minute that goes by that we don't think about her family and what they must be going through, and the thought that we may have played a part in that is gut-wrenching," Greig said.

The pair have been taken off the air by their network, which has not said when they might return.

"I don't even want to think about going back on air, to be honest," Greig said.

"I'm still trying to make sense of it all," Christian said. "We're shattered. We're people, too."

Greig said she'd willingly face Saldanha's family if it would help bring them closure.

"If that's gonna make them feel better, then I'll do what I have to do," she said.

"I've thought about this a million times in my head, that I've wanted to just reach out to them and just give them a big hug and say sorry," Greig said. "I hope they're OK, I really do."

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