■ China
China's `a time bomb'
A worldwide group of exiled Uighur Muslims yesterday criticized Beijing over what it called oppression and exploitation in the Xinjiang region, and warned the region was being turned into a "time bomb." The statement by the World Uighur Congress (WUC) came on the eve of today's 50th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party's rule over Xinjiang, just days after China's top law enforcement official ordered a strengthened campaign to wipe out "terrorism, separatism and religious extremism" in the region.
■ New Zealand
Maori lawmaker sentenced
A former Maori lawmaker was sentenced to almost three years in prison yesterday after she was found guilty of defrauding a children's charity to pay for a stomach-stapling operation. Donna Awatere Huata was expelled from parliament last year after she was charged with taking more than US$62,000 in taxpayer money for personal use.
■ Hong Kong
Spider-Man charged
A British man has been charged with causing a public nuisance by dressing up like Spider-Man and climbing atop a giant TV screen to protest Beijing's bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. The protester, Matt Pearce, planned to plead innocent "on the grounds that what he did was good for all Chinese people," according to International Action, a small activist group Pearce belongs to. On June 3, Pearce scaled a massive LED screen dressed like a worker with a yellow hardhat, unfurled a banner that said, "Tiananmen Square 4.6.1989 Justice Must Prevail," and stripped off his work clothes to show the Spider-Man costume he was wearing underneath.
■ China
US `pirate' deported
The country where pirated DVDs of the latest Hollywood blockbuster sell for a dollar apiece on street corners, has deported a US citizen convicted of selling them on the Internet, state media said yesterday. Randolph Hobson Guthrie, 38, based in Shanghai, was handed over to officers of the US Department of Homeland Security on Thursday after serving part of his prison sentence. He was convicted and sentenced in April to two-and-a-half years in jail and a 500,000 yuan (US$62,000) fine. Shanghai police had found about 210,000 pirated DVDs at storehouses Guthrie owned, the China Daily said.
■ Myanmar
Junta rejects report
The ruling military junta has dismissed a report backed by Nobel peace laureates Vaclav Havel and Desmond Tutu arguing for the UN Security Council to take action over its human-rights record. "The report portrays Myanmar in the most negative light. There is no basis whatsoever to its claims," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday. "It is based on misinformation from foreign-funded expatriates." Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. The junta, which seized power in 1988, has locked up political opponents and been accused of a wide variety of human rights abuses.
■ Afghanistan
Mass grave found
Authorities are investigating a mass grave believed to contain the bodies of more than 500 soldiers of the Afghan communist regime toppled in 1992, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday. Spokesman Yousuf Stanekzai said an assessment team had been sent to the site in eastern Paktika province -- discovered last month after shoes and uniforms rose to the surface. Stanekzai said the grave contains Afghan soldiers of the communist government of former president Najibullah. Najibullah's regime ruled after the Soviet occupation ended in 1989 until 1992.
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