The disgraced former Chinese Communist Party chief of a city in northern China was sentenced to life in prison yesterday for his role in one of the bloodiest in a wave of rural riots in recent years, family members of victims said.
A court in Handan in Hebei Province convicted He Feng (
Four co-defendants were sentenced to death for their roles in the attack which left six residents of Shengyou Village dead and dozens injured, two family members of victims said by telephone.
In another protest-related case, eleven farmers in northern China were jailed for up to five-and-a-half years after they stormed a local government office, state media said yesterday.
The farmers were accused of leading up to 200 other people in a storming of local county government and communist party offices in Gansu Province in May last year, Xibu Shangbao reported.
The group on Yongjing county were reportedly enraged over the detention of their legal representative, who authorities said was not licensed.
Several villagers tried to ram farming vehicles against the front door of the county government headquarters. They also reportedly detained an unspecified number of county government and party officials for over 12 hours.
The Yongjing County court sentenced one farmer to five-and-a-half years in jail and another to five years, the newspaper said.
Another nine people were sentenced to between one and two-and-a-half years, it said.
Meanwhile, the editor-in-chief of a Beijing newspaper yesterday denied reports that one of its employees had been fired over an article that was critical of the Chinese government.
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said Chen Jieren (
China's Cabinet told the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which oversees the Public Interest Times, that the story "negatively affected the image of the Chinese government," according to the Post.
The report followed recent shutdowns and demotions at Beijing newspapers known for tackling issues deemed off-limits by the ruling Communist Party, which has stepped up its controls over media that challenge their authority.
Liu Youping (
"He was sacked because of his work. His section was late every week," Liu said in a telephone interview yesterday.
He said Chen was now working as one of the regular editors at the paper.
A spokesman at the Ministry of Civil Affairs said the ministry was not in charge of personnel issues at the newspaper.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia