Hong Kong officials joined those from China yesterday at the funeral of a prominent pro-Beijing figure, who triggered a backlash by questioning whether the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown should be called a ``massacre.''
Ma Lik (馬力), who was head of Hong Kong's leading pro-China political party, the DAB, died of cancer at 55 on Aug. 8.
In May, Ma disputed witness accounts of China's June 4, 1989, crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square, saying Chinese troops did not fire indiscriminately at demonstrators.
Ma's remarks triggered outrage in Hong Kong. Many hurled insults at Ma this year during Hong Kong's annual candlelight vigil, held to mourn those killed in the 1989 crackdown.
However, his funeral service in the territory yesterday was attended by top Hong Kong officials, as well as Ma's fellow pro-Beijing party leaders and others.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權), his predecessor Tung Chee-hwa (董建華), and Gao Siren (高祀仁), the head of Beijing's liaison office in the territory, served as pallbearers.
After Ma's death, Chinese officials hailed him a patriot. His coffin was draped with a Chinese national flag yesterday.
Journalists and many other witnesses say Chinese troops fired machine guns at protesters and drove tanks over them, killing hundreds, perhaps thousands in and around Tiananmen Square during the 1989 crackdown.
Ma later said his controversial remarks about the incident may have been ``rash and frivolous.'' Immediately after making the comments he left for treatment in Guangzhou.
Ma took over the DAB leadership after Tsang Yok-sing (
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS