China's government has protested what it said were inaccurate foreign media reports about riots among demobilized soldiers assigned to retraining institutes run by the Railway Ministry.
A human-rights monitoring group last week reported violent demonstrations earlier this month in at least four cities by hundreds of ex-soldiers angry at poor living conditions at the centers.
Camera phone footage of some of the protests was posted on Internet blogs and while most of the schools refused to comment, one official in the city of Qiqihar confirmed the unrest and said all demobilized soldiers had been sent home.
In a fax sent over the weekend to wire agencies, the ministry's International Cooperation Department expressed "extreme indignation and strong protest," over what it called an "irresponsible and distorted report."
The statement conceded incidents had occurred but said they were small in scale and that conditions had already returned to normal.
An "extremely small number" of students bearing "a few discontents" resulted in "inappropriate behavior," said the statement, which also demanded an apology.
Asked yesterday for additional clarification, an official at the International Cooperation Department again called the report incorrect, but refused to pinpoint the alleged errors or provide new facts. As is common among Chinese bureaucrats, the official identified himself only by his surname, Chen.
The reported riots broke out first in three cities at the same time, an example of coordinated protest action rarely seen since the 1989 pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square. A further protest in Qiqihar came a few days later.
Former soldiers reportedly smashed classrooms, dormitories and cafeterias, set fires and overturned cars. Riot troops and police special forces were reportedly sent in to quell them.
The actions also highlighted the government's problems finding jobs for demobilized soldiers.
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