Beijing authorities have issued an order to destroy the home of one of China’s leading rights activists who has been in police custody for more than 200 days, her husband and lawyer said yesterday.
Beijing’s Xicheng court ordered developers to level the home of Ni Yulan (倪玉蘭) and told the family to vacate the premises by the end of last week, husband Dong Jiqin (董繼勤) said, adding he had refused to leave.
“They stuck the demolition notice on our front door,” Dong said.
“Nobody came to talk with us, there were no negotiations for compensation, no public hearings.”
For over a decade, Ni, 47, had been a prominent rights activist and lawyer fighting against government backed land grabs in central Beijing, one of the city’s most sensitive social issues.
As all land belongs to the state in China, local officials enjoy immense powers to determine land-use rights, and critics say residents and farmers are often forcefully evicted in shady deals between the government and developers.
Ni was jailed for a year in 2002 for damaging public property after being arrested at a rally aimed at stopping the demolition of another courtyard home in Beijing.
Dong and rights activists said she was beaten in the 2002 arrest and has since had to walk with a cane due to injuries sustained then.
Dong and Ni’s courtyard home, in an historic part of central Beijing, then also became a target for developers and she was arrested in late April as she tried to stop it from being knocked down.
Ni was charged with “obstructing official business,” and she has been in custody ever since although she has not appeared in court.
An Aug. 4 trial was postponed at the last minute as prosecutors said they needed more time to gather evidence, according to Dong.
Her lawyer, Hu Xiao (胡嘯), said he was pushing for the court proceedings to begin quickly.
“I saw her last month, she is physically weak and her jailing has put a lot of stress on her,” Hu said. “She is a handicapped person, so we have asked the court to begin her trial as soon as possible out of respect for her health.”
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
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
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition