■CHINA
Crime ring trials begin
Two courts in Chongqing opened the first trials of hundreds of people accused of involvement in some of the country’s largest organized crime rings on Monday, including several top officials. An official at Chongqing’s No. 3 Intermediate People’s Court told reporters that the first trials were “still under way” on Monday afternoon, adding that the duration and the number of defendants were “secret.” State media said the first trials included 31 members of two mafia groups led by Yang Tianqing (楊天慶) and Liu Zhongyong (劉鐘永). Chongqing police questioned more than 2,000 suspects in a six-month crackdown on organized crime, including 67 alleged gang leaders and 50 government officials.
■CHINA
Indian PM angers Beijing
Beijing expressed strong dissatisfaction yesterday over the Indian prime minister’s weekend visit to a disputed region along their mutual border. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s trip to Arunachal Pradesh came despite Beijing’s serious concerns, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) said in a statement posted on the ministry’s Web site. “We demand the Indian side address China’s serious concerns and not trigger disturbances in the disputed region so as to facilitate the healthy development of China-India relations,” the statement said.
■CHINA
Kadeer decries sentences
Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer said yesterday a decision to sentence six Uighurs to death over July unrest would serve only to “further enrage” her people. Kadeer, the US-based leader of the World Uighur Congress, added that she believed the Uighurs were not tried according to Chinese or international law. “This is not going to create peace and stability in the region, this will further enrage the Uighur people ... For the Uighur people around the world this is a very sad day, a day of mourning,” Kadeer told Auckland, New Zealand student radio station 95bFM through an interpreter. The six were convicted of murder and other crimes on Monday by a court in Urumqi in the first trials over unrest in July. “Not only the six Uighurs, we believe a lot of Uighurs have been killed through torture in the prisons after July 5. This is an injustice,” Kadeer said.
■MALAYSIA
Free second honeymoons
Terengganu state has offered to pay for a second honeymoon holiday for any married couple on the brink of a divorce, a news report said on Monday. Several holiday packages, which also include marriage counseling sessions, would be introduced by the end of the year with the aim of reducing the increasing number of divorces, the Star online news portal said. The all-expense-paid trips would only be offered to couples who are going to file for divorce or separation, said Ashaari Idris, the state’s community development committee chairman.
■AUSTRALIA
TV hurts babies: report
Children should not watch TV until they turn two because it can hurt their language development and ability to concentrate, said government recommendations expected to be released next week. They also say children aged two to five should watch no more than an hour of TV a day, the Australian newspaper reported on Monday. “Based on recent research, it is recommended that children younger than two years of age should not spend any time watching television or using other electronic media [DVDs, computer and other electronic games],” they say.
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