Thousands of villagers protesting against the building of a dam in China's southwestern province of Sichuan detained the region's most senior government official for several hours Friday, reports said. \nTens of thousands of demonstrators surrounded and detained the secretary of the province's Communist Party of China, Zhang Xuezhong, on Friday as he visited the scene of the protests in Hanyuan county, Taiwan and Hong Kong media reported yesterday. \nTwo police officers were also killed during the demonstrations, Taiwan's China Times reported citing information published on the Internet that it said was confirmed by anonymous sources in Beijing. \nAn extra 6,000 soldiers from the People's Armed Police have been sent to the area, the paper said. \nThe incidents were reported in Taiwan but not, however, in China's state-run media. \nAn official at the party's provincial headquarters in Chengdu could not confirm the reports but said Zhang had travelled to Hanyuan on Friday. \nAround 100,000 people are to be relocated to make way for the Pubugou dam in Sichuan's Hanyuan county, and many are unhappy at the compensation payments offered. Protests against the dam started late last month. \nTempers boiled over on Thursday and Friday last week when villagers said at least one person was killed and scores were injured as tens of thousands of people clashed with armed police. \nAs many as 10,000 soldiers had been deployed to areas near the hydroelectric dam on Friday, the Hong Kong Apple Daily said. It quoted residents as saying this was the first time that soldiers had been mobilised. \nOfficials in Sichuan province were not available to comment. \nThe ruling Communist Party is keen to curb dissent and preserve social stability, but a spate of recent protests and their scale illustrate the extent of grievances in rural China, fuelled by corruption and a growing gap between rich and poor. \nThe Apple Daily said between 50,000 and 60,000 protesters staged another huge protest on Wednesday, resulting in clashes that left two dead and two injured. \nWhile police did not open fire, they beat back the crowds with batons. \nAt least seven people were killed and 42 injured in central Henan province after a car accident involving an ethnic Han Chinese and a member of the Hui Muslim minority sparked rioting late last month. \nDespite strict government controls, more than 3 million people staged about 58,000 protests across China last year -- a 15 percent jump from the previous year -- according to Outlook magazine, a mouthpiece of the Communist Party.
BACKING THE APPLICATION: Ankara’s move is expected to enable Helsinki to join the alliance, while the Turkish president is still opposed to backing Sweden’s application Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday ended months of diplomatically charged delays and asked the Turkish parliament to back Finland’s bid to join NATO. A simultaneous decision by fellow holdout Hungary to schedule a Finnish ratification vote for March 27 means the US-led defense alliance would likely grow to 31 nations within a few months. NATO’s expansion into a country with a 1,340km border with Russia would double the length of the bloc’s frontier with its Cold War-era foe. Finland had initially aimed to join together with fellow NATO aspirant Sweden, which is facing a litany of disputes with Turkey that
The US and the Philippines plan to announce new sites as soon as possible for an expanded Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which gives the Western power access to military bases in the Southeast Asian country. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr last month granted the US access to four military bases, on top of five existing locations under the 2014 EDCA, amid China’s increasing assertiveness regarding the South China Sea and Taiwan. Speaking at the Basa Air Base in Manila, one of the existing EDCA sites, US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said the defense agreements between the two countries
‘DUAL PURPOSE’: Upgrading the port is essential for the Solomon Islands’ economy and might not be military focused, but ‘it is not about bases, it is about access,’ an analyst said The Solomon Islands has awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara in a project funded by the Asian Development Bank, a Solomon Islands official said yesterday. China Civil Engineering Construction Co (CCECC) was the only company to submit a bid in the competitive tender, Solomon Islands Ministry of Infrastructure Development official Mike Qaqara said. “This will be upgrading the old international port in Honiara and two domestic wharves in the provinces,” Qaqara said. Responding to concerns that the port could be deepened for Chinese naval access, he said there would be “no expansion.” The Solomon
Seven stories above a shop floor hawking cheap perfume and nylon underwear, Thailand’s “shopping mall gorilla” sits alone in a cage — her home for 30 years despite a reignited row over her captivity. Activists around the world have long campaigned for the primate to be moved from Pata Zoo, on top of a Bangkok mall, with singer Cher and actor Gillian Anderson adding their voices in 2020. However, the family who owns Bua Noi — whose name translates as “little lotus” — have resisted public and government pressure to relinquish the critically endangered animal. The gorilla has lived at Pata for more
RSS