 Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said that land seizures by local authorities are a key threat to rural stability. He said land grabs and a lack of proper compensation for those affected was sparking "mass incidents". His comments were published a day after the government said public disturbances in 2005 had risen more than 6% on 2004. The latest mass protest took place in the southern city of Shenzhen on Thursday, after police shut down night spots as part of an anti-vice campaign. "We absolutely can't commit an historic error over land problems," Mr Wen said, in a speech made on 29 December but only published in China's state-run press on Friday. "Some places are unlawfully occupying farmers' land and not offering reasonable economic compensation and arrangements for livelihoods, and this is sparking mass incidents in the countryside," he said. He said farmers were paying the price for China's rapid urbanisation. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 10:43:00 01-20-06
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 Indonesia's E Timor abuses listed |
A report on Indonesia's conduct during its 24-year annexation of East Timor says that as many as 180,000 civilians died of hunger or illness. The report, by an East Timorese truth commission, lists abuses by Indonesian security forces, including the use of starvation as a weapon. East Timor's president will formally hand the report to the UN on Friday. Indonesia has dismissed the report, saying it is time for the two countries to look to the future. "We have agreed to co-operate for reconciliation and for solving our problems, therefore there is no need to look into the past because that does not help," Indonesia's State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra said. A copy of the document has been leaked to The Australian newspaper, which has published extensive details....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4630122.stm
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Editor - 10:39:00 01-20-06
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| $750K For Man Wrongfully Jailed |
A man who spent nearly 21 years in prison for a toddler's death, now believed to have been an accident, was awarded $756,900 by a state compensation board, $100 for every day he spent in prison. The payment awarded Thursday to Kenneth Marsh was the largest the Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board has offered for a wrongful conviction, a board spokeswoman said. "Nothing can make up for the time I spent in prison unless they gave me 21 years back," Marsh said after the hearing. Though he said an apology from San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos, a member of the board, "goes a long way." Marsh, now 50, was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1983 death of his girlfriend's son, 3-year-old Philip Buell. Marsh had refused a plea deal, maintaining that the boy fell from a couch and hit his head on the fireplace hearth. Prosecutors argued that Marsh beat the boy. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/20/national/main1224804.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=U.S._1224804
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Editor - 10:37:00 01-20-06
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| Straw denies cover-up of rendition flights |
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, today denied there had been any cases of so-called extraordinary rendition involving the UK about which parliament had not been informed.Mr Straw was forced to rush out a written ministerial statement after the leak of a memo from the Foreign Office to No 10 suggested that there could have been more requests from the United States than the four about which parliament has been told.Mr Straw said in his statement today: "That is not the case." The memo, obtained by the New Statesman and reported in the Guardian yesterday, advised No 10 to avoid getting drawn into detail over renditions and said they were illegal in most circumstances. It said the government did not know how many times the US had asked to use British airports for rendition flights....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1691441,00.html
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Editor - 10:30:00 01-20-06
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| Lost whale swims through downtown London |
A lost and likely sick whale swam up the River Thames past Parliament and Big Ben in central London on Friday, attracting huge crowds and a police boat escort before nearly beaching itself on the shallow riverbank. The Northern bottlenose whale appeared to be about 20 feet long, witnesses said. The whale, which usually is found in the cold waters of the North Atlantic, was about 40 miles from the mouth of the Thames on the North Sea. Tom Howard-Vyne said he saw the marine mammal swim under Westminster Bridge near Big Ben. "I saw it blow. It was a spout of water which sparkled in the air," he said. "It was an amazing sight." TV stations followed the marine mammal with live coverage as it wandered into shallow water near the muddy banks of the tidal waterway. The whale appeared to get stuck several times, and officials wearing yellow jackets could be seen running up and down the shoreline at low tide trying to push it back into deeper water. ...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-01-20-londonwhale_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 10:23:00 01-20-06
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| 11 Charged In Ecoterror Arsons |
Federal prosecutors have indicted 11 people in a series of arsons in the Northwest that have been claimed by the radical groups Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, Justice Department officials said Friday. The suspects are believed responsible for 17 incidents, including sabotaging a power plant, in a conspiracy that dates back to 1996, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the indictment was under seal in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Ore. It was expected to be made public later Friday. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller were expected to talk about the indictment Friday at a news conference in Washington. Some of those charged Friday remain at large, the officials said. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/20/national/main1224643.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=U.S._1224643
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Editor - 10:22:00 01-20-06
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