Homeowners in southwestern China who had attracted international attention with their refusal to yield to development lost separate battles with authorities this week.In Gongtan, a town in Chongqing province with stilt houses that date to the Ming Dynasty (1348-1644), local officials backed by hundreds of police began demolishing homes along the River Wu. China is building a dam on the Wu for hydroelectric power. The project will dramatically raise the water level in the river gorge & submerge the steep banks where the historic houses in the 1,700-year-old town are located. Separately, developers in Chongqing city razed a house Mon that had been marooned atop a giant earthen mound in the middle of a vast excavation pit. The house's owners, Wu Ping and Yang Wu, waged a 3-year fight in which they accused municipal officials and developers of corruption and demanded more compensation for the home. Sympathetic accounts in state-controlled media made the 2-story brick structure famous. ...
http://www.usatoday.com
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Editor - 21:04:00 04-02-07
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 Chinese tear down house after 3-year standoff Stubborn couple refused to let home be bulldozed for construction project |
Authorities have torn down a stubborn couple's house after a three-year standoff in southwestern China that hindered a construction project and captivated the nation, a witness and state media said Tuesday. Wu Ping and Yang Wu have been fighting off bulldozers in downtown Chongqing since 2004, when they were one of 280 households asked to make way for a redevelopment project in the booming southwestern city of nearly 28 million. Their two-story brick building was clawed into dust by an earth mover as a few dozen reporters and people looked on late Monday night, said witness Zhou Shuguang, who photographed the event and posted the pictures to his blog. The demolition took about three hours, he said. In recent weeks, the wife, Wu, tirelessly met with domestic and foreign media to publicize their fight for better compensation. Wu said earlier that she had been offered US$258,000 in compensation or two higher floors in the planned complex — both of which she turned down because ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17921701/
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Editor - 20:54:00 04-02-07
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| Iran outlines conditions for release of UK sailors |
Iran's most senior diplomat, Ali Larijani, called for a "delegation" to rule on whether a British naval patrol entered Iranian waters last month before his government would release the 15 marines and sailors it is holding captive.Laying out what appeared to be a vague road map for the freeing of the British personnel, Mr Larijani said that, if it was found they had crossed into Iranian territory, there should be an apology and they would then be released. He gave some conciliatory signals in an interview with Channel Four News, saying the Iranian government was not interested in putting the detainees on trial, but warned that might change if Britain attempted to impose more international pressure on Tehran. "We are not interested in this issue getting more complicated," said Mr Larijani, the secretary-general of Iran's national security council....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2048798,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
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Editor - 20:51:00 04-02-07
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| Mugabe opponents fear hope is already crushed before Zimbabwe general strike |
Zimbabwe's trade unions have called a two-day national strike from this morning, ostensibly over the plummeting value of wages under rampant inflation that has left many people unable to afford the bus fare to work. But many Zimbabweans view the strike as a demand for an end to Robert Mugabe's 27-year rule. Previous attempts to call a strike have flopped, in part because of intimidation by the police and army, but also because almost anyone with a job in a country with 80% unemployment is desperate to hang on to it. If today's protest fails to prove a turning point it will also be because, in the eyes of many Zimbabweans, the political opposition has again missed the opportunity to capitalise on a surge of public anger at home and one of the periodic bursts of pressure on Mr Mugabe from abroad that followed the increasingly violent repression of the president's opponents....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/zimbabwe/article/0,,2048871,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
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Editor - 19:33:00 04-02-07
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| 15 killed in truck bombing; 200 wounded |
A suicide truck bomber, his deadly payload hidden under bags of flour, crashed into a police station in a Kurdish neighborhood in the disputed city of Kirkuk. At least 15 people were killed, including a newborn girl and a U.S. soldier, and nearly 200 were wounded. Several girls walking home from school were among those wounded in Monday's bombing, a possible prelude to far greater violence to this oil-rich city 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of the capital. The attack came just days after the government adopted a plan to relocate thousands of Arabs who were moved to Kirkuk decades ago in Saddam Hussein's campaign to displace the Kurds. Doctors worked in a scene of bloody pandemonium as wounded were brought to the emergency room. There was barely room to move. Many of those being treated appeared to be either very young children or schoolgirls, many crying with blood spattered on their clothes. ...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-04-02-kirkuk-truck_N.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 19:22:00 04-02-07
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| U.S. Electronics Supplier Arrested for Allegedly Exporting Missile Technology to India |
The chief executive of an electronics supply company is charged with shipping closely guarded U.S. computer technology to India for use in missiles and other weapon systems. Working with Indian government officials, Cirrus Electronics founder Parthasarathy Sudarshan ordered computer equipment from U.S. manufacturers using falsified documents about their destination, federal prosecutors said. The parts were allegedly shipped to India through Cirrus offices in South Carolina and Singapore. Prosecutors say that between 2003 and 2006, Sudarshan was buying the equipment for three Indian government agencies: the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, which researches spacecraft and ballistic missiles, Bharat Dynamics Ltd., a key agency in the nation's guided missile program, and the Aeronautical Development Establishment, which is developing the Tejas combat jet. The U.S. Commerce Department restricts exports to these agencies....
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,263461,00.html
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Editor - 18:29:00 04-02-07
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