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Daily Telegraph (UK)
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Jun 17, 09 3:28 AM CDT
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A Chinese court has freed a waitress who fatally stabbed a Communist Party bigwig as he sexually assaulted her, the Telegraph reports. Deng Yujiao, 21, slashed the official with a pocket knife after he forced her onto a couch, demanded sex, and slapped her with wads of money. The case sparked widespread anger in China and a huge online campaign to ensure she received a fair trial. She was convicted of causing injury but freed because she turned herself in and suffered from "mood disorders."
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GlobalPost
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Jun 15, 09 4:10 PM CDT
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In a breakthrough for gay rights, China’s gay community came to Shanghai last week for the country’s first-ever pride festival, Global Post reports. The weeklong event featured panel discussions, film screenings, play performances, and a large party—but no parade. The fact that the government allowed the festival without its signature feature demonstrates its unresolved attitudes on homosexuality: “In today’s China you can be gay,” said one Chinese activist. “But you can’t be political.”
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Associated Press
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Jun 11, 09 9:12 PM CDT
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A Pentagon official who said he was tricked into giving classified information to China by an agent who claimed to work for Taiwan was actually aware for a full decade that he was dealing with China, the AP reports. The indictment today of James Fondren Jr also revealed that Fondren traveled to China with his Taiwanese handler in 1999 and met with government officials.
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Associated Press
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Jun 11, 09 8:45 AM CDT
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Four Chinese Muslims inmates from Guantanamo have been released in Bermuda in the first successful US resettlement of Uighurs since 2006, the AP reports. The disposition of 13 others is unclear, according to the Miami Herald, but Palau has offered to accept them, a move China opposes. Beijing has called them “terrorist suspects” and demanded their return. Palau’s president classifies them as “international vagabonds” who deserve a fresh start.
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Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
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Jun 10, 09 10:23 AM CDT
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Ray Nagin prepared to leave Shanghai today after four days in quarantine imposed after possible exposure to the swine flu virus. The New Orleans mayor, his wife, and a member of their security detail had been in a hotel-turned-clinic since learning that a fellow passenger on their flight from Newark had shown flu symptoms, the Times-Picayune reports.
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Guardian (UK)
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Jun 10, 09 8:31 AM CDT
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China is on course to obtain 20% of its energy from wind and solar sources by 2020—a transformation that would make the country the world leader in renewables. Beijing is ramping up its targets for clean energy, helped by the $590 billion stimulus package passed last year, a senior government official told the Guardian . "Due to the impact of global financial crisis, people are all talking about green and sustainable development," he said.
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BBC
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Jun 10, 09 7:20 AM CDT
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China's blocking of Twitter ahead of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre last week didn't foil the country's computer-savvy youth for very long, the BBC reports. Users swiftly shared information about visiting the site through proxies or software applications, and the subsequent twittering made Tiananmen one of Twitter's most-discussed topics last week.
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Wall Street Journal
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Jun 8, 09 7:31 AM CDT
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Starting next month all computers in China must ship with software to block certain websites, the Wall Street Journal reports. The government says the move is to block "harmful" content such as pornography from young web surfers, but it could also be used to filter politically sensitive material. The directive is forcing Western manufacturers to choose: aid censorship or lose one of the world's most lucrative markets.
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New York Times
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Jun 7, 09 6:03 AM CDT
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With the Dalai Lama nearing 74, Chinese officials and Tibetan spiritual leaders are steeling for the possibility of competing successors after his death. Historically, the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama has been found within Tibet, which has been controlled by China since 1951. Chinese officials insist on adhering to tradition, but the current Dalai Lama has expressed a willingness to break with custom, reports the New York Times .
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BBC
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Jun 6, 09 6:16 AM CDT
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A landslide in southwestern China has killed at least 26 people and left 74 missing, the AP reports. More than 500 rescuers are searchng for survivors and officials are still unsure what caused millions of tons of rock to flood the Tiekuang township valley, burying an iron ore plant and six houses. China’s mining industry is notoriously dangerous, the BBC adds, with more than 400,000 accidents last year alone.
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Wall Street Journal
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Jun 5, 09 6:31 AM CDT
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China's one-child policy may have birthed a rising number of pretty and fleet-footed criminals, the Wall Street Journal reports. The traditional preference for boys has caused a surplus of tens of millions of men of marriageable age, mostly in rural areas, and some villages are being scammed by women who marry local men only to scamper with the customary "bride price," which can amount to years of farm income.
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BBC
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Jun 4, 09 2:19 PM CDT
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An annual vigil marking the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre brought a record 150,000 people to a park in Hong Kong, the only place in China to mark the event, reports the BBC. “It is something to remember not only for our generation but for the next generation as well,” said an attendee. In Beijing, both traffic and foreign reporters were barred from the square.
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New York Times
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Jun 4, 09 8:52 AM CDT
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Twenty years ago today, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times was in Tiananmen Square, sweating in fear and watching as "'People’s China' opened fire on its people." The soldiers had shot at ambulances, too, so no one was helping the wounded—except the rickshaw drivers. One driver, tears in his eyes, stopped so Kristof could photograph his cart full of bodies. He “perhaps couldn’t have defined democracy, but he had risked his life to advance it.”
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USA Today
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Jun 4, 09 6:26 AM CDT
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On the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square, one image endures: a lone man standing in front of a column of tanks, refusing to let them pass. Jeff Widener, the AP photographer who captured the moment, tells USA Today how he evaded the police and the censors to take the shot and get it out of China.
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Los Angeles Times
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Jun 4, 09 2:34 AM CDT
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger helped popularize the Hummer by driving one, but he's not worried that its days of American ownership are over, reports the Los Angeles Times . The gas-guzzler has come to symbolize Detroit's failure to innovate, and the brand's new Chinese owners will be able to double the Hummer’s gas mileage or even bring it close to 100 miles per gallon, according to Schwarzenegger.
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Time
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Jun 2, 09 1:30 PM CDT
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You might not expect to hear freestyle rapping in Mandarin, but that sound is growing in China as youths grab hold of the outlet hip-hop offers, Time reports. “This music is free and creative. We can say what we want,” says one rapper. “There are no restrictions.” Even so, another artist points out, “the main concern is social stability. I can’t say anything that gets close to politics.”
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New York Times
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Jun 2, 09 12:44 PM CDT
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After General Motors announced a plan to sell the brand, the identity of Hummer’s buyer has emerged: It’s a Chinese machinery firm that aims to become an automaker, an insider tells the New York Times . GM’s deal with the Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company was subject to Beijing’s scrutiny. The firm builds road equipment but has lately been working on trucks.
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TechCrunch
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Jun 2, 09 9:29 AM CDT
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As Thursday's 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre approaches, China has blocked access to Twitter, Flickr, and Hotmail, among other sites, TechCrunch reports. “The lead-up to any date like this is usually a time when the Firewall is tightened,” notes Mike Butcher, who was told by a contact in Beijing that “my only surprise in this matter is that it took ‘em so long."
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Reuters
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Jun 1, 09 4:35 PM CDT
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China is cracking down on restaurants that serve chicken killed by forced snake bite, Reuters reports. A recent Internet video of a chef urging a snake to repeatedly bite a bird inspired the move. “Snake-bite chicken” is popular in Guangdong and Chongqing provinces. “Not only is it cruel and blood-thirsty, but totally amoral,” one resident told a local newspaper.
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Associated Press
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Jun 1, 09 8:41 AM CDT
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Tim Geithner began his trip to China with a speech at Peking University, where the Treasury secretary said that once the current recession and financial crisis are over, the administration will bring down soaring fiscal deficits. But students at the college where Geithner himself once studied peppered him with tough questions about the fate of their country's US Treasury investments. "Chinese financial assets are safe," he insisted.
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