China Forces Sterilization on 10K People

As part of a plan to control population explosion, China's health authorities plan to sterilize 10,000 people in southern China over the next four days. The campaign in Puning City calls for people who already have at least one child to be sterilized; many who decline the surgery are expected to be sterilized against their will, a practice which Amnesty International says "amounts to torture."

The Chinese media has reported that those who attempted to refuse the sterilization had their elderly mothers or fathers taken away by government officials and detained. Hundreds of people are said to have been imprisoned so far; the measures are reportedly an attempt to ensure that local birth control quotas are met. Read the full article on Sky News. (More China stories.)