Translated screenshots from journalist Lu Chaoguo’s Tencent microblog account reveal his detention and mistreatment by police after reporting on recent riots in Anshun, Guizhou province. The riots were sparked by a “city management” official beating to death a handicapped fruit seller.
At least 50 anti-government protesters were jailed in Bangladesh yesterday after the authorities broke up the second general strike staged this month. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Islamic fundamentalist group, Jamaat-e-Islami, are oppposing the planned abolition of a law which requires the government to hand over power to a neutral party for polling once their administration is over. Protesters observing the 36-hour strike have been jailed for up to a month for “creating public disturbance” in the capital, Dhaka.
After police used tear gas and batons to stop a celebrity on hunger strike, what hope is there for non-violent protest in India? Leo Mirani reports.
Human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, was summoned to a military court just hours before Bahrain was due to lift its emergency law. He is now missing. Rajab is president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR). Bahrain’s state of emergency was lifted today, introduced almost three months ago, the emergency law coincided with the arrival of over 1, 000 Saudi troops who were called to crush largely peaceful Shiite protests.