April 7, 2008
Headline: UK police arrest”Tibetan separatists”
U.K. police arrested protesters who attempted to disrupt the Olympic Torch relay yesterday in London.
Striking workers home from Africa
Over 400 Chinese workers who participated in a strike in Equatorial Guinea in West Africa returned home yesterday.
In a recent conflict between the striking Chinese workers and the Equatorial Guinea police, two Chinese nationals were killed and four were injured. The strike was allegedly caused by a labor dispute. A spokesman of the Foreign Ministry Jiang Yu (姜瑜) admitted that “the Chinese workers disregarded the local laws”. According to Equatorial Guinea’s laws, striking is illegal.
Other stories on the front page
• The big picture shows Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the U.K., greeting the Olympic torch at 10 Downing Street, London.
• A committee from the Civil Aviation Administration of China was sent to Kunming, Yunnan Province yesterday, to investigate the March 31 incident (see report about the incident on Danwei).
• According to a new regulation issued by Organization Department of the Communist Party, grass roots level Party committees are required to report their financial status, especially the usage of the membership fees, to the Party Congress. This new policy is intended to improve the transparency of the local party organizations.
• A hairdressing salon named Paul International (保罗国际) in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, apologized to its customers and the public for overcharging.
On March, 29, two female university students were charged twelve thousand yuan for haircuts; they were allowed to leave only after they paid most of the required sum. Media coverage of the incident provoked a boycott by the public. The local Price Bureau later demanded that the salon apologize, and compensate the customers.
• Beijing’s traffic police will launch a new traffic policy to check every truck and tourist bus that enters and leaves the capital for safety to clamp on overloading etc.