A policewoman looks through a broken window, July 2, 2008, at the burnt-out Weng'an public security bureau in Guizhou province, which was set ablaze and ransacked by locals on Tuesday. [China Daily]

WENG'AN, Guizhou - Test results on whether a 17-year-old girl was raped will be made known within three days.

Li Shufen committed suicide and her death led to riots in Weng'an on Saturday.

On Wednesday, a team of forensic scientists from the provincial capital Guiyang, conducted a third autopsy on the body of the girl. She was later buried in her hometown about 20 km from Weng'an.

The local government said Li committed suicide by jumping into river because her parents were ill-treating her. But her family claimed Li died while being raped by a group of her friends while on an outing.

"The team will announce the results within three days," Yang Hai, deputy director of the provincial information office told China Daily.

The previous two autopsies showed no signs of Li being raped.

Related readings:  No officials' kin involved in girl's death  Guizhou stresses stability  Up to 30,000 took part in mass action

"Our forensic scientists found no signs of a sex attack before Li jumped into the river," Wang Xingzheng, spokesman for the provincial department of public security, said.

A document submitted by the local government stated that Li was unhappy with life because her parents favored her elder brother. She then jumped into the river on June 22.

Her family did not agree, and summoned a group of people to protest outside the government's office building on Saturday.

The protest degenerated into violence in which the buildings of the government and police were attacked.

Residents said the government should have taken quicker action to prevent the violence.

"I don't know whether the girl was raped or not, but the authorities should be responsible for the worsening situation on Saturday," Gu Jun, a farmer, said.

About 80 people found to have committed minor crimes during the riots have so far been released, while 20 are still being detained.

Ni Xingyun, head of the police crime investigation team, said 20 middle school students have admitted burning cars, setting off fireworks and throwing stones.

"We didn't detain them because they admitted their wrongdoing," Ni said. "We are looking for more suspects still at large."

 

 

 

 

 

 

BEIJING -- The People's Daily newspaper is to publish an editorial on Tuesday to celebrate the 87th anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which was founded on July 1, 1921.

Related readings:  CPC publicizes Party's five-year anti-corruption plan  China moved by CPC members in quake relief  CPC discusses tenure system for Party delegates  Newspapers hail CPC's rural work plan for college graduates

The editorial, headed "The Wind and Rain-tested, Staunch and Great Party", says the CPC, with more than 73 million members, has been strengthened and made more vigorous by the "winds and rains" of the past 87 years, while the trials have made it more mature and self-confident and its cause more glorious.

The history of the CPC is the unremitting struggle for the independence, emancipation and prosperity of the Chinese nation, as well as withstanding all kinds of adversity and going from victory to victory, the editorial says.

It calls the May 12 earthquake relief campaign a new and austere test for the Party. "The Party Central Committee with Comrade Hu Jintao as the general secretary has been firm and impassioned about bringing the situation under control, to lead the whole people of different ethnic groups in overcoming hardships."

The editorial speaks highly of the central role of Party organizations and members in dealing with difficulties and risks and their loyalty to the Party and the people, in both war and peace.

"We are convinced that the wind and rain-tested Communist Party of China must be able to shoulder the historic task and live up to the expectations of the people," it says.

XI'AN - Chinese authorities will announce on Sunday the result of an investigation into a farmer's photographs of the endangered South China tiger which many people believe were faked.

A press conference will be held in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on Sunday morning, a spokesman with the provincial government said late Saturday.

A purported South China tiger is pictured in this file photo taken by farmer Zhou Zhenglong. [Xinhua]

Xu Chunhua, spokesman for the provincial government, Bai Shaokang, deputy head of the Provincial Department of Public Security Bureau, and Yue Chong, deputy head of the Provincial Department of Supervision will notify the media of the investigation result.

The spokesman did not provide further details.

Zhou Zhenglong, 53, a farmer and former hunter in Chengguan Township of Shaanxi's Zhenping County, was said to have photographed the tiger with a digital camera and on film on the afternoon of October 3 last year.

Related readings:  South China Tiger snapper held on mystery charge  Tiger, tiger! faking bright  "Directors" of fake tiger footage dismissed, face charges  China vows to punish TV reporter for directing fake tiger footage  'Rare' tiger exposed as circus fugitive  Field survey fails to find tiger at controversial photo site

The tiger photos, first published on October 12, were used by the Provincial Forestry Department as proof the rare tiger still existed in the wild at a press conference. The department awarded Zhou a 20,000 yuan (2,915 U.S. dollars) reward.

But Internet users accused Zhou of making the tiger images with digital software, and local authorities of approving the photos to bolster tourism.

The "paper tiger" saga aroused widespread interest among the public following the appearance of a Lunar New Year commemorative poster whose image of a tiger bore a striking resemblance to the one in Zhou's pictures. Official proof of authenticity was thus strongly demanded.

The embarrassed provincial forestry department apologized to the public in a letter for "curtly publicizing the discovery of the wild South China tiger" in February, but made no comment on the publication's authenticity

The South China tiger, also called the "Amoy" or "Xiamen tiger, " is widely believed to be extinct in the wild. It is thought to be the ancestor of all tigers, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

The tiger is considered critically endangered, mainly due to a loss of habitat. By 1996, the tigers numbered only 30 to 80, according to the World Conservation Union's Red List of threatened species.

GUANGZHOU -- Torrential rain from tropical storm Fengshen has killed nine in south China's Guangdong Province, according to the local authority on Friday.

Pedestrians walk past a fallen tree across a street in Hong Kong June 25, 2008. Tropical storm Fengshen struck Southeast China coast on Wednesday after tearing through the Philippines last week, bringing driving rain, uprooting trees and closing schools and businesses. [Xinhua]

In addition, the strong rain had affected about 340,000 people, destroyed more than 1,200 houses and inundated more than 640,000 hectares of crops, a provincial flood control headquarters spokesman said.

It had also damaged roads, power lines, reservoirs and embankments. The total direct economic loss was estimated at about 1.2 billion yuan (5 million), the spokesman said.

Fengshen, which means "God of Wind," had brought about downpours and made rivers swollen in most parts of Guangdong after landing at the province's Shenzhen City early Wednesday.

The provincial flood control headquarters have warned against rain-triggered geological disasters and dispatched disaster relief teams to hard-hit areas, the spokesman said.

Fengshen moved northward into neighboring Jiangxi Province on Thursday noon and was downgraded to a tropical low pressure storm. Prior to its landfall, landslides triggered by a heavy downpour killed a villager in Jiangxi Province's Yongfeng County.

Meteorologists forecast Fengshen would affect Jiangxi for 36 hours, bringing more heavy rain in the central and southern areas of the province. It was continuing to move northeastward.

Fengshen was downgraded from typhoon level. Hundreds were dead or missing in the Philippines after the typhoon hit the country last week

Seoul - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) destroyed the the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear complex Friday afternoon, according to a news report, in a sign of its commitment to stop making plutonium for atomic bombs.

A satellite image of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex with the reactor's cooling tower (circled) and a view of the tower as seen from the ground (R) are pictured in this undated combination photo released by South Korea's Yonhap news agency in Seoul June 26, 2008. [Agencies]

The reported demolition of the 60-foot-tall tower at its main reactor complex was a gesture in response to US concessions granted after DPRK delivered a declaration Thursday of its nuclear programs under an agreement at international arms talks.

Related readings:  White House statement on DPRK nuclear declaration  DPRK may blast cooling tower at Yongbyon reactor Friday  US to remove DPRK from terror list under declaration  DPRK urges normalization of relations with Japan

South Korean TV network MBC said the reactor blast occurred shortly after 4 pm local time before an audience of international TV cameras. There were no other immediate details.

The explosion came 20 months after Pyongyang shocked the world by detonating a nuclear bomb in an underground test to confirm its status as an atomic power. Last year, Pyongyang switched off the reactor at Yongbyon, some 60 miles north of the capital of Pyongyang, and it has already begun disabling the facility under the watch of US experts so that it cannot easily be restarted.

The destruction of the cooling tower, which carries off waste heat to the atmosphere, is another step forward.

Those attending the event include the top US State Department expert on the Koreas, Sung Kim, along with broadcasters from the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

DPRK's nuclear declaration, which was delivered six months later than the country promised and has not yet been released publicly, was being distributed Friday by China, the chair of the arms talks, to the other countries involved, US envoy Christopher Hill said in Kyoto, Japan.

"We'll have to study it very carefully and then we'll have to work on verification," Hill said.

The chief negotiators from the six-party talks will seek some answers as they meet in Beijing, possibly as early as Monday, to discuss specifics on how the DPRK's declaration will be verified. And possibly in July, the highest-level contact between the Washington and Pyongyang since 2000 may take place at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the six nations, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her DPRK counterpart.

他坐在我的对面。我们刚下完了一盘棋，棋盘上的棋子还有一半，但他已输了。这是我们认识并成为棋友以来从没有过的，我们每次下棋，棋盘上最后也就剩下五六个零星的棋子。我看看她心不在焉目光飘忽的神情，敲敲棋盘，问他：“你心里有事了吧！”

　　他笑笑，回头望了眼街对面正在建设中的大楼，说了一句：“快盖完了。”他是那座正在建设中大楼工地上的一名建筑工，也是我们常常说到的从农村来到城里的民工。那天我们一帮人正在马路边上下棋，他从对面工地上过来，他什么时候过来的没人注意，让我们注意到他是因为他在我的身后支了一步棋，使我的棋起死回生。老话有旁观者清一说，但也有观其不语之说，他说话了，跟我下棋的人厌恶地白了他一眼，竟丢下棋子起身走了。他一下子脸胀红了。其实这种马路边象棋谁还在乎多一两句嘴，我知道与我下棋的人起身而去的原因，因为多嘴的是一个民工。他胀红着脸站在我身后，有些不知所措。围观的人慢慢地散去了，他们的离去，让他更加窘迫。我有些过意不去，连忙招呼他：“来，杀一盘。”他犹豫了一会，还是坐到了我的对面，感恩似的对我微微笑了笑。两盘棋下完，我们便成了棋友。

    我也是这一刻以前，始终认为一个农村来的民工除了干活吃饭睡觉外，能下棋已经是很了不起了，可我错了，我没想到他会有心事，而且，在我问过他以后，他竟然问了我一个让我十分惊讶的问题，他问我说：“爱情是个啥滋味？”

    如果不是面对面地坐着，谁能够相信一个民工会问出一个这样的问题来。

    他的问题把我难住了。我恋爱过，也结婚了，可我从来没有叭嗒叭嗒嘴认认真真地想过爱情是个啥滋味。我相信大多数人都跟我一样，没叭嗒过嘴想过爱情是个啥滋味的。

    我只好把这个问题又抛了回去，我说：“你也结婚了，你还不知道爱情是个啥滋味吗？”

    他很腼腆地笑，他说：“可我没谈过恋爱。”

    我忍不住笑了，说：“那你不会像赵本山小品里说的那样，结婚后再恋爱吗？”

    他目光疑惑地望着我说：“结婚后还咋谈恋爱？”

    我被他又打了一棍子，恋爱应该是结婚以前的事情啊！谈恋爱才能产生爱情，有爱情才能有婚姻，这是公认的人生原则的事情啊！他没谈恋爱就结婚了，那爱情呢，应该是没有的，如果有的话，他还会问吗？

    我诚恳地对他说：“我也说不清爱情是个啥滋味，虽然我是先恋爱后结婚的。”

    他犹豫了一下，缓缓地从兜里掏出一封信来，小心地抽出信纸，一点一点地展开。他展开信纸时，脸上是凝重的幸福的发自内心的笑。他说：“我知道爱情是个啥滋味。”

    我说：“你知道爱情是个啥滋味？他是个啥滋味？”

    他把信纸递给我说：“我说不出来，但我能感觉出来，我有感觉，说不出来的感觉，那滋味让人感觉真好。”

    我接过了信，我知道信是他老婆让人给他捎来的。

    信上竟然没有字，一个字也没有，有的只是用铅笔画的几个圈。我不解地望着他：“这是什么？”

    他不好意思地笑了，说：“我老婆不识字。”他指着信上画着的〇〇〇〇＋〇说：“这是五个馒头。”

   “五个馒头！”我问，“什么意思？怎么还四个圈加一个圈呢？”

    他说：“我在家一顿能吃四个馒头，她让我在这在多吃一个，干活累别饿着。”

    那一瞬间，我感觉到我的内心深处猛地汹涌出一股酸酸的东西，它强烈得使我的眼睛发涩。我把信轻轻地叠好，心怀虔诚地把画有五个圈的信还到他的手里，我说：“爱情真是个好滋味。兄弟。”

    我看见夕阳的最后一抹红晕抹红了他的脸，他红色的脸上挂满了爱情的滋味。