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| Eureka moments The big scientific breakthroughs of the last decade news.bbc.co.uk |
Family claim Chinese deputy mayor was murdered by corrupt officials Widow wants alleged suicide case reopened after inconsistencies in police report and autopsyThe family of a Chinese official who died in mysterious circumstances are urging the authorities to reinvestigate his alleged suicide, claiming he was murdered.Yang Kuansheng, the deputy mayor of Wugang in central Hunan province, was found dead on 26 November outside his apartment block.Local police closed the inquiry after less than 48 hours, saying Yang had slashed one of his wrists then tried to electrocute himself before leaping from a balcony.But his widow says Yang called her the night before his death to say he feared someone would hurt him. She is asking the ministry of public security and national prosecutors to reopen the case.Her lawyer said the family had identified at least 19 inconsistencies or unresolved issues in the police and autopsy reports after speaking to medical experts. These included an extra set of footprints on the bloodied floors of his apartment and bruises they said could not have been caused by his fall.Liu Yuehong said she believed her husband had clashed with corrupt officials because of his honesty. "My husband called me and told me somebody was going to set him up. Someone was going to hurt him. He said our phones were being bugged," Liu said in an interview in Beijing, having travelled to the capital to campaign for a fresh investigation. "I didn't really take it seriously. I didn't expect that would be the last call between us."Zhuo Xiaoqing of the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, who reviewed the official findings for the family, said: "We cannot rule out the possibility of murder." He cited injuries to Yang's face, which he said were common in murder cases when assailants tried to cover the victim's mouth; an unusual pattern of bone fractures; and the strange distribution of blood stains.Shaoyang city referred all questions concerning Yang's death to Wugang county. The police in Wugang said the case was closed and referred queries to the government, where a spokesman said: "Three levels of police have already reached a conclusion. Do you think there's a need to check again?"ChinaTania Braniganguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Google blazes a trail with China rift | Jonathan Fenby Google's Eric Schmidt had dinner with Hillary Clinton last week, which hints at the new power politics behind today's storyIn Google's onward march to global supremacy, there was always one obstacle – China. But today's flare-up – with the internet firm saying it won't accept Chinese censorship, which would mean the closure of its mainland site – goes further, and neatly encapsulates the different strands that run through the power politics of the web.To start operating its Chinese site, Google accepted the censorship rules of the People's Republic. When you punch in "Tiananmen Square" to its English-language images site, you get a picture of the 1989 massacre; the Chinese site shows a tourist photograph of happy folk in the square today. That, the firm explained, was the price that had to be paid to bring the benefits of Google to the world's most heavily populated nation.But it found the going somewhat harder than elsewhere, taking a 31% share of the search engine market compared with 69% for the Chinese Baidu service. That wouldn't necessarily have put it off, but a wave of hacking attacks has. We may conclude that the management in California feared that Chinese hackers would get into the system and even get hold of the code and secret algorithms.That would be a new twist on the familiar story of counterfeiting of software in China, which Microsoft has been fighting for a decade or more. Despite its huge size, with more than 300 million internet users, the mainland is a relatively small part of Google's overall business, so the price of increasing security may have been worth paying.But there is a wider story, and the fact that Google chief executive Eric Schmidt had dinner with Hillary Clinton last week along with three other major US tech bosses is probably not unconnected with the change of stance on China. In addition, Clinton is due to make a major speech next week extolling internet freedom, while Obama has pointed to internet security as a key national security concern.We don't know if the hackers were private individuals, part of a shadow government operation, or connected with the People's Liberation Army. Google and Clinton clearly believe the authorities in Beijing have the power to crack down on them. Whatever the truth, China is unlikely to play along with the Americans. As I pointed out in a posting after the execution at the end of December of the British man found with heroin in his possession, China is in no mood to do anything it does not want to. The only reason one can see for Beijing to act would be if it felt it was at risk following recent attacks on Baidu, though they are said to have originated from Iran.We saw that at Copenhagen, and over the valuation of its currency, the yuan. In this case, China is keen to develop its own next generation internet hardware and software that will retain censorship functions while using the technical facilities of the web to the full. The senior official in charge of media has talked of the country acting "proactively" to set up its own system to prevent the spread of moral pollution from abroad. If that catches political dissidents along with pornographers, nobody will be happier than the Politburo.This is a story that will stretch well beyond whatever Google does or does not do. It marks the start of a major new stage in the life of the internet where power politics swing into play. If it works, China's model will be very attractive for authoritarian governments elsewhere and for regimes that want to halt the spread of American information technology. Once again, Google blazes the trail, even if not in ways it might wish for.GoogleInternetSearch enginesPolitics and technologyHackingChinaUS foreign policyHillary ClintonCensorshipJonathan Fenbyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
London's kosher crisis | Alexander Goldberg Spending part of my time in Paris brings home just how better the French do kosher food. When will London catch up?I now live half of the week in the heart of Le Marais in Paris. My life in the historic centre of Paris and also of France's Jewish community is a definitely a change from Guildford or my South Bank office. As someone who dines kosher, one of the early pluses of my new life in Paris is definitely better food and wine.There are over 200 kosher restaurants in Paris which serves half a million Jews living in the French capital. A proud Jewish Parisian informed me that this makes the city the kosher gastronomical capital of the world with more restaurants per capita than New York, Los Angeles or London. I was too polite to bring up Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.A discussion with friends over kosher sushi resulted in the general consensus that there had been a massive improvement in Kosher Japanese and Chinese food in Paris in the last few years as better chefs had been brought in to run the kitchens. The quality of food seems to be important and bad restaurants have no place. In London, we have far fewer kosher restaurants and for years, in a very British way, we have smiled and accepted mediocrity with the attitude that "if we don't use it, we will lose it". Those of my London friends who are not strictly kosher have often given backhanded compliments to the effect that our best restaurants in London "are not bad for kosher places". We put up with it in the same way that commuters put up with the lack of seats on trains. Just like the train service, the restaurants are slowly getting better but remain expensive.The attitude to food in Paris is definitely different. It is part of life and culture here and there is no sentimentality. Near me, Jo Goldenberg, a restaurant dating back to the pre-war Yiddish community and itself a Parisian landmark, visited by successive French Presidents, has been closed and transformed into a fashion boutique. Its historic significance did not save it. Other restaurants in the area come and go in what is a cut-throat business. Paris had a kosher Indian restaurant before London which takes its place alongside French, Italian, American, Yiddish, Moroccan, Chinese, Japanese and Middle Eastern kosher restaurants.Naturally, there are always exceptions to the rule. There are bad kosher restaurants in Paris and good ones in London. However, it's high time that the food critics took on bad kosher gastronomy in London whilst raising the status of the few good restaurants. Some of the best-known food critics in Britain are Jewish. Many of them have transformed attitudes to food and restaurants in London in the last 20 years. Perhaps, it is time they turned their attention to Kosher establishments.Alexander writes in a personal capacity and still works for the London Jewish Forum between meals.ReligionJudaismFood and drinkFood & drinkParisAlexander Goldbergguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Wolverhampton 0-0 Liverpool Liverpool's inconsistency returns as they are held to a draw by a valiant Wolves at Molineux. news.bbc.co.uk |