China and the power of non-violent protest

July 02, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

If done carefully and peacefully, democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong could inspire others in China.

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Rescuers pulled seven more survivors from under the concrete ruins of a collapsed 11-story building on Tuesday, three days after it toppled and killed at least 29 people in southern India, officials said. Already, 26 people have been rescued alive from under the enormous heap of broken slabs, twisted iron girders and concrete dust where the apartment building was being constructed in a suburb of Chennai, the south-coast capital of Tamil Nadu state, according to the National Disaster Response Force.

Seventeen years after taking back control of Hong Kong, China faced the biggest challenge to its authority Tuesday as tens of thousands of residents joined a march to push for democracy. Anger at mainland China has never been greater after Beijing warned recently it holds the ultimate authority over the freewheeling capitalist enclave despite promises to allow a high degree of autonomy after British rule ended in 1997. Police said 98,600 people joined the rally at its peak, while organizers estimated the size at 510,000. Participants had hoped to surpass the 500,000 that turned out in 2003 for the city's biggest ever demonstration to protest against a planned anti-subversion law.

President Obama's abrupt shift from seeking immigration legislation to pursuing a go-it-alone executive strategy raises expectations among immigration advocates that Obama may have trouble satisfying while setting up a clash with House Republicans who've already threatened to sue him. Obama on Monday blamed Republican resistance for the demise of sweeping immigration legislation and vowed to bypass Congress to patch up the system. "If Congress will not do their job, at least we can do ours," Obama said.

A car bomb exploded Tuesday in a market in Maiduguri, the northeast Nigerian city that is the birthplace of Boko Haram Islamic extremists, reducing stalls, goods and vehicles to piles of trash. Dozens of people are feared dead, witnesses said. They blamed Boko Haram extremists who are accused of a series of recent bomb attacks in the West African nation. Tuesday's explosives were hidden under a load of charcoal in a pickup van, according to witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Trader Daba Musa Yobe, who works near the popular market, said the bomb went off just after the market opened at 8 a.m., before most traders or customers had arrived.

Amanda Knox's former Italian boyfriend said Tuesday the American student provided alibis for him that he will use to try to persuade Italy's court of last resort to dismiss his conviction for the murder of her British roommate. Raffaele Sollecito hopes the Court of Cassation will rule he deserves yet another trial and throw out the 25-year sentence he received in January from a Florence appeals court, which convicted both him and Knox for the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, 21.

The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday upheld France's law banning face-covering Muslim veils from the streets, in a case brought by a woman who claimed her freedom of religion was violated. The ruling by the Strasbourg-based court was the first of its kind since France passed a law in 2010 that forbids anyone to hide his or her face in an array of places, including the street. The law went into effect in 2011. The court's Grand Chamber rejected the arguments of a French woman, a practicing Muslim not identified by name, who said she doesn't hide her face at all times but when she does it is to be at peace with her faith, her culture and convictions.

A ticket stub signed by Lou Gehrig on July 4, 1939 – the day he retired from baseball – is going on the auction block. Heritage Auctions says more than 60,000 tickets to the game at Yankee Stadium were sold. Only two are known to have survived. Of the two, only the mezzanine box ticket was signed by Gehrig. It is estimated to bring over $100,000 at the Aug. 1 sale in Cleveland.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

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