BEIJING, June 4 (Reuters) – Chinese sports fans were
toasting Li Na on Saturday as she became the country’s first
tennis player to win a grand slam singles title, a triumph
described as “miracle” by state media.

Li, affectionately known as “Big Sister Na” and “Golden
Flower” in China, overcame Italian Francesca Schiavone in the
French Open final in Paris, a match watched by millions who
stayed up late into the night.

BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) – China dismissed a U.S. call for it to free dissidents and fully account for the victims of the bloody Tiananmen crackdown, on the anniversary of the crushing of the pro-democracy uprising 22 years ago.

The date on which troops shot their way into central Beijing in 1989, killing hundreds, was not publicly marked in mainland China. The democracy protests in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere remain taboo for the ruling Communist Party, especially this year after calls for an Arab-style “jasmine revolution.”

BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States and Taiwan pressed China to release dissidents and fully address the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations around Tiananmen Square 22 years ago, as China tightens the noose on rights activists.

The 1989 protests that clogged Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and spread to other cities remain a taboo topic for the ruling Communist Party, all the more so this year following online calls for an Arab-style “jasmine revolution” in China.

BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States and Taiwan pressed Beijing to release dissidents and fully address the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations around Tiananmen Square 22 years ago, as China tightens the noose on rights activists.

The 1989 protests that clogged Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and spread to other cities remain a taboo topic for the ruling Communist Party, all the more so this year following online calls for an Arab-style “jasmine revolution” in China.

BEIJING, June 3 (Reuters) – More than half of China’s cities
are affected by acid rain and one-sixth of major rivers are so
polluted the water is unfit even for farmland, a senior official
said on Friday in a bleak assessment of the environmental price
of the country’s economic boom.

The environmental degradation which has accompanied China’s
breakneck growth has emerged as one of the most potent fault
lines in Chinese society, driving protests against Beijing’s
perceived inability to effectively tackle the problem.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Tuesday cracked opened the door to its secretive national archives, but kept the lid on some of the most painful parts of its history like the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen crackdown to protect “privacy and reputations.”

The State Archives Administration, hidden down an alley in central Beijing, holds more than 100 million pages of documents, including the ceasefire agreement to end the Korean War and personal letters from Mao Zedong.

HOHHOT, China (Reuters) – Police tightened security in the capital of China’s Inner Mongolia region on Monday after nearly a week of protests and authorities said they would improve mining safety rules following an accident which triggered the unrest.

In a rare display of public anger, ethnic Mongolians took to the streets early last week in protest over the hit-and-run death of a herder, killed when struck by a coal truck in China’s biggest coal producing region.

HOHHOT, China, May 30 (Reuters) – Police tightened security
in the capital of China’s Inner Mongolia region on Monday after
nearly a week of protests and authorities said they would
improve mining safety rules following an accident which
triggered the unrest.

In a rare display of public anger, ethnic Mongolians took to
the streets early last week in protest over the hit-and-run
death of a herder, killed when struck by a coal truck in China’s
biggest coal producing region.

HOHHOT (Reuters) – Security forces sealed off parts of the capital of China’s vast northern region of Inner Mongolia on Sunday to prevent residents from staging a planned mass protest after the hit-and-run death of a herder sparked six days of protests by ethnic Mongolians.

Hundreds of paramilitary policemen and police in riot gear, armed with shields, batons and helmets, patrolled Hohhot’s Xinhua Square, next to the Inner Mongolia radio and television station, after calls spread online for a protest on Monday.

HOHHOT (Reuters) – Security forces sealed off parts of the capital of China’s vast northern region of Inner Mongolia on Sunday to prevent residents from staging a planned mass protest after the hit-and-run death of a herder sparked six days of protests by ethnic Mongolians.

Hundreds of paramilitary policemen and police in riot gear, armed with shields, batons and helmets, patrolled Hohhot’s Xinhua Square, next to the Inner Mongolia radio and television station, after calls spread online for a protest on Monday.