Guangzhou cops break up hunger strikers

Riot police broke up a hunger strike by 18 village women in front of the Guangzhou's Pahyu District office on Thursday, the South China Morning Post reported. They were demanding the removal of their village chief Chen Jinsheng whom they accused of embezzling funds from rentals and land sales. For a month they had barred entry to the village accounts office and demanded an investigation by auditors from Guangdong, not an unreliable local probe. Some were arrested and released; one man was detained and threatened with education through labor if he did not disclose the names of those behind the demonstration. A reporter from the SCMP was detained for questioning and the windows of his taxi were smashed in.