Protesters clash with police in south-eastern China

South east China: protesters clash with police

Overturned police vans surrounded by an angry crowd. This amateur footage was filmed on Saturday night in Fuan city in south-eastern China, when hundreds of protesters clashed with police after a police chase resulted in a road accident.

According to reports from local media, the pile up occurred after a driver sped off to avoid a police patrol carrying out drink driving checks, and went on to collide with three motorcycles and another car, leaving five people injured. But the numerous onlookers became angry when it took about an hour for the first ambulance to arrive.

The police were soon criticized for their slow response to the accident and the time it took for paramedics to arrive. Human rights activists are saying residents have had enough of police corruption and after this incident anger finally boiled over.

Calm we restored to Fuan once the authorities posted a statement online saying there would be a full enquiry into the affair. But the fact remains; there has been a recent proliferation of incidents of this nature across China.

Riots erupted in Luzhou city in central China last month amid claims police officers had beaten a truck driver to death. Spontaneous protests, reflecting growing social discontent in China, and which represent a major challenge for China’s new set of leaders. 

Gaza conflict: Anonymous hackers target Israel

The Israeli military pursues its campaign of air strikes against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and the IDF continues to make great use of the web to justify its actions, but residents of the Palestinian territories now have the valuable support of hacking group Anonymous in this war of words and pictures currently being waged online. 

The Anonymous hackers posted a statement to their website on November 15, which has since been widely shared online; slamming Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the toll inflicted on civilians. The group has also issued the Israeli authorities with a warning: end the attacks or feel the group’s, quote “full and unbridled wrath”.

And members of Anonymous as well as other hacking groups have already got to work. This page lists close to 700 Israeli private and public web sites that were targeted by cyber-attacks over the weekend. They include the Israeli president’s official website and that of the armed forces. Homepages were replaced with messages in support of the Palestinian cause and some sites are still down or difficult to access.

Anonymous says the wave of attacks on Israeli sites is only the beginning and it is about to implement the second phase of the operation: bombard the inboxes of Israeli officials with emails condemning the continuous application of military force and denouncing the oppression of the Palestinian population living in the Israeli-occupied territories. 

Tour the Milky Way with Google

You can now tour the Milky Way and discover its tens of thousands of planets with Google’s new Chrome experiment called “100 000 stars”. A hugely enlightening project, making space exploration accessible to all, and giving our solar system a whole new dimension… 

Now trending on social networks

This photo is the latest viral sensation: it was taken last Thursday and posted to the White House Flickr page on Saturday. It shows Barack Obama and American gymnast McKayla Maroney pulling the now famous ‘not impressed’ face she made when she was unable to hide her disappointment at winning silver in the women’s vault final at this summer’s London Olympic Games. Her pout went viral at the time and it would seem even reached the computer of the US president… 

Video of the day

Disguise yourself as a deer during hunting season or play with a bee’s nest… there are already all sorts of stupid and idiotic ways of getting killed, so why put your life at risk at railway stations and level crossings. This is the message the Australian authorities are hoping to convey in this short viral video entitled “Dumb Ways to Die”. It’s part of an awareness campaign targeting public transport passengers, and promoting safety.