This morning, a series of explosions shook the provincial capital of Shanxi province, Taiyuan, not far from the Shanxi Province Communist Party Committee building.
Last Thursday saw the publication of the China Story Yearbook 2013, the second in an annual series published by the China experts at Australia National University's Center on China in the World. It was co-edited by the estimable Geremie Barmé and Beijing's very own Jeremy Goldkorn. Disclosure: I'm partial. I occasionally write for the China Story blog, but don't let that deter you. The yearbook is packed with insight and perspectives you won't find in commercial media, with gems that will prove invaluable to any China watcher.
Not a week after we learned about a Tibetan Mastiff that was brutally shot to death by armed officers, here's a story about two Tibetan Mastiffs shot -- with pistols -- and beaten -- with shovels -- by police officers and residents of a village in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province. NetEase has the story and pictures. Warning: pictures aren't pleasant to look at.
In the sizable annals of bad photoshop jobs, this one belongs in the first chapter. The picture you see above was taken in Ningguo, Anhui province, with reports saying that these four -- which include the city's vice mayor -- were visiting a 100-year-old woman.
Details are still being sorted out, but a jeep crashed into a crowd in front of the Tiananmen Rostrum around noon today, leaving three dead -- "a driver and two passengers," according to Xinhua. Tourists and policemen were reportedly also injured.
A 37-year-old mother, Li Qiaozhen, and her four children, ages 9, 7, 5, and 1, were stabbed to death inside their home on Saturday night in Brooklyn, New York. At least one of the victims may have been decapitated.
The murderer has been identified as Chen Mingdong, 25, reportedly an illegal alien from China who was staying with the family. (He is apparently Li's husband's cousin.) The New York Post reports that, according to a police source, Chen said he killed the family because they "had too much."
