Amnesty International Australia

China’s Ramadan clampdown in Muslim Xinjiang region

Officials have apparently begun a religious crackdown during the holy month of Ramadan in China's Xinjiang region, which is home to the Muslim Uighur people.

Will media freedom become an Olympic legacy?

Speculation has begun about whether China will make permanent its temporary media freedom regulations for foreign journalists.

China in the headlines – 12 September 2008

In the latest wrap-up from news outlets and bloggers across the globe:

• Two men are executed in China – one of them headmaster from Gansu province, the other a father from the Xinjiang region.

• The wife of jailed cyber-dissident Huang Qi appeals to the international community.

• There's plenty of evidence that China uses torture to extract confessions and as a tool of political repression, says a human rights group.

Plus …

China’s disabled face prejudice

With the Paralympics underway, Sky News takes a look at how China treats the disabled, who in the world's most populous country number 83 million.

China in the headlines – 10 September 2008

In the latest wrap-up from news outlets and bloggers across the globe:

• An Uighur radio station employee has been sacked and detained after she apparently criticised government policy.

• A Chinese woman who applied to use one of the special Olympic protest zone has been released after a month in detention.

Plus …

Google’s tenth birthday

Google has just turned 10, but for human rights activists some of the memories of the last decade aren't so splendid.

Education difficult for migrant workers’ children

China's millions of migrant workers are routinely treated as second class citizens and denied their basic rights. And that has repercussions for the education of their children.

Artist calls for retrial in execution case

The designer of one of the most famous Beijing Olympic symbols has stepped into the controversy over the secret trial of a young Chinese man sentenced to death.

China in the headlines – 8 September 2008

In the latest wrap-up from news outlets and bloggers across the globe:

• The Paralympics have opened in China, a country where prejudice against the disabled is still widespread.

• Chinese authorities begin a Ramadan security crackdown in the homeland of the country's mainly Muslim ethnic Uighur people.

• Google turns 10.

Plus …

Blind activist’s friends and family face more hurdles

Relatives and friends of jailed blind activist Chen Guangcheng have had their telephones tampered with – just as the Paralympics are about to open.

Can Paralympics be a catalyst for change?

Many are hoping China's hosting of the Paralympics will have positive spin-offs for the country's disabled, who despite improvements still face many barriers.

China in the headlines – 5 September 2008

In the latest wrap-up from news outlets and bloggers across the globe:

• Angry parents, whose children died when their schools collapsed in May's devastating earthquake, are thwarted in their bid to confront China's Prime Minister.

• The Chinese ambassador to the UK writes in the Guardian about how she thinks the Olympics have changed her country.

• A look at what's likely to happen in the Tibet-China relationship when the Dalai Lama eventually dies.

Plus …

Questions over closed door death penalty case

A secretive trial of a Beijing man, who was sentenced to death for killing six police officers, has sparked questions about fairness, justice and the police treatment of suspects.

Propaganda for China’s young students

Millions of Chinese schoolchildren have been made to watch a propaganda broadcast about the Olympics and May's devastating Sichuan earthquake, reports the Telegraph.

China in the headlines – 3 September 2008

In the latest wrap-up from news outlets and bloggers across the globe:

• The Financial Times looks what the oil boom in the Xinjiang region means for the ethnic Uighur people.

• One of Tibet's most important monasteries reopens, five months after it was shut during regional anti-government unrest.

• A former top communist party aide, who's been under house arrest for nearly two decades, believes the Olympics will bring positive changes to China.

Plus …

Cameras gone, protests (semi) allowed

Beijing residents have said that in the eight days since the end of the Olympics, and ahead of Saturday's Paralympic Games, air pollution in Beijing has dramatically worsened. On 30 August about 500 angry residents staged a marching demonstration near the Bird's Nest stadium.

Sentence revoked for elderly protestors

Chinese authorities have backtracked on their decision to send two elderly protestors to a labour camp. But a farmer who also wanted to protest during the Olympics hasn't been so lucky.

Crackdown still felt in Tibet’s Shangri La

Ethnic Tibetans living in the isolated town of Shangri La are experiencing the effects of a crackdown by Chinese authorities, reports Al Jazeera English.

China in the headlines – 1 September 2008

In the latest wrap-up from news outlets and bloggers across the globe:

• Did the Olympics improve human rights in China? The BBC investigates.

• A farmer who applied to demonstrate in one of the official Olympic protest zones is now serving an open-ended sentence for "suspected extortion".

• One of the organisers of a protest, held in Beijing at the weekend against a rubbish disposal plant, is missing, say a rights group.

Plus …