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

  • China Rises Blog – The stae of press freedom in China
    Old habits die hard. And one of those old habits for me is adopting a particular plan of action when it looks like I might get detained in China while covering a story …

  • China Media Project – Mugshots for all in Beijing's internet bards
    The Beijing government has implemented new regulations requiring all first-time visitors to any of the city’s more than 1,500 internet bars to have their pictures taken and their ID cards scanned on site, according to …

  • New York Times– Beijing Olympics building chief may be executed for corruption
    A former Beijing official who oversaw citywide construction projects for this year’s Olympic Games has been given a suspended death sentence for corruption in a case that involved bribery and lavish living, state news outlets reported …

  • China Digital Times– Beijing's black secrets
    Though many thought detention centers for petitioners disappeared in China in 2003, Xu Zhiyong, a professor at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications and citizen journalist, has discovered they’ve merely gone underground …

  • Times Online – Hardliners in bid to oust China's MP
    China's most popular politician Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, has become a target for Communist party hardliners and could be forced from office, according to an influential magazine in Hong Kong …

  • New York Times – Wary of Islam, China tightens a vise of rules
    The grand mosque that draws thousands of Muslims each week in this oasis town has all the usual trappings of piety: dusty wool carpets on which to kneel in prayer, a row of turbans and skullcaps for men without headwear, a wall niche facing the holy city of Mecca in the Arabian desert …

  • AFP – 'Distinct' risk if Uighurs released on US soil: Bush administration
    The Bush administration believes the 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp should not be released into the United States because they pose a "risk distinct to this nation," according to court documents obtained by AFP …

  • China Digital Times – Land reform in China, promises, promises
    Farmers in China are waiting for land reform so that they can have greater ownership over their land. A story from the Economist …