China has celebrated the 60th anniversary of Communist rule with a huge military parade featuring hundreds of thousands of soldiers marching in lockstep, tanks, missiles and fighter jets. The Communist Party was sending an important message to the world -- and to the Chinese population. The new China looked a lot like the old China on Thursday. The Communist Party celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic with a massive military display and a parade of more than 200,000 flag-waving people. It's a nation marching in lockstep into the future. Endless rows of students, railroad workers and nurses marched along the Avenue of Eternal Peace, after the military had passed. They held banners featuring slogans like: "The whole country builds prosperity."
China has celebrated the 60th anniversary of Communist rule with a huge military parade featuring hundreds of thousands of soldiers marching in lockstep, tanks, missiles and fighter jets. The Communist Party was sending an important message to the world -- and to the Chinese population.
The new China looked a lot like the old China on Thursday. The Communist Party celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic with a massive military display and a parade of more than 200,000 flag-waving people.
It's a nation marching in lockstep into the future. Endless rows of students, railroad workers and nurses marched along the Avenue of Eternal Peace, after the military had passed. They held banners featuring slogans like: "The whole country builds prosperity."
Editor's note: Oct. 1 is the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. To mark the occasion we have two dispatches from two very different corners of China -- Tibet and Hong Kong. And from Beijing, Kathleen E. McLaughlin looks at the event's unique security arrangements. HONG KONG, China -- One month ago, Chinese journalists flocked to cover renewed violence in Xinjiang province, as ethnic Chinese blamed the Uighur minority for a rash of mysterious hypodermic-needle attacks. China's media is among the most restricted in the world, so it wasn't entirely surprising when reports emerged that police had beaten and detained three of the bolder television journalists, accusing them of inciting inter-ethnic violence. Except, this trio hailed from Hong Kong, the one beacon of democracy in all of China. So news of their treatment struck a nerve in a territory that London returned to China 12 years ago, after 150 years of British rule. Hundreds of Hong Kong journalists took to the streets to demand not only an apology from the Chinese authorities, but even an investigation of the event.
Editor's note: Oct. 1 is the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. To mark the occasion we have two dispatches from two very different corners of China -- Tibet and Hong Kong. And from Beijing, Kathleen E. McLaughlin looks at the event's unique security arrangements.
HONG KONG, China -- One month ago, Chinese journalists flocked to cover renewed violence in Xinjiang province, as ethnic Chinese blamed the Uighur minority for a rash of mysterious hypodermic-needle attacks.
China's media is among the most restricted in the world, so it wasn't entirely surprising when reports emerged that police had beaten and detained three of the bolder television journalists, accusing them of inciting inter-ethnic violence.
Except, this trio hailed from Hong Kong, the one beacon of democracy in all of China. So news of their treatment struck a nerve in a territory that London returned to China 12 years ago, after 150 years of British rule. Hundreds of Hong Kong journalists took to the streets to demand not only an apology from the Chinese authorities, but even an investigation of the event.
China celebrated the 60th anniversary of Communist Party rule underlining its emergence as one of the world's great powers with a huge show of its national spirit and military strength. Underneath a bright blue sky, engineered by Beijing's scientists, president Hu Jintao told the crowds in Tiananmen Square that "a socialist China that faces the future is standing tall and firm in the East". Repeating Chairman Mao's speech on the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Mr Hu added: "The Chinese people have stood up!"
Underneath a bright blue sky, engineered by Beijing's scientists, president Hu Jintao told the crowds in Tiananmen Square that "a socialist China that faces the future is standing tall and firm in the East".
Repeating Chairman Mao's speech on the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Mr Hu added: "The Chinese people have stood up!"
Mao must have loved it.
Have not been able to find any pix on the net yet, but it can't be long.
Having said that, the night-time show was pretty amazing. No one does colossal-scale pageantry like the Chinese. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
Through the SPIEGEL link above you can access more pictures.
China formally kicked off its mass celebrations of 60 years of communist rule with a 60-gun salute that rung out across Beijing's historic Tiananmen Square earlier today. Hundreds of thousands of participants marched past Tiananmen Square in costume or uniform, with floats and dancers mingling with soldiers and military hardware. Collected here are photographs of the once-in-a-decade National Day parade in Beijing, and of others commemorating the anniversary elsewhere.
it was a hyper-phallic circle jerk
Some Chinese guy:
"a socialist China that faces the future is standing tall and firm in the East". Repeating Chairman Mao's speech on the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Mr Hu added: "The Chinese people have stood up!"
"a socialist China that faces the future is standing tall and firm in the East".
At least 770 people are now known to have died in a powerful quake that struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday, ministries say.Rescuers struggled on Thursday to find survivors in the rubble of hundreds of collapsed buildings. Almost 2,400 people have been injured, and the death toll is expected to rise further, officials say. The 7.6-magnitude quake struck close to the city of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province. The earthquake brought down hospitals, schools and shopping malls, cut power lines and triggered landslides.
At least 770 people are now known to have died in a powerful quake that struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday, ministries say.
Rescuers struggled on Thursday to find survivors in the rubble of hundreds of collapsed buildings.
Almost 2,400 people have been injured, and the death toll is expected to rise further, officials say.
The 7.6-magnitude quake struck close to the city of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province.
The earthquake brought down hospitals, schools and shopping malls, cut power lines and triggered landslides.
"I came to the conclusion very soon that this probably wasn't the right way to go. Probably before I left Guantanamo, I was of the opinion it needed to go away as soon as possible. I think we lost the moral high ground." These are the words of Marine Major General Michael Lehnert, the man who, as it turns out, built the special prison at Guantánamo, delivered in an interview last week just before his retirement. Lehnert is hardly an outlier among the brass on this issue. Increasingly, senior retired military leaders are speaking out against former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz, for their fact-free fear-mongering about Gitmo. At a forum on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, a group of more than two dozen retired generals and admirals took on Cheney's claim that Gitmo should be kept open, and some had harsh words for the former defense secretary. They also had a simple message to President Obama: Stick to your guns and shut down Gitmo as quickly as possible.
Iran agreed in principle to send "most" of its known stockpile of enriched uranium for processing abroad to make fuel rods for a medical research reactor, in what U.S. and European officials said Thursday after day long talks in Geneva would be a significant move that would delay Iran's potential to build a nuclear weapon. While diplomats were cautious about the outcome of the talks, held in an 18th century villa on Lake Geneva, they said that if carried through the deal to transfer enriched uranium could go a long way to establishing confidence in Iran's intentions and reassuring concerns in the region.
While diplomats were cautious about the outcome of the talks, held in an 18th century villa on Lake Geneva, they said that if carried through the deal to transfer enriched uranium could go a long way to establishing confidence in Iran's intentions and reassuring concerns in the region.
U.S. and European officials also said Iran had agreed to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the newly revealed uranium enrichment facility that Iran's has been building in secret at Qom, in north central Iran. The officials said they expected Iran to comply fully with the IAEA within two weeks. The two sides agreed to meet for further talks by the end of the month.
A Texas judge cleared the way for two Dallas men to get a divorce, ruling Thursday that Texas' ban on same-sex marriage violates the constitutional guarantee to equal protection under the law. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said he'd appeal the ruling, which he labeled an attempt to strike down the ban approved by voters in 2005. "The laws and constitution of the State of Texas define marriage as an institution involving one man and one woman," Abbott said in a written statement. "Today's ruling purports to strike down that constitutional definition -- despite the fact that it was recently adopted by 75 percent of Texas voters." Abbott has argued that because the state doesn't recognize gay marriage, its courts can't dissolve one through divorce.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said he'd appeal the ruling, which he labeled an attempt to strike down the ban approved by voters in 2005.
"The laws and constitution of the State of Texas define marriage as an institution involving one man and one woman," Abbott said in a written statement. "Today's ruling purports to strike down that constitutional definition -- despite the fact that it was recently adopted by 75 percent of Texas voters."
Abbott has argued that because the state doesn't recognize gay marriage, its courts can't dissolve one through divorce.
