It also attacked another employee of the firm, online activist Wu Gan, saying he had exploited his fame and exaggerated sensitive incidents for profit. Mr Wu has been in detention since May and earlier this month was charged with "inciting subversion". The People's Daily denounced what it called a "major criminal organisation" which "seriously disturbed social order".
'A mockery'

Last year saw reforms designed to make courts less corrupt and less embedded in local politics. There were promises to exclude tainted evidence, torture and coercion. But at the same time, President Xi said the rule of law would be "a knife whose handle was in the hands of the party and the people".

Any campaign to promote the rule of law which thinks lawyers are part of the problem rather the solution is in trouble. But this is the direction of travel in China. Groups that cannot be co-opted become pariahs. And lawyers who assert a set of values outside the narrowing space allotted to them by the state are no exception.

There would be no constitutionalism, judicial independence or separation of powers. And clearly no lawyers or law firms who put their client's interests ahead of those of the party.

"Such an unprecedented nationwide crackdown can only have been sanctioned from within the central government," said William Nee, China Researcher at Amnesty International. "This coordinated attack on lawyers makes a mockery of President Xi Jinping's claims to promote the rule of law."

Posted by: floweer at 03:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 246 words, total size 2 kb.

Mr Cameron tipped Home Secretary Theresa May, Chancellor George Osborne and London Mayor Boris Johnson as potential successors.

Labour accused him of arrogance while the Lib Dems called him presumptuous reenex cps.

In an interview with BBC deputy political editor James Landale, Mr Cameron described the three Conservative heavyweights as "great people" with "plenty of talent".
'Shredded Wheat'

James Landale said the PM's comments would "electrify the election campaign".

"Not only will this kick-start a lengthy Tory leadership contest, it will also send a message to voters that if they back the prime minister now, he would not go on and on as some previous prime ministers had done," he said.

"But it is quite a gamble. There is a risk that some voters will think Mr Cameron is being arrogant for presuming the result of an election that could see him dismissed from Downing Street in a matter of weeks."
Media caption David Cameron said he was putting himself forward "for the full five years" as PM

The prime minister said during the interview he felt his job was "half done" with the economy "turned round" and that he wanted to "finish the job" of education and welfare reform. 許智政醫生

But he said: "There definitely comes a time where a fresh pair of eyes and fresh leadership would be good, and the Conservative Party has got some great people coming up - the Theresa Mays, and the George Osbornes, and the Boris Johnsons.

"You know, there's plenty of talent there. I'm surrounded by very good people."

He added: "I've said I'll stand for a full second term, but I think after that it will be time for new leadership.許智政醫生

Posted by: floweer at 02:26 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 285 words, total size 2 kb.

Bian Liangjing was going to see his now two-year-old son, Haohao, for the first time in a year.

Mr Bian trained as a dentist. But the 28-year-old didn't have the money to open his own clinic. For that reason, he took a well-paid job at a construction site in Singapore to save up the cash.

On 8 March he boarded flight MH370. It was a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. He would be home within a few hours.

On the white-washed wall of the living room hang the couple's wedding photographs - the bride and groom dressed in a creamy white dress and suit respectively, a swing in front of them, and a forest-scene photo-shopped as the background.

They're the type of over-the-top romantic photos that are common in homes across China - a memory of happy times. But for the Bian family they're a constant reminder of what's been lost. Even the joy her own son brings cannot mask Ms Li's pain.

"Sometimes he calls other people 'daddy'," she says, tears forming in her eyes. "He just wants his daddy. I tell him daddy will be back soon that he just went out to earn money."

Most of those on board flight MH370 were Chinese. Some - like Mr Bian - were labourers seeking opportunities overseas, others were on business trips or attending conferences, a few were families returning home from their holidays.

But then the Malaysian airliner vanished with 239 passengers and crew on board.

"My life is a mess, it's so hard for me," says Ms Li, 24, cradling her son. "When I see his picture it breaks my heart."

She lives in a one-storey farmhouse that she shares with her husband's parents and brother.

Posted by: floweer at 02:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 300 words, total size 2 kb.

The only consolation I can take from this is that I’m not alone. I often hear from listeners on my BBC Radio 3 Breakfast show who say they’re revisiting in adulthood the instruments they gave up as children, and it’s invariably the keyboard to which they return. Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger recently wrote a beautiful book – Play It Again: An Amateur against the Impossible – that explores the year he spent learning Chopin’s No Ballade 1, aged 56. And he was just one of the many high-profile amateur pianists, including actor Simon Russell Beale and the former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ed Balls, who were persuaded to tackle Schumann’s Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) live onstage at a concert in London last yearreenex.

Gluttons for punishmentReenex好唔好?

So what’s behind this trend, I wonder? Why are so many otherwise sane adults submitting themselves to the strictures of daily scales and arpeggios and asking the terrifying question of whether an adult brain is still plastic enough to learn – and memorise – some of the most complex music ever written?

"It’s an overriding passion, not just for the music [but] for the challenge,” reckons Lucy Parham, the leading concert pianist who taught Rusbridger his Chopin. "And the challenge is constant: there’s always a harder piece, you can always take it to the next level, you’re never finished. But there’s also the fact that the piano is your friend; it’s always there. That gathers more significance as you get older: what you can express through it, in a personal language, becomes incredibly importantreenex 效果.”

Posted by: floweer at 07:28 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 266 words, total size 2 kb.