A Chinese dissident writer who was freed this week after five years in jail for alleged illegal business activities said today that he had been wrongly imprisoned and subjected to treatment “beyond people’s imagination” while in custody.

Chinese authorities have reversed their decision and will not send two elderly women to a labour camp after they applied for a protest permit during the Olympics, a human rights group said today.

A Chinese dissident has been jailed for 12 years for organising anti-Japanese protests on the mainland, it was reported today.

A junior school in western China collapsed on more than 50 students, killing at least five and injuring dozens more, authorities and a human rights group said today.