China’s highest court overturned a death sentence and ordered a retrial for a woman who killed and dismembered her abusive husband, a ruling welcomed by advocates of the country’s often-silent victims of domestic violence.

China says it will put the Lhasa rioters on trial and reopen Tibet to tourism by May, underscoring the government’s drive to close the book on recent unrest well before the summer’s Beijing Olympics.

A MAN who was jailed for throwing paint on Mao Zedong’s portrait in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square during pro-democracy protests in 1989 has been released after nearly 17 years in prison, his family said.

A long-time Chinese activist who helped organise the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and later co-founded a democracy party was released from prison in China today and left for the United States, a human rights activist said.

China has freed a teacher and reduced the prison term of an accomplice jailed for splattering paint on Mao Tse-tung's portrait in Tiananmen Square.