After being held in India for 54 years, Chinese veteran Wang Qi was ready to make his long-awaited trip back home on Saturday.

According to the Chinese embassy in India, 77-year-old Wang had left his home in central India’s Madhya Pradesh and arrived in New Delhi on Friday afternoon.

He was eager to return to hometown in Shaanxi province and would start the journey as early as Saturday, said the embassy.

In 1963, Wang, a Chinese army surveyor, got lost, crossed the border and was captured by Indian authorities. He was moved from one jail to another for nearly seven years

When he was finally released in 1969, police escorted him to the remote village of Tirodi in Madhya Pradesh and told him to start a life there. He married a local woman, and they had three children and grandchildren.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Monday that China had been “pushing India” to complete procedures to return the veteran. In 2013, the Chinese embassy in India issued him a 10-year Chinese passport and a living allowance every year since then, Lu said.

Vikas Swarup, the Indian External Affairs Ministry’s spokesman, said on Thursday, “The ministry is helping Wang and his family members－including his son Vishnu Wang, daughter Anita Wankhede, daughter-in-law Neha Wang and grandson Khanak Wang－to visit China to meet his extended family.”

“We are working with the Chinese embassy in Delhi and the Indian embassy in Beijing to ensure that all formalities are completed and arrangements are in place,” he said.

A China Central Television report on Friday said that Wang is eager to taste noodles, a local specialty in Shaanxi, after arriving home.

Wang’s plight was highlighted last month in a special report by the BBC.

On Feb 4, Luo Zhaohui, China’s ambassador to India, spoke by telephone with Wang and expressed sympathy over his suffering over the years. Yan Xiaoce, a counselor at the Chinese embassy in India, visited Wang’s village on the same day, according to the embassy.

Liu Shurong, another Chinese veteran, underwent the same plight as Wang and lives in the same village. But Liu said he had no intention to return to China because he no longer has family there, the embassy said.

A fire broke out on Friday inside a Hong Kong underground train near a busy station, with at least 17 people being injured and a man being detained after claiming that he has set fire with a Molotov cocktail.

The fire broke out at around 7:00 local time inside an underground train crossing the Vitoria Harbor for the busy Tsim Sha Tsui station, forcing the train to stop at the station and all the passengers to be evacuated, public broadcaster RTHK reported.

Footages from social media show flame and smoke from inside the train and several people burned.

The injured, two of whom in severe condition, were sent to nearby hospitals.

A man at the age of around 60 claimed that he set the fire with a Molotov cocktail. The police has detained the man and has been investigating his motive,a police officer told media outside the station, which has been temporarily closed.

The counter-terrorism response unit has been deployed at the scene.

Nia Griffith MP, Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary,
commenting on the decision to close down The Iraq Historic Allegations Team,
said:

“I
welcome today’s announcement that the stress and worry that this inquiry has
caused to service personnel and veterans will soon be brought to an end.

"I completely
condemn the spurious and untrue allegations that have been levelled against
service members and veterans. Labour has long said that anyone facing
investigation should be properly supported by the Government. 

"It
is now important that the inquiry’s work is completed promptly and properly in
order to eliminate any risk of these vexatious claims arising again in
future.”

Ends

Emily Thornberry, Shadow Foreign
Secretary, responding to today’s revelations regarding arms exports to
Saudi Arabia, said:

“We have discovered today that, even after the bombing of the
funeral hall in Sana’a and the concerns of Liam Fox’s department about the risk
that British weapons were being used in breach of International Humanitarian
Law, Boris Johnson gave his personal reassurance that the Saudi-led coalition
was improving its targeting processes and ensuring that any incidents where
non-military targets had been bombed were being properly investigated.

"According to the independent
Yemen Data Project, in the 55 days between Boris Johnson writing his letter and
the end of 2016, Saudi forces bombed 60 residential sites in Yemen, including
houses, markets and refugee camps. At this time of heightening humanitarian
crisis, they bombed 46 sites of economic infrastructure, including farms, water
tanks and food trucks, and 48 sites of physical infrastructure, including
roads, bridges and ports. They also managed to bomb three schools and a
university. Not a single one of these 160 incidents has yet been investigated
by the Saudi authorities. If this is what Boris Johnson calls the Saudis
‘improving processes and…taking action to address failures’, then I would
sorely hate to see the opposite.

"It should not be left to the
courts to rule whether the export licences for these arms sales should have
been granted. It should be for this Government to show some long-overdue
caution and concern about the way the Saudi campaign is being conducted, the
devastating humanitarian crisis that campaign is helping to cause, and the
blatant failure to ensure any proper, independent investigation of these
alleged crimes against international law.”

Ends

10 February 2017

* Greens condemn Department for Business, Innovation and Skills for not publishing employment status law review for more than a year

* Jonathan Bartley, Green co-leader: “As Tory ministers sat on the review’s findings workers everywhere have been left to fend for themselves”

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has finally published a review into employment status law [1] which was launched and then shelved under the Coalition Government.

The publication, more than two years after the review’s launch in October 2014, and more than 13 months after the report was seemingly ready for publication in December 2015, came after repeated calls from Green co-leader Jonathan Bartley for the Government to stop “sitting on the findings” [2].

The report’s belated publication coincides with a court ruling today (February 10) which found a plumber working on a self-employed contract is in fact entitled to the rights of a worker [3].

Bartley wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister in October last year [2] calling for the review to be published after a similar ruling found two Uber drivers were not self-employed but entitled to workers’ rights.

Bartley said:

“It is shameful that Tory ministers have sat on the findings of the Coalition’s review into employment status. As they did so workers everywhere have been living in increasing insecurity and left to fend for themselves.

“Without legislation which adequately safeguards their rights these workers have been badly let down and it is clear this review should have been published at the earliest opportunity – in 2015.

“More and more court rulings are showing what can be achieved when people take control and stand up against exploitation and demonstrating how woefully insufficient our employment status law it is for dealing with modern employment practices.

“It is welcome that these issues are now being addressed by the ongoing review led by Matthew Taylor of the RSA, but the substantial and important findings of the report just published should have been put in the public domain long before now, so as to inform debate and help formulate ideas for law reform.”

Notes:

1. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/585383/employment-status-review-2015.pdf
2. https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2016/10/28/green-party-open-letter-to-theresa-may-landmark-uber-ruling-means-government-must-reveal-findings-of-shelved-employment-status-law-review/
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38931211

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