There is a strange new sightseeing attraction in this normally sleepy corner of the Chinese countryside: smashed police cars, rows of trashed buses and dented riot helmets. They are the trophies of a battle in which peasants scored a rare and bloody victory against the communist authorities, who face one of the most serious popular challenges to their rule in recent years.

The mother of the teenage boy in the Michael Jackson child molestation case told the jury on Thursday that she felt she had lost her children after Martin Bashir’s documentary Living with Michael Jackson was broadcast. ”The boys were with Michael during this period,” Janet Arvizo said. ”There were no guidelines. I lost my kids.”

Something is rotten in the state of Arnold. Just five months ago the governor of California seemed unstoppable: propositions were passed, opponents were reduced to ”girlie men”, and the talk was of Washington and the first foreign-born president of the United States.

A late-morning sun baked Jadriya street and life moved in slow motion, the traffic inching through rush hour, the rubbish collectors pausing for rest, the shoppers dawdling in cafes. No one noticed the minibus, one of the ubiquitous South Korean-made Kias, until it exploded into a fireball.

Murderers executed by lethal injection in the United States may have suffered excruciating pain because they were not properly anaesthetised, researchers said on Thursday. It was possible, said the researchers, ”that some of these inmates were fully aware during their executions”.