Fox News Poll: Many voters say Obama lies to the country on important matters

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Read Time:2 Minute, 31 Second

About six in ten American voters think Barack Obama lies to the country on important matters some or most of the time, according to a Fox News poll released Wednesday. 

Thirty-seven percent think Obama lies “most of the time,” while another 24 percent say he lies “some of the time.” Twenty percent of voters say “only now and then” and 15 percent “never.”

Click here for the poll results.

President Obama has been accused by political opponents and media fact-checkers alike of telling falsehoods.  Frequently cited: His repeated claim that under Obamacare “If you like your plan, you can keep it” and his insistence that “the day after Benghazi happened, I acknowledged that this was an act of terrorism.”  

The number of voters saying Obama lies “most of the time” includes 13 percent of Democrats.  It also includes 12 percent of blacks, 16 percent of liberals, 31 percent of unmarried women and 34 percent of those under age 30 — all key Obama constituencies.   

Yet some of those groups are also among those most likely to say Obama “never” lies to the country on important matters: blacks (37 percent), Democrats (31 percent), liberals (28 percent) and women (19 percent).

The poll also asks about the trustworthiness of a few possible 2016 presidential candidates.  For comparison, about half of voters think former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton (54 percent) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (49 percent) are honest and trustworthy, while fewer think the same of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (41 percent). 

On a more positive note for the White House, Obama’s overall job performance rating has improved.  The new poll finds that 42 percent of voters approve of the job he’s doing, while 51 percent disapprove.  That means he’s underwater by nine percentage points. 

Last month the president was in negative territory by 13 points with a 40-53 percent rating (March 23-25).

Approval of the president is up six points among independents and now stands at 32 percent.  Obama was near record-low approval among independents last month (26 percent).  He also improved four points among Democrats and now stands at 80 percent among his party faithful. 

How voters feel about Obama as a person closely matches his job ratings:  45 percent have a favorable opinion of him, while 51 percent have an unfavorable view.  A year ago those numbers were reversed: 52 percent favorable, 46 percent unfavorable (April 2013). 

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,012 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from April 13-15, 2014. The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Elizabeth Warren: ‘I was hurt, and I was angry’ [background as rooted in Native American ancestry]

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Elizabeth Warren: ‘I was hurt, and I was angry’ By: MJ Lee April 16, 2014 05:44 PM EDT

Elizabeth Warren “was hurt” and “angry” about attacks on her family and ancestry in the 2012 Senate race, she writes in a new book, defending at length her characterization of her background as rooted in Native American ancestry.

Warren, the first-term Massachusetts Democratic senator, details her campaign to unseat former GOP Sen. Scott Brown in a new book: “A Fighting Chance.” POLITICO obtained an early copy of the book, which is set to be released on April 22.

The book begins with some of her earliest childhood memories of growing up poor in Oklahoma, and reveals personal details about the senator’s life, including her first, failed marriage. It also dives into her views on the 2008 financial crisis and her role in building the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The book’s upcoming release has already created plenty of speculation about Warren’s potential 2016 aspirations — whether she may run or at least seek to shape the political debate surrounding the presidential race.

If there was one takeaway from her 2012 Senate race for Warren, it was that the campaign trail turned out to be more brutal than she could ever have expected. Republicans questioned her integrity, her family members were dragged through the mud and her opponent mocked her appearance in a radio interview.

“What really threw me, though, were the constant attacks from the other side,” she writes about the 2012 Senate campaign. “I would almost persuade myself that I was starting to get the hang of full-throttle campaigning and then — bam! Out of left field, the state Republican Party, or the Brown campaign, or some blogger, would launch a rocket at me.”

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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How to Consciously Uncouple: Advice for a drama-free divorce from Gwyneth Paltrow’s guru

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Read Time:3 Minute, 33 Second

Celebrity power couple Gwyenth Paltrow and Chris Martin are not merely divorcing; they are consciously uncoupling.

In a Tuesday night post announcing the end of their ten-year marriage, under the headline “Conscious Uncoupling” on Paltrow’s lifestyle blog Goop, the couple wrote that “it is with hearts full of sadness that we have decided to separate.” After “working hard for well over a year, some of it together, some of it separated, to see what might have been possible between us,” they “have come to the conclusion that while we love each other very much we will remain separate.” They will always be a family, though, and in some ways are “closer than we have ever been.” They conclude with a request for privacy as they “consciously uncouple and coparent.”

 

Consciously uncoupling certainly sounds much more amicable and orderly than breaking up or even unconsciously uncoupling. But what exactly does it mean?

Paltrow helpfully followed up her initial announcement by posting a 2,000-word treatise on conscious uncoupling from Habib Sadeghi and Sherry Sami, a married couple living in Los Angeles. (Dr. Sadeghi is an osteopathic doctor who runs an “integrative health center” called “Be Hive of Healing,” pun presumably intended, and whose book Within: A Spiritual Awakening to Love and Weight Loss contains a forward written by Paltrow. His wife is a dentist.)

Sadeghi and Sami begin by explaining that given rapidly accelerating life expectancy, these days it’s unrealistic to expect that we’ll be able to stick it out until death do us part, which suggests we “ought to redefine the construct” of marriage.

“Our biology and psychology aren’t set up to be with one person for four, five, or six decades,” they write. So there’s the science. Now for some New Agey jargon: “Life is a spiritual exercise in evolving from an exoskeleton for support and survival to an endoskeleton,” they write in a section entitled, “Intimacy & Insects.” They mean by this, basically, that you have to look within yourself for support and strength and healing, not to others, or, one can infer, to any kind of external deity.

Finally, they get to the part about how to uncouple consciously and “avoid the drama of divorce.” You shouldn’t think about it in terms of your marriage having failed, because (a) as we learned, the expectation that it would last was based on an outdated construct, and (b) this is actually going to be a positive experience if you just let go of old notions and approach it in terms of building up your partner’s spiritual endoskeleton. “To change the concept of divorce, we need to release the belief structures we have around marriage that create rigidity in our thought process,” they write. The “belief structure” that marriage should be for life “is too much pressure for anyone.”

Conscious uncoupling will bring “wholeness to the spirits of both people who choose to recognize each other as their teachers.” What’s more, conscious uncoupling “prevents families from being broken by divorce and creates expanded families that continue to function in a healthy way outside of traditional marriage.”

They conclude that by “choosing to handle your uncoupling in a conscious way . . . you’ll see that although it looks like everything is coming apart; it’s actually all coming back together.”

One anonymous source offered E! a more prosaic take on the end of the relationship. “They both really believed in the sanctity of marriage and the role model it provided for their kids,” the source said. “Both of their parents were married their entire lives, and they really wanted the same for their kids. They stuck it out for a long time.”

If that’s an accurate description, it sounds like Dr. Sadeghi has some work to do in helping the uncoupling couple to adjust their rigid belief structures.

— Katherine Connell is an associate editor at National Review.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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North Korea’s Illicit Economy Includes Fake Viagra and Smuggled Ivory

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Read Time:2 Minute, 36 Second

North Korea, increasingly in need of cash to pay for things like armies, missiles, and food, has developed a rather healthy illicit economy that includes DVD trafficking and drug smuggling. A detailed new report from the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, “Illicit: North Korea’s Evolving Operations to Earn Hard Currency,” chronicles the various money-raising methods of Pyongyang, which have been crucial to the Kim regime’s “self-preservation” since the 1970s.  

The report looks at three stages of North Korea’s illicit economy development, which began in the 1970s with government officials trafficking drugs and counterfeit cigarettes to diplomatic outposts, and later moved into counterfeit currency production. Today, a number of forces are threatening leader Kim Jong-un’s grip on power, including brutal international trade restrictions that have only strengthened the power of the underground markets. Those markets originally developed as a "survival mechanism” for the most desparate North Koreans, but money and food became harder and harder to come by, the borders have become more porous and ability to earn money through the illicit economy has become more important.

Fake pharmaceuticals, counterfeit cigarettes, and products from endangered species like rhino horn and ivory are recent examples of the illicit trade. In fact, they have now surpassed North Korea’s reliance on manufacturing knock-off drugs and counterfeiting foreign bank notes, reports Julian Ryall at The TelegraphThe global campaign of counterfeit distribution was potentially worth millions of dollars for the economy. A seizure of 3 million cartons counterfeit cigarettes was valued at $3 million, while the discovery of half a million tablets of Captagon, a synthetic stimulant, was estimated to be worth $7 million. 

Other recent examples include the North Korean officials caught in 2004 smuggling 150,000 Clonazepam sedative pills through Egypt, and the production of fake Viagra tablets. Officials have also smuggled used cars and gems across international borders, trafficked DVDs, and sold pornography.

Tourism, while very limited and highly controlled, is one of the legal ways that North Korea generates income. Over the weekend, the country opened its marathon to foreign amateurs for the first time in 27 years, and the country has said it will complete a luxury ski resort to attract more tourists. But a bizarre story out of London today suggests that foreigners have the right to be wary. Police had to step in after North Korean embassy officials turned up at a North London barbershop that used an image of Kim Jong-un to promote a 15 percent discount on haircuts. 

“I told them this is England and not North Korea and told them to get their lawyers,” Mo Nabbach, who runs M&M Hair Academy, told the Evening Standard. “We did take it down but then some of our clients told me to put it back up because we have a democracy here." Someone better tell Mike Huckabee.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Russia tests Obama’s ability to stop its advances

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is once again faced with the complicated reality of following through on his tough warnings against overseas provocations as the White House asserts that Russia is stoking instability in eastern Ukraine.

Obama has vowed repeatedly to enact biting sanctions against Russia's vital economic sectors if the Kremlin tries to replicate its actions in Crimea, the peninsula it annexed from Ukraine, elsewhere in the former Soviet republic. Despite those warnings, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be testing Obama's limits, instigating protests in eastern Ukraine, the White House says, and massing tens of thousands of troops on the border, but so far stopping short of a full-scale military incursion.

"They have been willing to do things to provoke the situation that no one anticipated," Matthew Rojansky, a regional analyst at the Wilson Center, said of Russia. "It's such a high-stakes, high-risk situation, and here they are right in the middle of it."

For Obama, the U.S. response to the chaos in Ukraine has become more than a test of his ability to stop Russia's advances. It's also being viewed through the prism of his decision last summer to back away from his threat to launch a military strike when Syria crossed his chemical weapons "red line" — a decision that has fed into a narrative pushed by Obama's critics that the president talks tough, but doesn't follow through.

While there has been no talk of "red lines" when dealing with Putin, Obama has said repeatedly that the Kremlin's advances into eastern Ukraine would be a "serious escalation" of the conflict that would warrant broad international sanctions on the Russian economy. But perhaps trying to avoid another Syria scenario, White House officials have carefully avoided defining what exactly would meet Obama's definition of a "serious escalation," even as they make clear that they believe Russia is fomenting the violence in cities throughout Ukraine's vital industrial east.

"We are actively evaluating what is happening in eastern Ukraine, what actions Russia has taken, what transgressions they've engaged in," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday. "And we are working with our partners and assessing for ourselves what response we may choose."

As with the situation in Syria, Obama faces few good options as he watches Russia destabilize Ukraine, the former Soviet republic that has sought greater ties with Europe.

There's little appetite in either the U.S. or Europe for direct military action, and the White House said Monday it was not actively considering sending Ukraine lethal assistance. That's left Obama and his international partners largely reliant on economic and diplomatic retaliation.

The president has wielded some of his available options since the situation in Ukraine devolved in late February, but those actions so far have had little success in stopping Russian advances.

Obama's initial warning that Putin would face "costs" if he pressed into Crimea was largely brushed aside by the Russian leader, who went so far as to formally annex the peninsula from Ukraine. Economic sanctions on several of Putin's closest associates followed, as did Russia's suspension from the exclusive Group of Eight economic forum, but neither appears to have discouraged Moscow from making a play for eastern Ukraine.

On Friday, the U.S. slapped sanctions on more individuals connected to the Crimea takeover, and White House officials are weighing another round of targeted penalties against additional Russian and Ukrainian citizens.

But tens of thousands of troops massed on Russia's border with eastern Ukraine, Obama is facing calls from some Republicans to take tougher action now. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent Obama a letter over the weekend calling on the administration to immediately ratchet up economic penalties against Moscow.

"Rather than wait for a Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine to implement additional sanctions, which seems to be U.S. policy at the moment, we must take action now that will prevent this worst-case scenario before it becomes a reality," Corker wrote.

Privately, some of Obama's advisers are also pushing for more robust penalties now to serve as a deterrent against a full-on Russian military incursion. But questions remain about Europe's commitment to take the kind of coordinated action that would stand the best chance of changing Putin's calculus.

Europe has a far deeper economic relationship with Russia than the U.S., meaning its sanctions would hurt Moscow more. But leaders on the still economically shaky continent fear that the impact of those sanctions could boomerang and hurt their own countries just as much.

European foreign ministers met Monday to debate whether additional sanctions should be enacted on Russia. A high-ranking European Union official said they did decide to sanction more Russians with asset freezes and visa bans, but they appeared to stop well short of targeting Russia's broader economy.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Abuja Explosion: Obama condemns ‘senseless’ bombing

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(AFP) – The United States on Monday condemned a bomb attack on a packed bus station in Nigeria which killed 71 people, and called for a full investigation.

“We are outraged by this senseless act of violence against innocent civilians,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, also condemning a series of attacks on three villages in Borno State over the weekend.

The bomb, which also injured 124 people, rocked the Nyanya station on Abuja’s southern outskirts as it was filled with morning commuters, leaving body parts scattered across the terminal and destroying dozens of vehicles.

President Goodluck Jonathan blamed Boko Haram militants for the attack, but Psaki called for a “full investigation to identify and bring justice to the perpetrators of these attacks.”

“We continue to stand with the Nigerian government and people as they grapple with violent extremism,” she added.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Top Democrat: ‘Not All’ Republicans Are Racist

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WASHINGTON — "Not all" Republicans are racist, said Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) on Sunday, but "to a significant extent, the Republican base has elements that are animated by racism, and that's unfortunate."

Israel's comment was in response to a question from CNN's Candy Crowley, who asked the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee about remarks by Attorney General Eric Holder this week. In a speech to a civil rights group, Holder questioned his treatment by Republican lawmakers at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, and implied that race may have played a role.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also suggested this past week that racism was a factor in the Republican party's opposition to immigration reform. "I think race has something to do with the fact that they're not bringing up an immigration bill," Pelosi told reporters, adding, "I've heard them say to the Irish, if it were just you, this would be easy."

Israel didn't directly comment on Pelosi's remarks, pivoting instead to the difficulty of passing a comprehensive immigration reform package in the face of unified Republican opposition. "All we need is 20 Republicans, just 20 to vote for that bill, and it will be law, and we don't have to have this debate anymore," Israel said.

The debate over immigration reform threatens to divide the Republican party and weaken their electoral chances in November and in the 2016 presidential race. Appearing on CNN with Israel, Rep. Greg Walden, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Israel's comments about race and his party and immigration were "wrong and unfortunate," but then quickly transitioned to less thorny topics.

The American people, Walden said, "want to know the truth about what really happened in the targeting of conservative truths by the IRS, they want to know what happened in Benghazi."

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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China upholds jail term for legal activist

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A Beijing court has upheld a four-year prison term for a prominent Chinese legal activist for supporting anti-corruption protests, the defence lawyer said, drawing criticism and calls for his release from rights groups and the US government.

The prosecutions of Xu Zhiyong and others in his loosely knit New Citizens grassroots movement were part of a clampdown by authorities on any movement that could challenge the Communist Party's monopoly on power.

The Beijing Supreme People's Court on Friday ruled that the lower trial court's verdict in January was correct in finding Xu guilty of gathering crowds to disturb public order and sentencing him to four years in prison.

Xu, 40, said the "absurd judgement cannot halt the tide of human progress," his lawyer told the AFP news agency.

"The communist dictatorship is bound to disperse like haze, and the light of freedom and justice will illuminate the East," Xu said, according to lawyer Zhang Qingfang.

China has put Xu and 10 other members of the movement on trial this year on charges of "gathering a crowd to disturb public order" over the protests in 2013.

Amnesty International, a UK-based global rights group, called the rejection of Xu's appeal "an affront to justice" and called for his release.

Washington said it was "deeply disappointed" over the verdict.

Jen Psaki, the US State Department spokeswoman, described the ruling as a "retribution for his public campaign to expose official corruption and for the peaceful expression of his views".

Xu's prosecution is part of a deepening pattern of arrests of lawyers, activists, journalists and religious leaders who challenge Chinese policies and actions, Psaki said, calling for their immediate release.

'Under rule of law'

The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded that "China is a country under rule of law".

"Everybody is equal before the law. The ruling was handed down by Chinese judicial authorities according to the law," it said in a statement.

Xu, a legal scholar, has insisted that all activism be done within the limits of the law, and he purposely kept the group formless to seek room in China despite the ruling party's intolerance of independent organisations beyond its control.

His fledgling campaign to promote citizen rights drew a clampdown after it inspired people across the country to gather for dinner parties to discuss social issues and occasionally to unfurl banners in public places in small rallies.

Xu's criminal offence largely stemmed from several rallies he organised in front of the Education Ministry to demand equal education rights. The group members argued the rallies did not disrupt any public business nor create any disorder.

Beijing has tried several of the movement's followers on the same charge since late 2013, including Ding Jiaxi, Li Wei, Zhang Baocheng and Zhao Changqing this week. Verdicts will be announced later, but guilty verdicts are expected.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Strong quake hits near Papua New Guinea

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A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 has been recorded off Papua New Guinea's Bougainville Island, the US Geological Survey says.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said on Friday that a destructive widespread tsunami was not expected but said waves could be generated along coasts in the area from an earthquake of that magnitude.

The quake was initially measured at 7.4 but was later revised down to 7.3. It was centred in the sea about 75km southwest of the main town of Arawa on Bougainville, at a depth of about 50km, the USGS said.

Port Moresby, employee at the Geophysical Observatory in the capital, said no reports of damage or unusual wave activity along the coastline were received.

The area closest to the epicenter is very sparsely populated.

Earthquakes are common in Papua New Guinea. The country lies on the "Ring of Fire" – an arc of earthquake and volcanic activity that stretches around the Pacific Rim.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Anti-corruption activist on trial in China

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A Chinese anti-corruption campaigner has gone on trial in Beijing, according to his lawyer, joining two others who appeared in court this week as China's government cracks down on activists.

Zhao Changqing, 45, faces a possible five-year prison sentence for supporting activists who unveiled banners in Beijing calling for government officials to disclose their assets – despite not being present, Zhang Peihong, his lawyer, said on Thursday.

Zhao is associated with the New Citizens Movement, a loose-knit network of campaigners against corruption, among other issues. China jailed a founder of the movement in January, and more than 10 other members have been tried.

Zhao pleaded not guilty to a charge of "gathering a crowd to disrupt public order" for his alleged involvement in three small-scale protests in Beijing, which saw activists unfurl banners, Zhang said.

"[Zhao] didn't disturb public order in any way, he didn't even appear on the scene of the protests, because he was worried about his family," he said, adding that the hearing lasted around three hours.

Fellow anti-corruption activists Ding Jiaxi and Li Wei were also put on trial this week over the protests.

China's ruling Communist Party is in the midst of a highly-publicised anti-corruption campaign, which President Xi Jinping has pledged will target both high-ranking "tigers" and low-level "flies" in the face of public anger over the issue.

But the party has cracked down harshly on independent activists who have the same goals, viewing independently organised anti-corruption protests as a challenge to its rule.

Zhao was previously jailed for his role as a leader during the 1989 pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square, and has served more than eight years in jail for his continued political campaigning.

A court in Beijing sentenced Xu Zhiyong, a legal campaigner and a founder of the New Citizens Movement, to four years in prison in January for his role in the protests.

The verdict was condemned by the US and the European Union. Xu's lawyers said the trial was subject to political interference, and appealed, with a court set to announce its decision on Friday.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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