Feature: The Case of Hong Kong’s Missing Booksellers

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The Case of Hong Kong’s Missing Booksellers Lam Wing-kee knew he was in trouble. In his two decades as owner and manager of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books, Lam had honed a carefully nonchalant routine when caught smuggling books into mainland China: apologize, claim ignorance, offer a cigarette to the officers, crack a joke. For most of his career, the routine was foolproof.
Thin and wiry, with an unruly pouf of side-swept gray hair and a wisp of mustache, Lam was carrying a wide mix of books that day: breathless political thrillers, bodice-rippers and a handful of dry historical tomes. The works had only two things in common: Readers hungered for them, and each had been designated contraband by the Communist Party’s Central Leading Group for Propaganda and Ideology. For decades, Lam’s bookstore had thrived despite the ban — or maybe because of it. Operating just 20 miles from the mainland city of Shenzhen, in a tiny storefront sandwiched between a pharmacy and an upscale lingerie stor..

South Africa Says Australia Retracted Claim of ‘Persecuted’ White Farmers

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South Africa Says Australia Retracted Claim of ‘Persecuted’ White Farmers Photo Peter Dutton, Australia’s home affairs minister, in Canberra in February. In March, Mr. Dutton said that “persecuted” white South African farmers deserved the protection of a “civilized country” and said he would explore the possibility of fast-tracking refugee visas. Credit Michael Masters/Getty Images MELBOURNE, Australia — South Africa’s foreign minister said Monday that the Australian government had retracted comments by its home affairs minister suggesting that South Africa was not a “civilized country” because of its treatment of white farmers.
In March, the minister, Peter Dutton, said that “persecuted” South African farmers deserved the protection of a “civilized country” — alluding to Australia — and said he would explore the possibility of fast-tracking refugee visas for them. The South African government has been considering a constitutional amendment to expropriate farmland without compensation ..