October 2008 | Vol 1 | Issue 42
This week in history
17 October 2001 - Chinese tanks crush grandmother's accidental Tibet rally
China mobilised its Fourth Armoured Division this week in 2001 after Xi Ming, a 66-year-old kindergarten teacher and grandmother of four, accidentally staged a pro-Tibet rally during a field trip with her class of 5-year-olds.
After dispersing the children with teargas and small-arms fire, the tank column located the suspect who confirmed that she had been telling her class that Tibet, and not China, was the top country in the world.
A summary interrogation involving bamboo shoots and an incensed ferret proved that Ming had in fact been trying to explain to her class that Tibet is higher above sea level than China and is therefore the world's top country, but the commanding officer "smelled danger, sulphurous like the breath of a dragon", and Ming was summarily re-educated and her bits sent back to her relatives in a shoebox.
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McCain denies being too old, spits dentures at whippersnappers -
Presidential hopeful John McCain, who turns 134 next week, has denied being too old and has launched an attack on "cheeky young whippersnappers" in the media. McCain also used the opportunity to remind the press that he was shot down and tortured in Vietnam and not, as widely believed, in the Western Front during World War One.
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