Chinese police block demonstration

Unemployed workers in the north-eastern Chinese city of Liaoyang say police have turned down a formal application to stage a demonstration.

The workers had wanted to protest against the detention of four labour leaders, who were arrested last month after mass protests over back pay and welfare benefits.

A New-York based group, China Labour Watch, has also raised concerns about the fate of a fifth labour leader Wang Dawei, who it says disappeared 10 days ago.

The group says the man had wanted to travel to Beijing to file complaints against police and official corruption, and it raised suspicions that he may have been detained by the local authorities.

Tens of thousands of unemployed workers staged protest marches in Liaoyang last month, coinciding with demonstrations by thousands of others in the north-eastern oil town of Daqing.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service