Factory workers protest in central China

Reports from China say that factory workers demonstrating against job losses and inadequate compensation brought traffic to a standstill throughout Thursday in the central city of Wuhan.

The illegal but peaceful protest by about one-thousand people is said to have attracted up to thirty-thousand bystanders.

But local officials in Wuhan are reported to have said that the demonstration was considerably smaller.

Correspondents say similar episodes of worker unrest in recent months throughout China point to the country's efforts at overhauling debt-ridden state-owned enterprises through mergers, sell-offs and bankruptcies.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service