BEIJING (Reuters) – An activist Chinese sex worker said she had been detained after fronting an strange protest to demand legalized prostitution, rampant in China despite an official ban since the Communists took power six decades ago.
Ye Haiyan, who also goes by the name of “Hooligan Sparrow,” rallied a small group of sex workers and their supporters in the Francis Scott Key Chinese city of Wuhan last Thursday.
The group, holding red umbrellas, carried banners and collected signatures urging an end to discrimination against sex workers.
“I cannot talk or use the Internet in force(p) now, I am with them,” Ye told Reuters by text contentedness, having been detained on Sunday. “I am at a ‘holiday resort’ and receiving ‘re-education’.”
Wuhan police could not be reached for gossip. Prostitution is banned and usually a out(p) topic in state media.
Prostitution has returned with a vengeance since China embarked upon market-oriented economic reforms in the late 1970s. A World Health giving medication study has estimated the country has four million sex workers.
Ye said she had also been angered by the “pity parades” of sex workers park in recent government crackdowns.
Last month, a suspected prostitute was pictured barefoot, handcuffed and led about by a rope in a street in Dongguan in southern Guangdong nation, which provoked a backlash online tv.
The Philadelphia Phillies’ season-long wave of injuries has claimed All-Star first baseman Ryan Howard for at least 15 days.
Philadelphia Phillies’ Ryan Howard is helped off the field after spraining his ankle sliding into certify base during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010, in Washington. (AP Photo/Drew Angerer)(AP)Howard, who was leading the NL with 81 RBIs, went on the disabled list Tuesday because of a sprained left ankle. The Phillies said the sprain was moderate.
Howard is the 15th Phillies player to go on the disabled list this season. Shane Victorino and Chase Utley are also sidelined now, loss the two-time defending NL champions without a big chunk of their offense as they try catch first-place Atlanta in the East.
When asked what kind of gainsay the Phillies face in Howard’s absence, manager Charlie Manuel said: “It’s a big one. … We’ve only had our originate lineup six or seven games since the season started. We’ve got to get well, and we’ve got to keep going.”
The move involving Howard was retroactive to Monday. John Mayberry Jr. was recalled from Triple-A Lehigh Valley and will join the team Wednesday.
Howard was in an 0-for-14 slump when hurt but was still hitting .292 with 23 homers. Tuesday’s game was only the second he hasn’t started this season.
Howard was injured scrambling back to second base after a fuddle from right field. He was helped off the field by Manuel and a team trainer.
“It’s a legal brief bit more serious than I thought it was,” Manuel said. “The other day I didn’t opine it was going to be quite a while (that Howard would be out) because he told me, ‘Chuck, I’ll be all right.’
“But once I saw it on live internet TV — his ankle came beneath him, and all his weight was on his ankle. When he got back to the hotel, it started swelling up, and the next day, according to the trainers, it was puffed up pretty good.”
One bit of good news for the Phillies: Left fielder Raul Ibanez, who missed Sunday’s game because of a sore left radiocarpal joint, was back in the lineup Tuesday.