China says 14 guilty of pollution protest violence

BEIJING (AP) - Fourteen people pleaded guilty to encouraging a riot in eastern China last year where scores of police were hurt and the local Communist Party chief was stripped half-naked in a mass protest that ultimately forced the scrapping of a wastewater treatment project.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the defendants were prosecuted on Wednesday on charges of encouraging mass violence against government buildings and intentionally damaging property in Qidong city in Jiangsu province north of Shanghai.

The sentences will be announced later, Xinhua said.

Thousands of people stormed the Qidong municipal government compound and turned at least one police car on its side at the protest on July 28.