Nephew of blind Chinese lawyer to be tried

BEIJING (AFP) - A court in eastern China today will try the nephew of blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng for attacking a local official, a family member said, after the activist fled to the US embassy earlier this year.

Mr Chen, who was jailed after exposing abuses under China's "one child" population control policy, caused a diplomatic row in April after escaping house arrest in his village in Shandong province.

As he was freed to leave for the United States, government officials and police descended on his village home, taking away his brother and prompting his nephew Chen Kegui to attack them with a kitchen knife, wounding three people.

The brother has since been released. The family has maintained that authorities barged into their home in the middle of the night unannounced and uninvited, and refused to identify themselves when the attack took place.