China:Hu Jia, an Aids campaigner and one of the most prominent faces of dissent in China, has been arrested in Beijing in what human rights groups fear may be the start of a crackdown on human rights activists ahead of the Olympics in August.
Calls to Mr Hu (34) and his wife, Zeng Pinyan, who is also a blogger and activist, went unanswered yesterday but the group Chinese Human Rights Defenders reported that Mr Hu, Ms Zeng, Ms Zeng's grandmother and their six-week-old daughter, Hu Qianci, were at home on Thursday when 20 policemen burst in, cut off their telephone lines and internet connection and arrested Mr Hu.
He was charged with "subverting state authority", a charge often used by the Chinese government against dissidents. His current whereabouts are unknown.
There were separate reports that another HIV/Aids activist, Wan Yanhai, was taken away by police on Thursday morning, prompting fears of a wider crackdown. Mr Wan was allowed to return home yesterday afternoon after 30 hours of questioning.
Both Mr Hu and Ms Zeng have been under house arrest since May, although they were given some leeway for the birth of their daughter.
Ms Zeng was named in May by Timemagazine as one of this year's 100 most influential people, and both she and her husband were finalists this month in the European Parliament's 2007 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
If Mr Hu is convicted, he could face a long prison sentence. However, the negative publicity ahead of the Olympics could prove too much for the Chinese authorities, so his fate remains unclear.
Many activists are using the Olympics to highlight the country's human rights record, as well as issues such as autonomy for Tibet and press freedom.
While the human rights situation in China has improved in recent years, Beijing remains unwilling to bow to international pressure to introduce further freedoms, saying it is a domestic Chinese matter.
Mr Hu is best known for his courageous advocacy work for Aids sufferers in rural China, but he has also embraced the causes of the activist lawyer Gao Zhisheng, and Chen Guangcheng, a blind rural campaigner who has been jailed for four years.
"The political police have taken advantage of the international community's focus on Pakistan to arrest one of the foremost representatives of the peaceful struggle for free expression in China," the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said.
"We express our solidarity with Hu and Zeng and their six-week-old daughter and we urge the European Union and the rest of the international community to rally to Hu's defence so that he does not become another victim of China's pre-Olympics repression."
