Police prevent church protest

Hundreds of Chinese police scrambled to prevent a planned outdoor service by a "homeless" church yesterday, shoving people into vans and buses in the latest show of the Communist Party's determination to smother dissent and protests.

The Shouwang Church, a Protestant group with about 1,000 members, had urged members to gather for the outdoor service in Beijing after they said official pressure forced the church out of a place of worship it had been renting.

But hundreds of police officers covered the area in the Zhongguancun commercial district, where the Shouwang Church had planned to worship, deterring any effort by church members and supporters to gather for the morning service.