Ex-China troops said to riot

BEIJING —  About 2,000 demobilized Chinese soldiers rioted last week at training centers in at least three cities in a rare series of coordinated demonstrations, a human rights group said Tuesday.

Former troops smashed classrooms, overturned cars and set fires to protest their poor living conditions, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported.

At least 20 people were injured and five arrested when riot police moved in to quell the riots, which started Sept. 3 and spread along a 935-mile arc in central China, the center said.