News » Society » China activist Wang Xiaoning free
News » Society » China activist Wang Xiaoning free |
- China activist Wang Xiaoning free
- US man admits China spy attempt
- Another flight aborted by anonymous threat call
- Death toll rises to 37 in Sichuan colliery blast
- Bid to save trapped China miners
- Small dinosaur 'hunted like cat'
- China Offers Cautious Support for Europe
- Japan Puts More Pressure on South Korea
- ICBC’s Profit Growth Slows as Overdue Loans Rise for China Banks
- ‘NoodleBot’ taking over restaurant kitchens in China
- Have You Heard…
- Mentally ill toiled in poor conditions, factory shut down
- Authorities: Flight not returned to nab fugitive
- Yellow River dike collapses in Gansu
- Varsity whistle blower has 'important clues'
- Health care firm in the dock for buying 'swill oil'
- Company meeting room arson suspect succumbs
- Flash marriage ends 8 months later
- Tibet air quality near perfect
- VIDEO: China 'worried about eurozone crisis'
| China activist Wang Xiaoning free Posted: 30 Aug 2012 09:13 PM PDT A Chinese dissident convicted of subversion charges with the help of evidence provided by US internet giant Yahoo is released from jail. |
| US man admits China spy attempt Posted: 30 Aug 2012 08:55 PM PDT A US man who worked as a guard at a US consulate in China admits trying to sell secret information to the Chinese government. |
| Another flight aborted by anonymous threat call Posted: 30 Aug 2012 08:03 PM PDT SHENZHEN Airlines announced on its Weibo microblog this morning that its flight from Xiangyang in central Hubei Province to Shenzhen in Guangdong Province made an emergency landing at a third airport after receiving a threat call last night. The Airbus 320 jet took off from Xiangyang Liuji Airport at 21:50pm last night and was scheduled to arrive at Shenzhen Bao'an Airport at 23:45pm. But the crew received a threat from an anonymous caller at 22:29pm and was instructed to land immediately at Wuhan Tianhe Airport around 23:24pm, Wuhan airport authorities said. All the passengers and crew members stayed overnight in a hotel to wait for another flight for Shenzhen this morning. It is the second terror threat aimed at Chinese airlines this week. On Wednesday an Air China flight on route to New York returned to Beijing Capital International Airport after receiving a threat call. Police are now probing into the case. |
| Death toll rises to 37 in Sichuan colliery blast Posted: 30 Aug 2012 07:29 PM PDT THIRTY-SEVEN miners have been confirmed dead and ten others were still unaccounted for after Wednesday's gas explosion in a coal mine in the southwestern province of Sichuan, rescuers said today. As of 1 am today, the rescuers have retrieved 34 bodies, and six miners were pulled out alive from Wednesday night to Friday morning, the search and rescue headquarters told Xinhua. A total of 154 miners were working underground when the blast hit the Xiaojiawan Coal Mine in Panzhihua City at around 6 pm Wednesday, and 104 of them have escaped on their own or have been pulled out of the shaft. Three miners died on their way to hospital. As of 6 pm yesterday, four hospitals in Panzhihua had received 54 miners, including 10 who were seriously injured and seven in critical condition, the provincial health department said. Of the injured, 50 miners suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning and the other four suffered burn-related injuries, the health department said, adding that most of the injured are in stable condition. The coal mine, some 750 km southwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu, is owned by Zhengjin Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. Three owners of the mine have been taken into police custody and the mine's accounts have been frozen. An investigation into the accident is underway. Meanwhile, provincial authorities have ordered a thorough probe and overhaul on coal mines and other hazardous businesses. |
| Bid to save trapped China miners Posted: 30 Aug 2012 07:46 PM PDT Rescuers struggle to reach 10 men trapped in a coal mine following a gas explosion in south-west China as the death toll rises to 37. |
| Small dinosaur 'hunted like cat' Posted: 30 Aug 2012 09:24 AM PDT Some predatory dinosaurs used guile and agility to outwit their feathered prey according to research published in PLoS One. |
| China Offers Cautious Support for Europe Posted: 30 Aug 2012 11:24 AM PDT  Source: Wall Street Journal By Lingling Wei BEIJING—China pledged to continue to buy European bonds in a bid to help the euro zone resolve its debt crisis, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Thursday after meeting with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, underscoring Europe's growing importance to the Chinese economy. Mr. Wen expressed worries over Europe's debt troubles at a news conference jointly held with Ms. Merkel, on her second trip to China this year to assuage Chinese fears about euro-zone sovereign debt crisis and to boost economic ties. "The European debt crisis recently has continued to deteriorate, giving rise to serious concerns in the international community." Mr. Wen said. "Frankly, I'm also worried." He pointed to uncertainty over whether Greece will leave the euro zone and whether Italy and Spain will take "comprehensive rescue measures" including budget cuts. The key to resolving the debt crisis lies with "striking a balance" between fiscal tightening and economic stimulus, he said. The two sides struck a conciliatory tone in a time when relations between China and Europe have been tested by trade disputes, China's currency policies and other issues. Ms. Merkel said trade disputes such as a row between China and western nations over solar-power equipment should be solved through negotiations, probably dampening hopes among European manufacturers pressing for anti-dumping duties on Chinese products they say are improperly subsidized. Separately, the leasing arm of Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. said it had signed a deal to purchase 50 A320 jetliners from Europe's Airbus valued at $3.5 billion, while German companies such as Volkswagen AG unveiled $3.2 billion in deals to invest in China. Still, differences shone through during the meeting. During the news conference, Ms. Merkel was asked about a letter written by German journalists working in China saying authorities in Beijing had been "willfully obstructing" their work by threatening not to renew their visas and intimidating Chinese assistants. Ms. Merkel called on China to "improve" working conditions for foreign journalists working in the country. As Europe's crisis persists, China increasingly sees Germany—its largest European trading partner—as a vital player in pulling the continent out of its slump, analysts say. Mr. Wen said his talks with Ms. Merkel Thursday have made him "more confident" in Europe's ability to resolve the crisis. Ms. Merkel said "I want Greece to remain part of the euro zone" and efforts by countries including Italy and Spain will "bear fruit." The bilateral talks come as China faces its slowest economic growth since the global financial crisis. The recession in Europe—one of the top two markets for Chinese goods sold overseas—has dragged down China's exports, threatening Beijing with rising unemployment ahead of the country's once-in-a-decade leadership transition expected later this year. Mr. Wen said enhancing economic ties with Europe could both help tackle the continent's debt problems and bolster China's economy. Mr. Wen said Beijing will also strengthen talks with the European Central Bank, the European Union and International Monetary Fund to help Europe get through the turmoil. Chinese state radio reported on Thursday that Chinese President Hu Jintao also met with Ms. Merkel and offered support in dealing with the debt crisis.  European officials have expressed hope that China will deploy significant amounts of its mammoth foreign-exchange reserves—currently at $3.2 trillion—to invest in the EU's bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility. China has been a regular buyer of bonds issued by the EFSF and the sovereign debt of various euro-zone nations, but the level of investments remains unknown. As part of the business package unveiled on Thursday, Airbus—a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. —committed to invest $1.6 billion in an aircraft assembly plant in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, and Volkswagen signed a deal to invest $290 million in a plant in Tianjin to make auto parts. Ms. Merkel on Friday was scheduled to visit an Airbus production plant in Tianjin, where the company assembles A320s. |
| Japan Puts More Pressure on South Korea Posted: 30 Aug 2012 11:19 AM PDT  Source: Wall Street Journal By Yuka Hayashi and Mitsuru Obe Mr. Gemba's hard line over the dispute with South Korea contrasted with more restrained rhetoric toward a separate continuing spat with China, where he vowed to keep tensions under control to boost economic ties. Discussing Japan's tiff with South Korea, Mr. Gemba said that one option under consideration was taking the case unilaterally to the International Court of Justice to boost international recognition of Japan's claim. Another, he said, is to teach Japanese people, including schoolchildren, more about territorial issues and to steep them in Japan's case for control over disputed regions. "Japan has used restraint in teaching our children about territorial issues. By contrast, and in relative terms, it seems to me we have done a better job of addressing the wartime history in our education system," the minister said. The statement goes counter to long-standing complaints from South Korea and China that Japan has kept the history of its World War II era aggression opaque in school textbooks. As for North Korea, Mr. Gemba said "a window of opportunity may be cracking open" under new leader Kim Jong Eun to start a dialogue to resolve broader issues including Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs. Tokyo is holding bilateral talks this week in Beijing with North Korea for the first time in four years officially to discuss the recovery of the bodies of the Japanese who died at the end of World War II. Talks continued for a second day on Thursday. Mr. Gemba said Tokyo will determine its further concrete steps against South Korea based on Seoul's responses following its rejection of bilateral consultations at the international court in The Hague. After South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in early August landed on the contested Liancourt Rocks islets—known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan—Tokyo in protest canceled key bilateral meetings and threatened economic measures, such as the suspension of the purchase of South Korean government bonds. "There is no question it will take a long time to resolve the territorial issue. It could well be a new feature in the Japan-Korea relationship," Mr. Gemba said. He added, however, that Japan will work hard to prevent the dispute from having adverse effects on the bilateral ties beyond the current administrations, given the countries' substantial economic mutual dependence. South Koreans will elect a new president in December to succeed Mr. Lee, whose five-year-term is ending, and Japan is also expected to have a general election as early as this fall. The minister took a markedly different tone in the interview toward China, whose rapidly growing economic and military clout have put Tokyo on guard. In the wake of Japan's bitter confrontation with Beijing two years ago, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has generally kept his cool in dealing with the latest resurgence of the dispute over a group of contested East China Sea islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan. "It's not in the interest of either Japan or China to let this situation adversely affect the overall relationship between the two countries," Mr. Gemba said. "China's economic development presents Japan with great opportunities." Mr. Gemba said that Japan wants a free-trade pact with China, and emphasized that Japan will stick to its agreement in May to start negotiations by the end of the year for trilateral free trade between Japan, China and South Korea. A territorial dispute with China flared up around the same time as the one with South Korea, after Hong Kong activists landed on one of the contested East China Sea islands. Japan quickly arrested the activists and sent them back home. The arrests drew immediate condemnation by Chinese authorities and sparked anti-Japanese rallies across China. A limousine carrying the Japanese ambassador came under attack in Beijing this week. Mr. Gemba acknowledged the risks of a minor squabble escalating into a major confrontation but played down the possibility of any military showdown over the islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in Chinese. "We are not assuming that [the Senkaku dispute] would ever escalate into a military clash," he said. "What's important is to make sure that [a military confrontation] will never materialize," he said, adding Japan will take steps including creating an environment where the two countries' leaders will be able to communicate with each other whenever necessary. Japan also has an island dispute with Russia, but Mr. Gemba stressed that Japan is seeking to establish a stronger partnership with its northern neighbor by overcoming the grievances over the four Kuril islands that Russia seized after Japan's surrender in World War II. "The strategic environment surrounding Japan and Russia has changed," he said, an apparent reference to the need for the two countries to cooperate to handle China's rise. Japan and Russia are set to hold summit talks, the second this year, on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting scheduled for next week, which Russia is hosting in Vladivostok. |
| ICBC’s Profit Growth Slows as Overdue Loans Rise for China Banks Posted: 30 Aug 2012 11:16 AM PDT  Source: Bloomberg News Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. led the nation's biggest lenders in posting slower profit growth as a sluggish economy curtailed demand for financial services and more borrowers defaulted on debt. Overdue loans rose at the five banks as the economy decelerated for a sixth quarter, and China's liberalization of interest rates threatens to squeeze margins in the second half. Still, Chinese banks' bad-loan ratios are less than 1 percent and they remain among the world's most profitable, with ICBC alone making more than JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. combined. "Credit quality of Chinese banks has obviously deteriorated, which is a reflection of the significant decline in the economy," said Lewis Wan, the Hong Kong-based chief investment officer at Pride Investment Group Ltd., which manages $300 million of assets. "The profit growth will certainly stall some more as lending margins shrink and fee income slows." Shares of the five biggest Chinese lenders have fallen by an average 7.3 percent this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. ICBC and its local rivals trade at an average 5.3 times their forecast earnings for 2012, compared with 9.6 times for HSBC (HSBA) Holdings Plc, Europe's most profitable bank, and 8 times for New York-based JPMorgan, the largest U.S. lender. Economic Slowdown China's two interest-rate cuts this year, three reductions in banks' reserve requirements since November and accelerated approvals for investment projects haven't been enough to reverse a slowdown in output. The economy grew 7.6 percent in the second quarter, the slowest pace since 2009. Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG and Bank of America this month cut their forecasts for the nation's third-quarter growth, while Morgan Stanley lowered its outlook for 2012 expansion to 8 percent from 8.5 percent. Bank of Communications Co., China's fifth-largest lender by assets, yesterday reported a 16 percent increase in second- quarter profit to 15.2 billion yuan. Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. (3988), ranked third, on Aug. 29 posted a 14 percent gain. Net income for China Construction Bank Corp. (939), the second largest, rose 20 percent while fourth-ranked Bank of China Ltd. last week said earnings growth slowed to 5.3 percent. 'Monopoly' Profits Premier Wen Jiabao said in April China needs to break the "monopoly" of several big lenders, which make easy profits because it's hard to borrow money elsewhere. The five banks had 31 trillion yuan of loans outstanding as of June 30, controlling almost half of the nation's total. Soured loans at the nation's 3,800 banks increased for a third straight quarter, the longest streak of deterioration in eight years, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission. Most of the increase in bad loans came from the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, the Shanghai Securities News reported this month. Overdue loans at the five biggest banks totaled 416 billion yuan as of June 30, an increase of 27 percent from the end of last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. ICBC's advances with payments pending for more than 90 days rose 7 percent to 62 billion yuan, while debt overdue for less than three months surged 60 percent to 80 billion yuan. At Construction Bank, the 90-day figure jumped 34 percent. "Asset quality will continue to worsen, and the market has been expecting that," said Ivan Li, head of research at Kim Eng Securities Hong Kong Ltd. "What is uncertain is the banks' net interest margins" and how much they will shrink. Margin Pressure ICBC's net interest margin, a measure of lending profitability, widened to 2.66 percent in the first half from 2.6 percent a year earlier. The measure shrank at Bank of China and Agricultural Bank in the second quarter from the previous three months. The central bank in June allowed lenders to widen the discount on borrowing costs to 20 percent and broadened it further to 30 percent last month as policy makers picked up the pace of interest rate deregulation. The weighted average lending rate charged by banks had already fallen to 7.06 percent in June, down by 0.56 percentage point from March, according to the central bank. About 8 percent of loans were priced below the benchmark rate that month, the most in 11 months. Bank of Communications faces "significant" pressure on its margins, Vice President Yu Yali said yesterday at a briefing. ICBC's first-half loan margin doesn't yet reflect the impact of the June rate cut, President Yang Kaisheng said. Property Curbs China's government is maintaining curbs on real estate and refrained from introducing a nationwide economic stimulus package similar to the one in 2008. Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest maker of construction and mining machinery, shut its main excavator factory in China for much of July and had employees on shortened work weeks. In the first six months, ICBC's profit rose 12.5 percent to 123.2 billion yuan, according to yesterday's statement, paving the way for it to post record profit for a seventh year since becoming publicly traded in 2006. The second-quarter figures were calculated based on the first-half numbers. China's 3,800 lenders reported net income of $52.8 billion in the second quarter, 53 percent more the total earnings of 7,246 U.S. banks, data from the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. show. JPMorgan (JPM) last month reported a 9 percent decline in second- quarter net income to $4.96 billion after posting a $4.4 billion trading loss at its chief investment office. HSBC, the largest European bank by market value, last month posted an 8.3 percent drop in earnings and made a $1.3 billion provision in the first half to compensate British clients wrongly sold payment-protection insurance and derivatives. The London-based lender also made a $700 million provision for U.S. fines after a Senate committee found the bank gave terrorists, drug cartels and criminals access to the U.S. financial system. |
| ‘NoodleBot’ taking over restaurant kitchens in China Posted: 30 Aug 2012 11:13 AM PDT  Source: CNN Go Latest food fashion in China's noodle restaurants: replace the sweaty, grumpy chef with a harder-working, never-complaining "NoodleBot." That is, a robot programmed to slice noodles. Chef Cui: The original 'noodle-bot' "NoodleBot" — which sells for around RMB 14,800 (US$2,330) — was invented by Cui Runquan (崔润全), a 36-year-old farmer-turned-restaurateur from Hebei Province in central China. Cui created his first robot in 2007 and received the national patent for his invention and the brand name, Chef Cui, in 2008. "I invented this because I want to free all sliced-noodle chefs from hard labor," Cui told Beijing TV (in Mandarin only). Cui said that although he is only a middle-school graduate, he has always had a knack for machinery. "From the moment I first got the idea, it took me three months to create the first Chef Cui," said Cui in the same interview. According to Cui, his son designed the head of the robot which resembles Ultraman, a character from a Japanese children's sci-fi show. Sliced-noodles spiced up "NoodleBots" make a specific type of Chinese noodles called dao xiao mian(刀削面). It's a main course that originated in Shanxi Province and is now popular throughout China. The chef holds a large chunk of dough in one hand and uses a knife to slice off pieces of noodles into boiling water. The sliced noodles are shaped like willow leaves and have a rich texture. They are usually served with sliced beef. Dozens of factories around China are now producing "NoodleBots." Besides Ultraman, other versions include popular Chinese cartoon character Pleasant Goat, Pigsy from Journey to the West, or Pinocchio. "I come here for dao xiao mian often," said a customer at a Nanjing noodle restaurant that hired a "NoodleBot" about a month ago, as reported by China News (in simplified Chinese only). "The taste of the noodles is the same but the presentation is better," continued the customer. The restaurant's boss, Chu Zhaoyin (储照银), said the noodle stall has received one-third more customers since "NoodleBot" started manning the kitchen, largely due to the novelty value. Next goal: Noodle-pulling robots "Noodle-slicing robots can help restaurant owners save labor cost," said Duan Wanhu (段晚湖), manager of Tianxiang Food Machinery Factory, one of the "NoodleBot" manufacturers in China. "There is also the hygiene issue," added Duan. "Human chefs sweat in summer, and the sweat goes into the noodles. Robots don't." The factory started producing the robot two years ago. Now it assembles about 20 "NoodleBots" a day for clients from noodle-loving provinces like Xinjiang, Gansu and Shanxi. The Heibei-based factory has also been contacted by customers in France and Taiwan. The latest version of Tianxiang's "NoodleBot" can slice 160 pieces of noodles per minute. The one-meter-tall robot can produce three to five bowls of dao xiao mian every 60 seconds, depending on the size of the bowl. Restaurants can also control the shape of the noodles, ranging from 70 centimeters long and three centimeters thick to three centimeters long and 0.3-centimeters thick. "Our next step is to launch noodle-pulling robots by the end of this year," added Duan. "The main difficulty was to achieve the correct strength of hand-pulled noodles, and now we have solved the issue," he said. Fancy a bowl? Here are some of the restaurants that employ "NoodleBots," according to various Chinese media. 1. Beef Noodle Restaurant, 9 Yuanlin Xi Lu, Liuhe District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province 江苏省南京市六合区园林西路9号 2. Wangweilai Noodle Restaurant, 137 Wanquan Dong Lu, Taiping Jie Dao, Wenling City, Zhejiang Province 浙江省温岭市太平街道万泉东路137号旺味来面馆 3. Leshan Robot Dao Xiao Mian, Bei'er Zhong Lu, Tiexi District, Shenyang, Liaoning Province 辽宁省沈阳市铁西区北二中路 |
| Posted: 30 Aug 2012 11:08 AM PDT Have You Heard… |
| Mentally ill toiled in poor conditions, factory shut down Posted: 30 Aug 2012 10:09 AM PDT A GROUP of mentally ill workers was escorted home yesterday after media exposure of them being exploited in a sweatshop in the central Chinese province of Hubei stirred nationwide fury online. Local media reports said that 11 workers, seven of them who appeared to be mentally handicapped, worked without protective gear or enough food in a plaster factory in Jingmen City, over 250 kilometers away from their hometown in the neighboring province of Henan. The workers were covered in white dust from head to toe. Their dormitories were also covered with dust, filthy and crowded, said a report published early this month by a Hubei-based newspaper. The factory's makeshift kitchen smelled sour and the workers were only offered two meals a day - mostly just plain noodles. The report, with photos illustrating the life of the workers, went viral online on Wednesday after qq.com - a major web portal in China - put the news on its front page. The report received 14,000 comments on Wednesday. Netizens denounced the coldness and inhumanity of the owner and questioned government supervision. "I felt so sad and almost cried when I read the news," said a netizen identified as "Zhenbao" on Weibo. "Where are the government workers? Couldn't they see? How can they just take taxpayer's money and do nothing?" said another blogger named Xiangxiang. Most workers were brought to the Jingmen Qiangtai Plaster Company last winter by a man called Deng Yuhua, also a local of Nanyang City in Henan. Deng said that the workers, aged between 40 and 50, were slow in both thinking and action and would do whatever they were asked. Nine of the 11 workers are not married. Xu Shunchi, owner of the factory, said the workers made on average 1,000 yuan (US$159) a month and Deng collected their wages. Police yesterday confirmed Deng's claim that he had the consent of the workers' family before taking them to the factory and was sending paychecks back to their homes. According to Deng, their family were actually glad that they could make money instead of being a family burden. The factory owner and Deng are not likely to face criminal charges as police denied any form of slavery existed in the factory and the employees were not forced to work and their freedom was not restricted, said Qin Shaoxiong, an official with the human resources and social security bureau in the Duodao District, where the factory is located. However, there are problems such as unpaid wages as well as the miserable work and living environment, said Qin. Authorities suspended the factory and the owner has been fined 20,000 yuan. |
| Authorities: Flight not returned to nab fugitive Posted: 30 Aug 2012 10:07 AM PDT AUTHORITIES yesterday denied an online claim that an Air China flight returned to Beijing on Wednesday night to thwart a corrupt official's flee attempt. The airline earlier attributed the return to a "threat" and then said they found nothing abnormal. There was no corrupt official onboard the aircraft and it flew back after receiving a tip from the United States, airport police and the country's flagship carrier said yesterday. "The information came from a US intelligence agency, but it was not prudent to disclose any further details," said Xu Yanchun, an official with Air China's Beijing headquarters. More than 200 police were dispatched to make two rounds of security checks on each of the 325 passengers after the plane landed in Beijing, the police told Legal Evening News. The Boeing 747 - flight CA981- returned and landed at Beijing Capital International Airport around 8:30pm on Wednesday, about eight hours after it had set off for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Air China issued an announcement shortly after, saying "the flight was returned to Beijing for the sake of passenger safety as it received a threatening message." However, some people online claimed the pilots flew back after receiving an order from air traffic controllers that a corrupt official carrying a huge sum of money was found to be onboard. The rumor arose after the airport authority said later in the day that nothing abnormal was found after passengers were checked. Passengers were not told the aircraft was returning until it landed. Internet users also questioned why the aircraft had not landed at the nearest airport, such as in Hawaii, after receiving a threat but instead returned to Beijing. "The crew members did not tell the passengers the truth in the air to avoid causing any panic," another Air China official said. There was no airport that could accommodate the wide-body Boeing 747 aircraft on its way back, the official added. The flight took off again at 12:30am to take passengers to their destination. The carrier changed pilots and crew members to ensure the safety of the passengers because they had been tired after flying for eight hours, the official added. The aircraft finally landed at John F. Kennedy airport after flying for another 12 hours. |
| Yellow River dike collapses in Gansu Posted: 30 Aug 2012 09:12 AM PDT Working staff check the collapsed dike on the Yellow River in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu province, yesterday. A 100-meter section of a dike on the Yellow River collapsed on Wednesday evening, severing water pipes and affecting the availability of tap water. No casualties have been reported. Repair work on the pipes is under way. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Varsity whistle blower has 'important clues' Posted: 30 Aug 2012 09:12 AM PDT
Reacting to the university's plea to provide conclusive evidence regarding the scandal, Zou Hengfu, a former professor of economics at the school, said he hadn't planned on offering "major evidences" to the university during his meeting with university officials on Wednesday. Instead, in his e-mail sent to the university yesterday, he pointed to the corruption in the students union election, China Youth Daily reported. "The reason why I contacted the university is that I want to prove I neither made false accusations nor hid myself from the media," he added. Last week, Zou claimed in a microblog post that his former colleagues had regularly sexually harassed hostesses at a restaurant they frequented. Zou claimed that deans and directors would "always do that" after having meals at the Mengtaoyuan Restaurant, located close to the university hospital. The posts have been widely circulated online and greatly tarnished the image of the university, one of the top higher-education institutions in China. The university claimed Zou hadn't provided any evidence and couldn't be accessed until he called the university's discipline supervision office on Wednesday morning. But he just continued to expose a series of corruption cases rather than offer any useful evidence to confirm the sex accusations, according to a statement by the university. "The university once again urges Zou to come to our office to provide conclusive evidence. Since his words have severely damaged our reputation, we won't wait for him endlessly and are ready to take further action any time." The school refused to disclose whether it would take Zou to court as part of its so-called "further action." Yesterday, Zou refused to confirm whether he has any conclusive evidence while admitting to "exaggerating" some facts. "I meant only a handful of faculty behaved indecently. I always make overstatements and that's my style of speaking," he wrote on Weibo.com. Although Zou's accusations are vague at best, they have struck a chord with some Chinese netizens. Weibo users have noted that Zou's account has been verified and tied to his real identity, adding that it is not likely that a public figure would risk his or her reputation by making false accusations. |
| Health care firm in the dock for buying 'swill oil' Posted: 30 Aug 2012 09:10 AM PDT A LEADING health care product maker in China was found to have purchased 1.62 million tons of swill oil to produce a major component for antibiotics, which is widely used in the domestic market. Jiaozuo Joincare Biological Product Co Ltd in central China's Henan Province, a subsidiary of the listed Joincare Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd, spent 145 million yuan (US$22.82 million) between 2010 and July 2011 on "swill oil" - digouyou in Chinese - oil ladled from drains near restaurants, prosecutors said. The dirty deal came to light during the hearing on the nation's first case on swill-oil making and selling in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, People's Daily reported yesterday. Prosecutors said Jiaozuo Joincare was the biggest customer of Henan Huikang Grease Co Ltd, which bought huge amounts of swill oil, blended it with good-quality oil and sold it to food and medicine processors as raw material. Jiaozuo Joincare bought the swill oil at 8,950 yuan per ton, about 2,000 yuan less than the market price. The company admitted to purchasing oil from Huikang once, but denied knowing the oil was made from restaurant waste at that time or purchasing the oil at lower price, according to its statement yesterday. "The company will bear full responsibility if our products are plagued by quality problems," it added. Qiu Qingfeng, board secretary of Joincare, said the company had devised four other standards in addition to the national standards to test the oil, but had still failed to detect the swill oil, National Business Daily reported. Jiaozuo Joincare gained 941 million yuan in revenue in 2010 but the figure fell to 698 million yuan in 2011 since it stopped its contract with Huikang, triggering speculation over its attempt to cut costs by purchasing swill oil. |
| Company meeting room arson suspect succumbs Posted: 30 Aug 2012 09:00 AM PDT A WOMAN who allegedly set a fatal fire three days ago died yesterday morning from injuries sustained after she jumped out of a sixth-floor window in central China's Hunan Province, the local government said. Shi Yanfei, who is suspected of setting a fire in her employer's meeting room before jumping out of one of the room's windows on Monday morning in the city of Shaoyang, died at 8am yesterday after suffering brain damage and severe burns, a city government spokesman said. The incident happened around 10am on Monday, when Shi, a retired employee at a local tap water firm, rushed into a meeting room where company heads were gathered, spilling gasoline in the room and igniting it before jumping out of a window. One general manager and two vice general managers were killed, while three other officials were injured. The injured are still undergoing treatment, although their injuries are not life-threatening, according to the spokesman. An initial investigation indicated that Shi set the fire because the firm refused to employ one of her children. Although it was once commonplace for children to replace their parents in state-owned companies following their parents' retirement, intense job competition and market economics have put a dent in the tradition. |
| Flash marriage ends 8 months later Posted: 30 Aug 2012 04:05 AM PDT A couple who got married after only 10 minutes of online chat broke up eight months later, Chongqing Economic Time reported today. Jin Qiying, a farmer in Heilongjiang Province, divorced his wife surnamed Zhang from Chongqing, as they constantly quarreled over trivia matters in daily life. Zhang who is from a big city could not stand living in the countryside with Jin and was on bad terms with her mother-in-law. While Jin complained that Zhang was lazy and squandered their money. Last February Jin drove a used van on a journey to look for his soul mate. He traveled to more than 260 cities and shouted out for his love in public squares. Moved by Jin's story, Zhang had an online video chat with him and the two decided to tie the knot 10 minutes later. |
| Tibet air quality near perfect Posted: 30 Aug 2012 03:54 AM PDT TIBETANS living around the sacred Nam Co Lake in Tibet breathe in almost perfectly clean air, as in pollution-free Antarctica, new research has found. Scientists reached the conclusion after tests found the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) of air samples stood at 0.029, a reading comparable to that in Antarctica, said Cong Zhiyuan, deputy head of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The AOD measures particular matter like sand and dust in the air. The lower the reading, the cleaner the air. "The Nam Co area has the cleanest air on earth," Cong concluded. The PM2.5 reading of the area on an average day was 10 micrograms/cubic meter. That was one third of the standard set for national parks. PM2.5 is a measurement that tracks particles smaller than half the width of a hair. The average PM2.5 reading in Chinese capital Beijing from Wednesday to Thursday was 137 micrograms/cubic meter. Kang Shichang, a CAS research fellow stationed at Nam Co, said the region is relatively free of pollution because most residents are herders and there is little human activity that could affect the air quality. |
| VIDEO: China 'worried about eurozone crisis' Posted: 30 Aug 2012 04:20 AM PDT The BBC's Martin Patience reports after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has called on struggling European nations to get their finances in order. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Update » News » Society To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Comments