News » China » 2 dead, 20 injured in NW China building fire
News » China » 2 dead, 20 injured in NW China building fire |
- 2 dead, 20 injured in NW China building fire
- Longest high-speed rail line takes smooth test run
- China legislation to protect online personal data
- China eyes more rural development
- Coal imports to maintain growth in 2013
- Anthology of bamboo-themed poems published
- China to open world's longest high speed rail
- Teachers warned after NW China slapping case
- China's natural gas output accelerates in November
- China maintains blue alert for cold wave
- China arrests 96 in doomsday cult's birth province
- Beijing swimmers brave freezing cold
- 5.5-magnitude quake jolts sea off Taiwan's southeast coast
- Teachers warned after NW China slapping case
- China keeps blue alert for cold wave
- China arrests 96 in doomsday cult's birth province
- China arrests 96 in doomsday cult's birth province
- Online philanthropy more popular
- Packaging of big-name instant noodles called hazard to health
- Hu Jintao meets HK chief executive
| 2 dead, 20 injured in NW China building fire Posted: 22 Dec 2012 01:14 PM PST YAN'AN, Shaanxi - Two people were killed and 20 others injured after a fire engulfed a commercial building in northwest China's Shaanxi Province Saturday morning, local authorities said. As of 9 p.m., two bodies had been retrieved by firefighters but the victims' identities were yet to be identified, according to the press office of the Yan'an municipal government, where the accident took place. The fire broke out in the 14-story World Trade Building in the city's downtown at about 4:30 a.m. As of 4 p.m., the number of injured rose to 20 and were all in a stable condition, according to sources with a local hospital. Three of the 20 injured people were staff members of a hotel located on the upper floors of the building while the rest were all guests, said Liu Guangzhong, deputy head of the hospital. The ages of the injured people range from 7 to 51. Twelve of them suffered from burns and the other eight had minor carbon monoxide poisoning, Liu said. About 50 people staying at the hotel in the building were evacuated. One of the security guards who helped in the evacuation remains missing, said Jia Xueqi, an officer with the city's fire department. More than 460 firemen and police brought the fire under control as of Saturday afternoon, Jia said. About 1,700 residents living next to the building have been evacuated so far, Jia added. The cause of the fire is being investigated.  | ||||
| Longest high-speed rail line takes smooth test run Posted: 22 Dec 2012 01:14 PM PST BEIJING - China put the 2,298-km Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway, the world's longest, into a test operation on Saturday. Running at an average speed of 300 km per hour, it only took two and a half hours for the train to cover the 693 km distance from Beijing to Zhengzhou, the northern section of the whole route that links the country's capital and the southern economic hub. Aboard the new train, more than 100 domestic and foreign reporters were invited to test run the rail line. Zhou Li, director general of science and technology with the Ministry of Railways (MOR), also aboard, told passengers that he was confident in the country's railway technologies. "We will keep tracking the condition of equipment in real time and report potential risks immediately," Zhou said to reporters. The railway authorities have taken a string of targeted measures to guarantee a safe trip, such as intensifying the maintenance of fixed equipment and mobile devices on board and improving the control system to address possible problems under extreme weather, he added. The measures are expected to disperse the safety concerns raised after a bullet train crash last year near the southern city of Wenzhou left 40 people dead. According to an earlier announcement of the MOR, the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway will open on December 26 and is expected to cut the travel time to about 8 hours from the current 20-odd hours by traditional lines. Designed with a maximum speed of 350 km per hour, the railway has 35 stops in major cities, including Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Changsha. More than 2,000 tickets were sold for the Guangzhou-Beijing high-speed journey for December 26 on Thursday, the first day passengers could book tickets. However, some passengers are still hesitant to take the new rail for relatively higher fares that can nearly rival their flying counterparts. A second-class coach fare from Beijing to Guangzhou is 865 yuan (138 U.S. dollars), and the cheapest air ticket for December 26 costs only 25 yuan more, 493 yuan lower than first-class coach tickets. Zhao Chunlei, a senior official in charge of transportation of the MOR, said tickets are priced to meet the demands of different people, and fares will fluctuate under market forces. | ||||
| China legislation to protect online personal data Posted: 22 Dec 2012 01:14 PM PST BEIJING - A draft bill on strengthening Internet information protection will formally be tabled for deliberation at a bimonthly session of China's legislature set to open on Monday. Widely hailed by Internet and telecom experts and online commentators, the long-awaited move comes amid China's efforts to secure citizens' personal information from becoming prey to illegality. Behind China's surging online scam, fraud and identity theft in recent years has been a rapidly growing Internet sector and a lagged-behind law system for personal information protection, according to analysts. A public security ministry statement released on Friday showed how Internet information can be abused by unveiling real cases. On April 7, an Internet user surnamed Sun in east China's Wuxi City was shocked to know around 47,000 yuan (around 7,400 U.S. dollars) was transferred out of his Internet bank account nine times that day. Police investigations found the money all went to an unverified personal account with a popular online payment service that the culprit registered on the same day. The culprit spent the sum in buying Internet virtual currency in order to launder the money he illicitly obtained. It took time for police to ascertain the real identity of the suspect because no real name was provided in the online payment account registration. Surnamed Liu, the suspect was finally apprehended in northeast China's Liaoning Province, according to the ministry statement. In another case unveiled by police, in 2011, a businesswoman in south China's Nanning City was swindled out of 380,000 yuan via QQ, an online instant massaging service, by someone who pretended to be her son who is studying in London. China has reported soaring QQ-related scams since 2009, as criminal suspects became increasingly "professional" in online cheating, according to police authorities. Criminal suspects stole QQ passwords of a chat-mate during chatting with others indiscriminately, police said. Meanwhile, they used software to capture videos and images of the prey. In their following step, the suspects logged online with the QQ password to cheat the original user's friends online. Police said in some cases it is difficult to trace the suspects when they use unregistered mobile phone cards and wireless network cards as well as fake credit cards for online fraud. In a high-profile crackdown on criminal activities related to personal information launched in April, police across the country uncovered 44 "sources" that sold citizens' identity. During the campaign, police in Changsha City cracked a personal information trade ring self-proclaimed as "China Resources Department." The Illegal group's computers stored more than 150 million entries of personal information, with particulars from names, phone numbers, addresses, real estate, vehicles, phone records, to flight records. "The lack of a sound law system to protect personal information in China is a serious problem," said Li Yuxiao, an expert in Internet management and law studies with Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. He said the country should quicken legislation moves to toughen the fight on infringement upon privacy. Zhou Hanhua, a law research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said that under current laws, it is hard to bring those who illegally seek profit from abuse of citizens' personal information to justice. Current laws failed to give clear judicial interpretations on law application and punishment measurement regarding crimes of Internet information in many cases, according to police officials. Besides upgrading China's laws, the Internet users themselves should also improve their own awareness of safeguarding privacy of their own and others, wrote Liu Huawen, a law expert with the CASS. | ||||
| China eyes more rural development Posted: 22 Dec 2012 01:14 PM PST ERROR: The requested URL could not be retrieved While trying to retrieve the URL: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-12/22/content_16043133.htm The following error was encountered: The system returned: (104) Connection reset by peer An error condition occurred while reading data from the network. Please retry your request. Your cache administrator is support@chinacache.com. | ||||
| Coal imports to maintain growth in 2013 Posted: 22 Dec 2012 01:14 PM PST ERROR: The requested URL could not be retrieved While trying to retrieve the URL: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-12/22/content_16043115.htm The following error was encountered: The system returned: (104) Connection reset by peer An error condition occurred while reading data from the network. Please retry your request. Your cache administrator is support@chinacache.com. | ||||
| Anthology of bamboo-themed poems published Posted: 22 Dec 2012 01:14 PM PST BEIJING- An anthology of 100 bamboo-themed Chinese poems has been published, which features a foreword and a poem written by former president Jiang Zemin. A launch ceremony for the book, The Charm of Bamboo, was held Saturday in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, with the presence of State Councilor Liu Yandong, and Liu Qibao, head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. In the preface, Jiang said China's long history of growing and using bamboo led to the formation and development of unique bamboo culture. "Poets of different generations have sung in praise of the plant for its great contribution (to people's life), strong vitality and unyielding integrity," the preface reads. Jiang said bamboo poems written to express sentiments and aspirations embody the nation's spirit of unswerving self-improvement. The publication of the anthology, in both Chinese and English, is part of events held to mark the 15th anniversary of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, a Beijing-headquartered non-governmental organization founded in 1997. | ||||
| China to open world's longest high speed rail Posted: 22 Dec 2012 12:57 AM PST
Related readings: | ||||
| Teachers warned after NW China slapping case Posted: 22 Dec 2012 12:57 AM PST XI'AN - Teachers in northwest China were warned against inapporpriate methods after a pupil was hospitalized when his classmates slapped him under the orders of their schoolteacher. On December 10, Luo Yali, an elementary schoolteacher in Shaanxi Province, ordered students in her maths class to take turns to hit the ears of a pupil who failed to do his homework, according to an official investigation. The probe was launched after the slapping case caused public anger about school brutality. The student, who has not been named, was hospitalized for physical and psychological trauma. Luo, the 22-year-old teacher, and the principal of the Hongshan Township Nine-Year School in the city of Ankang was sacked. "If my grandson was slapped by the teacher, I might have tolerated it. But to be slapped by all 50 classmates one by one? I can not take it," the injured student's grandmother surnamed Chi told reporters. She said her grandson revealed in his diary that a person with stronger self-esteem may have thought of suicide after being treated this way. In a circular, Shaanxi provincial educational department on Saturday said though the slapping was an isolated case, it was very bad and lessons shall be learnt. The educational authorities said it plans an overhaul to stop teachers' malpractices such as brutality, insults and discrimination towards students. Luo apologized and offered a financial remedy to the student's family. The school also covered part of the medical expanses. The student has now returned to school after treatment, the authorities said. The centuries-old child-raising philosophy "sticks make a great man" has deep roots in Chinese society. Calls to end strict teaching and parenting methods that sometimes cross the line have only become popular in recent years. | ||||
| China's natural gas output accelerates in November Posted: 22 Dec 2012 12:57 AM PST BEIJING - Natural gas output gained pace in November due to increasing demand for the fuel as winter approached, latest data from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) showed. Output amounted to 9.8 billion cubic meters last month, an increase of 11.4 percent year on year, the NDRC said. China's imports of natural gas moved up 22.5 percent year on year to 3.8 billion cubic meters last month, while the apparent consumption came in at 13.6 billion cubic meters, the commission said. In the first 11 months, the country's output of natural gas rose 6.8 percent year on year to 97.6 billion cubic meters, while imports saw a 36.7-percent jump to 38.1 billion cubic meters, according to the NDRC. China's appetite for natural gas has grown substantially with the country's industrialization and urbanization initiatives amid government efforts to cut carbon emissions. According to a latest development plan in the sector, China aims to bring its natural gas supply capacity to around 176 billion cubic meters, making the energy reachable to 250 million people, or 18 percent of the population by 2015. Currently, natural gas makes up only around 4.6 percent of the country's primary-energy consumption, much lower than the international average of 23.8 percent. | ||||
| China maintains blue alert for cold wave Posted: 22 Dec 2012 12:57 AM PST BEIJING - China's National Meteorological Center(NMC) on Saturday kept its blue alert for the severe cold wave that is sweaping many northern China regions. The observatory said temperature drop will continue to decline from the weekend to Monday after many parts of China had started to experience the lowest temperatures this winter. Most parts of China, except the central and southwestern regions, will see temperature fall by 6 to 8 degrees Celsius in the next three days, with some parts of north and northeast China to witness a drop of 10 to 14 degrees Celsius, according to the NMC. On Saturday morning, temperatures in parts of Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet, Gansu, Shanxi, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Fujian and Guangxi dropped by 6 to 10 degrees Celsius from a day ago, and by 12 to 16 degrees Celsius in parts of Liaoning and Jilin. China's meteorological disaster alerts are categorized as blue, yellow, orange and red as the severity of disasters ascends. The NMC also forecasted small to moderate snow for parts of Xinjiang, Gansu, Inner Mongolia and Hebei while heavy snow for Shandong Province on Saturday. Parts of south China and Guizhou Province will see sleet, while freezing rain will fall on west and central Guizhou. | ||||
| China arrests 96 in doomsday cult's birth province Posted: 22 Dec 2012 12:57 AM PST ZHENGZHOU- Police in central China on Saturday said a crackdown on a cult that spreads doomsday rumors has netted 96 people at the cult's birth province, as hundreds were arrested across the country. The suspected "Almighty God" cult members were arrested in Henan province where the sect was founded in 1990. The cult, promising salvation for followers before an impending apocalypse, extorted money from believers and warned of lightening strike for those who do not obey, police said. But crime experts said the cult will not disappear after the so-called apocalypse on December 21, as their guiding principle is to battle the "Great Red Dragon," a euphemism for the Communist Party of China, and set up a country run by the "Almighty God." The sect, also known as "Eastern Lightning," claims to be an offshoot of Christianity, but would be barely recognizable to Western Christians. It claims that Jesus has been resurrected as a Chinese woman. Police said they have found cases in which hard-core believers shelled out family assets, tore apart the family, and kids abandoning study. The arrests in Henan were made before December 19. Police said they will stay vigilant and continue to crack down on the cult according to the laws. | ||||
| Beijing swimmers brave freezing cold Posted: 22 Dec 2012 12:57 AM PST A swimmer is about to dive into Shichahai Lake in Beijing on Friday morning. The temperature in Beijing is forecast to drop to -15 C on Saturday night. Photo by Wei Xiaohao / China Daily | ||||
| 5.5-magnitude quake jolts sea off Taiwan's southeast coast Posted: 21 Dec 2012 11:05 PM PST An earthquake measuring 5.5 magnitude on the Richter scale jolted the sea area off Taiwan's southeastern coast at 11:24 a.m. Saturday, the island's meteorological authorities said. | ||||
| Teachers warned after NW China slapping case Posted: 21 Dec 2012 11:49 PM PST Teachers in northwest China were warned against inapporpriate methods after a pupil was hospitalized when his classmates slapped him under the orders of their schoolteacher. | ||||
| China keeps blue alert for cold wave Posted: 21 Dec 2012 09:44 PM PST China on Saturday kept its blue alert for the severe cold wave that is sweaping many northern China regions. • Beijing temperatures may plunge to 30-year low | ||||
| China arrests 96 in doomsday cult's birth province Posted: 21 Dec 2012 08:17 PM PST Police in central China on Saturday said a crackdown on a cult that spreads doomsday rumors has netted 96 people at the cult's birth province, as hundreds were arrested across the country. | ||||
| China arrests 96 in doomsday cult's birth province Posted: 21 Dec 2012 07:38 PM PST Police in central China on Saturday said a crackdown on a cult that spreads doomsday rumors has netted 96 people at the cult's birth province, as hundreds were arrested across the country. | ||||
| Online philanthropy more popular Posted: 21 Dec 2012 07:18 PM PST Online philanthropy is gaining popularity among Chinese, as many believe that it offers more convenience and transparency compared to the traditional methods of donating. | ||||
| Packaging of big-name instant noodles called hazard to health Posted: 21 Dec 2012 06:39 PM PST Some big-name instant noodle producers have come under fire after they were found to use packaging containing excessive levels of fluorescent agents, suspected of causing cancer, and some packaging is said to be made from waste paper. | ||||
| Hu Jintao meets HK chief executive Posted: 21 Dec 2012 06:28 PM PST President Hu Jintao on Friday met with Chief Executive of the Hong Kong special administrative region (SAR) CY Leung, saying the principle of "one country, two systems" has been proven successful. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Update » News » China To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Comments