7 killed in bus-truck collision

7 killed in bus-truck collision
Japan warned over fighter jets at Diaoyu isles
Defence Ministry anger at content of US defense act
Farmers use toxic waste as fertilizer
Beidou launches in Asia-Pacific
Spring rush to get home will be the biggest yet
Drunk-driving official sacked over teen's death
Well-off doctor refuses to help care for ill mom
Jail for failing to stop murder
VIDEO: Choking panda saved by surgery
Patrol vessel heads for South China Sea
7 killed in bus-truck collision
Japan warned over fighter jets at Diaoyu isles
Defence Ministry anger at content of US defense act
Farmers use toxic waste as fertilizer
Beidou launches in Asia-Pacific
Spring rush to get home will be the biggest yet
Drunk-driving official sacked over teen's death
Well-off doctor refuses to help care for ill mom
Jail for failing to stop murder

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 08:49 AM PST

Firefighters work at the site where a bus collided with a truck on a highway in Renshou County, Sichuan Province in southwest China, yesterday. Seven people were killed and another 14 were injured. Five people died at the scene and another two on the way to hospital. The injured have been taken to three local hospitals. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

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Japan warned over fighter jets at Diaoyu isles

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 08:49 AM PST

CHINA is "highly vigilant" about Japanese jet fighter flights over the Diaoyu Islands and Japan must bear responsibility for any consequences, Chinese military and maritime officials said yesterday.

The officials were responding to Japan sending jet fighters several times in the past two weeks to intercept Chinese patrol planes approaching airspace above the islands.

"We will decisively fulfill our tasks and missions while coordinating with relevant departments ... so as to safeguard China's maritime law enforcement activities and protect the country's territorial integrity and maritime rights," Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun told a news conference.

Japan's Defense Ministry has acknowledged scrambling F-15 jets on several occasions in recent weeks to intercept Chinese marine surveillance planes approaching the islands.

Shi Qingfeng, a spokesman for China's State Oceanic Administration, confirmed yesterday that a Chinese marine surveillance plane was "disturbed" by Japanese military aircraft while patrolling airspace near the islands. Japan's action was a bid to escalate the situation, and it should bear the consequences of the action, Shi said. The Chinese plane was conducting a routine patrol in "China's undisputed airspace" about 150 kilometers away from the islands, he said.

Yang said it was justifiable for the Chinese military to provide security in waters under China's jurisdiction, and other countries were "in no position" to make irresponsible remarks in this regard.

"China-Japan defense relations are an important and sensitive part of bilateral ties, and the Japanese side should face up to the difficulties and problems that currently exist in bilateral ties," he said.

Yang also called on Japan to take concrete steps to properly handle relevant issues and maintain the overall situation of Sino-Japanese ties.

Meanwhile, China yesterday sent an ocean-going patrol vessel equipped with a helipad to the South China Sea, first of its kind to be put into service there. Haixun 21 will monitor maritime safety, investigate accidents, detect pollution, carry out search and rescue work and fulfill international conventions, said Huang He, deputy head of the Ministry of Transport's maritime bureau.

"In the past, Hainan provincial maritime law enforcement entities could only cover coastal waters and never reached the high seas. The newly enlisted Haixun 21 ends the history of no large oceangoing patrol vessels in South China Sea," said Ruan Ruiwen, head of the Hainan Maritime Safety Administration.

Defence Ministry anger at content of US defense act

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 08:45 AM PST

A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman yesterday voiced strong opposition to content concerning China in a US defense authorization act.

"The content is a rude interference in China's internal affairs and harmful to our strategic mutual trust," said Yang Yujun, referring to the US National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013.

One section acknowledges Japan's administration over the Diaoyu Islands, and another calls for more arms sales to Taiwan.

Yang also criticized a planned deployment of F-35 fighters to the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, in 2017, as revealed by US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on December 18.

Farmers use toxic waste as fertilizer

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 08:44 AM PST

Fertilizer contaminated with used batteries and other toxic waste has resulted in another food safety scandal in China.

Jiang Xicheng, chairman of the environmental protection arm of the Guangdong Lion's Club, a charity organization, broke the news on the Internet, alleging that farmers in the southern city of Guangzhou made fertilizer out of fermented garbage that contained used batteries, shattered glass and kitchen waste.

"I was shocked. The heavy metal content of the fertilizer must exceed safety levels," he said. "It poses a severe threat to human health."

Zhou Yongzhang, deputy director of the Department of Earth Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University, said the used batteries could severely contaminate vegetables with lead and mercury.

He added that if farmers rotate their soil often, the contamination could get worse.

Media reports on the case have aroused anger online.

"We have big supervisory departments, but their ability to function is seriously in doubt," wrote blogger "ruyigongzi."

A farmer from Guangzhou surnamed Zeng said it was common practice for local farmers to use garbage as fertilizer.

So common is the practice that garbage collectors transport carts of waste specifically to sell to farmers.

Zhu Lijia, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Governance, said government supervisors were to blame.

"The farmers do share some responsibility, but if the government was strictly supervising them, such things wouldn't have happened," he said.

The scale of contamination, as well as how much tainted produce has reached the market is not yet clear.

Guangdong authorities are investigating.

Beidou launches in Asia-Pacific

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 08:43 AM PST

China launched its homegrown navigation system to Asia-Pacific users yesterday as it bids to compete with the dominant US Global Positioning System.

The Beidou system's services include positioning, navigation, timing and text messaging, spokesman Ran Chengqi told a press conference yesterday.

"The homegrown system aims to take 70 to 80 percent of the now GPS-dominated domestic market by 2020 when the network will cover the whole world," Ran said.

China expects Beidou to generate a 400 billion yuan (US$63 billion) annual market for services to the transport, meteorology and telecommunications sectors by then.

Beidou currently consists of 16 satellites, and another 40 satellites will be launched in 10 years by which time the global system will be available around the world, Ran said.

Beidou, which means the Big Dipper in Chinese, has functionality and performance "comparable" to the GPS system, but is cheaper, Ran said.

It has a positioning accuracy of 10 meters, speed accuracy of 0.2 meters per second and timing accuracy of 50 nanoseconds, the same as the GPS system. Beidou is the only satellite navigation system in the world that offers telecommunication services. That means apart from giving users location and time information, Beidou can also send users' information to other people and communicate with users via text messages.

"The function will be helpful especially during rescue work," Ran said.

The United States is currently the dominant provider of navigation services for vehicles in China, with its GPS system used in 95 percent of the country's navigation market.

To break its dependence on the US system, China invested billions of yuan in the development of Beidou, Ran said, but the investment was lower than that of the system's competitors.

With an eye on the global market in the next 10 years, China plans to spend 40 billion yuan on system development, Ran said.

China began trial operations of the system a year ago. More than 100,000 vehicles, including public transport, in nine provinces and cities across China are using the Beidou system.

In Guangzhou, some 10,000 cars of governmental officials have been installed with the system to supervise the use of cars and cut down on unauthorized private use.

Also yesterday, the China Satellite Navigation Office released technical details, in both Chinese and English, that will enable enterprises and experts from home and abroad to develop the system's core techniques and modules.

China launched the first satellite for the Beidou system in 2000, and a preliminary version of the system has been used in traffic control, weather forecasting and disaster relief work on a trial basis since 2003.

More than 1,000 Beidou terminals were used after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to provide information from the disaster area.

The system was also used during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the World Expo 2010 Shanghai to pinpoint traffic congestion and supervise venues.

Spring rush to get home will be the biggest yet

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 08:43 AM PST

NEXT year's Spring Festival travel rush is again expected to be a record-breaker, according to the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning agency.

Each year, Chinese people make billions of trips for family reunions during China's biggest holiday, which begins on February 9, and the numbers have been increasing every year.

The commission says that the number of passenger trips by bus, train, plane and ship is estimated to reach more than 3.4 billion during the 40-day rush, described as the world's "biggest annual migration," that will begin on January 26.

Getting home is particularly important as it is often the only chance during the year that many families can get together, sometimes after a gap of several years.

The commission says the estimated figure represents an 8.6 percent increase compared to the rush earlier this year.

The road network is expected to be under the most pressure with 3.1 billion people, an increase of 9 percent, heading home. Railway trips are next with a 4.6 percent rise to 225 million.

Meanwhile, trips by boat and by plane are predicted to increase by 1.5 percent and 5.2 percent respectively to reach 43.08 million and 35.5 million.

Railway stations have begun to take group ticket bookings from migrant workers and students.

However, the rush is already taking its toll.

The railway authority's only online ticket booking website broke down twice this week.

The website, www.12306.cn, saw its latest glitch on Wednesday morning when the site was inaccessible due to "the air-conditioning breakdown at computer rooms." The same problem first hit the site two days earlier.

Would-be rail travelers expressed concern that they might not get their tickets in time if there were any other system failures.

Railway operators said passengers could go to ticket booths at stations or other ticket outlets or phone the hotline, 12306.

Railway authorities have also been reminding passengers about the real-name policy in operation across the country where passengers have to produce ID cards, passports or other forms of identification with their tickets at checkpoints before boarding trains.

Drunk-driving official sacked over teen's death

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 08:00 AM PST

A DISTRICT official in Changsha, capital of central Hunan Province, has been sacked while being investigated by police for hitting and killing a 13-year-old student while driving drunk, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

Police confirmed that Xia Weihui, director of the Yuelu District Investment Cooperation Bureau, was the driver of the car that hit the student on December 17, killing him.

They began investigating after an online post said that Xia was driving at 100 kilometers per hour in an urban area when he ran a stop light and hit the teen. The post said he fled and later convinced someone else to take the blame.

Local police said they did not have any clues in the case until a man who told them he was a hotel driver handed himself over to police last Saturday, saying he caused the accident.

Police started an investigation and said that Xia, who was overwhelmed by what had happened, surrendered on Monday afternoon.

No more details were given as the case is still under investigation, Xinhua said.

Well-off doctor refuses to help care for ill mom

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 08:00 AM PST

A HIGHLY paid doctor in south China who refuses to support his ill mother is facing a fierce backlash in a nation that traditionally values filial piety.

Yang Xiaomin, an associate professor at Hainan Medical University and a doctor with HMU's Affiliated Hospital, has refused to provide 1,500 yuan (US$240) a month to cover his septuagenarian mother's medical costs and daily expenses.

Yang refuses to be his mother's caretaker, saying he "cannot afford to hire a nanny."

When his sister stepped in to take care of their mother and asked for money to help cover the costs, he refused. The sum is only about one-seventh of his monthly salary.

Yang has suggested sending his mother, surnamed Li, to a local nursing home, threatening to sever all ties with Li if she doesn't agree.

"I have devoted my whole life to bringing up my son. I can't believe he would treat me like this," Li sobbed.

Since the case began circulating on the Internet, Yang has been suspended from his positions at the university and the hospital.

Yang's behavior has drawn angry responses online, sparking a widespread discussion on the state of morality in China. One media report about the case has been forwarded more than 1,800 times on Weibo.

"This is unbelievable! How do you expect someone with low moral standards to be a good doctor?" wrote Weibo user "yuanshanyouwu."

It is not the only case that has sparked discussions on filial piety recently.

A 91-year-old mother was beaten by her son and daughter-in-law and kicked out of her family's home this month simply because she wanted to have a bowl of porridge instead of noodles, her staple food for the past 22 years.

In another case widely publicized on Weibo, a centenarian surnamed Jiang was found living in a pigsty in Guanyun County in eastern Lianyungang City.

Jiang, whose five sons and three daughters were supposed to take turns caring for her, has been living with pigs for the past three years. One of her sons insisted that Jiang wanted to live with the pigs.

Such cases reflect the diminution of filial piety in a country with a fast-growing economy, said Xia Xueluan, a professor with the Department of Sociology of Peking University.

"In China, there are many who ignore the moral value of showing filial piety to parents, such as those often seen in property disputes with their parents," Xia said.

China is going through economic and social restructuring. Amid the changes, many are leaving behind traditional values, he said.

The government needs to do more work in moral education, especially in a graying China where filial piety is disappearing and senior citizens face many problems, he added.

By the end of 2011, 185 million people in China were aged 60 or above, and the number is expected to further rise to account for about 30 percent of China's total population of nearly 1.4 billion by the middle of the century.

Jail for failing to stop murder

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 08:00 AM PST

A WOMAN in Guanghzou City in south China was sentenced to three years in prison for not stopping her mentally ill roommate from burning a drunk man to death after the man broke into their room and attacked them.

The woman was charged with murder, while her roommate was exempted from criminal responsibility and released due to her mental illness. The court didn't release the full names of the women, New Express newspaper reported yesterday.

The defendant told police that she and her roommate, both over 30, met and started to live together in July 2011. They made a living by picking garbage and the defendant said she knew nothing about her roommate's mental status.

The defendant said that on the night of November 30, 2011, the man broke into their room and attacked the two women, who were already in bed. The defendant tried to drive him out by hitting him on the shoulder with a stick. Her roommate woke up and joined the fight.

The man, surnamed Wang, was struck unconscious by the roommate, who then set fire to him. Doctors said Wang was burned alive.

The defendant watched and walked around as Wang was burned, prosecutors said. Some locals saw the roommate adding straw fuel to the fire at about 12:30am.

The court said that the woman and her roommate had a justifiable defense against Wang until he passed out. At that point, burning him to death was murder. The court said though the woman did not set the fire, she was responsible because her inaction led to Wang's death.

VIDEO: Choking panda saved by surgery

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 09:34 AM PST

A panda in a Chinese zoo is feeling much better after having a piece of steamed corn bread removed from its oesophagus.

Patrol vessel heads for South China Sea

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 09:10 AM PST

The Haixun 21, an oceangoing patrol vessel equipped with a helipad, which was heading for the South China Sea yesterday, is the first of its kind to be put into service there. The vessel, under the Hainan Maritime Safety Administration, will monitor maritime traffic safety, investigate maritime accidents, detect pollution, carry out search and rescue work and fulfil international conventions, said Huang He, deputy head of the Ministry of Transport's maritime bureau.

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7 killed in bus-truck collision