Caring mother

Yang Yunxian takes care of one of her adopted disabled children. Yang, 29, unmarried, is a farmer in a suburb of Taiyuan, capital of Northwest China's Shanxi Province. Yang's only income is from farming. For the past four years, she has sheltered and raised eight abandoned, disabled children. These eight children - aged between 10 months and five years - all live with Yang.

SHANGHAI

Resident thief

A MAN who allowed a friend to stay in his home for six months had 67,000 yuan ($8,072) stolen by the friend, according to Tuesday's Xinmin Evening News. Kang allowed his former colleage, Ying Feng, who liked to gamble, to live in his home. During the six months Ying lived with Kang, he learned the pin numbers on Kang's bank accounts and is believed to have withdrawn money from the accounts. Kang called the police after he confronted his friend about the withdrawals. Ying admitted that he had taken the money but said he was unable to repay it.

Mobile Shanghai

ONE out of every three Shanghai citizens had a mobile phone by the end of October, according to yesterday's Shanghai Morning Post. During the first 10 months of this year, the number of Shanghai Mobile subscribers had increased to 1.51 million, the equivalent of 3.47 mobile users added every minute, according to information from Shanghai Mobile. Twelve per cent of the Chinese population uses mobile phones, according to the report.

Ship collisions

THREE ship collisions happened on the Huangpu River within four days of each other this month. On November 16, the Haininggua 2001, which carried 30 tons of stone, sank after colliding with an unknown ship. Two sailors who fell into the river were rescued by a passing ship. The unknown ship involved in the collision fled downstream. On November 19, a Philippine ship collided with the Yushangqiutuo 22. An hour later, the Gaoji 878 collided with the Anjihuo 0591 Three sailors fell into the river and were saved by a police patrol boat.

Lawyers' fees regulated

SHANGHAI'S Price Administration Bureau issued a regulation recently relating to lawyers' fees, according to Tuesday's Shanghai Evening Post. The regulation said the highest charge for time can't be higher than 3,000 yuan ($361) per hour.The regulation also set the standards for maximum charges for cases at specific stages.

Mobile blackmail

A MAN who blackmailed people via mobile phone messages was caught recently, according to Tuesday's Shanghai Evening Post. The man, identified as Xu Jie, applied for a credit card using a stolen ID card and bought an SIM card. Xu sent messages to several people, demanding that they remit 2,000 or 3,000 yuan ($241 or $361) to his credit card account. He threatened to kill their whole family if they refused to do so. Xu extorted more than 10,000 yuan ($1,200) using this method. He was caught by the police at Shanghai Railway Station when he was about to flee the city.

Hostile restaurateur

A HOTPOT restaurant boss waved a knife at his customers and wounded three of them, according to Tuesday's Shanghai Evening Post. Gong Jixiang was awakened at midnight by four customers quarreling with waiters over the price of their meal on April 24. Gong brought a knife from the kitchen and waved it at them. Two of the customers were cut on the head and another on the arm. Gong fled to his hometown with his wife and child. He was caught by the police soon after he came back to Shanghai to open a grocery shop.

Girl burned with acid

A FOUR-year-old girl was badly burned when she fell into an industrial acid pond. The accident happened at Ruyi Chemical Factory of Chuanlin Industry Company in Pudong on the afternoon of November 16. The girl was sent to Xinhua Hospital where doctors said that her skin was badly burned and she had ingested a large amount of acid into her lungs and stomach. Zhang is still under observation at the hospital.

New English textbook

CHINA Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press and Cambridge University Press, after three years of strenuous editing, have jointly launched the "English Laboratory," a new English textbook targeted at Shanghai secondary school students. Shanghai Informatics Jingwen College and Shanghai Enlightening will pilot the textbook in the coming month in order to promote innovative English teaching.

Donation from Singapore

CAPITALLAND China, a property company from Singapore, will donate 500,000 yuan ($60,240) to the Pudong Government Friday to promote the area's education. Of the donation, 70 per cent will be used as awards for outstanding middle school students. The remainder will be spent on poor students to help them complete their schooling at senior high schools.

BEIJING

Mobile entertainment

QUITE a few Chinese mobile phone users have recently found that the usage of mobiles can be expanded to entertainment. They sing songs with the lyrics appearing on the mobile phone screens, or download special pictures from the Internet, or play games with friends via their mobile phones. Experts believe that the rapid growth of China's economy has given rise to an expanding entertainment market. By the end of July this year, the number of Chinese mobile phone users had reached 120.6 million, surpassing the United States and ranking first in the world.

TAIYUAN

Mine explosion arrests

FOUR people responsible for a deadly mine explosion that killed 33 people in North China's Shanxi Province last Thursday evening have been arrested by local police. Police said, investigations show that Hou Junping, owner of the Podi Coal Mine in Jiaocheng County, deputy-head of the mine Wu Xinglong, production section chief Jin Zhirong and Yang Shiguo, head of a mine construction team, are directly responsible for the accident. The explosion, which occurred in the evening of November 15, claimed 33 lives and injured one miner. As of November 16, all the township- and village-run coal mines in Luliang Prefecture of Shanxi were ordered to stop production to undergo safety checks, local sources reported.

XI'AN

First emperor's tomb

HIGH technology is being applied to studies of the tomb of Qinshihuang, China's first unifier, located in Xianyang in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Thanks to aerial surveys and close-up photography, archaeologists have obtained a shadowchart of the whole tomb, identifying the overall arrangement of the terra-cotta army guarding the main tomb chamber, and some elevation drawings and isograms of the terra-cotta warriors and their weapons. The archaeologists have also obtained computer data on the air quality and soil composition of the tomb. The latest microbiology technology has provided information on how mold has encroached on the historical remains.

SHENZHEN

Traffic accidents

A TOTAL of 562 people were killed in 2,527 traffic accidents in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, in the first 10 months of this year. The figures were 64 and 418 more than in the same period of last year, respectively, police said Wednesday. At the same time, 979 were injured in the traffic accidents, 266 more than a year earlier. Traffic accidents resulted in a property loss of over 14 million yuan (about $1.7 million), up 30 per cent on a yearly basis. Currently, Shenzhen has nearly 400,000 automobiles and 330,000 people with driving licences. An official from the local traffic administration said beginner drivers easily become "road killers" due to their lack of driving

experience.

LHASA

English boom

CHINA'S opening up to the outside world and particularly its entry into the World Trade Organization has led English to become the most popular foreign language in Tibet. Experts said English is becoming more popular in Tibet's colleges and universities, as an increasing number of foreign travelers are rushing to the land-locked region, and welcome the assistance of translators. Many parents have sent their children to extracurricular English classes to polish their language ability. Different levels of English classes have opened in Lhasa targeted specifically at children, adults and professional personnel.

CHONGQING

Unpopular billboard

THE world's largest billboard will be dismantled by the end of next January, because no one has shown any interest in using it for advertising. The billboard, located in Southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality, has stood at the side of the Yangtze River for over three years without any advertisement ever appearing on it. The billboard, erected in 1998, is 300-metre-long and 45-metre-high. It achieved a world record for Chongqing, when it was included in the "Guinness Book of World Records" as the world's largest billboard. Experts say the billboard is surrounded by fog all year round and is not easily seen, which has put off advertisers.

(Star-Xinhua)