SHANGHAI

Life made easier

FROM this week, holders of a Shanghai Resident Card (B) - mainly foreigners and some locals returning home from overseas - who want to work or start their own business in the city, will be able to enjoy the same rights as local residents. By presenting the card with their passport, they can avail themselves of services such as applying for business loans, buying local insurance and having their children enroll in local schools. Free guides for the functions of the card and how to use it can be found in hotels, airports and shipping terminals. The card was first issued in June, 2002 as part of the city's campaign to attract overseas talents to the city but all its functions were not activated until this week.

Building protection

THE Shanghai Municipal People's Congress has started a new round of inspections to enforce regulations designed to protect old architectures. The inspectors, under the newly passed Urban Planning Law, will also check the height and density of buildings in the city. The Congress will welcome suggestions from residents on how to better protect the city's historical buildings as well as to report any acts in breach of the new planning law. Residents can either call 6358-6459 or e-mail to gh_zfjc@spcsc.sh.cn to contact the Congress.

Scandal sticks to Teflon

ACCORDING to the US Environmental Protection Agency, DuPont faces a fine of US$300 million for not confessing the fact that its product, Teflon, may cause cancer. The problem doesn't affect Shanghai greatly even though Teflon is widely used in all kinds of pans. This is because the relatively high price of Teflon products has left the company with only a 10 per cent share of the local market. But the managers of supermarkets and sellers of pans want the government to set out regulations so they can deal with the Teflon products they have in stock.

Jail for online thief

A THIEF who took advantage of a bug in an online banking system to steal other people's money has been sentenced to three years in jail and fined 12,000 yuan (US$1,446) by Changning District People's Court. By chance, the man learnt that the passwords on a certain type of credit card were the same as the bank account numbers. He then set up a couple of e-wallets on a business net last year and transferred some 120,000 yuan from other persons' online bank accounts to his e-wallets. When he found that police were closing in on him and had collected enough evidence, he surrendered himself.

'Yes' to sky-high proposal

AIRLINE passengers on a flight from Shanghai to Beijing last Saturday found themselves part of a romantic drama as a young man anxiously waited the outcome of a mid-air marriage proposal. The in-flight crew had granted permission for the carefully planned proposal to go ahead and the young man had the support of all the passengers. He is an animation designer who was on the same flight as his girlfriend but he had not let her know he was on board until he suddenly appeared before her with a diamond ring in his hand and a red rose in his mouth. The girlfriend was surprised but happy and instantly accepted his proposal. Passengers and crew said they had appreciated the romantic interlude as an enjoyable interruption to a boring flight.

Up-to-date information

THE Eighth Pacific-Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS 2004) jointly held by Fudan University and National Sun Yat-sen University (Taiwan) opened last week in the International Conference Centre in Shanghai. With the theme of "Information System Adoption and Business Productivity", the four-day meeting attracted more than 300 scholars and authorities in the field of information systems.

Secure computers

FUJITSU has launched its latest notebooks amid a galaxy of celebrities, models and lots of pictures. High-tech products in black and white, including the latest array of notebooks with fingerprint technology, were on show.

BEIJING

China draw

The number of overseas Chinese and students from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan studying the Chinese language has surged in recent years. More domestic colleges have begun to target the growing group. For example, at prestigious Jinan University in southern China's Guangdong Province, The number of overseas Chinese, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan students majoring in Chinese at Jinan University has jumped from 3,568 in 1999 to 7,772 this year.

INNER MONGOLIA

Hail strikes

HOHHOT - While China is lashed by rainstorms in most areas, the Bayannur League in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was bombarded by hail Monday. The natural disaster has affected 30,400 mu (2,027 hectares) of farmland, causing about 20 million yuan (US$2.40 million) of direct economic loss, local authorities said Tuesday. The hail lashed ten townships in the league for about two hours Monday afternoon, according to local observatory meteorological station.

HENAN

AIDS orphans

ZHENGZHOU - Central China's Henan Province is taking measures to help the children whose parents have died of AIDS, guaranteeing their normal life, medical care and schooling, the provincial civil affairs department has said. AIDS orphans are now fostered and adopted by individual families or by social welfare institutions in Henan. The provincial government has ordered the annulling of all tuition fees for the AIDS orphans during their primary and secondary education periods, and the provision of special favours and allowance during their higher education.

SICHUAN

Monument erected

CHENGDU - A monument to the Flying Tigers, the US airmen who supported China's fight against Japanese invaders during World War II, has been erected on a mountain near Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province. Sixty years ago, a US bomber returning from a mission ran out of fuel and crashed on Xiling Snow Mountain near Chengdu. Debris from the plane and the remains of the 11 crew members, all of whom were killed in the crash, were recovered by a non- governmental mountaineering organization in July, 2001.

WORLD

Gay marriage vote

WASHINGTON - The Republican push for a Senate vote to ban gay marriage has thrust the topic into the thick of the 2004 presidential election campaign, possibly reigniting a "culture war" on social issues that has become an election-year staple. The effort to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriages seemed headed to Senate defeat this week on a procedural vote. But strategists said the debate had energized President George W. Bush's conservative base and helped draw a sharp difference with Democratic rival John Kerry.

(Agencies via Xinhua)