Dirty water

XINHUANET.com has reported that China faces a threat of water pollution because water treatment work has fallen behind rising demand.

Mao Rubo, head of the Environment and Resources Protection Commission of the People's Congress, made a speech on the subject recently. Statistics show that the total amount of waste and sewage water in 2003 reached 64 billion tons, 60 per cent of which was industrial waste water. The Haihe, Liaohe, Huanghe and Huaihe rivers were the worst polluted water sources. Mao noted that the safety of drinking water has been threatened.

Only 42 per cent of waste water has been treated due to a lack of water treatment plants. About 120 billion yuan (US$14.46 billion) of investment dedicated to water treatment facilities by the State plan has not yet been allotted.

Stuck in the web

ACCORDING to a recent survey, increasing numbers of Chinese adolescents are becoming addicted to the Internet. Such addiction constitutes a new psychological ailment that now affects 15 per cent of the younger generation throughout the country, according to xinhuanet.com.

Experts found that young Net addicts become anxious when not online. They spend so much time on the Internet that they become isolated from the outside world.

However, not all parents have realized that the condition amounts to a mental disease. Doctors in Chongqing have discovered that only 5 per cent of Internet addicted youngsters have been treated correctly.

People between 15 and 40 years old were most likely to suffer Internet addiction. The Xinhua story said more than half of these patients in China were under 24.

Barely legal

A WOMAN, surnamed Sun, found naked photos of herself on the Internet and sued the photographer, surnamed An, who had taken the pictures one year before.

The Beijing Star Daily reported that the two sides had made an agreement that An could use the photos in exchange for giving two sets to Sun for free. However, Sun said she never imagined the photos might appear on the Internet, and the fact they did had made her ashamed and annoyed.

Her lawyer claimed that it was an unfair agreement and should be rendered invalid, since there was no time limit set for use of the photographs and the "cost" was too low.

The court found that the two sides had not agreed explicitly, and in writing, that the photos could be used on the Internet. Although An had not infringed Sun's rights and was not forced upon to pay the 5,000 yuan (US$602) compensation Sun had sought, he was asked to remove the pictures from his personal website.

Secret agreement

THIRTY-three Chinese refused to leave a Russian airliner last Sunday, in a protest aimed at obtaining compensation for a 12 hours delay, reported the Yangtse Evening Post.

The flight was from Russia to Beijing, and most of the 84 passengers were Chinese. After the landing, 33 asked for a refund of the air fare, but the airlines refused. The dispute delayed the take-off of the plane for its return flight to Russia.

An agreement was reached after 2 hours of negotiation, but the airline refused to reveal the agreed-upon solution.

(Star News)