Shanghai

Highest honour

ZHENG Shaolian, dean of the Management School at Fudan University, has been awarded an honorary Doctorate of Law by McMaster University in Canada. It is the highest accolade attainable in human and social science study at McMaster University. Zheng received the honour for his outstanding contribution to the study of management science and quantitative economics, as well as his achievements working as a pioneer of China’s management education.

Irresponsible escape

A HIGH school boy in Shanghai went missing during probation after beating a classmate to blindness. The boy, Zhan, had a fight with his fellow student in March and damaged the latter’s eyeball. The next day, Zhan’s family paid 50,000 yuan (US$6,039) bail and then encouraged him to travel and relax. He was finally caught in Shenzhen of South China’s Guangdong Province. The Shanghai Jing’an District People’s Court recently sentenced Zhan to three years in jail with a three-year suspended sentence and demanded 160,000 yuan (US$19,324) in compensation for his classmate.

Money magic failed

A five-strong gang from Fujian Province in the South, who claimed to be capable of turning paper into money, were recently sentenced to between eight and 14 years imprisonment by Shanghai No. 2 People’s Court. The fraudsters cheated eight people in Shanghai, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces in East China out of more than 800,000 yuan (US$96,618) between December 2003 and April 2004. The gang each played a different role in the scam. After the victim brought them the money, they stealthily replaced the suitcase containing the money and fled.

Safer Internet

SYGATE Technologies Inc is launching its new security solutions, named SSE4.0 and SODA 20, in Shanghai at the same time they are being released in the United States. The solutions are targeted at providing policies for enterprise networks and the safe use of the Internet. Sygate, based in California’s Silicon Valley, set up its first overseas product testing centre outside the US in Beijing. According to the survey conducted by Frost & Sullivan, the company has a two-thirds share of the world’s current network endpoint security market.

New dwellers

The delegation from Japanese Osaka Tennoji Zoo paid its 14th visit to Shanghai Zoo on November 23. One Californian sea lions along with five leopard tortoises will be shipped from Osaka to Shanghai by the end of this year. The leopard tortoise will be a new species for the local zoo. After passing quarantine in Shanghai, they will be respectively moved to the Sea Lion Pool and Amphibious Reptile House.

Unhappy airlines

The price of a flight ticket from Shanghai to Beijing has lowered to 230 yuan (US$27.71) from 1,130 yuan (US$136.14), the biggest drop since 2001. In that year, the price was 260 yuan (US$31.33). According to an inside source, the low season of air travel, combined with the recent air tragedy on November 21, resulted in a price fluctuation and lowering of passenger numbers. But the discount, which is only 20 per cent of the original price, will only last two or three days, since airline companies make no profits and have to shoulder large costs.

Say no to huge car

A lady surnamed Tu has been forced to give up travelling around the city in her luxury saloon car after only driving 1,300 kilometres. Tu bought the car from a local company last September for 2,120,000 yuan (US$255,422). She was promised the car would be licensed in February this year. But since the car is 7.8 centimetres wider than the national limits allow, Tu’s license application was denied. Out of options, Tu demanded a refund from the company, and got the refund thanks to the mediation by the Minhang District Court.

Clearer guide

More than 2,000 standard signs in public places, toilets and shopping centres on Huaihai Zhonglu have been renewed and unified for the convenience of local citizens. The Civil Appearance and Environmental Sanitation Administration of Luwan District invested 600,000 yuan (US$72,289) to erect over 20 road signs in the district to better serve the public. The new signs will help people find public toilets, scenic spots, drugstores and local communities. Signs in stations along Metro Line One will also be renewed to standardize the public information system.

Imposed upon champion

Liu Xiang, prominent Olympic gold medal winner, recently sued a well-known newspaper in Beijing and another three defendants for the unlawful use of his image. Liu insisted on compensation of 1.25 million yuan (US$150,602). On October 21, a photo of Liu appeared in the newspaper as an advertisement for Chungyo Department Store without Liu’s permission. Liu also said that if he wins, any compensation will be donated to charity.

Careless women

According to a survey on female teachers in six schools in Shanghai, over 50 per cent of those questioned know nothing of the dangers of breast cancer and its early symptoms, and over 70 per cent of those surveyed do not know the proper methods for using prophylactics. The data shows that the incidence of breast cancer among Shanghai women has reached 0.05298 per cent, making it the major threat to women’s health today.

Traded peacock

A peacock was found on sale in a flower and bird market in Baoshan District in Shanghai. This peacock once belonged to an animal exhibition. After the exhibition closed, the person running the event asked a merchant friend to sell the bird. The merchant claimed to be able to lay his hands on special animals such as large lizards and snakes as it was legal for his friend to traffic the animals in the name of an exhibition. But according to the relevant rules and regulations for the protection of wild animals, any transportation and trading involving nationally protected animals are subject to strict procedures.

Wine feast

VINITALY China, a spin-off of the largest trade fair in the industry, was held at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre November 24 with over 4,000 exhibitors and over 140,000 visitors from all over the world. Sponsored by Veronafiere in collaboration with the Shanghai International Exhibition Corporation and Italian Trade Commission, the fair, which will end on November 26, presents in China a never-before-seen range of wines from every part of Italy. Almost 160 wine producers display some of the most highly ranked and world-renowned wines of the various regions of Italy.

BEIJING

Workers?right protected

A NATIONWIDE inspection will be conducted from December 1 to February 1 next year to discover if migrant workers?wages are paid on time. The inspection was announced in a circular jointly issued by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the Ministry of Construction and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. The employers who intentionally embezzle migrant workers?wages will be punished on a case-by-case basis and the more unscrupulous ones will be exposed to the public via the media, according the circular. Legal education and other channels should be introduced to increase migrant workers?awareness of the law so they can choose the correct way to protect themselves, it said.

Free condoms rejected

AS A part of the events to welcome the upcoming World AIDS Day on December 1, Haidian District Health Bureau prepared to hand out 1,000 condoms to students at prestigious Peking University, but were denied by campus leaders who said it would only encourage sex among students. The leaders said they welcomed the promotion of AIDS awareness, so handing out pamphlets about AIDS was no problem, but giving out condoms was a different matter Although AIDS is gaining more public attention, Chinese remain uncomfortable with the subject. When the health bureau handed out condoms at residential quarters they met with a similar squeamishness, but as the problem already exists, it is better to face it head on, they said.

SHAANXI

Increase of AIDS

THE number of HIV/AIDS cases in Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province has seen a sharp increase. Sixty nine people were confirmed HIV positive between January and September this year, one and half times the number reported last year. All of its 10 prefectures have reported AIDS cases. To date, 263 people have been found carrying the virus, of whom 97 have full-blown AIDS. Forty five people had died of the disease by the end of September. Of the 263 HIV-positive cases, 145 are local residents, while the rest are part of the floating population. The infected live mainly in the provincial capital of Xi’an and Shangluo in southern Shaanxi.

GUANGDONG

Worsening drought

DROUGHT is getting even worse in Southern China’s Guangdong Province. By November 21, over 730,000 hectares of farmland were reported to have been affected, 20,000 hectares greater than the figure reported at the end of October. More than 36,667 hectares are barren, an increase of 2,667 hectares over last month’s data. Some 85 cities and counties in Guangdong, or more than 80 per cent of the province’s area, have been affected by the drought, official figures said. Water flow in the Dongjiang River, a major tributary of the Pearl River, which provides drinking water to some 36 million people, has witnessed an 80 per cent reduction since autumn when compared with last year’s flow.Gas blast

A GAS pipe at an apartment in the provincial capital Guangzhou exploded, killing two people, and injuring another on the morning of November 23. The explosion occurred at around 7:30 am in an apartment in Xiya Garden residential quarter. The windows of over 10 houses were broken by the blast, and the 14-storey building was coated with a layer of black dust. The owner of the room where the blast occurred died on the spot, and a woman living next door died en route to hospital. The person injured is now in stable condition. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

HEILONGJIANG

Derailed train

A BEIJING bound train carrying more than 1,000 passengers derailed on the night of November 19 in Harbin, capital of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. Three people were seriously injured but no deaths were reported. The K340 passenger train was en route from Jiamusi city in Heilongjiang Province to Beijing when its engine, a baggage car and a passenger compartment derailed at 10:32 pm, after the train was hit from the side by a cargo train that had deviated from its own route. The train set off from Harbin again at 1:16 am, two hours and 44 minutes behind schedule.

CHONGQING

Dead arsonist

THE investigation into an explosion at a tea-house in Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality which killed 14 people and wounded 29 others has come to an initial conclusion. A man named Yuan Daizhong, who was killed in the explosion, is suspected of causing the blast. Yuan killed his wife before crashing his motorcycle loaded with dynamite into the tea house in Tongliang County in the afternoon of November 18. Local police found dynamite at his home in Bachuan Town. Yuan’s motive for the crime is not yet known.