Elevated rail still in track-laying stage
CONSTRUCTION workers are laying normal track along the first phase of the city's first elevated rail, which is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.
Drugs in mail
MIND your mail, Shanghai Customs warned recently.
Carmival mood in Yangtze ballroom
FUNNY costumes and weird make-up, hugging, drinking and dancing. The specially decorated Crystal Ballroom of the Yangtze New World Hotel became a sea of some 400 revelling expatriates and local people on Saturday night.
Merger brings first exhibition JV
THE first local Sino-foreign exhibition joint venture was formed in Shanghai last week after the merger of two established exhibition services firms.
Water transport services safe for Spring Festival
SPRING Festival, which means a peak in the numbers travelling by sea, begins on Thursday and will last forty days.
Survey:drinkable water at low ebb
LOCAL government officials are stepping up efforts to push forward a general survey of local water resources, that targets rivers, lakes and reservoirs.
Blast-hit road reopens No deaths, no injuries from gas explosion
AFTER 23 hours' hard work, repairs to the broken gas pipes which exploded on Saturday morning at the intersection of Gonghexin and Luochuandong roads was completed on Sunday morning.
4 years for date-raping 17-year-old
AN employee of Shanghai's City of Books was recently sentenced to four years' imprisonment by Pudong New Area People's Court for raping a girl last year.
A ride on the wrong side of the law
IT had to happen. As a frequent user of the city's taxi cabs I have often been able to curl a scornful lip at the poor souls who are sitting in a cab which has been pulled over by a traffic policeman. There they sit in lonely splendour while the driver - depending on the demeanour of the officer of the law and the real or alleged seriousness of the offence - either engages in much armwaving and fingerpointing, or cowers, as he, or she, fishes for licence and permit.
Trash-picker who steals bag quickly arrested
A MIGRANT woman who allegedly stole a handbag while collecting trash was recently arrested by Putuo Police on a charge of theft.
Ambitious young man dies in Germany
I REALLY don't know how I have come through these past four months. Every day when the sun rises, I long for the darkness, so that I may be shrouded in sleep. But when the night does come, I long for the day, for I cannot sleep."
Legal services market to heat up
By Wan Lixin
WHILE China's imminent entry to the WTO spells a great opportunity for the development of China's legal profession, it must restructure to meet the challenges, according to a seminar sponsored recently by Shanghai-based AllBright Law Offices. According to Jason Shi, a partner of AllBright, WTO entry means the Chinese economy will participate more actively in economic globalization, which will throw up more economic disputes. Litigation involving foreign businesses will rise dramatically. This will include increases in international trade disputes, investment disputes, labour disputes and intellectual property disputes. The development may also result in an increase in professional legal services involving foreign individuals, particularly in such cities as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenyang. "China's accession to the WTO will also stimulate domestic demand for legal services. All facts point to the trend that China's macroeconomy is now in a stage of strategic restructuring and readjustment," said Shi. But challenges facing the profession are also great. In negotiating WTO entry, the Chinese Government promised to open up the legal services market. More foreign law firms will come in. According to statistics, after China and the US reached a bilateral agreement on China's accession to WTO towards the end of last year, nearly 30 foreign law firms applied to the Ministry of Justice to set up law offices in Shanghai. About 81 foreign law firms and 26 Hong Kong firms have already been allowed to set up offices on the Chinese mainland. The biggest challenge facing domestic firms may be the drain on local staff as more and more look to foreign firms for employment.
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