Fisherman shot by Filipino navy

A Taiwan fisherman was shot dead on Thursday morning when a Filipino military ship opened fire on a Taiwan fishing boat, a senior official with the island's fishing authority said. The shooting occurred around 10 am in a sea area some 330 kilometers southeast of Erluanbi, the southernmost tip of the island of Taiwan, said Tsay Tzu-yaw, deputy head of Taiwan's fishery administration. According to local media reports, after killing the fisherman, the Filipino military ship continued to chase and fire in bursts at the Taiwan vessel. It is still unknown why the Filipino military ship opened fire, he said.

Beijing

Netizen detained over rape rumor

Beijing police detained a netizen on Thursday who is accused of spreading a rumor that Yuan Liya was gang-raped before she fell to her death at a Fengtai district shopping mall on May 3. Writing on its Sina Weibo micro blog, the capital's public security bureau said the woman - identified as Ma, 28 - had confessed to fabricating a rumor that Yuan was sexually assaulted by seven security guards in the mall and that police had refused to investigate the case. The bureau also issued a statement on Thursday that Yuan, a migrant worker from Anhui province, had committed suicide.

Anti-counterfeit campaign planned

China will launch a campaign against counterfeit and shoddy products for children's use in the lead-up to International Children's Day, which falls on June 1. The campaign will be conducted by the General Administration of Quality, Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the All-China Women's Federation, which is in charge of children's work in China, announced on Thursday.

Companies get pollution fines

China's environmental watchdog fined 88 companies 6.13 million yuan ($1 million) for violations resulting in underground water pollution in a recent 40-day campaign focused on North China. The campaign covered 25,875 companies that discharge wastewater, and 558 violation cases were investigated, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said on Thursday.

Henan

County sacks two officials

A county government in Henan province has dismissed two officials who were found guilty of serious public offences three years ago. Yang Zhihui, a former official in Gushi county's land and resources bureau, was sentenced to three years in prison with five years' probation in May 2010 for abusing his power to trade land-use rights. Yang did not lose his job after being sentenced, and was then transferred to a new post as deputy director of the urban land supervision team in the bureau, according to a China Youth Daily report. Xu Xin, Yang's colleague who was found guilty of dereliction of duty in January 2010, was promoted to deputy chief of the bureau, the report said. The county government dismissed the two officials on Sunday and Monday, claiming it had not received the court's conviction reports three years ago.

Zhejiang

Bottled water confirmed safe

Nongfu Spring, one of the major domestic bottled water producers that faced questions about its water quality, has received support from the Zhejiang provincial government, which released test results that confirmed the company's products are safe to drink, People's Daily reported on Thursday. According to the provincial health department, random checks on four batches of Nongfu Spring bottled water from its six production sites on April 11 by the quality watchdog of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, showed they all passed tests and met national mandatory standards for bottled drinking water.

Five missing after two ships collide

Five people are missing after two ships collided on Thursday in Zhejiang province, the local maritime department said. A fishing ship sank after it collided with a commercial ship at noon in waters near Wenzhou. Five people aboard the fishing ship fell overboard and remain missing, according to the Wenzhou Maritime Safety Administration. A search for the missing is under way, and the cause of the accident is being investigated.

Shaanxi

Six dead, two hurt in expressway crash

Six people were killed and two others injured after an accident early Wednesday morning in an expressway tunnel in Northwest China's Shaanxi province, local authorities said on Thursday. The accident occurred at around 2:20 am in the Liushililiang tunnel on the Fuyin Expressway, which links Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province, and Yinchuan, capital the Ningxia Hui autonomous region. Two heavy-duty trucks collided in the tunnel, blocking traffic on the road. A freight truck driving into the tunnel crashed into three cars, which had stopped behind the two heavy-duty vehicles. The cars and the freight truck caught fire.

Xinhua - China Daily