Will you marry me? Yin Guanheng, with a torch in his hand and escorted by four men dressed like British royal guards, takes a boat to propose to his girlfriend in Bailuzhou Park in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on Monday. Inspired by the Olympic torch relay by British soccer star David Beckham on the Thames, he prepared a special proposal, which later proved a success. Photo Provided to China Daily

Beijing

Measures to alleviate poverty

The Ministry of Land and Resources released 18 measures to help alleviate poverty in China's major poverty-stricken areas on Tuesday.

According to the statement, the measures include encouraging reasonable use of unexploited land in major poverty-stricken areas, increasing the mineral resources exploration and development, and giving preferential policies to encourage the building of industrial zones for mineral resources production.

Besides boosting local economic development, it also emphasizes establishing a geological disaster forecast and relief system. Most of the poverty-stricken areas are concentrated in 11 mountainous regions that are prone to geological disasters.

Hospital reform bid spreading

More public hospitals, particularly in large cities, will stop relying on drug sales for income, according to a notice issued on Tuesday by government departments, including the ministries of health, finance, and human resources and social security.

Their funding should come from government subsidies and medical service fees, the notice said.

Also, charity groups and commercial health insurance institutions should be encouraged to invest in China's medical industry, particularly the nonprofit part, it said. Meanwhile, government management and supervision of privately run hospitals should be strengthened to ensure service quality.

Universities plan open-house days

A group of 41 top universities in the country are now pushing forward the idea of opening to the general public in an effort to raise technological awareness, Beijing Morning Post reports.

Peking University, which hosts a summer camp for high-school students from across the country, made the promise to open its main labs and libraries to visitors starting on the third week of September, which coincides with the national Science and Technology Promotion Week.

Chen Jining, president of Tsinghua University, delivered the joint public pledge on behalf of the 41 universities involved in the program. Chen said higher education institutions have a social responsibility to fulfill in terms of opening their libraries and science labs and promoting innovation among the public.

Zhejiang

Fake-medicine raid nets 15 arrests

Police have arrested 15 people suspected of making and selling fake medicine in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, Legal Daily reported on Tuesday.

The customs bureau in Yiwu, in East China's Zhejiang province, intercepted a shipment of more than 1.6 million fake Viagra pills on March 31, the report said.

Police arrested a person named Zhou on July 6 for trafficking the fake pills. On July 25, police raided the fake-medicine production site where Zhou bought the counterfeit Viagra, seized fake medicine and 31 machines worth more than 14 million yuan ($2.2 million) and took 15 suspects into custody, according to the report.

Yunnan

Proposed fees hotly debated

A proposal to charge ecological resource protection fees to tourists visiting the Dianchi Lake in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, has caused a heated debate.

Tourists may have to pay 10 yuan ($1.57) per person per day, according to Dianchi administration officials. The fees will apply to visitors from hotels in the 3,000 sq km Dianchi Lake area.

Officials confirmed on Monday in Kunming that the plan will be submitted to the Department of Finance of Yunnan Provincial Development and Reform Commission and related departments for approval after soliciting the views of the public.

Two accused of orchestrating blast

Two men have been arrested on charges of masterminding a government office blast that killed four people in Southwest China's Yunnan province in May, police said on Tuesday, acknowledging they had wrongly accused Zhao Dengyong, a man killed in the explosion.

The blast, which also injured 16 people, was in a housing demolition office in Baihetan township in Zhaotong on May 10, while officials signed compensation agreements with residents of Yibo village over the demolition of their homes.

Deng Deyong and Song Chaoyu, both 43 from Yibo, confessed to planning the blast because they were dissatisfied with the compensation, the Zhaotong public security bureau said in a statement.

They said that they found Zhao, 26, at a local labor market and gave him 100 yuan ($15.90) to carry out their plan on May 10. They used a mobile phone as a remote control device and detonated the explosives Zhao carried when he entered the office, the statement said.

Shaanxi

5 dead, 2 injured in landslide

Five people, including two children, were killed and two others injured when they were buried in a landslide in Northwest China's Shaanxi province on Monday, authorities confirmed on Tuesday.

The accident happened at 2:40 am in the village of Ximaozi in Dingbian county, the county's publicity office said.

The mudslide buried a home with seven people inside, including a 52-year-old man named Wu, his wife, their 27-year-old son, 9-year-old grandson and 3-year-old granddaughter.

Hubei

13 killed, 3 missing in rainstorm

Thirteen people are dead and three remain missing after a strong rainstorm battered the city of Shiyan in Central China's Hubei province from Saturday night to Monday morning, authorities said on Tuesday.

The rainstorm also injured at least 725 people in the city.

More than 400 millimeters of precipitation has triggered floods and landslides in the city, affecting 120,000 households and causing direct economic losses of 790 million yuan ($124 million), the city government said.

Guangdong

Customs seizes smuggled cigarettes

Huanggang Port Customs, which is affiliated with Shenzhen Customs in Guangdong province, seized 8,102 cartons of smuggled cigarettes on Monday.

Customs officers found the cigarettes in a van with a Hong Kong license plate. A declaration had been made that the van was carrying 5.4 tons of plastic handles.

During an inspection, officers found boxes containing the handles but on closer examination saw boxes with red marks in which they discovered 18 brands of cigarettes, including Marlboro, Zhongnanhai and Double Happiness.

China Daily-Xinhua

(China Daily 08/08/2012 page2)