Shanxi

40 punished over explosion cover-up

Forty people received judicial or disciplinary punishments for their roles in covering up a fatal tunnel explosion that killed eight in Shanxi province on Dec 25, local authorities said on Tuesday. They included 14 people employed by Erchu Co under the China Railway Tunnel Group, which contracted the tunnel project, said a spokesman for the provincial work safety commission. The accident was revealed to the public five days after it occurred after a whistle-blower wrote an online post about the explosion.

Shanghai

Restaurant owners plead guilty

The owners of two Shanghai restaurants have pled guilty to using "gutter oil", or recycled cooking oil, in hot pots. This is the first time that restaurant owners have faced criminal charges for the practice. Zheng Pin and her nephew Zheng Wei said that they used recycled oil since June to cut costs. The people's court of Huangpu district will sentence them later.

Beijing

5 dead in gas poisoning case

Five residents, including a 7-year-old boy, were found dead at a house near a market in Shilihe village of Chaoyang district after the emergency command center received calls and sent an ambulance around 10:50 am on Tuesday. In Beijing, many residents in rural areas or cottages still use coal-fuelled stoves in winter, leading to carbon monoxide poisoning cases.

Tycoon denies 50b yuan donation

Beijing Zhongkun Investment Group denied on Monday that group Chairman Huang Nubo ever pledged to donate 50 billion yuan ($8 billion) to Peking University as reported recently. The statement on the group's website said Huang once said in an interview that he hoped to donate half of his assets to Peking University in the future, but he never specified a precise amount.

Criminal suspects repatriated

Chinese police had 331 criminal suspects repatriated in 2012 under joint efforts with foreign counterparts, the Ministry of Public Security said on Tuesday. Police also sent 25 fugitive suspects back to their countries last year, the ministry said in a report.

Nation strives to reduce pollutants

China will make more efforts to reduce PM 2.5 pollutants, as well as other pollutants, a government official said on Tuesday. A national obligatory target will be set to curb emissions of PM 2.5, or fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 microns or less in diameter, and monitoring and assessing measures will be introduced, Vice-Minister of Environmental Protection Wu Xiaoqing said.

Experts slam hack accusations

Experts on Tuesday refuted latest accusations from the US linking Chinese authorities to alleged hacking activities. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal last week claimed that they had detected cyber attacks from China-based hackers, while China had been regularly labeled a major origin for cyber threats to the US. This was promptly rejected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "The accusations are unreasonable and irresponsible," said professor Zhou Shijian, a researcher at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

37 seized for counterfeiting

Police have seized 37 people suspected of printing counterfeit renminbi, confiscating bank notes totaling 210 million yuan ($33.4 million), the Ministry of Public Security revealed on Tuesday. Police in Guangdong province also captured a number of pieces of equipment including the fake money film source and money printer after they busted a major underground den making fake cash, according to the ministry's news center. The police cracked a money-counterfeiting case last year, in which they gained clues to destroy the key group involved in forging the money, the ministry said.

Suspect seized over collapse

Another suspect in the case of a deadly expressway bridge collapse in Henan province last week has been caught by police, local authorities announced on Tuesday. Tang Zhensheng, 44, a native from neighboring Hebei province, was apprehended in Xinyang on Monday morning, local police said. A truck explosion caused the bridge to collapse on Friday morning in Mianchi county in Sanmenxia, killing 10 people and injuring 11.

Guangdong

Workers' salaries to increase

The salaries of sanitation workers in Guangdong will likely increase 20 percent, or 400 yuan ($64) a month on average this year in Guangzhou, following protests last month demanding higher pay. The two sides reached a consensus to improve the remuneration of sanitation workers after two meetings organized by the city government on Monday, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

Organ traffickers sentenced

Eight people involved in the first organized human organ trafficking case in Guangdong province were sentenced on Monday in Dongguan. The group includes a surgeon, an anesthetist, a financial backer and people who acted as agents, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

China Daily-Xinhua

(China Daily 02/06/2013 page2)