Beijing

No Fukushima threat to China

China's maritime authority said on Wednesday that to date there are no direct threats to China's territorial waters posed by pollution from Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plants. Readings of radioactive matter in the sea and marine organisms in waters under China's jurisdiction, as well as the air above these waters, are within the normal range, the State Oceanic Administration said. However, some contamination has been monitored in China's exclusive economic zone in the waters near the southern coast of Taiwan, said Li Xiaoming, a senior official in charge of maritime environmental protection with the SOA.

Four imprisoned for robbing tombs

Four members of a gang have been given prison sentences and hefty fines after stealing artifacts from tombs in Beijing's Chaoyang district. Han Fei, of Anhui province, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for robbing the graves and fined 20,000 yuan ($3,220). Zhao Xianhai, of Anhui, was sentenced to seven years and fined 14,000 yuan, and Zhao Yunyin, also of Anhui, was sentenced to 42 months and fined 7,000 yuan. The last member of the gang, Liu Biao, of Beijing, was sentenced to nine years and fined 18,000 yuan, after being found guilty of taking the three robbers to the sites, digging up cultural relics and disposing of the stolen goods at an antiques market. The stolen items were all funerary objects from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and were considered valuable, Shi said.

Guangdong

Tighter controls on officials' trips

Guangzhou's anti-graft body will boost the management of village Party chiefs' trips outside the country. "All village officials will need approval from the departments concerned before they can leave the mainland," Mei Heqing, a senior official at the Guangzhou Party Commission for Discipline Inspection, said on Wednesday. The new regulation was introduced after Li Fangrong, Party chief of Guangzhou's Liede village in Tianhe district, resigned after he traveled abroad early this year.

Pollution evaluation system planned

Guangdong province this year will adopt an official pollution-evaluation system in an effort to clean up the rivers and prevent their water quality from deteriorating further, a senior official with the provincial environment watchdog said. Chen Guangrong, deputy director of Guangdong's environmental protection authority, said the new system will require mayors of cities that have heavily polluted rivers to assume the major responsibility for addressing the pollution problems, Southern Metropolis Daily reported on March 20.

Official's conduct investigated

The Party discipline watchdog of Foshan in Guangdong province confirmed on Wednesday that Lu Zhiran, executive vice-chairman of the standing committee of the Gaoming District People's Congress, is being investigated for a serious disciplinary violation. Since late February, allegations have circulated online claiming that Lu lives in a six-story villa with an area of more than 0.27 hectares and his personal assets are worth more than 100 million yuan ($16.1 million). He also allegedly closed a public street for private use.

Mahjong video leads to probe

Ouyang Yi, director of the Health Bureau of Heyuan in Guangdong province, is being investigated after an online video showed him allegedly gambling with mahjong, New Express Daily in Guangzhou reported. In the video, Ouyang, who is also vice-chairman of the Heyuan Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, was playing mahjong with a doctor, a pharmaceutical supplier and a medical device supplier. During Ouyang's term as head of the Heyuan People's Hospital and later at the health bureau, the two businessmen seen playing the game supplied most of the pharmaceuticals, medical devices and the computer system, the paper said.

Henan

Factory closed for wastewater dump

The Henan provincial government shut down a paper factory found to have discharged polluted water onto farmland. The Dongfeng Paper Factory in Xinxiang's Fengquan district was discharging unprocessed wastewater onto nearby farmland when a law enforcement squad from the environmental protection bureau inspected the region on Monday afternoon, Henan Business Daily reported on Wednesday. A 61-year-old villager surnamed Zhang told the newspaper that the groundwater has been pumped out by the factory and that the farmers had no choice but to allow the factory to discharge the wastewater onto their land.

Yunan

Bus crash death toll rises to 14

The death toll for an expressway accident in Yunnan province on Monday afternoon has risen to 14, after one person died in the hospital on Tuesday, local authorities said. The accident happened on the Dali-Baoshan Expressway when a passenger bus carrying 29 people plunged into a ravine, according to the city's publicity office. Thirteen people died at the scene. Others were injured and rushed to hospitals, with two in critical condition, the sources said on Monday.

Xinhua - China Daily

(China Daily 03/21/2013 page2)