The Beijing city government has turned down an undertaker’s application to send human ashes into space, state media said Friday. A funeral home’s proposal to charge 100Â 000 yuan ($12Â 500) each for sending two clients’ ashes into space was turned down on the grounds that there was no law regulating space burials, Xinhua news agency reported.
Nearly 500 000 people were evacuated from their homes in south-east China as the region, already suffering from two months of devastating weather, prepared for Typhoon Saomai to make landfall on Thursday. Saomai, with winds of more than 200kph, pounded Taiwan earlier in the day.
The Chinese — who lay claim to inventing paper — were using it 100 years earlier than previously thought, state press said on Wednesday following a new discovery of an ancient scrap of the material. The 10-square-centimetre piece of paper was found in north-west China’s Gansu province and is believed to have been made in eight BC.
Stressed-out Chinese can now unleash pent-up anger at a bar that lets customers attack staff, smash glasses and generally make a ruckus, a Chinese newspaper reported on Monday. The Rising Sun Anger Release Bar in Nanjing, capital of the eastern province of Jiangsu, employs 20 muscled young men as ”models” for customers to punch and scream at.
Tropical Storm Prapiroon swept across south China, leaving a trail of destruction with more than 70 people reported dead or missing by Sunday. ”It’s still raining heavily, and the situation is pretty serious,” an official said from the flood-control headquarters in Guangxi region, where the eye of the storm was located early on Sunday.
Tropical Storm Prapiroon killed 18 people as it lashed south China with heavy rain and winds on Friday after forcing the evacuation of more than half a million and snarling transport links across the region. State television showed pictures of huge trees uprooted by the roadside in the Guangdong city of Shenzhen.
The death toll from an explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China has risen to 22 but more than 7 000 people evacuated after the blast have now gone home, Xinhua news agency said on Saturday. The blast, which occurred on Friday morning when a chemical reactor exploded during a test run, injured 28 others.
Torrential rains from Typhoon Kaemi left more than 80 people dead or missing in China on Thursday, with a military barracks swept away, thousands of homes destroyed and rivers bursting their banks. Six people were confirmed killed and another 38 soldiers and their relatives were missing after floods destroyed the military barracks in the eastern province of Jiangxi.
Four people were killed when torrential rains from Typhoon Kaemi caused widespread flooding in south-eastern China on Wednesday, as more than 700 000 evacuees remained in shelters. The typhoon, which hit south-east China’s Fujian province on Tuesday, packing winds of 120kph, was downgraded to a tropical storm on Wednesday morning.
Typhoon Kaemi struck the south-east coast of China on Tuesday, sparking the evacuation of more than 500 000 people in an area still reeling from a tropical storm that claimed more than 600 lives. The typhoon first passed over Taiwan, causing widespread disruption to daily life but not enormous damage.
The death toll in China from Tropical Storm Bilis has risen to 612, with another 208 people missing, state media said on Monday in another major reassessment of the impact of the devastating floods. Xinhua news agency, citing the nation’s disaster-relief commission, gave no reason for the sudden jump in the casualty numbers from the storm.
Chinese authorities were warned against cover-ups on Saturday after the death toll from Tropical Storm Bilis more than doubled overnight. A week after Bilis made landfall, the official number of people killed in gales and floods was given at 518, nearly 300 more than the 228 previously reported, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
At least 160 hidden deaths in a central Chinese province pushed the death toll to 482 from floods and landslides caused by Tropical Storm Bilis over the past week, state media said on Friday. Floods and landslides caused by Bilis destroyed tens of thousands of homes and left damage estimated at 20-billion yuan (,5-billion).
The death toll in China from Tropical Storm Bilis has risen to 198, official media said on Tuesday, as 140 people remained missing and heavy rain continued to pound the south of the country. Forecasters had expected the storm to weaken as it hit mainland China but instead it brought more death and destruction, as well as paralysing transport and communications infrastructure.
Torrential rains have killed at least 170 people across south China since the weekend, flooding cities, sweeping away houses and cutting off utilities as well as rail and road links, state media reported on Monday. The rains were triggered by tropical storm Bilis, which killed dozens in the Philippines and Taiwan before hitting China on Friday.
The death toll from severe rainstorms and flooding across China in the aftermath of severe Tropical Storm Bilis has risen to 154, state media said on Monday. Torrential rain hit several provinces including Fujian, Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangxi and Zhejiang in the aftermath of the storm, forcing millions of residents to be evacuated and wreaking havoc on transport and communications.
Chinese officials have expressed concern that the media furore surrounding world record hurdler Liu Xiang could harm his career, state media reported on Thursday. They quoted athletics official Yu Weili as calling for more privacy for Liu, who set a new world record in the 110m hurdles with a time of 12,88 seconds in Lausanne on Tuesday.
Abortions based on gender selection will remain legal in China after lawmakers could not agree on a planned law to criminalise the practice, state press reported on Monday. The planned amendment to the criminal law would have allowed jail sentences of up to three years for people involved in abortions based on the sex of the foetus, the China Daily reported.
Fifty-five people are dead or missing from flash floods that ripped through south-western China’s Guizhou province early this week, the government said on Wednesday. At least 25 people were confirmed dead from the flooding in mountainous areas of Guizhou, while another 30 people were missing, the state flood-control headquarters reported.
About 7 000 residents have been evacuated in south China after landslides caused by heavy rain damaged homes amid stormy weather, which has wreaked havoc in the region for days and killed dozens of people, state media said. The evacuees moved out of their homes in Heping County in Guangdong province after a series of landslides hit the area.
China said on Friday it was "erroneous and one-sided" to believe that it is only interested in Africa because of its energy resources, arguing it had comprehensive ties with the continent. Assistant Foreign Minister He Yafei made the remark at a briefing ahead of a visit by Premier Wen Jiabao to seven African nations.
China said on Thursday it is battling a proliferation of new power plants that are being built without permission and threaten to upset plans for a more environmentally friendly energy mix. Local authorities have been moving ahead with new power plant construction to meet a serious electricity shortage in recent years.
The <i>Google.com</i> search engine has been blocked in most parts of China, as Beijing steps up its efforts to restrict the public’s access to information, a Paris-based media watchdog said. Internet users in many major Chinese cities have had difficulty connecting to the uncensored international version of Google for the past week, Reporters sans Frontières said in a statement received on Wednesday.
Storms pummeling southern China in the past week have killed at least 46 people and left tens of thousands homeless, a state-run newspaper said on Wednesday. The worst-hit has been Fujian province, where heavy rains have triggered floods and landslides that have killed 26 people since May 29, the China Daily said, citing Li Baojun, an official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
A military transport plane carrying 40 people crashed in eastern China’s Anhui province on Saturday, the government said on Sunday. A local official said at least five people were killed. Villagers described a chaotic crash scene, with bodies and body parts strewn across a mountain slope where the plane crashed and burned.
It is an anniversary that China wants to forget. It’s been 40 years since the start of the Cultural Revolution, one of the most insane episodes of the 20th century when children turned on parents, pupils tyrannised teachers and hundreds of thousands died in the name of class war.
China on Thursday denied as ”groundless” allegations that it was trying to steal military and scientific intelligence from the United States. ”The so-called accusation that China is stealing US military and scientific intelligence is groundless,” foreign ministry spokesperson Liu Jianchao said.
The death toll climbed to eight after Typhoon Chanchu hit southern China’s Guangdong province early on Thursday, while more than 900 000 people were evacuated, an official and state media said. The typhoon killed 41 people and left thousands homeless when it tore through the Philippines last week.
About 620 000 people were evacuated from southern China on Wednesday as Typhoon Chanchu, the strongest storm to date to hit the region at this time of year, churned towards the coastal province of Guangdong. The province also ordered more than 58 000 fishing boats and other vessels to return to their home ports.
Global auditing firm Ernst and Young has withdrawn a report saying China’s non-performing loans totalled over -billion, apologising for what it called an ”erroneous” publication. ”We apologise that this erroneous report was issued. We sincerely regret any misleading views that the report conveyed,” the firm said.
China on Thursday blasted the Libyan government for holding talks with Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian and letting him visit the country. "Regardless of China’s persuasion and strong opposition, Libya insisted on allowing Chen Shui-bian to stop over," said Chinese foreign-ministry spokesperson Liu Jianchao.
China’s biggest internet search engine has launched an online encyclopedia modelled on the US-based website Wikipedia, which is blocked by Beijing. Entries on Baidupedia, the new service from Nasdaq-listed <i>Baidu.com</i> launched last month, are however censored by the Chinese government.