That is good to hear!...
Both of the helicopter's crew members survived the crash
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BEIJING, CHINA - DECEMBER 11: Chinese president Hu Jintao (R) shakes hands with Pascal Lamy (L), the Director-General of the WTO during the high level forum on the tenth anniversary of China's accession to the World Trade Organization at the Great Hall of the People on December 11, 2011 in Beijing, China. At the forum Chinese President Hu Jintao acknowledged the assistance the WTO provided in its decade of membership for the booming Chinese economy, and pledged to do more to address the global trade imbalance.
In this photo taken on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011, a truck leaves a port in Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu province. During a forum to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of China's accession to the World Trade Organization on Sunday, Chinese President Hu Jintao said China doesn't intentionally pursue a large trade surplus and it will focus on expanding imports in the coming years. (AP Photo)
China's Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang after the Pair's free skate program at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final December 10, 2011 in Quebec City.
In this photo taken on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011, a villager shows his painted ox on a stage during a bull painting contest held in Jiangcheng county in southwest China's Yunnan province. The local tradition of bull painting originated from a Hani minority group's tale, saying painting a bull is to scare away tigers in the village. (AP Photo)
Singer Valen Hsu performs during the dress rehearsal of her concert in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan, Dec. 10, 2011. The concert was staged at the Legacy Taipei Saturday night. (Xinhua)
Models attend a rehearsal for the finals of the New Silk Road Model Contest in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, Dec. 9, 2011. A total of 50 models will compete for the crowns in the finals on Dec. 10. (Xinhua/Li Mingfang)
Two visitors look at a creative car at "The People's Car Project" in the 798 art zone of Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 10, 2011. The project provided an on-line interactive platform for people to fulfill their vehicle designing dream. (Xinhua/Liu Changlong)
Policemen escort the Chinese captain (C) involved in a stabbing incident from a hospital to a police station in Incheon, west of Seoul December 12, 2011.
Policemen take the Chinese captain (C) involved in a stabbing incident to a car to transport him from a hospital to a police station in Incheon, west of Seoul December 12, 2011. A South Korean coastguard was stabbed to death by the Chinese captain on Monday in an operation to apprehend the Chinese vessel operating illegally near South Korean waters, a South Korean official said. Two South Koreans were stabbed in the operation in the Yellow Sea off the west coast near the border with North Korea, the coastguard said.
(12-12) 02:41 PST SEOUL, South Korea (AP) --
A Chinese fishing captain fatally stabbed a South Korean coast guard officer and wounded another Monday after they stopped his boat for illegally fishing in crab-rich South Korean waters, officials said.
South Korea, which had asked China's ambassador just last week to try to rein in illegal Chinese fishing its waters, lodged a strong protest with the diplomat over the latest incident — the first deadly clash between the South Korean coast guard and Chinese fishermen in three years.
China's Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, urged Seoul to safeguard the rights of detained Chinese fishermen. However, an analyst said the incident was unlikely to significantly affect overall ties between the countries.
Officers from two coast guard ships boarded the fishing boat over suspicions it was illegally operating Yellow Sea waters rich blue crabs, anchovies and croaker, when the captain attacked with an unidentified weapon, coast guard spokesman Kim Dong-jin said.
A South Korean officer stabbed in the side was taken by helicopter to a hospital in the port city of Incheon but later died, Kim said. The other officer was stabbed in the abdomen and was to undergo surgery. The Chinese captain had minor injuries from the fight and was also taken to the hospital, Kim said.
The weapon was not identified. Besides the captain, eight other Chinese fishermen on the boat were arrested and taken to Incheon, the coast guard said in a statement.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said Monday in Beijing that the ministry was ready to work with South Korea on the case. He told a daily news conference that Chinese authorities had taken steps to better educate fishermen "to prohibit cross-border fishing and irregularities."
Liu called on Seoul to "fully protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese fishermen and provide them with due humanitarian treatment."
Last week, South Korean authorities raised fines levied on foreign fishing vessels caught operating in Seoul's self-declared exclusive economic zone, an apparent reflection of the government's impatience with a rising number of Chinese boats found fishing in the waters.
"Eradicating Chinese boats' illegal fishing in our waters is a most urgent task to safeguard our fishermen and fisheries resources," South Korea's Yonhap news agency said in a recent editorial. "The government should mobilize every possible means and continue the crackdown on illegal fishing."
Monday's fighting isn't likely to undermine overall ties, although Seoul is expected to pressure Beijing harder over illegal fishing, said Lee Chang-hyung of Seoul's government-affiliated Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.
The coast guard says it has seized about 470 Chinese ships for illegal fishing in the Yellow Sea so far this year, up from 370 last year. The coast guard usually releases the ships after a fine is paid, though violence occasionally occurs.
Chinese fishing fleets have been going farther afield to feed growing domestic demand for seafood.
With some 300,000 fishing vessels and 8 million fishermen, the Chinese fishing industry is by far the world's largest, producing an annual catch in excess 17 million tons. But catches have decreased in waters close to China's shores, forcing the fleet to venture farther.
In 2008, one South Korean coast guard officer was killed and six others injured in a fight with Chinese fishermen in South Korean waters. Last year, a collision between a Chinese fishing boat and Japanese coast guard vessels led to a diplomatic spat between the countries over disputed islands in the East China Sea.
Associated Press writer Peter Enav in Taipei, Taiwan, and Alexa Olesen in Beijing contributed to this report.
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Three members of a gang who kidnapped, robbed and murdered a resident from a high-end city community have received death sentences.
Ma Song, Gao Teng and Cai Xiang were sentenced to death, with Cai given a two-year reprieve, the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court said yesterday.
The fourth member of the gang, He Liang, was jailed for 20 years.
They were also told to pay more than 720,000 yuan (US$113,633) compensation to the victim's family.
At the trial, it emerged that the gang had earlier plotted to kidnap and hold for ransom an expat's child.
The court heard that Ma and He attacked Yu Jun on September 15 last year while he was taking an after-supper stroll at Biyun community in Pudong's Jinqiao area.
Ma told the court they pushed him to the ground, bound his hands and feet and put tape over his mouth.
They took 1,000 yuan from Yu and drove him in his own Audi to near Pudong International Airport, where they met up with the rest of the gang. Putting Yu in their vehicle, the gang headed toward Zhapu Town, a port on the northern shore of Hangzhou Bay in Zhejiang Province.
Ma said they decided to kill Yu as they could get no more money from him and feared he could identify him.
Yu was strangled with a towel and his body dumped in the Qiantang River in Hangzhou City.
The gang was apprehended after Yu's wife reported him missing.
Gao, a 30-year-old real estate agent, also confessed he persuaded Cai, Ma and He to help him kidnap the son of a South African client last year and ransom the child for US$2 million, in a bid to clear debts.
In preparation, Gao said they bought stun guns, tape, suitcases and other items and rented an apartment in which to hide the child. But two attempts at the kidnapping, in June and September 2010, failed and the gang abandoned that plan.
Chinese paramilitary police officers carry wreaths past the monument during a gathering to mourn for the victims in the 1937 Nanjing Massacre on its 74th anniversary, in Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu province, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. (AP Photo
Customers leave an ICBC branch, after the bank came in second place on a list of the 50 most valuable Chinese brands realeased in Beijing on December 13, 2011.
China's most famous director, Zhang Yimou arrives on the red carpet for the screening of his film 'The Flowers of War,' in Beijing on December 12, 2011. Oscar winning actor Christian Bale defended the upcoming Nanjing Massacre film 'The Flowers of War,' by China's most famous director, Zhang Yimou, as more than an anti-Japanese propaganda film. In the film, Bale plays an American drifter who becomes the unwitting protector of a group of Chinese schoolgirls and prostitutes trying to escape the Japanese army's brutal sacking of China's wartime capital.
Demonstrators hold portraits of Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of the Repubilc of China in Taiwan, during a sit-in protest for farmers' rights in downtown Taipei on December 12, 2011. Hundreds of Taiwanese farmers launched the protest, wanting the government to amend the law that allegedly allows their land to be easily turned over to developers.
A worker installs dragon-shaped lanterns for a latern festival at a park to celebrate the upcoming Christmas in Hefei, east China's Anhui province on December 12, 2011. Christmas cheer is in short supply across China's manufacturing heartland of Guangdong province, where many companies are reporting fewer orders for decorations, toys and electronics from crisis-hit Europe and the United States.
Chinese fishermen wearing masks are led by South Korean police officers to Incheon Coast Guard office after they arrest at a port in Incheon, South Korea, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. A South Korean coast guard officer was killed and another injured Monday when they were stabbed by a Chinese captain whose boat was stopped for suspected illegal fishing in South Korean waters, officials said.
A view of the Hongkou Stadium where Shanghai Shenhua Football Club play their home games in Shanghai on December 12, 2011. Shanghai Shenhua said that Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka will start a two-year contract with the club in January after the 'winter transfer window opens', Shenhua said in a statement.
A woman exercises with a spinning top called a 'diabolo' in the grounds of Shanghai Zoo on December 13, 2011. Shanghai Zoo is to introduce restrictions on the 10,000 people who every morning take part in keep fit exercises, sometimes to loud music, which they claim are upsetting the animals, state media reported.
Jin Jifen, 106, and her husband Yang Shengzhong, 109,have been recognized as the oldest living couple in the country by the Gerontological Society of China.
Living in a village in Southwest China's Guizhou province for more than 100 years, Yang used to be a carpenter and Jin a housewife. They have been married for almost 90 years and the family has five generations. "She has been nice to me my whole life and still cooks for me," said Yang.
China's reasearch vessel Dayang Yihao, or Ocean One, docks at the Olympic Sailing Center in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, Dec. 11, 2011, after a scientific expedition conducted in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The expedition, kicking off on Dec. 8, 2010, was the third and largest round-the-world ocean probe in the history of China's deep-sea exploration. [Xinhua]
A girl, who had stopped in the middle of a street, is run over by a car in Wenzhou, eastern China, in this combination of pictures made of still images taken from video released December 13, 2011. The five-year-old girl was taken to hospital but is said to have suffered only minor injuries. The sequence of images is from left to right, top to bottom.
A damaged school bus is parked after it veered into a water-filled ditch in Feng county in east China's Jiangsu province, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. The school bus taking primary students home slipped off a country road into an irrigation ditch, killing 15 children and highlighting continuing safety problems in the country's school transport system following a similar tragedy last month. (AP Photo)
Children lie in the back of an electric tricycle as their father picks them up outside a primary school in Shouxian town, Jiangsu province December 13, 2011. At least 15 children from the school were killed when their school bus crashed in China's eastern province of Jiangsu, state media said on Tuesday.
Villagers gather at the site of a school bus accident in Shouxian town, Jiangsu province December 13, 2011. At least 15 children were killed when the school bus crashed in China's eastern province of Jiangsu, state media said on Tuesday.
BEIJING, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- The second deadly school bus crash to occur in China in the past month has stoked public anger and revealed growing pains behind the country's rapidly expanding economy.
A Monday bus accident that claimed 15 young lives in east China's Jiangsu Province happened just one day after a draft of new school bus safety rules was published for public scrutiny.
The high-profile regulations, prompted by Premier Wen Jiabao, give school buses right-of-way priority and spell out strict safety rules that ban overloading and cap maximum speeds at 60 km per hour.
The regulations, however, do not specify how much the government will spend on the buses, which has become a touchy issue for schools and parents in underdeveloped rural areas.
As a result of China's rapid urbanization drive, many rural children have followed their parents to cities. This has led to the closure and merging of village schools and forced children who still live in rural areas to travel up to 10 km to faraway schools.
In a circular on school reform issued at the end of last year, educational authorities in central China's Henan Province said they would close down village schools with fewer than 30 first-graders.
Henan's city of Zhoukou alone plans to cut its primary schools from the current 3,789 to 1,582 by 2015, leaving just one primary school for every three villages in rural areas.
The authorities said the move was aimed at "improving the overall quality of schools" and "allocating resources in a more rational way."
The immediate consequences, however, include forcing children to get up at 6 a.m. every day for a long and bumpy ride to school.
Of all the school bus accidents reported in the last five years, 74 percent of the victims were rural students in underdeveloped central and western regions.
A survey by the Ministry of Education showed that China has 180 million primary and middle school students, but only 285,000 school buses -- and only 10 percent of the buses are up to the technical standards for school buses issued by the government last year.
Last year, however, a legislator's proposal to the National People's Congress for safer school buses was rejected.
Zhou Hongyu, a deputy to the top legislature, proposed at the annual parliamentary session that school buses should be subsidized by the government and enjoy privileges on the road.
The Ministry of Education said Zhou's proposal would cost 450 billion yuan, including 300 billion yuan for procurement and 150 billion yuan in annual maintenance costs. It said the amount would be equal to one-third of China's annual spending on education and would be "far too large."
In most parts of rural China, it is also out of the question for schools to finance transportation, as many of them struggle with meager budges and have difficulties making ends meet.
Researcher Li Lan with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said the government should play a vital role in ensuring school bus safety.
"The government should coordinate with relevant departments, such as traffic and education authorities, to make school buses safe and affordable for children," Li said.
Professor Yuan Guilin from Beijing Normal University said the government should actively work to raise funds from other sources and create policy support to ensure the smooth and safe operation of school buses.
For months, the 20,000 villagers who live in Wukan, near Shanwei city in Guangdong province, have protested first at having nearly £100 million of their land seized and sold off by the local government, and then at the brutal tactics used by police to regain control of the village.
The latest protests began on Sunday, when police attempting to arrest a villager were repelled by villagers armed with sticks. The police fired tear gas before retreating.
At the same time, the local government brought the village's simmering anger to a boil by admitting that Xue Jinbo, a 43-year-old butcher who had represented the villagers in their negotiations with the government, had died in police custody of "cardiac failure".
Mr Xue was taken into custody last week and accused of inciting riots. Mr Xue was widely believed to have been tortured, perhaps to death, and his family were rumoured to have found several of his bones broken when receiving his corpse.
On Monday, around 6,000 people attended Mr Xue's funeral and photographs of the massed crowds paying their respects circulated on the internet. "We're very pained and angry at his death," said one villager who declined to be named. "He didn't commit any crime. He was just a negotiator speaking with the government, trying to get our land back. He was defending farmers' rights."
Meanwhile, more photographs showed thousands of Chinese police massing on the roads surrounding Wukan and villagers said that a blockade had been imposed. Villagers using the internet inside the cordon claimed that supplies of food, including rice were running low. "A lot of policemen are assembled outside the village," wrote one villager on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, who named himself as Charles Suen.
"The villagers are having a meeting and are preparing to break out this afternoon to petition the government again," he added.
"People cannot come in and we can't go out. We will not survive if the situation keeps going, as we have no food," said another villager to Agence France Press by phone. "We normally have to buy food from outside, but we are blocked, so we cannot buy it," he added.Last week, officials in the village were taken hostage for a few hours by angry villagers and the police set up roadblocks at the village entrance in response.
The clashes in Wukan began in September, when a government office was damaged by an angry mob. Around 400 police responded with brute force, beating some residents and allegedly killing one child.
In November, 4,000 villagers complained again, publicly, that no one had investigated the land grab at the heart of their unrest. The non-violent protests were allowed to unfold without an official response, a move that was praised at the time by observers. But the matter remained unresolved.
Zhou Yongkang, China's security chief, has warned that as the country's economy begins to slow down, protests are likely to flare up and officials should deal with complaints promptly to "remove" sources of potential conflict.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police have arrested a man who hired two strippers to perform at his son's wedding after the performance was mobbed by villagers, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Zhang Cheng, from Xuzhou in eastern Jiangsu province, had originally wanted a band to play at the nuptials, but was then advised he could get performers whose show would have "special features," the Global Times said.
"After watching the show, Zhang decided it would be appropriate for his son's wedding and requested two strippers for the event," it added. "...Barely five minutes had passed before hundreds of villagers in the conservative community were swarming to the venue, trying to catch a glimpse."
Zhang was arrested the next day, the newspaper reported, though it did not say on what charge.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ken Wills)
Photos taken on Dec. 13, 2011 shows the Jiashao Cross-Sea Bridge under construction in Haining, east China's Zhejiang Province. The Jiashao Cross-Sea Bridge, the second cross-sea bridge in the Hangzhou Bay, is expected to be completed and open to traffic at the end of 2012. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)
