China :: Shanghai

A man in Minhang District has been arrested after he confessed to killing his distant relative with an axe over a job, prosecutors said today. The 58-year-old suspect, Xu Zhengjiu, came to Shanghai from Anhui Province last October and worked as a cleaner and gate guard with Zhang Quan, a distant relative of his in Pujiang Town. Since Xu and Zhang were doing the same kind of job, the two often quarreled. Police said they had a fall-out at their company on August 9 and Xu was injured. His oldest son tried to persuade him to quit the job but Xu didn't listen and maintained that Zhang should quit. On August 12, Xu finally snapped after his son said he was "stupider than pig." Enraged by the taunt, Xu turned all his hatred on Zhang. He went to the company at about 2am the next day, armed with an axe, while Zhang was sleeping in the guard room. Xu climbed over the wall, entered the room and struck heavy blows to Zhang's head until he was sure that Zhang was dead. After th...

A schoolgirl jumped to her death from a residential high-rise building in Pudong New Area early this morning, one day before the new school year starts. The student, 15, jumped from the top of an 18-story apartment building on Zhangyang Road about 7:50am today. The girl, whose name has not been released yet, was a Grade 9 student at Jincai North Middle School. Students of the school were required to fetch their new textbooks today. She was wearing a school uniform when she jumped and left her schoolbag and cell phone on top of the building, security guards said. An ambulance rushed to the scene immediately but found her dead on arrival. The girl was a resident of a neighboring community and went into the building alone according to the surveillance camera record. Her death was still under investigation, police said.

THE first sex education textbook for pupils in grades one and two will be introduced to local classrooms this semester. Compared with the Beijing sex education textbook that has sparked controversy, the Shanghai version is more implicit as it has replaced illustrations depicting intercourse with cartoon pictures of tadpoles. However, many parents still worried that it's too early to teach sex information to children under the age of 10 and complained that the book is too revealing. In one chapter called "Where do I come from?" it introduces names of private parts and explains fertilization with colorful illustrations. "Kindergarten children have a vague idea about gender difference," said Xu Dianfang, an official with the Shanghai Education Commission. "Local primary schools are required to launch gender education among grade one and grade two students." But the commission didn't specify any one textbook or detail the content that should be taug...

A visitor snaps a picture of a unique concept dress at Shanghai's Xintiandi yesterday. A creative exhibition displaying artworks of domestic designers attracted scores of visitors and acted as a curtain raiser for Shanghai shopping and tourism festivals.

CHINA'S civil aviation regulator has revoked the license of the Korean pilot of Juneyao Airlines who refused to give way to a Qatar Airways plane that was running out of fuel as both planes waited to land at Shanghai's Hongqiao International Airport. The Korean pilot is banned from flying an airplane as a crewmember in China for life. The license of the co-pilot will be suspended for six months, according to the penalty handed down by the East China Regional Administration under the Civil Aviation Administration of China, Xinhua news agency reported today. The CAAC said the crew of Juneyao flight HO1112 seriously violated regulations and ethics codes. Juneyao Airlines' request to expand its business, set up branch offices and rent or purchase aircraft temporarily will be denied by the administration. It will cut its capacity by 10 percent for three months. The pilot of Qatari flight QR888 sent a Mayday signal and asked to land first as its fuel would soon be used up on Augu...

TODDLER Gao Tiantian hid herself behind the stuffed toy she had held onto throughout her surgery as she lay in her hospital bed, moaning from the pain of a deep knife wound to her right cheek. "It's her. Ms Lu," she said. "She came with a sharp thing in her hands, and she cut me in the face." The four-year-old was one of eight toddlers, all aged four or five, who were injured when a female worker at a privately owned daycare center in suburban Shanghai attacked them with a craft knife at lunchtime yesterday. The 39-year-old woman, whose name has not been released by police, was said to have aimed at the necks of the toddlers when she attacked them. All the toddlers were cut on the face or neck. The motive for the attacks was unclear. A four-year-old boy surnamed You was still in a coma in the intensive care unit after he suffered an 8-centimeter-deep cut to his neck, causing heavy bleeding, said doctors at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University. ...

SHANGHAI is installing a 20-kilometer sea floor observation system in the East China Sea to sound early earthquake warnings. The system would also be able to detect typhoons, tsunamis and monitor the marine environment and biological safety, local scientists told a seminar for academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering in the city. The installation will take two years and when completed will send out earthquake warnings 60 seconds in advance. A 1.1-kilometer pilot network, which has started operation, is already sending information back to a laboratory every five seconds. Local scientists said the nation is planning a 400-kilometer long-term sea floor observatory network with a total investment of 1.38 billion yuan starting this year. "The deep sea part of the national network will be located at the South China Sea, while the city's network will be included into its offshore part," said Jian Zhimin from Tongji University. Also at the seminar, scientists announced that...