China :: Shanghai

MORE than 200 international ships or vessels canceled scheduled departures from Shanghai's main ports yesterday due to fog. Meanwhile, five international flights were canceled and more than 80 flights, both domestic and international, were delayed at Pudong International Airport early yesterday. Most flights resumed by noon as the sky cleared, according to airport authorities.

A NEW autism research center has opened in the city in an initiative to improve treatment for children with the condition. The center, established by the Children's Hospital of Fudan University and US autism science and advocacy organization Autism Speaks, plans to conduct research in diagnosing and developing early treatment of the condition. The city will also set up a three-stage network in community and hospitals for early screening of autism when children go for a physical check. And it will provide people with autism receive personalized training near their homes. According to a survey by the World Health Organization, there are at least one million known cases of autistic children in China. The number of known cases in Shanghai is around 8,000. Dr Wang Yi, vice president of the hospital, said the figures for China are almost certainly underestimates. In Western countries, one in 100 children is diagnosed with autism. Wang said China has no database of people with autism and...

JIADING District police said yesterday they had detained a hit-and-run fugitive from Xinjiang Autonomous Region who had evaded capture for seven years. The man surnamed Wu was responsible for a serious traffic accident at 7pm on April 12, 2004, when his truck collided with a minibus, hitting a bicycle and motorcycle in the district's Baojia Highway and killing three people while injuring four more, police said. Wu fled the scene and remained at large until he was recently spotted in Xinjiang. Police said Wu had started a new career as a labor contractor in the region. He was caught at 2:30am October 25.

Sections of the G15 and G60 highways linking Shanghai with neighboring Zhejiang Province were closed this morning as heavy fog blanketed the city. Five outbound flights from Pudong International Airport and Hongqiao International Airport have been canceled and another five were delayed due to the foggy weather. Weather forecasters said heavy rain over the past several days and rising temperatures had triggered the foggy weather. Today's highest temperature is expected to reach 25 degrees Celsius with intermittent light rain. The rainfall will end during the weekend, as a cold front is due to push through the city.

TWO window cleaners working 22 floors up a high-rise plunged to their deaths yesterday, after a safety rope appeared to snap. The accident happened in heavy rain around 1:40pm at the Pacific Center at the crossing of Yan'an and Jiangsu roads in downtown Changing District. Afterward, a rope that had secured the window cleaners could be seen, apparently snapped, hanging from the exterior of the building. Witnesses say they heard loud crashes and when they looked round they saw the two men lying on the ground. "I heard a bang as I was preparing to go out," said a resident living next to the office complex. The workers fell from the 22nd floor while cleaning the exterior glass, police said. A car parked beneath the office building was damaged in the fall. The men were pronounced dead at the scene, their safety helmets, gloves and buckets scattered around their bodies. The bodies were not removed until around 4pm, as the police took photographs of the scene. Four workers had b...

Two window cleaners fell to their death from the 22nd floor of a downtown high-rise this afternoon when as a rope attached to their bodies suddenly snapped as they were cleaning the building's facade. Witnesses said the accident happened around 1:40pm at a building at 889 Yan'an Road. They heard a bang and saw two workers lying on the ground. The workers first landed on a white car, then bounced off, leaving a depression on the car, witnesses said. The building's management company said they hired the two workers to clean the outer walls. There were four cleaners working on the building when the tragedy occurred.

LING Huakun, a man who accidentally hit and killed a robbery suspect while chasing him on the street early this year in Guangdong Province, came to Shanghai yesterday to appear on a television show but disappeared, according to Shanghai television staff. Luo Xin, host and news commentator on Gragon TV, posted a notice on Weibo.com yesterday afternoon asking for help to find him. Ling, who was rewarded for his actions, left for Shanghai on Monday and was supposed to record a show for the channel this week. "We were still in contact when he boarded the train," Luo said yesterday. But the show lost contact with Ling after he arrived in Shanghai, and his family in Guangdong have no idea where he is, Luo said. "For his safety, please let us know if anyone knows his whereabouts," the TV host posted on the Internet. Ling became known in a controversial case in May in Guangdong when he chased a robbery suspect and killed him, but he later ran into debt because he injured an...