A former lawmaker in central Hunan Province was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday for gang-related crimes, according to a court verdict.

Li Xiangming, 38, former deputy to the Hunan Provincial People\’s Congress, was also deprived of his political rights for two years and fined 1.52 million yuan (233,846 U.S. dollars), the Yuhu District People\’s Court in Xiangtan City, Hunan, announced in the verdict.

Li, also board chairman and general manager of Hunan Zhongyi Group, a real estate developer, stood accused of organizing and masterminding a series of crimes since 2008 that included rape, assault, racketeering, illegal imprisonment and gun smuggling.

Twenty-six other defendants who were involved in the crimes under Li\’s direction were sentenced from 14 months to 14.5 years and were fined a total of 1.277 million yuan.

Li\’s company, Hunan Zhongyi Group, was also fined 1 million yuan for loan fraud, according to the verdict.

[i]Source: Xinhua[/i]

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[img]http://www.people.com.cnhttp://english.peopledaily.com.cn/mediafile/pic/20110708/28/12849002866840414900.jpg[/img]

Frontier denfense policemen remove green algae on the beach in Qingdao City, east China\’s Shandong Province, July 8, 2011. Green algae continues to spread in waters off China\’s east coastline. Although the green algae is not poisonous, it can hinder fisheries industry and tourism in affected areas. (Xinhua/Ma Hongwei)

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[img]http://www.people.com.cnhttp://english.peopledaily.com.cn/mediafile/pic/20110708/59/7885668157610582691.jpg[/img]

Fire trucks and ambulances wait at the fire-burned Fangbei Coal Mine in Zaozhuang of east China\’s Shandong Province, July 8, 2011. A total of 91 people were trapped after an air compression device located in a parking lot 255 meters underground caught fire Wednesday. Sixty-three miners have been rescued as of Thursday. The fire has been put out an the temperature in the mine was gradually decreasing. (Xinhua/Fan Changguo)

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Five people died and two others were injured Tuesday morning in an electrocution accident in north China\’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, local safety authorities said.

The accident happened at about 9:10 a.m. in a construction company in Urad Middle Banner of Bayannur City, sources with the Inner Mongolia Administration of Work Safety Supervision said.

The injured have been sent to a local hospital for treatment.

[i]Source: Xinhua[/i]

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[img]http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/mediafile/201107/06/P201107061605482450916678.jpg[/img]

Yangzom (R) walks on her way to a health center for training doctors there in Nyimajangra Village of Maizhokunggar County, southwest China\’s Tibet Autonomous Region, June 24, 2011. (Xinhua/Li Ying)
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A 13-year-old boy was killed and 30 others injured, three seriously, on Tuesday morning when a \”crowded\” ascending subway escalator suddenly reversed direction, a spokeswoman for the subway operator said.

[img]http://www.people.com.cnhttp://english.peopledaily.com.cn/mediafile/pic/20110706/37/8187685940010101689.jpg[/img]

Song Cuiling, who received head injuries, is treated at Peking University People\’s Hospital. (China Daily Photo)

The accident occurred at 9:36 am on an OTIS escalator at Beijing Zoo Station Exit A on Line 4, Yang Ling, from the line\’s operator, Beijing MTR Corporation, said at a news conference.

The line opened in 2009.

Pictures posted online by witnesses show discarded shoes, bags, and flattened bottles scattered at the bottom of the escalator. Several people, lying or sitting on the bloodstained floor, are being helped and comforted by members of the public.

Fu Jinyuan, one of the injured, recalled the moment when the escalator malfunctioned while receiving treatment at Peking University People\’s Hospital.

\”First there was a crashing sound, then the rising escalator started going down. Then wave after wave of people began falling. I thought I was finished.\”

Song Cuiling, 39, had several stitches inserted on her head and leg at the hospital\’s ICU.

\”I heard people screaming,\” she said. \”Then I found myself bent under people, with my head touching my ankle.\”

Chen Bulian, in her late 50s, sustained neck and hand injuries.

\”People were screaming \’help\’ when the escalator begun to reverse. It was going down very, very fast,\” she said. \”I could barely realize what was happening before I was crushed.\”

Survivors said those in the middle section of the escalator, immediately prior to the accident, suffered the worst injuries.

The injured said a medical team did not arrive until 20 minutes after the accident.

[img]http://www.people.com.cnhttp://english.peopledaily.com.cn/mediafile/pic/20110706/91/7847008805249128351.jpg[/img]

Several injured people are comforted by passers-by after an escalator accident on Tuesday morning at Beijing Zoo Station on Line 4. The ascending escalator suddenly changed direction, causing a crush that killed a boy and injured 30. (China Daily Photo)

The exit had two escalators, ascending and descending, and was cordoned off after the accident.

The subway operator said it immediately stopped operation of all 10 OTIS escalators on Line 4.

\”OTIS technicians check the escalators every 15 days\”, Yang said, adding that they were last checked on June 22.

A Beijing MTR Corporation engineer, who attended the news conference, refused to say if subway escalators were subjected to higher quality standards than other escalators.

From Sept 28, 2009, when Line 4 opened, to May 2011, the line carried 400 million passengers, the operator said.

Telephone calls to OTIS went unanswered on Tuesday afternoon and the Beijing Special Equipment Inspection and Testing Center, which oversees escalator quality standards, declined China Daily\’s interview request.

This was not the first escalator accident in China.

On March 25, 61 children were injured when an escalator at Wuxi Zoo, in Jiangsu province, suddenly stopped.

On Dec 14, 2010, 24 passengers were injured when an escalator also reversed direction in a Shenzhen subway station in Guangdong province.

\”You don\’t have to walk, people will push you forward\” as the subways are so crowded, Yang Jingtao, a Beijing taxi driver, said.

\”And there are no broadcasts to remind you to hold the rails tightly like in Hong Kong.\”

[i] Wang Jingqiong contributed to this story.[/i]

[i]Source: China Daily[/i]

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A Taiwanese-funded battery plant in east China\’s Jiangsu Province is being probed after its employees were found to have excessive levels of lead in their blood.

More than 70 employees, or one-third of the total number of people employed by the Changzhou Ri Cun Battery Technology Co., Ltd., have been found to have extremely high levels of lead in their blood, according to sources close to the employees.

Medical tests showed that the employees typically had lead levels between 280 and 480 micrograms per liter of blood. \”Normal\” levels are below 100 micrograms of lead per liter of blood, according to national diagnostic standards.

Excessive amounts of lead in the blood harm the nervous and reproductive systems and can cause high blood pressure and anemia. In severe cases, it can lead to convulsions, comas and death.

The poisoning cases were exposed after a pregnant female employee named Zhang Xiaoyu fainted during her shift near the end of last month. She went to a local hospital, where she was found to have nearly double the normal amount of lead in her blood.

\”The doctor told me I was poisoned by lead, and that my baby must be aborted,\” Zhang said.

Another employee, Meng Chunbao, believes that the factory\’s managers may have known about the problem but were trying to cover it up.

Meng said that after finding out that his own blood contained a high level of lead, he went to a deputy general manager to discuss the issue. During the meeting, the manager gave him 1,000 yuan (about 154 U.S. dollars) and asked him to keep the issue under wraps.

Meng went on to tell his colleagues about his blood test results, which ultimately lead to the exposure of the widespread poisoning. Company employees have said that although the company arranges for the employees to take medical tests every year, their medical reports are never given to them.

A joint investigation led by the management board of the Xinbei Industrial Park, where the plant is located, has been started.

The management board has sealed up the company\’s raw materials and semi-finished products and ordered the company to suspend production for the time being.

It has also told the company to arrange for medical tests for the employees and to compensate those who are found to have excessive levels of blood lead.

Lead poisoning is endemic in economically booming regions in east China.

Authorities in east China\’s Zhejiang Province have ordered thorough safety checks for all of the province\’s 273 battery factories after 332 people, including 99 children, living near a battery plant were found to have excessive levels of lead in their blood in March of this year.

[i]Source: Xinhua [/i]

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Rescuers are racing to dig through a sludge-flooded tunnel to reach 19 miners who are trapped in a collapsed coal mine in south China for the fourth day, sources with the rescue command center said Tuesday.

By 9:00 a.m., rescuers reached half way of the 25-meter tunnel that is studded with sludge of mud and coal, said Su Fuchao, general manager of the coal mine company.

The tunnel is thought to be closest to six miners who have the highest chance of survival, Su said.

The six miners were initially estimated as being trapped 320 meters deep.

Rescuers cleared 12.5 meters of the tunnel after one day\’s effort.

Su said the rescue work faces with great difficulties as the density of toxic gas inside the shaft is not stable.

Rescue efforts were suspended due to high levels of toxic gas Monday morning, but were resumed later that day.

Also, the tunnel\’s sludge slowed the rescue operation.

\”We are trying to clear off a giant rock now, but we can only progress a few centimeters per hour,\” Su said.

The collapse occurred midday Saturday in the suburbs of Heshan City in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Forty-nine of 71 miners managed to escape when the coal mine collapsed, and rescuers have retrieved three bodies of the dead miners.

Initial investigations indicate that the collapse was caused by continuous heavy rains.

[i]Source: Xinhua[/i]

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More than 9,000 convicts or criminal suspects on the run have turned themselves in to police since China launched an online campaign to hunt down escapees one month ago, the Ministry of Public Security said Tuesday.

The total number of wanted criminals and suspects has dropped 9 percent thanks to the campaign, the ministry said in a statement.

Police authorities across the country should continue to hunt down the fugitives through stricter investigations and closer cooperation between police authorities of different regions and levels, said Liu Jinguo, deputy head of the ministry, in the statement.

Liu urged greater efforts to persuade the fugitives to give themselves up to police.

In some regions, police issued public notices calling for the fugitives to surrender as well as wrote to or visited their family members and encouraged them to cooperate with the authorities, according to the statement.

Further, Liu said more attention should be paid to mobilizing the public, through rewards, to provide information on the whereabouts of fugitives.

[i]Source: Xinhua[/i]

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[img]http://www.people.com.cnhttp://english.peopledaily.com.cn/mediafile/pic/20110706/57/5128833217822896101.jpg[/img]

Zhang Zhonghua consoles his wife at Zhejiang Children\’s Hospital on Tuesday. (Source: China Daily)

The parents of a girl who fell from a 10th-floor apartment into the arms of a passer-by told China Daily on Tuesday they have been unable to return home since the accident.

By day, Zhang Zhonghua and his wife keep a vigil outside the ward where their 2-year-old daughter, Zhang Fangyu, has been lying in a coma since Saturday. At night, they sleep in a nearby hotel as family members take up their posts.

The couple has even recorded words of encouragement and a children\’s song onto a tape to be played to her when they are not there.

\”When she came out of surgery, we shouted her name and we saw tears running down her face,\” recalled Zhang outside the intensive care unit at Zhejiang Children\’s Hospital. \”The doctors told us her pulse became faster too. She must have heard us. So we tried the recorder and hope it will help.\”

Flipping a switch, a voice came through a small speaker. \”Come on, Niu Niu (the child\’s nickname). Be brave,\” it said.

\”The doctors say my daughter\’s condition is more stable (than on Monday), but she still can\’t breathe on her own,\” said Zhang. \”In addition to her brain injury, she has a perforated stomach, which makes her case more complicated,\” he added.

Although Zhang has spent much of the last few days standing at the entrance of the ICU, anxiously waiting for doctors with news, his wife sits with her back toward the entrance.

She was too upset to talk on Tuesday and burst into tears as soon as anyone asked about her daughter.

\”I\’m in a much better mood today,\” said Zhang Zhonghua, trying to smile. \”After all, my daughter has survived for one more day.\”

After finishing a quick lunch on Tuesday, the couple stood face to face and held each other\’s hands. With their foreheads pressed together, Zhang whispered encouraging words to his wife.

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[i]Source: China Daily[/i]

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[table]
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[td]Weekly review[/td]
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[td] [/td]
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