Govt apologizes for cremating victims

Local authorities in Yunnan province have apologized to the families of 46 landslide victims after cremating the bodies without their approval, a rescue official said on Monday. The local civil affairs authorities cremated the bodies of the victims due to fears that they might spread disease if left in the open for a long time, said a spokesman with the rescue and disaster relief headquarters in Zhenxiong county. The unauthorized cremation triggered protests from about 40 family members of landslide victims, which lasted from Sunday night to Monday morning.

Gansu

Official suspended over mine accident

A government official in Gansu province has been suspended after a coal mine accident that killed four people and wounded five on Jan 3, Lanzhou Morning Post reported on Monday. The deputy director of the Administration of Work Safety in Sunan county and two safety supervisors at Jinyuan Coal Mine were responsible for supervising the coal company, the report said. Four other people, including the head of the coal mine, suspected of concealing facts from the authorities, are in police custody.

Liaoning

Foreigner caught scratching cars

A foreigner in Dalian, Liaoning province, is suspected of scratching about 10 vehicles parked on a road on Sunday, Northeast News reported. A restaurant owner found the man scratching his car parked on the sidewalk. He stopped the man and called the police. The English-speaking foreigner first pretended he didn't speak Chinese. Later, he argued that the cars blocked the sidewalk and created blind spots on the road. The case is still under investigation.

Jiangsu

Nanjing reduces deputy mayors

Nanjing has reduced the number of deputy mayors from 12 to eight to improve the efficiency of the local government's work. The newly elected deputy mayors are mainly in their 50s, and among them, four have doctorates. Each of the former 12 mayors was in charge of seven to eight fields, according to the government.

Beijing

Police handled 115,000 offenses

Beijing police have confiscated nearly 4,000 illegal vehicles in the past month. A statement from the municipal public security bureau also said that in the past month, officers handled 115,000 traffic offenses. Police said they focused on 240 important streets in the capital, such as areas around Beijing Zoo in Xicheng district and busy areas close to Muxiyuan in Dongcheng district.

Ministry rejects radiation claims

An online post claiming that China's high-speed trains emit heavy radiation and cause many attendants to resign due to health hazards was pure fabrication, the Ministry of Railways said on its micro blog on Monday. The electromagnetic field on a high-speed train meets national requirements and has no harmful effect on attendants' health. All compartments and the driver's cab are under year-round monitoring, the micro blog entry said, citing an official in charge of the matter at the ministry.

Nation promotes Beidou system

Major transportation vehicles in parts of China are now required to use the Chinese-developed Beidou Navigation Satellite System, according to the country's transport authorities on Monday. All tour coaches, long-distance scheduled buses and vehicles for transporting dangerous articles should install the service when they renew mobile navigation terminals, according to a Ministry of Transport conference. The instruction covers the provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Hebei, Shaanxi, Shandong, Hunan and Guizhou, as well as the Ningxia Hui autonomous region and Tianjin municipality.

Guangdong

City offers free legal services

A social welfare program aimed at providing free legal services in residential communities and companies has been launched in Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong province. Under the program, each lawyer at the ETR Law Firm, which has about 300 lawyers, will be granted 40 hours a year to take part in the volunteer service. "The legal service is aimed at helping companies and individuals boost their sense of social responsibility," said Xiao Feng, a lawyer with the company.

Customs swoop on smugglers

Customs officers in Guangdong province cracked 9,741 shuike smuggling cases involving 1.34 billion yuan ($215 million) last year. The term shuike refers to people who visit Hong Kong and Macao at least once a day to smuggle electronic products, food, milk powder, medicines or other products from the two special administrative regions into the Chinese mainland to take advantage of price gaps. With online purchases booming on the mainland in recent years, more people have taken to such smuggling. They can easily earn 5,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan a month by selling the smuggled goods online to mainland consumers.

Tianjin

Festival to see surge on the road

A sharp increase in people taking trips by automobile in Tianjin is expected to occur during Spring Festival thanks to toll-free highways and drivers being more comfortable with the new traffic rules. Industry insiders told the website enorth.com that an increase in driving trips is possible because drivers have become accustomed to the recently introduced traffic rules and passenger cars can enjoy toll-free highways over the holiday.

Henan

Kindergarten arranges 'wedding'

More than 100 preschoolers got "married" in a "group wedding" at a kindergarten in Zhengzhou, Henan province, on Friday, which was held as part of the kindergarten's development education, according to Zhengzhou Evening News. The "group wedding" was organized by the kindergarten, which invited parents to witness the ceremony.

Shanghai

Families face worker shortage

Urban families are facing a shortage of domestic helpers over the upcoming Spring Festival, as household service providers, mostly migrant workers, return home to visit family over the Lunar New Year Holiday. Domestic service agencies in Shanghai have received extra requests to hire domestic helpers or nannies during Spring Festival, which starts on Feb 10.

China Daily-Xinhua