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Chinese police have arrested a suspect who, among a group of 18 armed poachers, allegedly shot dead an official trying to protect near-extinct Tibetan antelopes in a remote northwestern grassland plateau 17 years ago, police said Tuesday. Tibetan antelope.[File photo] The suspect, surnamed Mu, was arrested in the city of Golmud, Qinghai province, on Sunday night after six others surrendered themselves to police for the 1994 murder of Sonam Dargye. Sonam Dargye was the deputy head of the Zhidoi county government responsible for organizing anti-poaching efforts. He was killed during one of his frequent patrols of the sparsely-populated Hoh Xil grassland on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau when he confronted 18 poachers in January 1994. Sonam Dargye killed one of the two lead poachers in the exchange of fire. The other was executed by the court. Police are still searching for the last four members of the group, officials said. The story of Sonam Dargye became widely known following the release ...

A total of 2,349 officials with the Communist Party of China (CPC) were found to have illegally possessed or traded affordable houses this year, according to Party and government authorities. The violations by these officials involved 6,398 sets of houses that were built for low-income groups, said a statement jointly released yesterday by the Ministry of Supervision and the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The statement didn't reveal how these officials have been punished. Meanwhile, some 44,150 Party officials voluntarily handed in 386 million yuan (US$61 million) in goods and money that were sent to them in bribery attempts, said the statement. To gear the property market toward healthy development, China has begun the construction of affordable housing units, aiming to build 36 million subsidized housing units by 2015. Province Sichuan, China, Nov 2005

"The Nutcracker" is one of the most popular compositions in the ballet repertoire. Tchaikovsky's music belongs to the Romantic Period and contains some of most memorable melodies, several of which are frequently used in television and film. Recently, a Chinese version "Nutcracker" was performed at the Harbin International Conference & Culture Center. Different from the original "Nutcracker," the Chinese version tells a story that happens in a Hutong, an old-town area with narrow streets most commonly associated with Beijing. When a westerner gives a nutcracker as a gift to a child on Chinese New Year's Eve, it triggers a fantastic fairy tale. Feng Ying, head of the National Ballet of China, said, "The Chinese version 'Nutcracker' describes how Chinese people celebrate our new year and tells the life of Chinese." While people in north China are enjoying ballet, residents of Shenzhen, in the southern part of China, we...

Tens of thousands of Chinese flocked to the Hunan village of Shaoshan and to Beijing's Tian'anmen Square, two major shrines for Mao Zedong , as well as other public venues yesterday, burning incense, eating noodles and singing "red songs" to mark the late leader's 118th birthday. Thousands honor Mao Zedong on birthday on December 26.[File photo] Normally, the mausoleum of Mao on Tian'anmen Square in Beijing is closed on Mondays for maintenance, but yesterday it was open to tens of thousands who swarmed to the mausoleum to pay their respects. In front of the mausoleum's south gate, about 20 people, who wore red-star caps and pinned Mao badges, faced the shrine and sang "The East Is Red," which extols the deeds of Chairman Mao and was a well-known anthem for every city and village's public address system during Mao's reign for nearly 30 years. After bowing three times, the group punched their fists in the air while hailing "Long Live C...

Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region reported double-digit gross domestic product growth for the 19th consecutive year in 2011, the regional government chairman said Monday. Tibet's GDP is estimated to expand by 12.6 percent year-on-year to 60.5 billion yuan (US$9.6 billion) this year, Padma Choling told the annual regional economic work conference. The per capita disposal income for urban population rose at an estimated annual pace of 7.8 percent. Meanwhile, the per capita net earning for farmers and herdsmen climbed 13.6 percent year-on-year, the ninth year for double-digit growth, said Padma Choling. Local authorities continued to build roads and bring water, electricity, gas, telecommunications, radio and television, and postal service to remote regions this year, he said. The local government helped 223,000 farmers and herdsmen gain access to clean drinking water and 89,000 get access to electricity, the top regional official said.

As Christmas, solar and lunar new years come and go, one after another, China's young people are racking their brains to select and buy appropriate gifts for their friends, relatives and other important people. Shoppers throng the New World Department Store on Beijing's Chongwenmenwai Street at 2 am on Dec 25, trying to claim one of the 100 iPad 2 gifts the store offers to customers buying a product worth more than 8,888 yuan (US$1,410) during the day's Christmas sales promotion. [Tian Baoxi / for China Daily ] Zhao Xiaojuan, 30, would have slept through Christmas Eve, if she had a choice. However, she had to socialize with her clients, inviting them to watch the Chinese pop duo Yu Quan's concert. Since the last three days, she had been taking business partners to a spa and buying them top cosmetics brands. "I was supposed to relax on holidays, but this feels more stressful than working at the office," said Zhao, a manager at a private investment company...

December 26 marks the 3rd anniversary of escort missions by the Chinese navy along the Gulf of Aden and Somalia seas. On Sunday, the tenth escort team has carried out anti-pirate exercises, while on their 404th mission. . These 8 cargo ships from countries including China, Malaysia and Liberia, set sail from the the Gulf of Adens western seas. They are escorted by the Chinese Navy. December 26 marks the 3rd anniversary of escort missions by the Chinese navy along the Gulf of Aden and Somalia seas. Li Shihong, commander of 10th Convoy, Chinese Navy, said, "Only 4 cargo ships were escorted on the first mission, and now on average its more than 10 ships. We have been widely praised by the international community, and have won the trust of foreign ships, through being safe and efficient." During the mission, the tenth escort team carried out anti-pirate drills. To step up the challenge, the command headquarters assumed the role of a hijacked ship named "Haiko...

On the north end of Bahe East Road, there is a cluster of villas standing in the middle of weeds and trees, looking just like those little castles from fairy tales. Surprisingly they are all empty. Netizen " wrote on Huashang Forum and posted some photos, I heard that they have been abandoned for years. What a pity, not only that they are occupying this large area of land for no purpose, also that they are fine houses left unused. Isnt it a waste of resource? Who build them? Is anybody responsible for this? Why they are left unmanaged? (From sohu )Reporter then tracked down this villa cluster according to the description of the post, and spotted it near the intersection of Ba River(), Wei River() and Jing River(). Amongst overgrowing weeds scatters over 10 western style villa buildings with 2 floors. The half-finished buildings are basically just frameworks, whose walls are damaged here and there along the years. Walking inside the area, you would find that the weeds in som...

Unlike many other mayors in the country whose salaries are carefully concealed from the public, the pay of Lu Guoxian, mayor of Jiaozuo, a city in Central China's Henan province , is published online. Along with the salaries of government employees, the website of the Jiaozuo finance bureau also regularly publishes information such as the city's annual budget, the progress of government projects, notices of upcoming hearings and the cell phone numbers of finance officers. A city with a medium-sized economy in Henan, Jiaozuo tops a nationwide government financial transparency ranking with 78 points, according to a study by the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in 2010. In a country where the disclosure of government information is still not a common practice, Jiaozuo's efforts to disclose its accounts are remarkable, and, to some extent, astonishing. It's important to take a close look at the reform that a small city has taken on, especially at a moment when a...

A set of new corruption patterns in China, including transnational graft and investment-like kickbacks, were disclosed in a blue book published Friday by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Xinhua reported. The flow and integration of resources, capital, cultures and information around the globe has cultivated cross-border corruption, while cash is no longer the preferred form of bribery, which has instead become long-term benefits such as favorable business contracts, access to resource and investments. More and more cases of corruption in China are involving groups rather than individuals, and acts of corruption are being done through implicit means, the report said. It also noted that the fields of corruption have expanded from the business, political and judicial areas to social, cultural and educational sectors. Taken at the livestock market in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China. -- Woods

Three years ago, several primary schools were chosen to run Peking Opera classes as part of the curriculum. The experiment has since proved that this profound ancient art resonates with many of the young. So let's step into one of these schools in Nanjing, to find out why the pupils there have fallen in love with the performance art. Students from Chengxianjie Primary School are taking part in this grand Peking Opera Cultural Festival. Dressed up as sheng, dan, jing and chou, the children put on a shining show with the Peking Opera repertoire. And grade 5 student, Ma Mingjun, is just one of the stars. Ma Mingjun, student, said, "I felt great to understand the rhythm of Peking Opera. My love for it bursts out from deep in my heart. It's a kind of feeling that cannot be described with words." Not only do the performers love opera, many audience members are also big aficionados. Holding hand-made opera masks, they shout and applaud their Peking Opera idols on...

Ying Guoquan, board chairman of Wenzhou Vegetable Basket Group is on trial. [Photo/66wz] Sixteen people, mostly senior executives of a state-owned enterprise, were tried by a court in East China for a massive graft case which involved 426 million yuan ($67.6 million), court officials said Saturday. Ying Guoquan, board chairman of Wenzhou Vegetable Basket Group, and his managers were accused of pocketing 220 million yuan during the restructuring of the fresh farm produce state company, said officials with the Intermediate People's Court of Wenzhou in eastern Zhejiang province. The court was told that, for one account, Ying bribed local government officials into allowing him to take advantage of the land use rights of about 325 mu (21.67 hectares) under the state-owned company, from which he profited 115.79 million yuan. The trial, which began on Wednesday, was adjourned on Saturday without the announcement of the court decisions. The case was the second in this week that underscored...

AN overloaded van taking 12 students home plunged into a 60-meter-deep valley in rural southwest China yesterday, killing six people and injuring eight others. The eight-seater, loaded with 14 people, rolled into the valley from a mountainous road in the county of Guangnan, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Prefecture in Yunnan Province at 9am. The fatalities include the driver, four students and an elderly man. Local officials said the van was not a school bus but students in the area usually took it to commute between their homes and school. Many students in the boarding school returned home yesterday morning. The eight injured, all students, were sent to the prefecture hospital of Wenshan, more than three hours drive from the county for treatment. Their conditions were not immediately known. Police launched an investigation into the accident. It is the second traffic accident involving students in Yunnan this week, amid a string of fatal school bus accidents across the country that raised nat...

From Information Times : In the movie 2012, Dec 21st is the end of the world. On this special day, mountains fall down, earth crack, landslides and tsunamis are everywhere. In the movie, Chinese people made a Noahs Ark in Tibet and only government officials and rich people in the world can afford the tickets. But in Taobao(www.taobao.com), a Chinese online shopping web, you can buy a Noahs Ark ticket of 1 billion Euros with only 3 RMB (less than $0.5). It also became the most popular and creative New Years gift. A billion face value tickets sold for less than $0.5 Although there is a year to the prophecy of the end of the world by Maya people, but it cannot stop peoples passion of buying a ticket to escape from the earth. In Taobao, thousands of online stores have sold more than a thousand tickets for only a month. In a store located in Jiangsu, a bundle sale of train and ark tickets for 3 RMB has sold out 2,500 in 30 days. And another 2 RMB Chinese Noahs Ark envelope has sold for 1,70...

The personal information of more than 6 million Internet users on CSDN, or China Software Developer Network, the country's largest programmers' website, was leaked by hackers, raising concerns about web security and triggering widespread panic. The leak was first exposed by China's leading anti-virus software provider, Beijing-based Qihoo 360, on Wednesday. The company said the leak included user IDs, passwords and e-mail addresses in clear text. The hacking case escalated on Thursday after the personal details of subscribers to more websites, including popular online gaming and social networking sites, were leaked. Online media reports said the personal data of up to 50 million Internet users has been leaked so far, but the number could not be independently verified. In response, the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China (CNCERT/CC) issued a statement Thursday, saying the CSDN's user data bank that leaked on the Intern...

Children dressed in new winter coats play outside a primary school in Damxung County in the Tibet Autonomous Region yesterday, after they received clothing donations from a charity campaign initiated in Beijing. Winter clothes were presented to around 1,000 students in the county to keep them warm during chilly weather.

A southwest China court has upheld the death sentence for a former state-owned enterprise (SOE) boss convicted of graft and embezzlement totaling over 30 million yuan (4.72 million U.S. dollars), court officials said Friday. Wang Guanchao, former board chairman of Beijing Triple Nine Automobile Industrial Co., Ltd, and others were found to have pocketed about 26.3 million yuan from the restructuring of the SOE, and Wang embezzled another 4 million yuan in public funds for his personal business. Wang was given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve by the Intermediate People's Court of Chongqing in November 2009. He appealed the sentence, but the Higher People's Court of Chongqing upheld the ruling. Wang's case underscored the alarming situation of corruption in SOEs, especially during the restructuring process, a time when supervision is often lax, prosecutors with the case said. They said Wang's embezzlement scheme was a serious undertaking, and he pledged to steal ...

Watch Video Play Video The discovery of avian flu in Hong Kong has affected chicken suppliers from the Chinese mainland, especially those in nearby Guangdong province. Chicken farms are worrying about business, which at this time of year should be seeing a boom during the traditional festival of the winter solstice. This is a major chicken farm in Guangdong province, with an annual output of nearly two-million birds. It is also a major supplier of live chickens to Hong Kong. But selling the chickens has now become a headache for the farm owner. Journalist: where are you coming from? Driver: from Shenzhen. Journalist: Where are you selling those chickens? Driver: in the local market. The demand for frozen chicken in Hong Kong has been rising these days, as worries of an outbreak prevail. Manager of Poultry farm, Guangdong Province said "The supply to Hong Kong has increased by 30% during winter solstice." The Chicken farm owner said, the avian flu discovered in Hong Kong...

More Chinese cities joined an Internet supervision measure Thursday following Beijing's requirement of local microblog operators to register users with real names, a move designed to purge online rumors and enhance social credibility. Seven major websites in the cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen in south Guangdong province will begin from Thursday to require new users of their microblogging services to register with real names, the provincial publicity department said in a statement. Among the seven microblog operators is Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings, the country's leading Internet company that operates the popular QQ instant-messaging service. The new rules only apply to new users, including private and institutional users, who are required to submit their real identities at registration, the statement said. However, users can choose to use their real or screen names on the webpage, according to the statement. The new rules are made "in accordance with Chinese laws and ...

Chinese prosecutors from January to November launched investigations into 31,616 abuse-of-power criminal cases involving 43,265 suspects, according to figures provided at Thursday's national meeting of procurators. Of those investigated for abuse of power, 2,475 are government officials at the county-level or above. Statistics show prosecutors across China in the first 11 months this year approved the arrests of a total of 837,736 criminal suspects and prosecuted nearly 1.07 million people. The country's prosecutors so far this year have approved the arrests of 1,801 criminal suspects for their roles in the manufacture and sale of poisonous or harmful food products. A total of 120 government employees have also been investigated for food-related graft and dereliction of duty this year. A press release issued by the meeting said procuratorial organs should continue a reform to improve arrest and interrogation procedures for suspects involved in duty crimes. Procuratorial organs ...

SOME foreigners who sign up to a new social security system will be allowed to retire in China so they can claim their pensions, Xinhua news agency said yesterday, offering details of a new tax that foreign businesses fear will push up costs. The government has so far given only basic details about the scheme, which all foreigners who work in China are supposed to have started paying into from October. Foreign executives in China have expressed concern that the tax will increase already rising costs, and that the plan is too vague and will be hard for companies to implement. One of those concerns has been that foreigners will not be able to access money from unemployment benefits or pensions because work visas are tied to jobs and become invalid when a person is no longer employed. Citing an unidentified Beijing social security official, Xinhua said the government had made a decision on pensions at least. "Those foreigners who contribute to social insurance and fulfil conditions w...

China's quality watchdog said Thursday that it decided to suspend supplies of live poultry to Hong Kong after a dead chicken there tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus. The suspension, which started Wednesday, will last 21 days, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ). The AQSIQ has taken measures to actively deal with the situation after it was informed of the case that was found on Tuesday, AQSIQ Spokesman Li Yuanping said at a regular press conference. The AQSIQ will maintain close contact and work together with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government to jointly step up measures in controlling the epidemic, Li said. The AQSIQ has ordered local quality authorities in Guangdong and Hainan provinces to strengthen quarantine inspection at ports to prevent the spread of avian flu, Li said. Local entry-exit quality watchdogs are also required to promote prevention, control and monitoring o...

A horse-drawn wagon killed at least two rural primary school students and injured another 23 when it collided with a truck in southwest China's Yunnan Province on Dec. 21. According to Shanghai Daily, the accident took place at about 12:45pm on a highway in Qiubei County and the wagon carried 24 students from a primary school in a local village at that time. Local government statement said the crash killed one pupil instantly, and another kid died in hospital. An injured student received the treatment at the hopital in Qiubei County on Dec. 21. The injured 22 students and a driver were sent to hospitals for treatment. An investigation into the cause of the accident is underway. The mother of an injured girl said they paid 60 yuan (US$9.48) each month to hire the wagon to take her daughter to school, 2 kilometers away from their home, Yunnan.cn reported. Horse-drawn wagons are a common means of transport in the village.

For most of us, Africa stands for beautiful grasslands and wild animals that we could never see in China, except maybe at the zoo. But there's much more to it than that. Kenya file photo The good news is, we can find out more about this continent by watching a new CCTV documentary set to air next January. It's called "Glamorous Kenya." "Glamorous Kenya" is a documentary film about the beautiful people, landscape and traditions of the land of Kenya. Shot and produced in High-Definition format, this is the first independent production by CCTV's Documentary Channel, and all shootings were completed in Kenya alone. Compared to previous works on African countries, "Glamorous Kenya" is all about looking inside the country through the eyes of the crew that traveled there. Hence, the production is embedded with a Chinese perspective. Xiao Wai, director of "Glamorous Kenya" said, "Wild animals is not all of it. We'r...

All government departments at, and above, county level will use licensed software by the end of 2013 in the latest move to protect intellectual property rights (IPR). Industry insiders predicted that the move will create a wave of business opportunities for software providers, especially for foreign brands. A source from the Ministry of Commerce said all government departments in 600 cities and 2,900 counties will use licensed software by the end of 2013, while the 31 provincial-level governments will promote the use of licensed software by the end of next June. The move came after 135 central government departments, including all ministries, completed installing licensed software at a cost of more than 140 million yuan ($22 million) in May. This is a demonstration of the government's strong commitment to protecting IPR and improving the business environment amid criticism over the use of pirated and fake goods, experts said. The agreement to have licensed software installed in all...

In an effort to stand up to local Communist Party officials, a group of young activists have harnessed the Internet and initiated innovative, peaceful protests in the small village of Wukan in southern China. These activists are gambling they can succeed, where so many village protests have failed, by waging a media savvy campaign that attempts to play the central Communist Party off against the local officials. According to a recent account of the movements growth, based on interviews with participants by the Hong Kong weekly magazine iSun Affairs, a group of young residents created an Internet group on the QQ interactive chatting service, named The Wukan Young Enthusiasts, and began talking online about the expropriation of land in their village that has been going on since 1993. They planned to settle land disputes, remove officials who had been in charge of the village Party committee for 40 years, and elect their own representatives . The young enthusiasts initially tried to wo...

Prosecutors in east China's Fengxian county, Jiangsu province, have approved of the arrest of the school bus driver responsible for a road accident that left 15 students dead and another eight injured. The People's Procuratorate of Fengxian County approved of the arrest of Hong Xu, the 30-year-old driver of the school bus that was carrying 29 students when it veered into a roadside ditch and overturned, killing 15 students and injuring eight others. Hong's improper operation caused the accident, according to local prosecutors. Hong has a B2 driving license, which only allows him to operate a mid-size passengers bus, but Hong was driving a larger bus that should only be operated by those with A1 driving licenses. The accident occurred at 5:50 p.m. on Dec. 12 in Fengxian county. The vehicle, a Chinese-manufactured Shaolin Auto bus, was registered as a school bus for a primary school in Shouxian township. It was not overloaded when it overturned, officials said.

Aftershocks from the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in southwest China that left over 80,000 people dead or missing will continue for a very long time, an expert said Wednesday. "Aftershocks of magnitude 5-6 are still likely to strike the area, but those above magnitude 7 are unlikely," Liu Jie, director of the Forecast Department under the China Earthquake Networks Center, told Xinhua on the sidelines of a seminar in Chengdu, capital of the southwest Sichuan province. An 8-magnitude quake hit Sichuan and neighboring Gansu and Shaanxi provinces on May 12, 2008, leaving 87,000 people dead or missing. Sichuan's Wenchuan county was the epicenter of the devastating quake. In terms of the intensity and scope of destruction, the quake is believed to have surpassed the 7.8-magnitude quake in 1976 in Tangshan, northern Hebei province, which claimed more than 240,000 lives. "The timespan for aftershocks from a major quake is usually about a tenth of that of the quake's energy a...

Thousands of local residents decided to stop their protest against the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Guangdong province, and went back home after the local government promised to suspend the plan. At 10 a.m. on Tuesday, villagers from fishing town of Haimen in Shantou City of Guangdong Province blocked the Shenzhen-Shantou expressway in order to protect their hometown. Then police officers were dispatched to maintain order. The villagers complained that the current power plant had led to a rise in the number of cancer patients, the deterioration of the environment and a drop in fishing hauls. A protester surnamed Wang said:"The power plant discharges waste water and waste gas, causing pollution in the fish farms and air." For these reasons, local villagers are opposed to local authorities' plans to construct a second power plant, he said. The Shantou municipal government has decided to suspend the project and report the situation to higher authorities, a spo...

Police have arrested 52 suspects who allegedly produced and sold cooking oil recycled from the waste in Jiangxi province, local public security department announced Tuesday. Gutter oil production[File photo] Since 2010, more than 2,000 tonnes of "crude gutter oil," made from leftover dredged from gutters behind restaurants, were produced by an oil recycling firm in the county of Nanchang, according to police. Most of the oil was then bought and refined by a Guangdong-based feed-processing company, police said. The refined "cooking oil" was sold to regional wholesale companies and further distributed to markets and restaurants after being mixed with quality cooking oil and labelled with unregistered trademarks, according to the police. Police said a total value of 10 million yuan (1.58 million U.S. dollars)was involved in the case. A further investigation is being conducted. The case is another crackdown on gutter-oil-producing network that conducts cross-provincial ...

Watch Video Play Video For more impact on death of Kim Jong Il, we are joined in the studio by Li Yong. Hes the deputy secretary general of the China Association of International Trade. Q1: Mr. Li, give us some context. Tell us about trade and economic relations between the DPRK and China during Kim Jong Ils time? Q2: How will his death affect economic and trade cooperation with China? Related stories Review: 10 years between DPRK and S. Korea 2011-12-20 Chinese FM conveys condolences on Kim Jong Ils death 2011-12-20 Kim's death has little impact on S. Korean financial market: watchdog 2011-12-20 Editor: Zhang Dan | Source: CNTV.CN