BEIJING, Nov. 14 — China’s first energy law draft calls for placing the entire sector under a single ministry-level body, an expert who worked on the draft said Tuesday.

    Supervision of the energy sector now spreads across several government departments, Wu Zhonghu said Tuesday, and suggested how it can be strengthened.

    China began drafting its first energy law last year. The draft is soliciting experts’ opinion and is open to amendments, he said.

    He, however, refused to confirm speculation that China is likely to form a ministry of energy exclusively for the energy industry.

    The Shanghai-based Oriental Morning News Tuesday quoted a source as saying that the “ministry of energy” could be set up as early as in March.

    Electricity, coal, oil, gas, energy saving and planning, and international cooperation sectors will be put under the new ministry, which existed between 1988 and 1993, the report said.

    Many government sectors are now involved in the energy industry. They include the energy bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, the Ministry of Water Resources, and the Ministry of Land and Resources.

    Such diversion of power, many experts say, has been hindering the implementation of energy policies.

    The government has vowed to cut energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 percent from 2006 to 2010, or 4 percent each year, and reduce pollutant emissions by 10 percent during the period.

    The newspaper quoted energy expert Wu Jingdong as saying the lack of a ministry of energy is creating greater pressure on the country to meet those goals.

    Neither the NDRC energy bureau, nor the Office of the National Energy Leading Group can coordinate the interests of various departments, and that could eventually become a hurdle in meeting the goals, Wu aid.

    China consumes the second largest amount of energy in the world. But the International Energy Agency said last week it could overtake the U.S. as the largest energy consumer by 2030, by which time its primary energy demand is likely to increase two-fold from 2005.

    (Source: China Daily)

Photo taken on Nov. 14, 2007 shows the karaoke hall where the blaze occurred, in Chengde city, north China’s Hebei province. Eleven people were dead after the karaoke hall caught fire in Chengde early on Wednesday. (Xinhua Photo)

    SHIJIAZHUANG, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) — Eleven people are dead after a karaoke hall fire in Chengde, north China’s Hebei Province, early on Wednesday.

    The blaze broke out at about 4:30 a.m. in the Blue Sky foot massage parlor on the ground floor of a two-storey building known as Gedu Karaoke Hall, according to the county government.

    The parlor was not open for business at the time but the owner and his staff were sleeping in the residential quarters on the second floor.

    The male owner and ten masseuses were killed. Two others were rescued.

    A local peddler alerted the police at 4:47 a.m. after he saw smoke pouring out from all sides of the building. The fire was extinguished at about 5:10 a.m.

    Photographs posted on the Internet show the entrance of the building to be scorched and the windows of the first floor broken.

    The cause of the fire is still under investigation and the local Public Security Bureau has not released any further details.

    The local government will hold an emergency conference in the afternoon in an effort to launch a large-scale work safety inspection.

From left, Chinese international Sun Jihai, his Manchester City Manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, PremierGoals Ltd CEO Henrik Barck and Sohu CFO Yu Chuyuan signal the cooperation of the two Websites in Shanghai yesterday. (Photo: Shanghai Daily)

    BEIJING, Nov. 14 — Chinese portal Sohu.com gained the rights to show match videos of 16 English football clubs on its site yesterday, banking that Chinese football fans’ enthusiasm for the English Premier League will boost its traffic and lure more advertisers.

    It marked the latest move by Sohu, the only official Website partner of 2008 Beijing Olympics, into sports content as it competes fiercely against rivals like Sina.com, but it may also push its overall advertising sales costs higher, analysts said.

    A Chinese Website for 16 clubs including Liverpool and Manchester City was launched yesterday in Shanghai by Sohu with its partner, PremierGoals Ltd, which has deals with 75 percent of the English Premier League clubs to distribute their match videos and pictures in China.

    The site, premiergoals.com, is produced by Sohu and also accessible on Sohu’s sports channel. The videos will be free and feature highlights of the matches and also delayed broadcasting of some entire matches. No financial terms were disclosed.

    Sina, China’s largest portal, has launched a paid on-air broadcasting service for English football fans in the country in August.

    Chinese football fans were deprived of the free telecast of the English Premier League’s matches this year as a Guangzhou-Province based TV company bought out the exclusive rights and offer the matches only to a paid audience.

    ”It’s a long-term investment, and we believe the copyright and exclusive videos can help us gain more users for Sohu as a whole, and eventually pay back in terms of advertisement spending from our customers who recognize our Website’s value,” said Ao Ming, director of Sohu sports channel.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)

    BEIJING, Nov. 14 — Shanghai police have imprisoned a local resident for 10 days for throwing garbage into a neighboring residential complex.

    Police said the man, named Wang, was being held under the Public Security Administration Punishments Law. Wang is the first Shanghai man locked up for this even though he caused no physical injury to anyone.

    Police said yesterday that previously they had only locked up people who had thrown things from tall buildings and caused injury.

    Wang was caught by the hidden cameras set up in a neighboring residential complex.

    ”The camera caught him on his 19th floor home throwing objects into the neighboring complex on two consecutive nights last week,” said police officer Zhao Qi.

    Police investigations revealed Wang had done this more than twice, Zhao added. His conduct had seriously upset his neighbors which is why police decided to detain him.

    Police said as well as Wang, other residents living in Wang’s complex also threw objects from their high-rise homes expressing anger over the construction of the neighboring Jianxin Flat building.

    But since Wang was detained last Thursday no one has thrown anything.

    In the three years since construction of the Jianxin Flat building was completed, residents in Wang’s building have thrown beer bottles and other garbage into the Jianxin complex. Although no injuries have been reported, security guards patrolling the neighborhood at night have had to wear helmets.

    After a long time of ducking and dodging on patrol, the guards at last decided to give themselves some high-tech help and find out exactly who was the culprit. Wang was captured on camera the first day the gadgets were installed.

    Lawyer Liu Chunquan said the difficulty of a case like this is that it is hard to discover the culprit without a camera.

    In September, the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court ordered a man named Tang to pay 310,000 yuan (US$41,800) for throwing a bundle of sacks from the fifth floor and killing a passer-by in 2004.

    A 2006 survey by the Shanghai Public Sanitation Bureau about bad habits in the city ranked throwing things from high-rise buildings at number two.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)

    BEIJING, Nov. 14 — The world’s highest mobile phone base station has been built on Mount Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest, at an altitude of 6,500 meters.

    The station, run by China Mobile, the largest mobile phone service provider in the country, will provide services for mountaineers on the world’s highest peak and the torch relay for the 2008 Olympic Games.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)

(Source: Xinhua)BEIJING, Nov. 14 - Chinese archaeologists said they have found fossilized remains of a primitive human species that lived about 2.04 million years ago in the Three Gorges Area in southwest China, the earliest ever found in the country.

The findings, including a lower jawbone fragment, an incisor and more than 230 pieces of stone tools, prove that what is called Wushan man was more than 300,000 years older than Yuanmou man, which was discovered in southwestern Yunnan Province in the 1960s and previously recognized as China’s earliest human species.

An expert team led by Huang Wanbo, a professor with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reached the conclusion after more than two decades of excavation at the Longgupo Site in Wushan County in Chongqing Municipality.

“It’s an exciting discovery because it may rewrite China’s history,” said Huang.

Huang said his team unearthed the human fossils during their first excavation, from 1985 to 1988. In the same stratigraphic interval, they also discovered fossils of 120 species of vertebrates, including 116 mammals, and a large number of stone artifacts.

“Various dating techniques corroborate the geological layer containing Wushan Man fossils being as old as 2 million to 2.04 million years, but we think we need more evidence,” said Huang.

Huang’s team conducted two excavations from 1997 to 1999 and from 2003 to 2006 at the Longgupo Site with partners from Britain, Canada and France.

They found more stone tools and animal fossils dating back 2 million years in the same stratigraphic interval in which Wushan Man fossils were found before, and also in the upper layers.

“The most important findings are the many leg fossils of animals, such as the elephant, rhinoceros and deer fossils we found in an area of no more than two square meters,” said Huang.

“It is not natural that the fossils, all legs, were arranged inlayers in such a small space. Only an animal with thinking capacity could do it in that way,” he said.

The Three Gorges area was once an expanse of hilly land with luxuriant vegetation and a warm, humid climate in which various vertebrates and mammals lived and thrived.

“It was just in such a natural environment that Wushan Man led a primitive life by hunting and gathering. When night fell, the inhabitants returned to the Longgupo Cave, enjoying the fruits of their day’s labor,” said Huang.

Located in Wushan Mountain, the Longgupo Site is considered one of the best-preserved Paleolithic sites in China and even in Asia, with a wealth of primitive cultural relics.

Huang said they plan a fourth excavation at the Longgupo Site next year, which is expected to yield more evidence of Wushan Man.