MEMORIAL WALL: Local residents mourn relatives who died in the 1976 earthquake in Tangshan, Hebei Province, on July 28. The devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed over 240,000 people (YAN JUN)

Poisoner on Trial

A court in north China's Hebei Province on July 30 opened a trial for a man who allegedly added poison to frozen dumplings that sickened 10 people in Japan in 2008.

In January 2008, Japanese media reported that 10 people fell ill after consuming frozen meat dumplings produced by the Tianyang Food Plant based in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei.

The plant was investigated by both Chinese and Japanese authorities shortly after the incident, but no problems were found.

In March 2010, suspect Lyu Yueting was detained by Chinese police. Lyu worked in the factory between April 1993 and October 2009.

Lyu confessed to injecting pesticide into frozen dumplings between October and December 2007 because he was dissatisfied with his salary and did not get along with some of his co-workers, the procuratorate said.

After a three-hour trial, the court said a verdict will be announced on a later date.

According to Chinese law, the death penalty can be handed down to those found guilty of deploying dangerous substances if their actions cause serious injury, death or the loss of property.

No Take-off Limit

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has proposed a new measure to deal with serious flight delay problems at eight Chinese airports, The Beijing News reported on July 31.

The measure indicates that, except in the instance of bad weather and military events, these airports should not postpone their flights from taking off due to air control situations at destination airports.

The affected international airports include Beijing Capital, Shanghai Hongqiao, Shanghai Pudong, Guangzhou Baiyun, Shenzhen Bao'an, Chengdu Shuangliu, Xi'an Xianyang and Kunming Changshui.

It is estimated that the number of flights at the eight major airports represent about half of the total flights in China.

Officials Investigated

More than 700 officials have been investigated for breach of duty related to workplace accidents in the first half of the year, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said on July 29.

In the first half, prosecutors started investigating 467 graft cases related to workplace accidents, according to an SPP statement.

Prosecutors have finished investigating 457 officials implicated in the cases and filed charges against 443 of them, it said.

The SPP itself led investigations into three significant cases and supervised another 17 cases.

The top procuratorate asked local prosecuting agencies to step up efforts against cases of graft that could be related to workplace accidents.