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Beijing bites

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-18 08:44

Knife-wielding man kills 2

A man armed with a knife stabbed two people to death and injured 12 others in Dashilan, a major commercial center near Qianmen in downtown Beijing, police said.

The tragedy occurred at around 6:40 pm yesterday. The man has been captured, according to Beijing police sources.

Taxis crushed

Beijing traffic police destroyed 447 unlicensed taxis, because its owners would not pay a fine, the news website Qianlong.com reported yesterday. It was Beijing's single largest destruction campaign. Police said 11,700 unlicensed taxis were found in the first eight months of this year.

TCM used in H1N1 fight

Beijing health authorities will replace 1 million doses of Tamiflu to be purchased to combat the H1N1 flu with traditional Chinese medicines, the Beijing TCM bureau told the Beijing Youth Daily.

The total cost will be 70 million yuan ($10 million).

TCM doses have been tested on 326 patients and were proven effective, so the government decided to turn to TCM, rather than the drugs made by Roche.

Peddlers targeted

The number of urban administrators in Tian'anmen Square and its surrounding will increase by 15 to 30 percent to the keep the area clean and tidy, Qianlong.com reported.

A total of 52 surveillance cameras will also be installed to monitor peddlers, illegal vendors of China's national flags and those who destroy the flags or post illegal ads.

Cheap art tickets

More than 240 performances will be on show during the National Day holiday.

For a minimum of 10 yuan, people can enjoy excellent Peking opera, modern drama, or acrobatic performances performed by domestic troupes, Wang Zhu, the deputy director of Beijing municipal bureau of culture said at a news conference yesterday.

Kidnappers jailed

Five men, who imprisoned their neighbor for seven days, were sentenced from between five to six months jail yesterday at the Fengtai district court, the Legal Evening News reported.

The victim, who was only identified by the surname Li, borrowed 30,000 yuan with his neighbor Luo as an underwriter, but failed to pay back the money. So Luo recruited four friends and imprisoned Li for seven days. All the defendants admitted to the crime, but said they would appeal.

Influenza shuts classes

An outbreak of H1N1 flu forced the closure of some classes at a middle school in Haidian district for one week. Parents of about 700 students at Beijing Shida Middle School received a text message from teachers on Wednesday afternoon saying that there had been a large number of confirmed cases at the school, the Beijing Times reported.

Parents were asked to take their children home from school and by 6:30 pm, 10 students who were suffering a fever had been collected. The school will arrange for students to catch up on missed work when classes resume.

(China Daily 09/18/2009 page26)