scmp.com: Extra security at fair for porn star

24歲日本成人電影女優小澤瑪利亞，及兩位青春本港少女，現身動漫電玩節送抱抱。

另一參展商「女僕書店(譯)」，聘30名女售貨員裝扮成女僕，當中包括兼職暑期工的中學女生。

Extra security at fair for porn star

More guards hired for promotion where visitors will have the chance to hug Japanese adult-film actress

Amy Nip and Thomas Chan Updated on Jul 29, 2011

http://bit.ly/oZBBi5 Extra security guards have been hired by a company at a comic and games fair where visitors will get the chance to hug a Japanese porn star. "We will have four security guards. Last year there were only one or two of them," said Kiang Yu-him of Game One, which will have porn star Maria Osawa and two young models, from Hong Kong and Taiwan, greeting guests and offering hugs on stage to the first 40 people. It is the first time that an adult performer has featured at the five-day Ani-Com and Games Hong Kong exhibition, which starts at the Convention and Exhibition Centre today, but Kiang promised that everything would be kept under control. On other days of the fair, teenage models Jeana Ho Pui-yu and DaDa Chan Ching will turn up as game girls. Kiang expects the appearance of the models to boost business by 20 per cent. But all the beauty on show won't hide the fact that game fanatics will have to pay more for products. Prices this year are up by HK$100 to HK$200. The cost for a set of special edition Gundam game cards has soared from HK$988 to HK$1,580. In another corner of the fair, 30 "maids" will serve as saleswomen at the "Maid Bookstore". Among them are secondary school pupils taking on a summer job. "We will serve the customers, introduce books and help them find the comics they want," said Jennifer Yu, 18. They will be earning HK$50 an hour, well above the minimum wage of HK$28 an hour. Of interest for comic fans is the release today of World of Mercenary,the latest creation by local artist Tony Wong Yuk-long. Monotone limited editions will be available at the fair. For fans who can't make the fair, Jade Dynasty is accepting pre-orders for limited edition figures, some of which have already sold out. Meanwhile, Lego has set up a big aquarium filled with nine fish and four seahorses made of plastic bricks. Part of the income earned from selling two packages of tropical fish will be donated to Wold Wildlife Fund in Hong Kong. "The limited editions, such as space shuttles and Harry Potter castles, will only be sold to the fans who line up early and get tickets," said Yvonne Lam Wing-ki, product manger of Lego Hong Kong. Yesterday evening, more than 1,000 people were queuing outside the fair venue to be the first to snap up favourite comic superheroes and limited edition online video games. The line extended from the main entrance of the exhibition centre to the nearby Great Eagle Centre.

scmp.com: At least 16 die in train plunge after crash

和諧號列車杭州福州路段相撞，最少16人死89人傷。

At least 16 die in train plunge after crash

Staff Reporter Updated on Jul 24, 2011

http://bit.ly/qL0kjm At least 16 people were killed yesterday when a high-speed train ran into another in Zhejiang province in the worst accident to date on China's high-speed railway network. Six carriages plunged off a bridge. As well as those killed, at least 89 people were injured. The crash happened between Taizhou and Wenzhou at 8.34pm. Citing Shanghai railway bureau sources, China National Radio said a train travelling from the provincial capital Hangzhou to Fuzhou ran into the other train, which had been brought to a halt by a lightning strike. Two coaches of the train from Hangzhou and four coaches of the stalled train were derailed. Photos posted by internet users on theShanghai Times Sino microblog showed some of the derailed coaches resting upside down and badly damaged.

scmp.com: Ex-official warns of crackdown risks

前黨委總書記趙紫陽最信任的政治秘書鮑彤受訪，評論中國治國手法自招不穩，為下一界領導人制造問題。

鮑彤以囚禁劉曉波為例，批評現黨委總書記胡錦濤聲言推行民主改革只屬空話。

鮑對國務院總理温家寳比較溫和，欣賞溫在倫敦的發言，提倡人權民主，但未清楚是否言出必行。

鮑對接任胡的熱門人選習近平寄於厚望，指他父親習仲勛、前國務院副總理、支持改革開放、鮑的老朋友，一生為平民百姓付出，作為兒子的習近平，希望他不會背棄父親，做第二個胡錦濤。

哩編新聞值得一看！希望有更多鮑彤哩類人可以陸續浮面。

Ex-official warns of crackdown risks

Reuters in Beijing Updated on Jul 08, 2011

http://bit.ly/oYOJfn The most senior Chinese official jailed over the 1989 Tiananmen protests warned the Chinese government on Friday that its sustained crackdown on dissent will only bring more instability. In an interview with reporters on Friday, Bao Tong, the most trusted aide to purged Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang and now an outspoken critic of the government, said he believes Chinese leaders are filled with insecurity about the country's social order. China's Communist Party has muzzled dissent since February, secretly detaining dozens of lawyers and activists, worried that uprisings across the Arab world could inspire challenges to its one-party rule ahead of a leadership succession late next year. "A government that snatches the legitimate rights of the ordinary people, I think this kind of government will never be stable," said Bao, 79. He was jailed for seven years for his opposition to the government decision to send in troops to crush the pro-democracy demonstrations, and remains under close watch by security officers around his home in the west of Beijing. "I think the measures they have taken are wrong. It will backfire on what they want to achieve." The transition is due to start late next year, when Vice President Xi Jinping is likely to take over from President Hu Jintao. Bao was once a political high-flyer, and as secretary to the party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee held a rank equivalent to a cabinet minister. Bao said it was imperative that Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao "create the conditions" for future leaders, which means "not creating problems". "What they're doing now is only increasing the obstacles," he said. "On the approach that they are taking now, on what kind of consequences it will mean for the future, I think it will cause more trouble for the new leaders." "If they start implementing democracy and the rule of law, it'll be much easier for the incoming leaders. There'll be less risks and less resistant forces." Bao was harsh on Hu, whose government he says has reneged on its promises of democratic reform, and for its treatment of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who was jailed in 2009 for 11 years for subversion. "He's telling the world that China's laws don't count. Only I, Hu Jintao, matter. That's why I say I'm thoroughly disappointed in Hu Jintao," said the healthy and alert Bao, sitting in front of a picture of his former boss Zhao. Zhao died in 2005 after more than 15 years under house arrest. Bao was more sympathetic to Wen and applauded the premier's recent calls for democracy and human rights, most recently last month in London. . "One thing I haven't figured out is what the motive of his comments are," Bao said. "Is it just for the sake of speech or is he really prepared to take action on what he has said?" "I hope he is prepared to do what he says. But he has not much time left, if he doesn't act quickly, people will say in the future that he's worked for 10 years and all he achieved was just empty talk for a decade, with nothing to show for it," he said. "That will be a pity." Bao said he had high hopes for Vice President Xi. Xi is the son of reformist former vice premier and parliament vice-chairman Xi Zhongxun, making him a "princeling" â€" one of the privileged sons and daughters of China's incumbent, retired or late leaders. "I hope he will make a difference. I hope he will not be ... a second Hu Jintao. He should be Xi Zhongxun's son, have his own mind and know that his own father has worked a lifetime for the ordinary people, and that his father suffered." "I hope he remembers his father's experiences and not betray his father. Of course ... as a friend of his father's, I'll also put more pressure on him." "The world's greatest politicians were made because of pressure from the people," said Bao. "An emperor that has no pressure will definitely be corrupt."

scmp.com: Beijing denies rumour of Jiang's death

唉....這個國家還停留在甚麼年代...一個人的生死，可以沖擊整個國家的政權穩定....

Beijing denies rumour of Jiang's death

TV report of China leader's death fuels political rumour mill

Reuters in Beijing Updated on Jul 07, 2011

http://bit.ly/ptaFKt Chinese state media denied rumours on Thursday that former president Jiang Zemin had died after a Hong Kong television station said he had, sparking a wave of speculation about a leadership transition due next year. "Recent reports of some overseas media organisations about Jiang Zemin's death from illness are pure rumour," Xinhua news agency quoted "authoritative sources" as saying. Jiang, 84, is in poor health. Three sources with ties to China's leadership told Reuters that he is in intensive care in Beijing at the No 301 military hospital after suffering a heart attack. In the opaque world of Chinese politics, the health of a leader is fodder for rumours about how the balance of power is shifting at the highest levels of the government. Current President Hu Jintao retires from office from late next year in a sweeping leadership overhaul, and the rumours about Jiang's health underscore the uncertainties around this. Hong Kong's Asia Television interrupted its main newscast on Wednesday evening to announce solemnly that Jiang had died, and followed with a brief profile. It kept up the news for several hours on a ticker and then said it would air a special report on Jiang's life late in the evening. It later cancelled the report, and withdrew the ticker after failing to get official confirmation. Meanwhile, the Shandong News website in northeast China posted a black banner with white characters, saying "Our Respectable Comrade Jiang Zemin Is Immortal". The site was no longer accessible on Thursday. Searches on a popular Chinese micro-blogging site with terms ranging from "Jiang Zemin" to the Yangtze River [Jiang's surname means "river"], are blocked, a sign that China's censors are concerned about public debate about his health. Premature reports about the demise of Chinese leaders are hardly new. In the 1990s, Hong Kong and Japanese media reported several times that paramount leader Deng Xiaoping had died. Jiang Zemin's passing â€" on the surface at least â€" would likely have limited impact on the direction of China's politics and economic development. He retired long ago, handing over the Communist Party's top job to Hu in 2002 and his other posts over the next two years. Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao have since led the country on a decade-long charge that saw it grow from an economy the size of Britain to one that has surpassed Japan. But the prospect of Jiang's passing would add a breeze of uncertainty to a transition that is widely thought to hand power from Hu to a new generation led by Xi Jinping, currently vice president. That would take place at the 18th Communist Party Congress expected sometime in the autumn of next year. Xi, anointed as Hu's heir apparent at the congress in 2007, was considered acceptable to both the Hu and Jiang camps. But in China, the death of a senior leader can be cause for worry, and even spell disaster, for proteges and allies who are no longer protected. Hu would no longer have Jiang acting as a counterweight to his influence over the future make up of the next leadership. "New leaders are selected by old leaders," Zheng Yongnian, professor of Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore. "He's one of the important selectorate. After he passes away, other current leaders will become more influential." He could also settle scores or take down other rivals with links to Jiang, if necessary. Past leaders can have considerable clout in China. Deng wielded power as paramount leader despite having given up all his posts except the honourary chairman of the Chinese bridge association. Jiang consolidated his own grip on power after Deng died in 1997. By the time Jiang retired his last post â€" as head of the military commission â€" in 2004, he had already stacked the Politburo with his people. "Front and back, left and right, up and down. No matter where Hu looks, there is a Jiang man," said one source at the time the leadership line-up was announced back in 2002. In Jiang's case, there are quite a few allies still in place in the leadership who might now have cause for concern, should Hu assert himself. "If he dies, the situation becomes very delicate," said one source with ties to leadership circles who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the subject. Among the Jiang allies still in senior posts are: Wu Bangguo, parliament chief and the second ranking person in the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee; Jia Qinglin, who heads a parliamentary advisory body and is ranked fourth; and Li Changchun, who oversees propaganda and ideology and is ranked fifth. How exactly it will play it out, is unclear. With the Party Congress only about 15 months away, Hu's window to further consolidate his grip on power is considerably shorter than Jiang had as he prepared to step down.

scmp.com: Boy killed as subway escalator reverses

北京鐵路上行扶手電梯突然逆向，乘客失足，一男童死亡，30人受傷，當中2人危殆。

工程師指肇事扶手電梯規格屬輕量型，但安裝於高使用量鐵路站非常危險。為降低成本，大陸鐵路站都採用此規格扶手電梯，工程師指同類逆向事故己見慣不怪。

發展國家包括香港，都規定公共交通設施，必須採用重量型扶手電梯。

咩叫人命唔值錢？！問祖國啦。

Boy killed as subway escalator reverses

Thirty injured in Beijing; malfunction blamed on cost-cutting use of shopping-mall model

Stephen Chen Updated on Jul 06, 2011

http://bit.ly/n28dxT A 13-year old boy died and 30 were injured when an escalator suddenly reversed direction at a station on Beijing Subway's Line 4 yesterday morning. Two people remain in critical condition. Witnesses said the escalator malfunctioned at the Beijing Zoo Station at about 9.30am. "When we were about to reach exit A, we heard a 'kahk' and the ascending escalator suddenly reversed," a tourist from Heilongjiang told Beijing News from hospital. "Nobody was able to stand. We all fell together. "My daughter was found underneath [the victims]. Now she can't move." Zhang Lexiang , an escalator engineer and deputy general secretary of China Elevator Association, said he was not surprised by the accident. He said his association had received many reports about similar incidents in recent years, most frequently at public transport hubs such as subway stations. He said manufacturers had been improving the safety of escalators for decades, with computers and digital sensors making reversals almost impossible. To save money, however, subway lines on the mainland bought cheap, light-duty escalators designed for shopping malls. Such escalators cost a third of the price of a heavy-duty escalator, Zhang said, but using them in a public transport hub could be fatal. The burden of heavy passenger loads for long hours would not only shorten the life span of electric motors and transmission systems, but breach the design limits of safety mechanisms. Zhang said all developed countries mandated the use of heavy-duty escalators in public transport hubs. Hong Kong, for instance, requires specifications many times higher than the mainland. "The mainland produces more than 95 per cent of the world's escalators," Zhang said. "We sell most heavy-duty models overseas. [But] we can't find a single buyer in the mainland's public sector." In December, an escalator at Guomao station on Shenzhen's Metro reversed, injuring 24 passengers. Line 4 is operated by Beijing MTR Corporation, a joint venture formed by Beijing Infrastructure Investment, Beijing Capital Group and Hong Kong's MTR Corporation. Beijing MTR declined to confirm that the escalator had reversed. The escalator was manufactured by US-based Otis. A spokesman at the company's China headquarters, in Tianjin , said it had launched an investigation. The MTR Corp, which holds a 49 per cent stake in the Beijing Subway joint venture, said the escalator involved in the accident was owned by a company under the Beijing municipal government. "The escalator, though inside the subway, is rented out by the company to the subway," an MTR spokesman said. It was maintained by Otis, he said. Additional reporting by Martin Wong binglin.chen@scmp.com