22 dead in house fire in China’s Jiangsu

A fire breaks out at around 4:30 a.m. on July 16, 2017 in a two-storey residential house in Yushan Town in Changshu City, Jiangsu province. [Photo/163.com]

22 people died in a house fire in east China’s Jiangsu Province early Sunday morning, local authorities said.

The fire broke out at around 4:30 a.m. in a two-storey residential house in Yushan Town in Changshu City, leaving 22 people dead.

Sources said more than 20 people lived in the house.

The fire has been put out and the cause of the accident is underway.

 




Chinese aircraft carrier formation returns from HK visit

China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier formation has returned to a military port in Qingdao in east China Sunday.

The formation returned after completing maneuvering exercises and a visit to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) being stationed in HKSAR.

More than 5,000 Hong Kong people boarded the aircraft carrier and three escorting warships.

During their stay in Hong Kong, from July 7 through July 11, members from the fleet held a deck reception and visited an elder care center to interact with Hong Kong residents.

The naval formation, which first set out from Qingdao on June 25, has also carried out trans-regional training at sea to strengthen coordination among the vessels and improve the skills of crew and pilots in different regions.




Chinese aircraft carrier formation returns from HK visit

China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier formation has returned to a military port in Qingdao in east China Sunday.

The formation returned after completing maneuvering exercises and a visit to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) being stationed in HKSAR.

More than 5,000 Hong Kong people boarded the aircraft carrier and three escorting warships.

During their stay in Hong Kong, from July 7 through July 11, members from the fleet held a deck reception and visited an elder care center to interact with Hong Kong residents.

The naval formation, which first set out from Qingdao on June 25, has also carried out trans-regional training at sea to strengthen coordination among the vessels and improve the skills of crew and pilots in different regions.




Typhoon Talas to hit south China

Typhoon Talas, the fourth typhoon of the year, took shape Saturday afternoon and is moving towards China’s southernmost island province of Hainan, local weather forecasts said.

The tropical storm, whose eye was located in the South China Sea some 205 km southeast of Lingshui Li Autonomous County as of 8 p.m. Saturday, packed maximum winds between 62 and 74 km per hour, the Hainan weather bureau said.

The Guangdong Province weather bureau forecast that the typhoon will make landfall between the cities of Qionghai and Sanya at dawn or later Sunday morning. It may also skip Hainan and head towards the Beibu Bay.

Strong winds and heavy rain are expected in Hainan beginning Saturday night. Tides will surge up to four meters high.

Ships in the middle and northern parts of the South China Sea and those off the coast of Hainan were advised to take immediate precaution.

Alerts for typhoon and geological disasters have been issued.

Along the coast of Guangdong, 22,901 fishing boats were moored while 39,425 people working at sea farms went on shore as of 4 p.m. Saturday.

Passenger ships across the Qiongzhou Strait, between Hainan and Guangdong, were also halted.




Chinese science association urges self-discipline for scientists

The China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) has called on the country’s scientists and researchers to be self-disciplined and strongly oppose academic dishonesty.

Although China has achieved huge improvements in science and technology fields, academic cheating has occurred from time to time, said CAST, which issued a guideline on academic ethics for the nation’s scientists this week.

There have been several scandals in which foreign journals have retracted papers from Chinese authors since 2015, causing negative social impact and damaging China’s national image, said CAST.

In the guideline, CAST highlighted some “bottom lines” for the professionals, including “no fabrication” “no plagiarism” “no impersonation” and “no bribery.”

CAST encouraged innovation and originality among scientists to advance the country in science and technology.

The medical journal “Tumor Biology,” published by Springer Nature, retracted 107 Chinese papers this April, after an investigation found the peer review process had been compromised with fabricated email addresses of reviewers.

China’s Ministry of Science and Technology is currently investigating the scandal.

In March 2015, BioMed Central, a major publisher of medical and science journals based in the United Kingdom, retracted 43 papers because of fabricated peer review, 41 of which were written by Chinese scholars.