Passengers to sue airline

    A budget airline* was accused of endangering lives when it failed to stop passengers from smoking on a flight, according to a group of disgruntled* travelers who are now threatening to sue the carrier.

    Passengers on a China United Airlines (CUA) flight on August 30 said they found people smoking in a bathroom as the plane flew from Chengdu to Beijing. They said that when the aircraft was grounded in Taiyuan due to thunderstorms, passengers also smoked on the steps as they left the plane and again just outside the jet as it sat on the tarmac*.

    News editors detained

    Shanghai police detained the chief editor and other journalists at a well-read financial news website for allegedly blackmailing* companies into paying for favorable coverage.

    Eight people, some from the 21st Century Business Herald’s website and others from two external public relations companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen, have been taken into custody* on suspicion of demanding money to slant* their coverage of companies.

    Two jailbreakers captured

    Local police have captured the second of three inmates* who escaped a detention center after killing a guard September 2 in Heilongjiang Province.

    Wang Daming was seized in Xinsheng Village, Yanshou County, at around 12:50 a.m. on September 4.

    Earlier, at around 8:15 p.m. on September 3, also in Yanshou County, Li Haiwei, one of the three escaped inmates, was caught near Yushan Village. The last of the three jailbreakers, Gao Yulun, remains at large.

    NCEE reform unveiled

    The highly anticipated plan to reform China’s rigid National College Entrance Examinations (NCEE) was finally unveiled by the Ministry of Education on September 4.

    Under the new proposals, university admissions will rely less on the results of the NCEE, and more on the different tests of subjects that will be scheduled throughout students’ three-year senior high school life.

    By 2020, students will need to take only three subjects.(SD-Agencies)