Ex-official stands trial

    A former top Chinese economic planning official went on trial on September 24 for taking bribes worth US$5.6 million, the latest episode in the country’s anti-corruption campaign.

    Liu Tienan, the former deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, was indicted* for taking 35.58 million yuan (US$5.6) in bribes, said a statement posted by the Langfang Intermediate People’s Court in Hebei Province.

    7 punished over stampede

    Seven officials have been punished for negligence* after a stampede* on Friday left six pupils dead and 26 injured at a primary school in Kunming of Yunnan Province.

    A deputy head of the city’s education bureau and a vice chief of Panlong District have been suspended* due to “serious dereliction* of duty” while another three people, including the head of Mingtong Primary School, have also been suspended, the local government said at a press conference on Saturday afternoon.

    4 kids killed

    A man killed four primary school students on Friday in the southern region of Guangxi, in the latest of a series of knife attacks that have unnerved* the country.

    Police have launched a manhunt for the assailant*, a middle-aged man, Xinhua said, citing the public security bureau in Lingshan County in the Guangxi region. The man attacked the children as they were on their way to school, Xinhua said. Three of them died at the scene and one died later at a nearby hospital.

    Sit-in puts HK on halt

    The daily lives of many people in Hong Kong have been disrupted by the blockades staged by protestors in various districts as thousands of activists continue to occupy major roads in the central business area of the city.

    The sit-ins* on thoroughfares* took off on Sunday afternoon, hours after the “Occupy Central” organizers announced a kickoff.

    Protesters called for withdrawal of the decision on Hong Kong’s constitutional development made by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee last month.(SD-Agencies)