Payouts for firefighters’ families Each family of the firefighters who died while trying to save lives in the Tianjin blasts* will be granted 2.3 million yuan (US$360,669) in compensation*, the Beijing News said on September 10. The death toll from the Tianjin warehouse* explosions rose to 173. The firefighters were posthumously* accepted as martyrs*, and a monument will be built on the site of the blasts. Judges stabbed in court Four judges in Hubei Province were stabbed* by a man unhappy with their ruling in a labor dispute. One of the judges was stabbed in the heart and is in a critical condition in a hospital. The other three are also being treated in a hospital and are to undergo surgery, the Shanghai-based website The Paper reported. The attack happened shortly before 10 a.m. on September 9 at the intermediate* court in Shiyan, Hubei. Court apologizes A court in Anhui Province has publicly apologized to 19 people it wrongfully convicted* of financial crimes. The court said it wished to help restore the reputations of the individuals, all of whom were imprisoned in 2012 on charges of illegal fundraising*. They were accused in a single case involving China’s grey economy, which lends money to business ventures too small to obtain loans from large State banks. The court said a review of the case revealed the convictions were wrongful but didn’t explain why. College criticized A central China university has caused controversy by making its students pick their majors through a lottery* system. The auditorium at the University of South China in Hunan Province was especially crowded on the evening of September 8, when hundreds of students queued to pick their majors through luck of the draw. Lu Qinghua, an official with the school, said the school was forced to take these measures. (SD-Agencies) |