Nuke power plant

    China is considering construction of offshore nuclear power plants, but only under completely safe conditions, a senior nuclear official confirmed on January 27.

    The country will conduct a “careful and scientific” feasibility* review before it makes the decision, said Xu Dazhe, director of the China Atomic Energy Authority, at a press conference. As a developing country, China has a large need for energy but is under environmental stress, he said.

    Miners saved

    Four miners trapped underground for 36 days in a collapsed gypsum* mine in Shandong Province have been freed in a “miracle” rescue.

    The final operation to save the men trapped more than 200 meters underground took two hours late on Friday as they were hauled up to the surface one by one in a rescue “capsule*,” according to China Central Television. The four were among 29 trapped when the mine collapsed on December 25.

    Man cleared of murder

    A man jailed in China more than two decades ago for murder was acquitted* on Monday, the latest in a series of wrongful convictions overturned in the country.

    Chen Man was handed a suspended death sentence for killing a man on China’s southern island province Hainan in November 1994. But the high court in China’s eastern Zhejiang Province, where he was originally convicted, pronounced Chen not guilty due to lack of evidence, it said on a social media account on Monday. The case is the latest to highlight miscarriages of justice in China.

    Ponzi scam

    Chinese authorities have arrested 21 people on suspicion of defrauding* around 900,000 people of more than 50 billion yuan (US$7.6 billion), domestic media reported, after an online peer-to-peer lender turned out to be a giant Ponzi scheme*.

    Ezubao offered investors annual returns of between 9 and 14.6 percent on various projects, Xinhua News Agency reported — far more than that currently offered by Chinese banks’ wealth management products. The platform, launched in July 2014, had amassed more than 50 billion yuan by December, said the report late on Sunday.(SD-Agencies)