World’s largest seaplane

    China has completed production of a massive amphibious* aircraft that it plans to use to fight forest fires and perform marine rescue missions.

    The AG600 rolled off a production line in the southern city of Zhuhai on Saturday, in what aviation observers see as a milestone for the country. The aircraft has a maximum takeoff weight of 53.5 tons, a maximum cruising speed of 500 km per hour, a maximum flight range of 4,500 km, and a maximum endurance of 12 hours, according to State aircraft maker the Aviation Industry Corporation of China.

    Economic fugitive

    China’s “most wanted” economic fugitive Yang Xiuzhu has reportedly given up her application for political asylum* in the United States and plans to return to China as soon as possible.

    Speaking on her behalf, Yang’s lawyer Vlad Kuzmin said as medical provision in U.S. jails was poor and her application for asylum had been postponed for eight months, Yang hoped to return to China to gain access to better medical treatment. Kuzmin said Yang could return as soon as this August.

    Bus driver

    The driver of the bus that caught fire and left 26 people dead in Taiwan on July 19 might have gone into coma after inhaling* poisonous smoke, said prosecutors in Taoyuan district.

    According to local media reports, the post mortem* showed that the driver’s respiratory tract was burnt and choked, a sign that he possibly inhaled high temperature smoke, prosecutors said. They said the driver was possibly poisoned by carbon monoxide* and fell into coma and lost control of the bus. Some eyewitnesses have claimed that the bus kept going for 1,000 meters after catching fire and the driver did not open the emergency exits in time.

    Man destroying Great Wall

    A six-second video of a man knocking two bricks off a section of the Great Wall of China has caused a stir online, with netizens expressing strong criticism, the Legal Evening News reported on July 19.

    The short-haired man, who wore a white shirt, light grey shorts and brown sandals, screamed nine times in six seconds as he knocked off one brick with his hands and another with a kick of his right foot.(SD-Agencies)