Garbage dumping case Police in Jiangsu Province have detained 19 suspects for allegedly dumping a massive volume of garbage on the banks of Taihu Lake in Suzhou. Since mid-June, more than 12,000 metric tons of garbage were shipped from Shanghai to a dumping site near a drug rehabilitation* clinic in the Suzhou Taihu National Tourism Vacation Zone. Police said the plan was to dump more than 3 million tons of waste at a cost of 5.4 yuan (US$0.8) per ton, over an 18-month period. Passport slur China denounced on July 27 reports that a Vietnam border agent wrote the f-word on the pages of a Chinese national’s passport which indicated the nine-dash line, calling it a “cowardly conduct” and that it hurt Chinese dignity. China’s Consulate General in the Vietnamese capital of Ho Chi Minh City urged the country’s foreign affairs authorities to investigate and seriously deal with the person who wrote the word on the passport, and to prevent similar incidents, chinanews.com reported. Visa rule The Argentinian Government announced on July 27 that Chinese tourists, already owning a valid tourism visa for the United States or the European Union (EU), will no longer need a separate tourist visa for Argentina. According to the government’s official Gazette, President Mauricio Marci signed into law a decree* stating that Chinese travelers must have an Electronic Travel Authorization for either of those two regions, which costs US$50. Law enforcement In a move widely praised by Internet users, the Ministry of Public Security announced on July 26 that people can take photos or shoot videos of on-duty police officers. As long as it does not interfere with law enforcement work, police should not stop onlookers from recording the police work, the ministry said during a police training course. If the cases are related to State secrets and juveniles, police should tell people not to shoot and to delete the footage voluntarily, otherwise, they will be held responsible. (SD-Agencies) | 