Former Shanghai Party Chief Sacked

The former Shanghai Party chief Chen Liangyu was expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) and dismissed from all government posts, the CPC Central Committee announced on July 26.

Chen's case has been handed over to prosecutors, a CPC Central Committee press release said. The CPC Political Bureau, the highest decision-making body of the Party, reviewed the investigation report on Chen's case.

The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection was in charge of the probe that began in September 2006.

Chen was accused of misusing his power to favor the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Labor and Social Security and illegally granted huge loans from the Shanghai social security fund to private companies.

Religion Celebration

Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu called on members of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) to assist the government's drive to build a harmonious society while addressing a meeting marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the association.

Hui said that in the past 50 years, the association has achieved a lot in training the young, enhancing exchanges with foreign counterparts, maintaining the lawful rights of Catholics and promoting public welfare undertakings.

The CCPA has funded the building of nearly 70 elementary schools, about 30 kindergartens and more than 200 medical clinics across the country, statistics show.

China has seen Catholic believers swell from fewer than 2 million a century ago to more than 5.3 million at present.

Taste Space Life

Ordinary Chinese may soon be able to have a taste of the astronaut life when food designed for China's astronauts lands in supermarkets.

The Scientific Research and Training Center for Chinese Astronauts and a Shanghai food company have developed chocolate and desserts for astronauts and the products will be on the shelves by the end of the year, said Chen Bin, head of the center's food and nutrition branch.

"The two items will also be added to the space menu for the next manned space flight Shenzhou 7, the third in China's manned space program in 2008," said Chen, who calls himself "the space chef."

Chen's center has developed more than 60 space dishes, including staple foods, meat and vegetable dishes, fruit and desserts. It began cooperating with food companies on mass production in 2006.

Panda Births

A seven-year-old giant panda gave birth to twin cubs on July 23 in a panda research center in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The cubs, one male and one female, were born between 5:50 p.m. and 6:20 p.m. Weighing 200 grams and 176 grams, respectively, they are relatively overweight compared with other newborns, according to Zhang Zhihe, Director of the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center.

Seven-year-old "Chengji" became a mother for the first time and she was exhausted after 15 hours of labor, the center said.

It was the second time in one month that twins were born. Another set of twin cubs were born at the center on July 5.

Camera Zone Marked

Signs depicting a "black eye" will be put up next month at camera monitored venues in Beijing, accompanied by a warning in Chinese and English that says, "You are entering a camera-monitored zone."

The signs will be posted to remind people to mind their behavior and protect their privacy in public places.

Before the 2008 Olympics, all monitoring cameras in the city's public places will come under a unified three-tier management system at the municipal, district and street levels, no matter what departments the cameras previously belonged to.

The municipal transport, public security, public utility and city order maintenance departments all have their own cameras.

According to the municipal public security bureau, suspicious acts or objects detected by the cameras automatically will be reported to the command center.