UNDER CONTROL Firefighters put out a fire in Wuhan, capital city of Hubei Province in central China. The fire broke out in a nine-story building on February 2 on Hanzheng Street, a century-old commercial street. At least 10 people were injured (XIONG JINCHAO)

Jobless Migrant Workers

About 20 million of China's migrant workers have returned home after losing their jobs as the global financial crisis takes a toll on the economy, said a senior official on February 2.

Chen Xiwen, Director of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Rural Work, said about 15.3 percent of the 130 million migrant workers had returned jobless from cities to the countryside.

His remarks came a day after the Central Government issued its No. 1 document this year, which warned 2009 would be "possibly the toughest year" since the turn of the century in terms of securing economic development and consolidating "sound development momentum" in agriculture and rural areas.

The country's economic growth slowed to 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, dragging down the annual rate to a seven-year low of 9 percent.

Power Glut

China will see a continuous power glut in 2009 as the global economic downturn forces factories to scale back output and electricity consumption, according to a report released by the China Electricity Council (CEC) on February 4.

Chinese power enterprises will experience their toughest days in the first two quarters of 2009. Falling demand is expected, the CEC report said.

Power consumption is likely to resume growth in the third quarter, fueled by recovery in the export-oriented eastern and southern coastal areas, the powerhouses of the Chinese economy. That will drive up demand in central and western regions in the fourth quarter, according to the report.

Annual power consumption is likely to register 5-percent growth this year, said Wang Yonggan, General Secretary of the CEC.

High-Level Graft

A senior banker at the state-run China Development Bank has been sacked for taking bribes, the Communist Party of China (CPC)'s disciplinary watchdog said on February 4.

Wang Yi, vice president of the bank, was removed from his official post and stripped of his CPC membership for "severe violation of discipline and the law," said the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the ruling party's internal anti-graft body.

Investigations showed that Wang had abused his office to make profits for others and accepted large amounts of money in return, the commission said, without detailing the sums involved.

He was also found to have taken advantage of his post to make profits for his relatives' businesses, the CPC said.

Wang's case has been referred to prosecutors and he could face criminal charges. The money he made from illegal dealings has been confiscated, the CPC said.

Deadly Drug

China's Ministry of Public Security issued an order on February 5 to arrest the main suspect involved in the sale of a fake diabetes drug that last month killed two patients and hospitalized nine others in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Li Dong, the main suspect at large, was born in 1970 in the northeastern Liaoning Province. He is believed to have sold the fake drug to many places in China.

The drug, branded "Tang Zhi Ning Jiao Nang," was confirmed to contain six times the normal dose of glibenclamide, which is used to help lower blood sugar.

Local police have arrested five other suspects in Xinjiang for selling the deadly drug.