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Duck and Cover: Guangdong to Host Nuclear Disaster Drill Next Year

Posted: 05/15/2014 9:57 am

A national-level safety drill simulating a nuclear disaster will be conducted in Guangdong Province next year, reports People’s Daily.

Code-named “Heavenly Shield”, the drill is the first to be held on a national scale since 2009.

Details such as location and scheduling were not made available. Huang Min, a nuclear safety coordinator with the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, said the drill would simulate an incident during the refueling process whereby depleted uranium fuel rods are replaced with new ones.

According to a preliminary plan, Guangdong Province was chosen to be the site of next year’s drill because of its long history in civilian nuclear power use.

Guangdong has three nuclear power plants in operation at Daya Bay, Lingao and Yangjiang. Combining those in operation and under construction, the province has more nuclear reactors than anywhere else in China.

The Daya Bay nuclear plant is the oldest nuclear power plant currently operating in China.

China conducted its last national nuclear safety drill in Lianyungang, Jiangsu in 2009. The drill simulated a reactor leak and tested the ability of military and government agencies to contain the leak while local residents rehearsed evacuation procedures.

Photo: Wordtotheys

Haohao

Dongguan sees Guangdong’s first H7N9 death

Posted: 01/8/2014 7:00 am

A man in Dongguan who was suffering from the H7N9 avian flu died on Monday night after suffering multiple organ failure. The Guangdong Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission confirmed the news yesterday, a day which also saw Shenzhen confirm another case of the virus, Xinhua reports.

Mr. He, 39, was diagnosed with the disease last month and 53 of his close contacts in Dongguan were put under medical surveillance. After battling the disease for three weeks, He succumbed at 11:20 on Monday night.

Then yesterday, a 31 year-old Shenzhen local was confirmed to have tested positive for the disease. He lives on Jiefang Road in Luohu District and it is not yet known whether he had been exposed to live poultry. The man took ill on Dec. 30 and was taken into Bao’an District People’s Hospital on Jan. 3 where he was given Tamiflu.

Shenzhen City Health Department has reported that he is in a stable condition. Thirty-five of his close contacts were put under medical surveillance but all have so far tested negative for the disease.

Guangdong has now seen 9 cases and 1 death. There have been 2 in Shenzhen, 1 in Foshan, 1 in Huizhou, 2 in Dongguan and 3 in Yangjiang.

Haohao

Guangdong first province in China with GDP exceeding US$1 trillion

Posted: 01/2/2014 10:00 am

With its growth of 8.5%, Guangdong became the first Chinese province to exceed US$1 trillion in GDP in 2013, Sohu Business reported yesterday. It was at the same time the first to exceed 6 billion RMB.

Wang Yiyang, director of the Guangdong Provincial Development Research Centre attributed the success to development in regions outside of the Pearl River Delta such as the western and northern parts of the province.

This development includes high speed rail projects and the approval of new urban development plans in some of the more remote cities. This meant that a city like Yangjiang could exceed the national average in per capita GDP growth for the first time.

In 2012, Guangdong’s gross regional product increased by 10.2 percent year-on-year to reach 5.7 trillion yuan. It leads the way again this year.

Haohao

Shenzhen man in critical condition with H7N9

Posted: 12/20/2013 7:00 am

Shenzhen has reported its first, and Guangdong’s sixth, case of a human infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu, The Standard reports. The 38 year-old man surnamed Ou is in a critical condition.

Ou went to a clinic in Longgang District’s Nanling Village on Dec. 9 with a fever and a cough. On December 17, a sample from the patient tested positive for the H7N9 avian influenza virus at the Shenzhen Disease Control and Prevention Centre. The results were confirmed by provincial authorities one day later. He is now at Shenzhen No 3 People’s Hospital.

On Wednesday, Yangjiang was found to have its second and Guangdong’s fifth case. The 62 year-old male patient is also in a critical condition.

Guangdong appeared to have been out of the woods when the province’s first sufferer was discharged from hospital in early September. However, the province’s approach to containing the virus has been far from exemplary.

Haohao

Guangdong confirms 3rd and 4th cases of H7N9 bird flu

Posted: 12/17/2013 7:00 am

After H7N9 bird flu was found at Shenzhen wet markets last week, two more people in the province were diagnosed with the virus over the past two days. Both are in a critical condition.

Shanghaiist reported yesterday that a Dongguan man was in a critical condition and being treated at Guangzhou Medical University’s First Affiliated Hospital. Then provincial health authorities announced last night that a 65 year-old woman in Yangjiang was confirmed to be the fourth case.

South China Morning Post has more:

Authorities said clinical experts had been sent to Yangjiang by the commission to provide medical guidance and conduct an epidemiological investigation.

A total of 142 human cases of H7N9 bird flu have been confirmed so far in China, including 51 cases in Zhejiang, 33 in Shanghai, 28 in Jiangsu and a handful of cases across Jiangxi, Fujian, Anhui, and Henan provinces.

Shandong, Hunan and Beijing have confirmed two cases H7N9 cases and a solitary case has been confirmed in Hebei.

Now is really the time for authorities to make sure public health is prioritised over business interests.

Haohao

Suspect detained following billionaire CEO’s death by poisoned cat

Posted: 01/3/2012 9:49 am

Police in Yangjiang announced yesterday, writes Southern Metropolis Daily (SMD), that a suspect has been detained in connection with the death last month of billionaire CEO and Guangdong provincial people’s congress delegate, Long Liyuan.

The case attracted attention because Long’s death occurred immediately after he and two associates dropped into a well-known local restaurant for some cat hotpot on December 23.

Earlier that day, Long was with friend Huang Wen when the two men came across Huang Guang, the deputy director of a local Agriculture and Forestry Bureau office who wanted to sell off some prime forest land on one hill in his Bajia town. The three spent a few hours checking out the site, then went off for dinner.

Prior to this, SMD writes, Long had partnered with Huang Guang on a number of different occasions, seeking his help in purchasing wooded hill land, buttering up officials and to obtain planning permits and public funds for construction. Long, or his development firm, or both, seems to have paid Huang a total of 3.5 mln RMB for various services, but Huang Guang had reportedly recently become increasingly intent on settling other debts, even texting Long his bank account info, which later was used to establish Huang’s motive.

At the restaurant, after food had been ordered, Huang stepped out to take a phone call, at which time he seems to have snuck down to the kitchen. He tasted the cat meat, saying it needed to boil longer, then asked the owner of the restaurant to go fetch him three bottled beverages. Her husband then went out to buy cigarettes, which is when Huang is now suspected to have slipped in some gelsemium elegans, a species of a poisonous flower. When the food arrived, Huang kept eating along with Long and Huang Wen.

Huang Guang, unfazed by his hospital food

Long was taken to a nearby clinic, where he died soon after. The two Huangs were then taken to a hospital in the city where both survived, but Huang Guang himself was left unable to speak and drifting in and out of consciousness for several days.

In a December 28 interview with SMD, Huang said:

Long Liyuan and I have been friends for many years, and he has made a great contribution to Bajia’s economic development. Speaking both as a friend and as a civil servant within the Bajia town government, I can say that Long’s death leaves me in great sadness.

During the meal, Long’s friend, Huang Wen, is said to have mentioned that the cat meat tasted off, bitter, even joking that it might have been poisoned. The restaurant owner was called in and tried a piece, saying that too much seasoning might have been added. Apparently a very smooth operator, Huang Guang chipped in, adding that in his experience, in a dish which has been poisoned, ginger slices will darken. The ginger was still yellow, so they kept on eating.

According to China Daily, the restaurant owner was detained by police for “manufacturing and selling unsanitary food” and following Long’s death, his family offered a ransom of 100,000 RMB for any information relating to his death.

Haohao
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