January 8, 2008
At a provincial meeting yesterday, Huang Huahua, governor of Guangdong Province, requested that the problem of pensions for employees who have retired from state-owned enterprises be resolved by paying them a lump sum. This news item is the top headline of today’s Southern Metropolis Daily.
The paper’s front page photo shows a massive traffic accident that occurred early last morning on the Yuzhan Expressway in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province. The accident involved two loaded buses and a tanker truck and resulted in ten deaths and fifty injuries, twelve of them serious. The preliminary investigation revealed that main reasons were overloading, speed, and driver fatigue.
Other headlines:
• Yesterday, a film crew shot a firefighting sequence at Jinye Plaza in downtown Guangzhou. The shoot took place during the morning rush hour, causing mammoth four-hour traffic jam. According to the article, the film is Firemen (烈火男儿), starring popular TV actor Wang Baoqiang.
• The State Council published new a regulation to crack down on the misuse and hoarding of land resources. The regulation says that the government may take back land that has been idle for two years.