IN BRIEF (Page 25)

Low-carbon alliance

Tsinghua University, Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology formed an alliance on Sunday to develop low-carbon technologies and combat climate change.

The universities will hold joint research projects on clean coal, carbon capture, low energy building, urban planning, industrial energy saving, and bio-fuels.

Two experts from each university will form a panel to decide on the research direction and funding, and monitor cooperation.

H1N1 mother gives birth

An A/H1N1 patient in intensive care gave birth to a boy at the You'an Hospital last week, the Beijing Daily reported yesterday. The heavily pregnant woman, surnamed Hu, arrived at the Xuanwu Hospital with a high fever on Nov 5. The hospital found that she had contracted the virus and she was transferred to You'an Hospital where severe patients are treated.

The woman delivered the infant on Nov 6. The boy was not infected with the virus and the mother was treated. The mother and the baby left the hospital last week.

Cancer patient kills himself

A cancer patient committed suicide in Xisanqi, Haidian district, on a railway track on Sunday, the Beijing Times reported yesterday.

The man was a lung cancer patient who could not afford treatment, the newspaper said. The man was reported to be in the area visiting his sister.

A railway worker who witnessed the accident said the man was walking alongside the track before he jumped in the path of an oncoming train. He was killed immediately.

Food vendors protest

More than a dozen stall operators at a food court in Qianmen stopped business on Sunday, claiming their property owner had cheated them, the Beijing News reported yesterday. The stall operators said when they signed the rental contracts in July they were told that employees from 104 shops on Qianmen Avenue and tourists from more than 100 tourist agencies would dine at the food court. However, business dropped sharply after the National Day holiday.

The Qianmen Avenue Administrative Committee is investigating the case.

(China Daily 11/17/2009 page25)