Beijing

US man injured in knife attack

A US man was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant in downtown Beijing on Wednesday afternoon, according to local police.

The man was stabbed in the buttocks by a 61-year-old Chinese man in Qianmen, located just south of Tian'anmen Square, at 3:40 pm, the Beijing municipal public security bureau said in a statement.

The injured man has been sent to a hospital for treatment.

Suspect Wang Taicun, a native of East China's Shandong province, was arrested in the area an hour later.

Heilongjiang

Bus kills two in Harbin

Two women were killed and one injured when a bus hit them after running onto a sidewalk in Harbin, Heilongjiang province on Wednesday, traffic police announced.

One woman died immediately and another succumbed after treatment failed. The injured woman is still receiving treatment in hospital, according to the municipal traffic police.

An initial investigation shows that the bus ran a red light before the crash at 12:30 pm, traffic police said.

Beijing

Rural youth get food funds

The Chinese central government has allocated 7.63 billion yuan ($1.21 billion) in meal subsidies to improve nutrition for rural elementary and junior middle school students, the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday.

The subsidies will benefit the area's 25.42 million rural students, according to a statement posted on the ministry's website.

The ministry said the money should only be used for providing nourishing meals to rural students during the spring semester, urging local authorities to properly manage the funds and not misappropriate them.

Hubei

Thick fog delays 570 ships

Periods of heavy fog have left more than 570 ships stranded on sections of the Yangtze River near both the Three Gorges Dam and the Gezhouba Dam in Yichang, in Central China's Hubei province.

Since the beginning of May, foggy weather has engulfed the area 11 times, halting navigation on the Three Gorges Dam and Gezhouba Dam sections for a total of 127 hours and 95 hours, respectively, according to the navigation department of Yichang.

Due to the heavy fog, the operational efficiency of the Gezhouba Dam has seen a 45 percent decrease compared to the annual average.

Xinhua

(China Daily 05/17/2012 page2)