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Couple start huge forest fire with fireworks

Police have identified a couple who started a raging forest fire, burning nearly 7,000 square meters in Dongyuan county in Guangdong province on Sunday. The police said the couple were taking photos of fireworks that later ignited the blaze. The couple's names were not released. They were arrested on site by the police. It took more than 200 firefighters two hours to put out the fire. Many netizens criticized the couple's behavior as dangerous and irresponsible.

Most parents back punishment by teachers

About 90 percent of parents of primary and middle school students in China believe that teachers should punish students for misconduct, according to a recent survey by China Youth Daily. Over 70 percent of the 2,005 respondents said that if teachers did not punish students, it would be to the detriment of the students because their misconduct did not lead to the correct punishment. The difficulty in defining appropriate punishment to prevent physical punishment is a factor that makes the matter complicated, said Yang Xiong, director of the youth research institute under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Last month, the Ministry of Education issued a draft regulation aiming to give schoolteachers the right to punish students for minor violations of school rules, such as requiring them to stand for up to 40 minutes to reflect on their behavior.