Extra! Extra! 5-star hotels, fast trains and business horoscopes

• The JW Marriott is now officially Shanghai's 25th five-star hotel. Shanghai has 40 four-star hotels and 125 three-star hotels. But ... 23 of the city's hotels were just de-listed from the star-ranking system
• Shanghai's Maglev train may eventually link the Pudong and Hongqiao airports. Also, two more highways heading to the Pudong airport are set to be built.
• A woman is Sichuan died from the bird flu. Seven of the 10 humans in China who have contracted the disease have died.
• Unemployment is down in Shanghai -- that is if you trust government statistics.
• Get your business horoscope for the Year of the Dog from some guy named Master Sang. If you are a rooster, you are screwed. (But take Master Sang's word with a wok full of salt. Here is one of his insights for 2006: “2006 will not be a stable year,” he warns. “We will experience fighting and clashes around the world.”)
• Forbes weighs in on Shanghai's property market: "[R]ather than a bursting bubble, the city's property market seems merely to be cooling down."
• China has 21,000 chemical plants along its rivers and coastline. They represent a "ticking environmental time bomb." Said one government official, "If a problem arises, the consequences could be unthinkable."
• What happened to the benches in front of Shanghai Center?
• China's Top 100 Websites ... from January 1, 2001.

Photo of the JW Marriott in Shanghai.