Extra! Extra! Lacrimosa, direct flights to New York, and bad you tiao

• Everyone that loves pralines should know where Montargis, France is. But little known is the role it played in the birth of the Chinese Communist Party. in the early 20th century.
• As of December 8, you will be able to take a direct flight from Shanghai to New York. The catch: it's with China Eastern. Four US airlines are in the process of applying and should be able to provide service in 2007. Plus, Chinese airlines are raising the fuel surcharge on international flights, especially long distance ones.
• A Washington Post columnist from Hong Kong tells us about self-censorship in the Hong Kong press before, during, and after the handover.
• There are an estimated 400,000 stray cats in Beijing, and a good number of them are going to get rounded up before the Olympics.
• On October 15, you can get your goth on: the German duo Lacrimosa is putting on a concert in Shanghai. Don't know who they are? One site describes them thus: "Lacrimosa's music is dark, melodious, ambient and symphonic in what could be described as Darkwave / Doom metal with forays into progressive, even heavy metal."
• The first Shanghai-Tibet bound trains take off on October 1, and among the passengers on the train will be 33 security personnel who will equipped with weapons and whatever else is necessary to keep passengers safe.
• You can feel safe eating sushi in Shanghai, but we'd advise against eating you tiao in the streetunless you've already got Alzheimer's.
• According to an article in a Korean paper about a research report from the UK's Sheffield University (confused yet?) China will "return to the Han dynasty" in 2015. What that means is that in 2015 China will own 27% of the world's wealth, which is just about the 26% it owned back in the Han dynasty. Yeah, we don't get it either.
• A report about global competitiveness ranked Switzerland in the top spot, with Finland and Sweden taking other top spots. The US slid from number one to number six. Singapore and Japan lead Asia, with India at 43 and China at 54.
• Chongqing is now demanding mandatory AIDS testing for known sex workers -- before they had to be tested for other STDs, but not AIDS.
• In 2005, 11071 people were stripped of their membership in the Communist Party. This number represents 1.6% of the members of the Party, but the report stresses that not all of these people faced this punishment because of corruption -- some committed more run of the mill crimes.
• East China University of Science and Technology are experiencing one of the downsides of science and technology: more video camera surveillance all over their Xuhui campus.
• The city's elevated roads are sinking!

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