Today's Links: Polluted rivers, spam and airport stenches

• Chinese portal penalised for mocking mentally ill
  A Chinese website has been ordered to pay $2,631 in compensation for publishing photographs of a mentally challenged 63-year-old man dressed up like a teenage girl.


• China plans highway on Mount Everest
  China plans to build a highway on the side of Mount Everest to ease the Olympic torch's journey to the peak of the world's tallest mountain before the 2008 Beijing Games, state media reported Tuesday. Shanghaiist wonders how that ties in together with the idea of a green Olympics. And oh, by the way, a top Tibetan official has lauded the plan.


• Microsoft to buy stake in Chinese TV manufacturer
  Microsoft agreed to buy a stake in a major Chinese television manufacturer as part of plans to broaden the market for its software that connects televisions to the Internet.


• Chinese giant Sun Ming Ming set to play in Mexico
  Sun Ming, at 7'9", is the world's second tallest man and is still working towards his dream of playing in the NBA.


• Polluted Chinese river hospitalises 61
  More than 60 people had to be treated in hospital for a severe skin reaction after coming into contact with a polluted Chinese river, state media reported Wednesday.


• First anti-spam platform online In China
  For all that have been suffering with non-delivered e-mails and server down-time here might come the promising solution.


• Airport stench may come from fermenting pit
  A foul smell hovering at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport may have come from a nearby fermenting pit that farmers used to produce organic feed, Shanghai Morning Post reported today.


• Pulitzer-nominated play to stage in Shanghai
  "The Dining Room" which was first shown in New York in 1982 and earned author A.R. Gurney a Pulitzer Prize nomination opens locally today and promises its audience a humorous and compassionate performance.

For more del.icio.us. links, visit the Shanghaiist Contribute page, which is updated throughout the day.

*Image from sports.sina.com.