• 2,000 sex-related ads dropped from Chinese television and radio [People's Daily]
  About 2,000 advertisements adjudged to be sexually suggestive have been dropped from television and radio broadcast across China over the past two weeks, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said on Wednesday.


• Work on Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail to start by end of 2007 [AFP]
  Work on a long-awaited high-speed rail linking Beijing and Shanghai is expected to start by late 2007, with a budget that could exceed initial estimates by 50 percent.


• Tiananmen generation could rule China [The Telegraph]
  The prospect of Communist China being ruled by a leader with links to the Tiananmen Square uprising is looming as the party decides next week who will form the new generation of Beijing's elite.


• China Activist Detained Before Congress [AP]
  Authorities in central China have detained a longtime democracy campaigner, Yao Lifa, in a security clampdown ahead of the Communist Party congress this month, his son and another activist said Wednesday.


• China Closes Christian-Linked Businesses [AP]
  China has closed two businesses whose owners allegedly sought Christian converts in a traditionally Muslim region and also revoked the visa of an American citizen for illegal proselytizing, a rights group said Wednesday.


• China Has 106 Billionaires, Up From 15 Last Year [Bloomberg]
  China has 106 billionaires, up from 15 last year, as surging stocks boost the wealth of the nation's richest people, according to the Shanghai-based Hurun Report.


• Starbucks recalls 250,000 plastic cups [Reuters]
  Starbucks Corporation, the world’s biggest coffee shop chain, recalled 250,000 children’s plastic cups made in China after receiving reports of the cups breaking and posing a choking hazard.

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