They say bad news travels fast. That Pudong gas blast we told you about on Saturday has made it to international news. The Associated Press, Reuters, the International Herald Tribune, BBC, Times of India, ABC (Australia) all reported on the blast. The AP reports that four deaths have been confirmed and more than two dozen people were injured from the explosion. Our hearts go out to the family of the 29 year old cyclist from......

Oops..we have been sitting on this a few days, all the beers and amazing shows made Shanghaiist a little loopy and unable to sit down and type. The entry below comes via Emily Moy who had a chance to sit down with Talib Kweli and Ozomatli at the Yue Festival press conference last Thursday........ Its 3:30p.m., I’m running up and down The Bund and, I’m LATE. My interviews with Talib Kweli and Ozomatli are to......

Japan's idea of 'broader Asia' partnership irks China [Sydney Morning Herald] The Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has called for a "broader Asia" partnership of democracies to include India, the US and Australia but omit the region's superpower, China. Jailed dissident's wife under house arrest in Beijing [The Guardian] The wife of jailed Chinese activist Yuan Weijing is under house arrest tonight less than 24 hours before she was due to fly to the Philippines......

Whenever there is a crisis or a natural calamity, there are the people who lose money and then there are the entrepreneurs. It seems enterprising businessmen have decided to cash in on an outbreak of rodents in the Dongting Lake area in Hunan province which saw an estimated 2 billion mice on the run from the flooded Yangtse River by taking the matter into their own hands - literally. China Daily says trucks full of......

The title of this post was going to be "What does the NBA have against the Philippines?" because we couldn't believe that ESPN Asia isn't showing the NBA Finals on our Filippino satellite system of choice necessity (the game is being televised on ABC in the US, and ABC owns ESPN). But then we looked at the schedule for ESPN Asia in Hong Kong, and it showed that ESPN Asia was televising the game there.......

Three more Metro lines to begin running this year "The city will ensure the construction of Line 6, Line 8 and the first phase of Line 9 by the end of 2007, the Shanghai Construction and Transport Commission announced." We'll see. Shanghai issues special 'tourist passport' "Shanghai issued a batch of special 'tourist passports' yesterday to provide discounts, ranging from 10 percent to 50 percent, on tickets to the city's tourist attractions." Party's over......

Editor's note: Sorry for getting this up so late in the day. But if you still happen to be stuck behind a computer, there is plenty of time left to show your love for Australia! This isn’t the latest personals ad from Shanghai’s Craiglist, but a call to all Shanghai resident Aussie cobber digger mates to celebrate Australia Day. January 26th signifies an important date in Australia’s history. For most Australians, it represents an opportunity......

There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to face the facts — that not every (alpha) dog has his day; that haters gon hate; that open bar doesn’t always mean what you think it means. And that all ABCs just looove Guandii. Well, not this ABC. Sure, one could chalk it up to difference in opinion, or taste in hip-hop, or a simple case of sour grapes (not picking up enough......

It seems the Australian Broadcasting Corporation follows the tried-and-true inverted pyramid format for writing news stories ... only sometimes they leave out the "inverted" part. Take this story about Xue-Jun Wang, a Sydney Dance Company dancer, for example. He was in Shanghai to perform Mulan, a collaborative project with the Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble (the show will go on Oct. 18-19 at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, by the way). And yesterday, Wang got......