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Police in the eastern province of Zhejiang have arrested the owner of a hotel where a fire killed 11 people last Friday for neglect of safety procedures.

Technically classified as a “major work safety accident,” the charge is that the owner, surnamed Cheng, failed to perform safety inspections and take preventive steps under regulations related to hotel operations.

The police in Yiwu, a city in central Zhejiang, concluded through their investigation that Cheng “didn’t have prevention measures, and he failed to spot the hidden safety dangers in time so as to plug in the loopholes accordingly, which constituted an important factor for the fire disaster,” said a leading police officer.

If convicted, Cheng could face up to seven years in prison.

A fire broke out at 1:50 a.m. on Feb. 15 at the four-story Chengshuai Hotel operated by Cheng in Yiting Town, Yiwu. Investigators determined that the blaze was caused by the ignition of aging electrical lines.

The fierce fire started on the first floor where there were dining areas, according to a witness.

Firefighters rescued 23 people, of whom 15 were hospitalized. Eleven of those — six women and five men — died due to suffocation. Among the dead was Cheng’s daughter. His wife sustained serious injuries.

Most of the other dead were young migrant workers.

Yiwu, about 150 kilometers southwest of Hangzhou, the provincial capital, is the country’s largest production and distribution center for fashion accessories. More than 1,400 enterprises with nearly 90,000 employees make necklaces, earrings, rings, brooches and ties.

Shortly after last Friday’s fire, Yiwu launched a city-wide inspection of all public venues, and those found to have safety risks were ordered to fix the problem or face closure.

A recent analysis of remnants from a Viking woman’s grave dating back to 10th-century Russia suggests a bolder, more revealing mode of feminine fashion that included colored-silk gowns with eye-catching metallic breast coverings and long trains prior to the arrival of Christianity.

“Now we can say the pre-Christian dress code was very rich,” textiles researcher Annika Larsson of Uppsala University in Sweden told LiveScience. “When Christianity came, the dress was more like that of nuns. There was a big difference.”

The findings here apply to the Swedish Vikings, who mostly traveled east into modern-day Russia and further on to Byzantium and beyond from 750. A.D. to 1050 A.D (the Viking Age), rather than the Danish/Norwegian Vikings who went westward.

“Textile research can tell us more about the state of society than research into traditions. Old rituals can live on long after society has changed, but when trade routes are cut off, there’s an immediate impact on clothing fashions,” Larsson said.

Larsson discovered a blue silk dress and associated ornaments in a grave in the Russian region of Pskov, close to Novgorod and the eastern trade routes then plied by Vikings from Sweden. She said the dress was positioned in the grave as a gift likely to be worn in an afterlife.

Until now, anthropological evidence showed a Viking woman wearing an apron on top of a linen robe. The apron consisted of two rectangular pieces of cloth, in which strings on the back panel attached to the front with brooches. The outfit was completed with an outer woolen shawl or sweater.

The new finding reveals instead that a Viking woman’s dress consisted of a single piece of fabric with an opening in the front. A pair of brooches, or clasps, was situated on top of the breasts to accentuate the wearer’s figure.

“It’s easy to imagine that the Christian church had certain reservations about clothing that accentuated the breasts in this way and, what’s more, exposed the under shift in front,” Larsson said. “It’s also possible that this clothing was associated with pre-Christian rituals and was therefore forbidden” once Christianity became established.

After nearly 50 years without a medal, Singapore is pinning its Olympic dreams on a China-born table tennis player who says she loves playing the piano more than her sport.

Li Jia Wei, 26, the captain of a team ranked eighth in the world by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), hopes to win a medal in Beijing next month with a squad of 10, eight of whom were born in China.

In a well-lit sports hall full of bright blue playing tables, Li’s 1.73m, willowy frame stiffens and her pixie-like face darkens when she whips the ball over the net.

Although each serve is filled with power and spin, Li admits she does not play the game with passion.

“I don’t like the game. I just did it when I was younger to condition my body,” she said. “Now it is my career and I have to face it.”

She is, however, committed to giving her best in Beijing. “If I didn’t think getting a medal was possible there’s no use going to play,” she said. “Getting a gold medal will be very, very difficult because of the China team.”

Half of the world’s top-10 female players are from China, but there would be no torn loyalties during the Games for those on the Singapore team, said Beijing-born Li.

“I go back to China often to compete. In terms of representing Singapore, I came here when I was 13 or 14 and every step of my development was given to me by Singapore. So when I take part in competitions I will try my best,” she said.

Singapore, a Southeast Asian city of 4.6 million people, has never won a gold medal at the Games and the closest it got was a silver for men’s weightlifting in 1960.

By contrast, China’s top table tennis player Zhang Yining, who is ranked the No 1 female player in the world, is a hot favorite for a gold medal in Beijing. She won two gold medals in Athens for the singles and doubles events four years ago.

Li almost had a glory finish in Athens but she lost the bronze medal to South Korean Kim Kyung-ah.

Despite living in Singapore for 13 years, Li speaks little English and prefers to converse in her native Mandarin. Talent-scouted in Beijing when she was 14 by Singaporean officials, Li was whisked away to the city-state for training, returning to China only once a year to see her parents.

Li, now a Singapore citizen, is one of many foreign-born athletes groomed under Singapore’s Foreign Sports Talent Scheme.

Under the scheme, children from overseas are brought into Singapore under contracts to train. Once they are good enough, they trade in their home-country citizenship to play for the city-state in international competitions.

“We try to look for young, talented players below the age of 16 so that we have time to groom them technically and help them assimilate to the society,” said Jackie Tay, director of the Singapore Table Tennis Association.

Youth development

Critics say the scheme cuts out local talent in sports and is a shortcut to obtaining medals.

Singapore is not alone in this tactic, with other countries such as the Netherlands also fielding a highly ranked China-born table tennis player.

“The Singapore Sports Council encourages the national sports associations to think long-term, focus on local youth development and to see the recruitment of foreign talent as a short-term initiative to raise the standards in Singapore,” said Wayde Clews of the Singapore Sports Council.

Li may not be the best ambassador for encouraging youngsters. After 20 years of playing table tennis, she looks bored when talking about the sport, but mention shopping or playing the piano and her face brightens instantly.

“I like playing Fur Elise,” she said, referring to the piano solo by Beethoven, adding that she was taking piano lessons in Singapore.

Recognizing that sports is a career not kind to age, Li, who turns 27 on Aug 9, said that she might stop playing professionally in a few years.

“If there was an Olympics every year I may still play, but in four years I will be old and I have more important things to do with my life.”

Economic cooperation is the priority of the Chinese mainland-Taiwan relations at present and in the near future, said the mainland’s Taiwan affairs chief Wang Yi on Sunday.

Wang, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks when he met with Chiang Pin-Kung and his negotiating delegation from the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).

Wang said the three agreements and one consensus reached during this round of talks between the mainland’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the SEF indicate new progress of cross-Strait talks and “new achievement” in cross-Strait relations.

During the talks here Sunday, the ARATS and the SEF signed three agreements on launching regular flights and boosting cooperation in finance and handling criminal proceedings.

They also reached a consensus on allowing mainland companies to invest in Taiwan.

“The goal of economic normalization between the two sides is being realized,” said Wang, also director of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office.

However, promoting peaceful development of cross-straits relations “could neither be accomplished in a single action, nor through an always plain sailing process,” he said.

“The two sides should seek step-by-step and comprehensive development of cross-straits relations by putting economy first, and gradually tackle difficult problems on the basis of mutual trust,” he said.

He hoped the two sides to boost institutionalization of cross-straits economic relations as soon as possible, including inking an agreement on cross-straits economic cooperation.

The two sides should also enhance exchanges in culture, education, science and technology, and between teenagers on both sides of the Taiwan Straits, he said, to boost mutual understanding and pave way for further development of cross-strait ties.

Wang warned that there were still inherent contradictions, differences, and sensitive political and military issues in cross-straits relations.

“We should in fair weather prepare for foul, and gradually accumulate consensus and create favorable conditions for solving these complicated and sensitive issues,” he said.

Fostering mutual trust was the most important factor among others, he said, noting that the basis of mutual trust was opposing “Taiwan independence” and adhering to the “1992 Consensus”.