Society

China Telecom Shanghai office building caught on fire at 13:30 19th Apr. 2011, on the first day of Shanghai Auto Show 2011.

China Telecom Shanghai office building is located in the downtown Shanghai, near the People's square. The fire take place on the 13rd floor of China Telecom Shanghai office building. 4 people died on the way to hospital in ambulance.

Two people were killed and seven others injured in a gas blast at a hospital construction site in downtown Lanzhou, the capital city of Northwest China's Gansu province Tuesday afternoon, said local firemen.

A mixture of liquefied petroleum gas and oxygen leaked from tanks and was ignited by sparks thrown up from the cutting of steel bars at the site where workers were demolishing the outpatient service building of the No 2 Hospital affiliated to Lanzhou University at 4:20 pm, said Zhang Wei, a fireman at the scene.

Roughly 20 tanks remain intact at the site, with firemen spraying water on them, said Zhang.

The explosion caused damages to the nearby first aid center building of the hospital.

Police are investigating the incident.

China is expected to see faster declines in vegetable prices with rising temperatures and increasing vegetable supplies, said Yao Jian, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, on Tuesday.

Prices of vegetables and eggs began dropping in mid-February this year while pork and cooking oil posted price decreases at the beginning of April following government measures to stabilize prices and seasonal factors, Yao said at a news conference.

Data from the ministry showed that wholesale prices of 18 staple vegetables in 36 large- and medium-sized cities fell 9.8 percent in the week ending April 17 from the previous week. The decline rate was 5.2 percentage points higher than that of the previous week.

China's consumer price index (CPI), a major gauge of inflation, jumped by a 32-month high of 5.4 percent from the previous year in March. Food prices, which account for a third of the basket of goods in China's CPI calculation, surged 11 percent year-on-year in March.

Prosecuting authorities in Northwest China's Gansu province on Saturday approved the arrest of two policemen who were accused for the death of a suspect during interrogation, Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday. Police authorities admitted the use of torture.

Police in Xihe county, Longnan city of Gansu province, seized four suspects on April 1, of whom two turned themselves in, after a 16-year-old girl was raped and murdered on March 27.

One of the suspects, He Yong, died at the police station during interrogation on the evening of April 1. According to police, He died from a heart attack, but He's uncle, who attended the postmortem examination the next day, said the body was "all black and blue" and "too horrible to look at."