Society

A Shanghai high-rise apartment fire that killed 53 people was completely avoidable, Chinese top labor safety official said, blaming lax supervision and illegal work practices.

Luo Lin, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, is leading the probe into the blaze, which gutted the 28-story building Monday afternoon after sparks from welding allegedly set nylon netting and scaffolding on fire, leaving many trapped in their homes.

"The accident should not have happened and could have been completely avoided," Luo saidin comments published Thursday.

Updated at 15:30 16^th Nov 2010:

Shanghai apartment building fire took 53 lives till now.

A rescue operation was underway on Monday after a 28-story residential building was engulfed in flames in Shanghai, Xinmin News reported

The fire started around the 10th floor of the apartment building in Yuyao road, in Jinggan district of the city at 3:09 pm.

Witnesses said the flames can be seen engulfing the whole building, trapping a number of people on the roof and on scaffolding being used for repairs.

IN a private room in a mysterious little restaurant in Chengdu, my fellow diners goaded me to eat the turtle. It was soft-shelled, they said — as if that made it more enticing. They laughed and joked in Chinese, which I do not speak. Eating turtle grows a man’s bank account, my translator said. I didn’t get the meaning at first. Then it sunk in.

I plucked bibs and bobs of turtle from between the top shell and underbelly. It was bitter, spicy in that classically

Sichuanese way, and startlingly good. It was paired with a mouth-cooling chaser, a gazpacho of coconut milk and buoyant tapioca balls.

We were at Zi Fi, a restaurant in the capital of Sichuan province in south-central China. Chengdu is one of many Chinese cities little known by the West but exploding with activity nonetheless. And Zi Fi is one of many Chengdu restaurants that are daring in these heady times to experiment with one of China’s most beloved cuisines.

The leaders of China and Japan held their first formal talks on Saturday since clashing two months ago over disputed islands, in what appeared to be a hastily arranged attempt to patch up differences between the two Asian powers.

The leaders of Japan and Russia, who have also sparred recently over the Kurile Islands in the Pacific, also met Saturday, but appeared to remain divided.

The meetings took place on the sidelines of a summit meeting of 21 Asia-Pacific nations that Japan is hosting in this port city.