Briefing+Book

media type="custom" key="9484124"

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__Acres of Exploding Watermelons__
====Watermelon fields in eastern China are a mess of burst fruit after farmers used growth chemicals in an attempt to make extra money but ended up ruining their crops. It is said most watermelons sold at a wholesale market in nearby Shanghai were believed to have been treated with forchlorfenuron. Telltale signs are mis-shapen fruit with mostly white instead of black seeds. Chinese regulations don't forbid use of the substance. It is also allowed in the United States for use on kiwi fruit and grapes.====

__Bank Bombed in Heavily Tibetan Area of China__
====At least 49 people were injured, 19 of them seriously, in a gasoline bomb explosion at a rural bank branch in a heavily Tibetan area of northwest China’s Gansu Province. There were no immediate signs that the attack was politically motivated. Improvised explosives are sometimes used in commercial and private disputes in China, which bans private gun ownership. Tibetan areas of China have been the sites of periodic protests for decades, and a young monk committed suicide on March 16 by setting himself on fire, but Tibetan protesters have steered clear of bomb attacks.====

__U.S. Fast-Food Giant Yum Bids for Chinese Chain__
====Yum Brands, the company behind KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, is planning to add another name to its list of restaurant chains: Little Sheep, which operates hundreds of colorful hot pot restaurants throughout China. Based in Louisville, Ky., Yum has been betting on China’s giant population and rising affluence levels since 1987, when it first introduced the KFC brand in China. Last year alone, it opened more than 500 restaurants in mainland China and now generates more than one-third of its annual revenue in the country.====

__4 Shanghai officials punished in dyed bun scandal__
====Police had earlier arrested five managers of a steamed bun production factory that was involved in adding illegal chemicals to steamed buns for the purpose of deceiving customers. Managers at the Shanghai Shenglu Food Co. subsidiary in Baoshan district confessed to the illegal production and sale of 334,864 dyed steamed buns worth a total of 200,000 yuan ($30,860) since January of this year. Shanghai municipal government authorities have also ordered the city's large chain supermarkets to create their own food safety departments. The scandal emerged after China Central Television (CCTV) reported on April 11 that the plant had been adding coloring to make wheat buns look like corn flour buns and black rice buns.====

**__China Endures Its Worst Energy Crisis__**
====China has long experienced periodic power shortages, especially in winter and summer when weather extremes boost demand for heating and cooling. But the problems this year stem mainly from a failure of government-controlled electricity rates to keep pace with the costs paid by utilities for the coal that fuels about three-quarters of the country´s electricity generation. Power companies are reluctant to invest in new projects heavily polluting thermal plants are being closed down to help meet environmental targets. The amount of new installed capacity is estimated to fall by 10 million kilowatts next year, compared to this year, while demand continues to climb at double-digit rates.====