Society

For 28-year-old Tao Yuan, Shanghai is no longer the city that he had dreamed of years ago.

"Prices keep going up, raising the cost of living further and further. I think it is harder to live in the city now," said Tao, who hails from Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province.

After studying in one of Shanghai's universities for four years, he chose to make the city his home and took up a job in an engineering company.

"Although my salary is fairly good, everything has become more expensive." He earns about 6,000 yuan ($879) a month, he said, and spends more than one-third of it on transportation and food.

The death toll in a shooting and arson has risen to 13 in Central China's Hunan province, according to local media.

Policemen captured the 34-year-old suspect Liu Aibing in Anhua County, Yiyang City, Central China's Hunan province. He was found and seized on a hill in Anhua County at 6:50 am on Sunday.

Liu allegedly attacked them with a hunting rifle and set fire to their houses at 4:00 am on Saturday in a village in Gaoming Township, Anhua County of Yiyang City, central China's Hunan province, local media reported.

The suspect returned home two months ago from Hunan's neighboring province of Guangdong, China's "factory of the world", where he worked as a migrant worker. Liu was also said to have a history of psychiatric illness.

Liu's father and other close relatives are among the dead. The dead age between 6 and 86.

A northeastern Chinese province announced Thursday that shooting as a means of death penalty execution had become something of the past within its jurisdiction.

Up to date, all cities in Liaoning Province have adopted lethal injection in executing criminals, said Liaoning Higher People's Court Vice President Zuo Lianbi.

As a major way of execution in China, shooting execution was written into the Constitution in 1979. It had been the only lawful execution method in China until 1996, when the amended Criminal Procedural Law put lethal injection as an alternative way of capital punishment.

Since 2001 when the Supreme People's Court ordered expanding the use of lethal injections, the courts nationwide have worked hard for the transition.

Mou Ruijin, associate professor from the Law School of the Northeast University, said, "Lethal injection reduces the pain and fear of the criminal. It is a more humane way in carrying out execution."

Prof. Xu Lanting of the Renmin University of China said lethal injection becoming a legal way of execution reflected the concept of human rights protection in the country's judicial reform.

The city's ban on smoking in public areas will be enforced beginning March 1, a draft amendment to the anti-smoking law approved by the city's top legislature showed on Thursday.

Following months of debate and repeated revisions by the Shanghai People's Congress, the Shanghai Public Places Smoking Control Law now clarifies and expands its scope. The new law also imposes fines on establishments that fail to obey the restrictions.

Proponents say the law will better protect its citizens' lives and clean the environment.

The revisions to the law make the smoking ban more specific, giving a list of places affected. Smoking will be prohibited at places including kindergartens, schools, hospitals, stadiums, public service places, shopping malls, libraries, theaters and museums.

Entertainment venues, public areas of hotels, airports and train/port stations should ban smoking indoors and provide a separate smoking area. The law stipulates that all separate smoking areas or rooms should be ventilated. Public places must also have prominent signs indicating that smoking is prohibited.

Government statistics show that 30.2 percent of residents in Shanghai smoke. The national rate is 35.8 percent.

Lawmakers attribute a lack of strict rules and lax management to a large number of smokers.

The existing smoking control law was carried out in 1994, which was mainly enforced in the medical departments.

Under the new law, places that fail to ban smoking could be penalized 2,000 to 10,000 yuan. In the case of a serious violation, they could be fined 10,000 to 30,000 yuan. Individuals who smoke in non-smoking areas will be fined 50 to 200 yuan if they will not agree to snuff out the cigarette.

"The city has been devoted to a healthy environment, and there is an urgent need for legislation for a definable smoking control law. It is also the collective suggestions of many legislators and health experts," Ding Wei, vice-director of the Law Commission of the Shanghai People's Congress, said yesterday.