Roundup - 29/11/2009

• The first civil law suit dealing with the melamine milk scandal has come to court in Beijing. Ma Xuexin, from Henan, is suing for $8000 and for his son's medical expenses to be paid for by the state-run milk compensation fund.
  
  Mr Ma's 20-month old son developed kidney stones after being fed hundreds of packets of milk supplied by Sanlu, the now defunct company at the centre of the scandal.
  
  Families were offered a one time payout of between 2000 and 200000RMB if civil cases were not brought. Nevertheless several families have felt that the compensation is not adequate. So far six lawsuits have been accepted by Chinese courts.
  
  
  
• A cargo plane crash at take-off at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport on Saturday, killing three American crewmen. Four other crewmen, including an American, an Indonesian and a Zimbabwean are recovering in the intensive care unit of the People's Hospital in Pudong.
  
  The plane, registered with Avient Aviation in Zimbabwe, was bound for Kyrgyzstan. On attempting to take off at 8.10 am reports claim that the tail hit the runway and a fire started on board.
  
  
  
• Attempts to rescue 16 coal miners, trapped by flooding in north-east China, have been called off due to the danger of another cave-in. The flooding, at Zhonghe Coal Mine in Meihekou, Jilin, began at 1.55pm on Friday. Since then rescuers have been attempting to fill in part of the cave to prevent further water from entering. However, new crevices pointed to the likelihood of a new cave-in and work had to be halted.
  
  
  
• The China State Construction Engineering Corporation has declared that it has no business relations with Dubai World. Dubai World recently was forced to ask for more time to repay 60 billion US dollars of debt. Since then, share prices have dropped in companies believed to be exposed. The Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Bank of Communications all declared on Friday that they did not hold bonds issued by Dubai World.