IN BRIEF (Page: 7)

Naming the giant pandas twins

The first pair of giant panda twins turned two months old on December 4 at the China Conservation and Research Center's Shanghai base and the center is now seeking name suggestions from the public. The twins, one male and one female, have been reported to be in good health, weighing 3.41 and 3.03 kilograms respectively. Members of the public can send their suggestions to the base's official WeChat or pandazm@126.com. Visitors can also visit the cubs between 9.30am to 12pm and 1pm to 4pm daily.

Members of illegal network arrested

Shanghai police have arrested eight people suspected to be part of an illegal foreign currency exchange network involving more than $7 billion. Earlier in July, Chinese police busted an underground bank network that spanned five provinces and cities and which facilitated money transfers totalling billions of yuan, according to Eastday.com.

Police crack seafood smuggling case

Shanghai customs have arrested nine suspects and detained 3,000 tons of smuggled seafood worth 250 million yuan ($36 million), according to People's Daily. Two enterprises were found to be involved in smuggling premium frozen seafood, such as Botan shrimp, lobsters and snow crabs, via a smuggling group in Guangxi Zhuang antonomous region which later distributed the food to Shanghai and the nearby Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. The case has been handed over to the procuratorate.

Shanghai unveils new housing policies

Homebuyers now have to pay more in down payment following the implementation of the new mortgage policies on Nov 29 which were aimed at reining in the volatile housing market. According to the new measures, the down payment for first-time homebuyers is now 35 percent, 5 percent more than previously, while families that already own an apartment have to foot a down payment of at least 50 percent. The average trading price of newly built apartments in Shanghai reached 46,423 yuan per square meter in November, soaring 33.39 percent year-on-year, according to Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co.

(China Daily 12/09/2016 page7)