July 10, 2013
Translated by Tian Shaohui and Pang Lei

Top stories in Wednesday's papers include coverage of a deadly accident in Sichuan yesterday in which a bridge was washed away by flood waters. There is also plenty of attention being paid to two high-profile trials - one is centered around whether a person was falsely sentenced to life in prison for a murder they didn't commit, the other is the appeal hearing of a man who was sentenced to death in May for killing a 2-month old baby that was in the back of a car he stole.

Major websites are also reporting on the conflicting stories regarding whether Edward Snowden has "accepted" Venezuela's offer of political asylum.

Keep readiing below for a translated digests of some of the other stories being reported by mainland Chinese media outlets today.

Ministries to Target Agencies in Effort to Counter Rising Rents
21st Century Business Herald
Hosuing rental prices in China have registered increases for 42 consecutive months, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics yesterday. Rental prices increased by 4.1 perceny year-on-year in June, helping to push up the overall CPI reading for the month to 2.7 percent. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development(MOHURD) and the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) have already issued a notice calling on local authorities to deal with any irregularities involving intermediary agencies in the rental market, in order to make sure that the rental market functions smoothly.
Original article: [Chinese]

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Under Pressure
Shanghai Securities News
An index that measures business conditions among China's small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) revealed that small firms are still doing it tough. According to the development index published by the China Association for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (中国中小企业协会), after rising in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of 2013, the index fell by 2.1 percentage points to a reading of 93.1. The association says that problems like inadequate confidence, a decline in orders, a lack of willingness to investment are still troubling smaller firms.
Original article: [Chinese]

More Details About Senior Guangxi Official's Corruption Revealed
21st Century Business Herald
Li Daqiu, the vice chairman of Guangxi's People's Political Consultative Conference is currently being investigated by the Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) of the Chinese Communist Party. The investigation was announced last week, but a report in today's 21st Century Business Herald reveals that Li's case is connected to the pollution of a river in southwest Guangxi Autonomous Region. Excessive levels of cadmium and thallium were detected in the river and it is suspected that the presence of these metals is connected to illegal mining in Hezhou (贺州), a city in eastern Guangxi. The report says that Li Daqiu's family members became powerful players in the local illegal mining industry after he became a senior official
Original article: [Chinese]

Domestic LNG Prices May Rise 30%
China Securities Journal
Influenced by the recently-announced hike in the price of some natural gas for non-residential customers (due to come into effect on July 10), Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plants in China are considering lifting their ex-factory prices by around 1,500 yuan per ton, a 30 percent increase from the current average price of 4,500 yuan a ton, according to information obtained by a China Securities Journal reporter. Analysts say that LNG refueling stations and parts of the auto industry connected to LNG-fueled cars, including the taxi industry, will be the harderst hit by the increase in prices. Gas-fired power plants will also be hit. Though most analysts agree that the impact should be short lives as the long term trend in favor of clean energy should mean that the outlook for the industry is positive.
Original article: [Chinese]

Central Bank Once Again Issues Ban on Cooperation with Foreign Credit Card Companies
Beijing News
Following the Central Bank's decision to block MasterCard from processing credit card transactions in RMB in May, the bank has in recent days once again released a document clarifying that no domestic payment institution is allowed to cooperate with foreign credit card companies in developing cross-border payment business involving RMB bank accounts or RMB payment accounts. People working within the industry say that the policy will probably be officially announced before the end of July.
Original article: [Chinese]