New semester delayed Schools in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, has decided to delay the start of the upcoming autumn semester, which had been scheduled for August 25, local education authorities said at a news conference. “According to the current situation of epidemic prevention and control in Zhengzhou, we will implement online registration and courses during the postponement period,” said Li Huifang, deputy secretary-general of the municipal government. “After 14 consecutive days without new positive cases reported, we will organize students’ return to elementary and secondary schools as well as kindergartens at different times.” As of Saturday, the city had reported a total of 138 local cases in the recent epidemic outbreak. Driving licenses China and France have signed an agreement allowing mutual recognition and exchanges of the two countries’ driving licenses, the Ministry of Public Security said on Monday. Under the deal, which came into effect yesterday, China and France will allow holders of valid driving licenses issued by either authority to drive directly or obtain driving permits without an additional test. To be specific, people staying in the other country for less than a year will have their driving licenses recognized in the destination country, while those staying for more than a year can exchange their original licenses for local ones without separate tests. Two detained Two men were detained on Saturday on suspicion of sexual assault in a case that shook China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, police announced. The men, identified by the surnames Wang and Zhang, were suspected of the crime of “forcible molestation,” police in the city of Jinan in Shandong Province said in a statement. It said they were under “coercive measures.” There was no evidence to indicate the men committed rape, the police statement said. Mom with COVID A pregnant woman with COVID-19 on August 11 gave birth to triplets in the quarantine area of a designated hospital in Southwest China’s border city of Ruili, the Yunnan’s provincial health commission said on Thursday. It is the first case of its kind in China. The newborns’ first nucleic acid tests — performed on samples taken from amniotic fluid, throat swabs and gastric juice — were all negative. The woman, 29, was just 28 weeks pregnant when she was hospitalized as a confirmed COVID-19 case on July 9 in Yunnan Province. “Our previous experience shows that the condition of COVID-19 patients in the third trimester of pregnancy is very complicated, especially if they are infected with the Delta variant. So it is urgent to ensure that the mother and babies receive timely, accurate and effective treatment,” said Bai Song, deputy director of the Yunnan provincial health commission. (SD-Agencies) | 