The Wall Street Journal writes, "Two of China's biggest tech startups are nearing a merger, creating a company with a combined value of over $15 billion that would be the country's biggest online-to-offline provider of services ranging from movie tickets to restaurant bookings, according to people familiar with the situation. The merger between rivals Meituan.com, China's version of Groupon.com, and restaurant-review app Dianping Holdings Ltd., which one of the people said could be announced in the coming days, would be the latest consolidation of Chinese Internet firms this year. The deal by the two startups, already worth billions of dollars through several rounds of funding, would create a market leader in their space."
"A former top United Nations official and a billionaire real estate developer from the Chinese territory of Macau were accused on Tuesday of engaging in a broad corruption scheme, according to federal prosecutors in Manhattan. The former president of the United Nations General Assembly, John W. Ashe, a diplomat from Antigua, was one of six people identified in a criminal complaint outlining a bribery scheme that involved more than $1 million in payments from sources in China for assistance in real estate deals and other business interests. The case is highly embarrassing to the United Nations, which had vowed to act with greater transparency and accountability after past scandals," The New York Times reports.
"Across China, grown-ups are sporting plastic decorations on their heads in the shape of vegetables, fruit and flowers. When the trend started a few months ago, it was usually just a humble bean sprout clipped to the hair and erect like a little green flagpole. The slim green shoot seemed to offer some kind of mute protest against the gray, stressed environment of the city. But as the fad ramped up, especially during the current National Day holiday week when Beijing fills with visitors, it has escalated and diversified to include a riot of plastic vegetation. Now heads are bristling with clover, sunflowers, chrysanthemums, lavender, mushrooms, chilies, cherries, gourds and pine trees," The New York Times reports.