中国Power !!!

[ControlFreak]

Around the nation: world's largest exhibition centre in Shanghai near completion

PUBLISHED : Monday, 29 December, 2014, 9:49pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 30 December, 2014, 2:31am

Construction work on the world’s largest exhibition complex, China's 860,000 square-metre National Exhibition and Convention Centre (Shanghai) - which has four halls in the shape of a four-leaf clover - will finish this week. Photo: SCMP Pictures

GUANGDONG

Kidnapped girl rescued

A 17-year-old girl was rescued by Sihui police 24 hours after allegedly being kidnapped by three young men who had demanded a 2 million yuan (about HK$2.5 million) ransom, Chinanews.com reports. Police detained the suspects, who reportedly work in hair salons and allegedly kidnapped the girl to obtain money for Lunar New Year.

Rise in corrupt officials

Prosecutors in Guangdong have charged 2,587 government officials with corruption in the past 11 months – up 14 per cent on the number charged over the same period last year, Chinanews.com reports. Those charged included 28 senior government officials, while funds of 390 million yuan were recovered by investigators.

HEILONGJIANG

Mastiff warning

A woman in Harbin’s Nangang district has warned the public that her pet Tibetan mastiff is still at large and likely to be hungry after running off three days ago, the Modern Evening Times reports. The woman has offered a 10,000 yuan reward for help in finding the dog, which went missing while she was taking it to a veterinary clinic.

‘Father-in-law poisoned’

A man in Muling, a city administered by Mudanjiang, has been arrested on suspicion of killing his father-in-law, who died after drinking wine containing poison, Chinanews.com reports. The suspect, who married the victim’s daughter eight years ago, allegedly told police he took revenge on her family after she left him to work far away and refused to come back.

LIAONING

Bus dispute couple held

A man and woman who argued with the driver of a bus in Shenyang city last week allegedly slapped and scratched him and threw a used sanitary napkin in his face, the Yunnan Information Daily reports. The driver, who suffered injuries to his eyes and nose, said the row began after he told the couple to leave the bus using the back door, rather than the front. Police detained the couple.

Family help centres hailed

The provincial government built 108 centres for mothers and children in rural areas at a cost of 18.4 million yuan in the past two years, provincial news portal Nen.com.cn reports. The centres help families where the fathers are living and working in big cities. Officials said 100,000 women and children in Liaoning used the centres, which offered reading books and music and handicraft classes to children, and farming classes and advice on education rights to the mothers.

QINGHAI

Woman jailed for bigamy

A woman bigamist, 38, who collected 60,000 yuan for marrying a second man, was jailed for 19 months and fined 11,000 yuan at a Huangzhong county court, the news portal Clouthead.net reports. The Sichuan woman, 38, was still married to a Hebei man when she wed again last summer. She shared the money with a friend, who has not been caught.

Four pupils die in crash

Four junior middle school pupils died and two others were injured when a car in which they were travelling overturned on a motorway in Haiyan county, Haibei prefecture, on Saturday, the China News Service reports. Police, who are still investigating the crash, said the car was owned by local government officials.

SHAANXI

‘Failed robber’ detained

A man wearing a mask and a wig, who allegedly tried to rob a Xian convenience store with a replica gun, knife and a stun baton, has been detained by police, Cnwest.com reports. He fled empty-handed after the store manager ran outside and called for help, but was caught by police six days later.

Affair policeman sacked

A senior traffic police officer in Yulin has been sacked after he was found to have been having an extramarital affair with a young woman for six years, Cnwest.com reports. Yan Jun, a Communist Party member, also received a “serious warning” from the party’s disciplinary authority.

SHANDONG

Spring not so eternal

Waters at the Spouting Spring, a famous tourist resort in Jinan, may not flow for the next six months because of extremely low underground water levels, China National Radio reports. Water at the spring has fallen to a depth of 28 metres – its lowest level for a decade. Experts fear the spring’s water level will continue to drop because of expected low rainfall in winter and spring, and high agricultural demand for the underground water supplies.

High-speed rail link opens

The province’s first high-speed railway line went into service on Sunday, Sdnews.com.cn reports. The 300km-long line, which links three Shandong cities of Qingdao, Yantai and Weihai, is part of the province’s plans to create a “one-hour living circle”, similar to modern road and rail links in the Pearl River and Yangtze River Delta regions.

SHANGHAI

Largest exhibition centre

Construction work on the world’s largest exhibition complex – the National Exhibition and Convention Centre (Shanghai) – will be finished this week and it will open soon, the Oriental Morning Post reports. The 860,000 square metre centre, funded by the Ministry of Commerce and the Shanghai government, with four halls in the shape of a four-leaf clover, includes 500,000 square metres of indoor and outdoor exhibition space.

Abortion pill warning

A 23-year-old woman is in stable condition in a military hospital in the city after suffering severe stomach pains after using drugs bought online to end her pregnancy, the Oriental Morning Post reports. Doctors said there have been many similar cases, with some women left seriously ill and requiring surgery. Mainland law states only over-the-counter medicines can be sold online.

ZHEJIANG

Naked drug suspects

A married man allegedly caught taking drugs by police while naked with another man in a hotel room in Ningbo, begged officials not to tell his wife, the Qianjiang Evening News reports. The woman was unaware of her husband’s sexual orientation, it said. The men fell in love in an online chat room, and met at the hotel when the husband, from Jiangsu province, was on a business trip.

Bank loan ‘fraudster’

Hangzhou police have detained a man for allegedly obtaining a bank loan of 180,000 yuan by using someone else’s personal details, the Today Morning Post reports. The suspect allegedly took out the loan using the details of a Ningbo businessman, who contacted police when he was asked to start repaying the loan. The suspect had allegedly gambled away all but 10,000 yuan by the time he was arrested.

 

[Pfizer]

Around the nation: China drivers fined for hugging and kissing while on the road

Also, pupils trained to deal with emergency situations and advertisements banned from using only foreign languages

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 31 December, 2014, 10:23pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 01 January, 2015, 2:03am

A Hubei driver has been fined 200 yuan after he was caught with a woman on his lap while driving. Photo: SCMP Pictures

ANHUI

Identity thief exposed

A man in Dingyuan county has been exposed for giving his friend’s name and identity card number to police when he was arrested for drug possession, Jianghuai Morning Post reports. The man, who had earlier been arrested twice for the same offence, posed as his friend for more than a year before police discovered the truth while carrying out an investigation at his friend’s home.

Babies’ deaths probed

A private maternity hospital in Anqing is being investigated after two newborns died there last week, The Southern Metropolis News reports. A baby girl died 40 minutes after being delivered naturally and a boy died two days after being delivered via caesarean section.

HUBEI

Caught up in passion

Yangxin county police have made public the photos of two drivers and their passengers who violated traffic rules in the heat of passion, Chutian Times reports. One driver started kissing his partner at a red light. The couple was fined 50 yuan (HK$63) for not wearing their seat belts. Another driver, who had a woman on his lap while driving, was fined 200 yuan.

Loan gone wrong

A man has been escorted back to Xiangyang after Guangdong police arrested him for killing a woman, Chinanews.com reports. The man said the woman had refused to return him the 45,000 yuan he had loaned her, so he stabbed her to death with a knife and took her necklace, ring and mobile phone before leaving her body in a cornfield.

HUNAN

Fatal ‘potty training’

A 26-year-old woman from Leiyang has been arrested for killing her four-year-old daughter by kicking her in the stomach after the toddler soiled herself, Sanxiang City Express reports. The woman, who has another daughter, told police that her parents-in-law were disappointed as she could not give them a grandson, and that she often beat the toddler over minor issues.

Forging ring busted

A man has been arrested in Huaihua for running a syndicate that issued fake invoices for air tickets, Rednet.cn reports. His workshop sold 11 million forged invoices with a face value of 22 billion yuan across the country over the past year. An official said most of the invoices were bought by officials who wanted to claim inflated expenses.

JIANGXI

University chief on trial

Former Nanchang University president Zhou Wenbin stood trial on charges of accepting 22 million yuan in bribes and embezzling public funds, Jxnews.com.cn reports. Among those who bribed Zhou was the boss of a small construction firm who gave him a total of 3.8 million yuan in exchange for construction contracts between 2003 and 2011. The businessman told the Intermediate People’s Court of Nanchang that he usually hid the cash meant for Zhou in fruit baskets.

Waste disposal rules

Residents of Nanchang found collecting or transporting restaurant waste without a licence can be fined up to 5,000 yuan and those who illegally dispose of food waste can be fined 10,000 yuan, Jxnews.com.cn reports. Restaurants also face penalties if found selling the waste illegally. The authorities are trying to eradicate gutter oil, which is recycled from restaurant waste.

SHANGHAI

Mind your language

A new rule that takes effect today in Shanghai prohibits advertisements from using only foreign languages, Xinmin Evening News reports. The rule – which also requires instructions at public places with large crowds to appear both in Chinese and any other foreign language – is China’s first regional regulation on the application of foreign languages.

Dirty garments

Villages on the northwestern outskirts of Shanghai have been running illegal workshops to collect waste garments for 0.8 yuan per kilogram, which are then washed and sorted before being sold to clothes stores at 15 yuan per item, Jfdaily.com reports. Experts said the clothes were in poor condition and may pose health problems. Village authorities said the workshops, which operate under poor sanitary conditions, have so far resisted being shut down.

SHANXI

Violent policeman nabbed

A policeman in Taiyuan has been arrested after he and his colleagues beat up four migrant workers who were in a dispute with their construction firm’s security guards, Dahe Daily reports. More than 10 police officers allegedly attacked the workers, including a woman who was beaten to death. Police are investigating which other officers were involved.

Emergency training

Beginning this year, all Shanxi primary and middle school pupils are required to attend training for natural disasters and other emergencies, the Taiyuan Evening News reports. The pupils will be put through simulations involving fires, earthquakes, poisoning, scalding and animal bites. In particular, middle school pupils will be taught basic first aid.

SICHUAN

Rejected fare

Senior transport officials from Zigong have visited a disabled man at his home to offer their apologies after he complained to the town’s vice-mayor and transport heads that more than 10 taxi drivers refused to transport him, Newssc.org reports. The cabbies gave many excuses and some empty taxis did not bother to stop, he said.

Brawl leaders to die

Three men have been sentenced to death for leading a fight in a dispute over the ownership of a coal mine in Guangyuan 20 years ago, Xinhua reports. The brawl left 18 people dead while 16 others fell into a river and went missing. A total of 38 others involved in the fight have received jail terms and suspended death sentences.

TIBET

More bottled water

Lhasa’s gross bottled-water output is expected to hit 3.5 million tonnes within the next three years, according to the municipal government, which has issued a blueprint to foster the industry’s development, Chinatibetnews.com reports. The city has 15 bottled-water producers with a combined annual output of 150,000 tonnes. Their annual sales were expected to grow 51 per cent to 1.2 billion yuan last year.

Nepal visitors on the rise

An increasing number of mainland travellers are entering Nepal via Lhasa, according to a Nepalese tourism official at a Tibet-Nepal tourism travel coordination meeting, the Tibet Business News reports. More than 93,000 Chinese visitors travelled to the neighbouring Himalayan nation in the first 11 months of last year and the number is expected to rise to 200,000 this year because more flights will soon be offered.

 

[Midway]

Around the nation: New Year's Day gifts from 'miserly God of Wealth' spurned

Also, student scared silly after watching horror flicks and dumped teenager comes clean about boyfriend's crime

PUBLISHED : Friday, 02 January, 2015, 8:04pm
UPDATED : Friday, 02 January, 2015, 8:04pm

A Chinese jewellery shop owner giving out precious bracelets was accused of being miserly by people who demanded gold instead. Photo: SCMP Pictures

ANHUI

Eyeballs stolen

The body of a woman who died in a home for the elderly in Huangshan city was found with her eyeballs missing, Anhuinews.com reports. The 84-year-old woman died on Tuesday, just days after she moved into the home. Her sons found her eyeballs missing when they arrived at the home. Police are investigating the matter.

Drunk driver banned

A Chizhou bus driver had his licence revoked after he was found drunk on the job, Anhuinews.com reports. His blood alcohol level was found to be above the legal limit after he got into an accident this week. The driver said he was trying to drown his sorrows in drink because his wife was dying of cancer. He has been banned from driving for 10 years.

BEIJING

Fireworks sales lack spark

Sales of fireworks in Beijing are expected to shrink 30 per cent this Lunar New Year as the city government halves the sales period to 10 days, The Beijing News reports. A fireworks wholesale dealer said sales had been falling for five years as fewer people were buying them due to environmental concerns. Environmentally friendly fireworks like those used during last year’s Apec meeting will also be available for sale.

Vehicles catch fire

Three cars and an electric bicycle were destroyed after a pile of garbage near them caught fire in a Chaoyang residential community on New Year’s Eve, the Beijing Times reports. Firefighters were called after residents failed to put out the fire. No one was injured.

CHONGQING

Kerosene on train

A man was detained for five days after he tried to sneak bottles of kerosene onto a train, Xinhua reports. Railway officials questioned the man about two mineral-water bottles he was carrying, after he was found behaving suspiciously. He said he had bought them from a shop but refused to drink the “water”. He later admitted that he had wanted to use the kerosene to light his cigarettes.

Face-saving project

A man in Nanchuan district with a facial tumour that droops down to his shoulders, has been breeding rabbits to raise money for an operation, Wen Wei Po reports. The 24-year-old was born with the condition that affects his sight, hearing and ability to chew on the left side of his face. He said his family could not afford treatment and he had been breeding the pets for nine years to save up to “get a normal face”.

GUANGDONG

Killer’s suicide leap

A migrant worker is receiving treatment after he leapt four storeys off a building in Shenzhen, The Southern Metropolis News reports. The 26-year-old had stabbed his 19-year-old girlfriend to death before trying to take his own life, police said. Surveillance video showed the woman being stabbed more than 20 times within a minute. People who knew the couple said they had had a tiff before the incident. Police are investigating.

New bridge opens

A 2 billion yuan (HK$2.5 billion) bridge linking Shantou and the island of Nanao officially opened on Thursday, China News Service reports. The 11km link that took five years to build is Guangdong province’s largest cross-sea bridge. It will make commuting to Shantou more convenient for Nanao’s 70,000 residents, who often have to wait up to four hours for a ferry boat on public holidays.

HENAN

Student scared silly

A university student in Luoyang had to be sedated and hospitalised after she went into shock from watching horror movies, Lyd.com.cn reports. She had been watching the films in her dormitory when she started screaming. Paramedics were called after her roommates failed to calm her down. She was then sedated, but when her condition did not improve, she was taken to hospital.

Freebies spurned

A Zhengzhou jewellery shop owner dressed up as the Chinese God of Wealth and gave away 10 precious bracelets on New Year’s Day, Chinanews.com reports. But the crowd that gathered demanded gold instead and complained that the shop owner was being miserly. A manager at the mall where the shop is located explained that more jewellery was not given out for fear of people starting a stampede.

HUBEI

Corrupt officials sacked

Three senior officials in Ezhou, Huangshi and Jingzhou were expelled from the Communist Party after being investigated for graft, Xinhua reports. They were accused of taking bribes, the provincial disciplinary inspection commission said. Evidence of their crimes has been given to prosecutors.

Punished for pollution

Three environment officials in Huangshi were sentenced to jail terms of between two and six-and-a-half years for neglect of duty, Jcrb.com reports. Another four were fined 100,000 yuan each. The officials’ oversight led to severe heavy-metal pollution that poisoned 49 villagers and caused more than 860,000 yuan in economic losses. A total of 14 business owners also stood trial for discharging 684 tonnes of arsenic into the environment.

SHAANXI

Negligent judge jailed

A former judge in Weinan was sentenced to two years’ jail for neglect of duty, The Beijing News reports. Li Hong had approved bail for a murder suspect so the man could receive treatment for cancer. But Li failed to review the case after the man was found guilty and given a 10-year jail term, and the man killed another person while he was out on probation in 2012.

Teenage folly

A teenage girl jailed for 10 months in Hanzhong  told police that she voluntarily took the blame for a fatal traffic accident caused by her ex-boyfriend, Hsw.cn reports. The 17-year-old said she decided to come clean after the 19-year-old man found a new lover while she was in prison. Police have detained the man, who hit and killed a woman while riding a motorbike in 2013.

SHANXI

Burnt by ‘love’

A man was arrested after a fire he started at his girlfriend’s home left a two-year-old boy badly burnt, Sxgov.cn reports. The man took petrol and lit a fire at the home in an attempt to kill himself over their break-up. But the fire severely injured the girl’s parents and the toddler they were babysitting.

Kidnappers foiled

Police in Shuozhou have rescued a girl and arrested her kidnappers, Sanjin Metropolis Daily reports. The couple had demanded a 100,000 yuan ransom from the girl’s parents. Fearing for their child’s safety, the parents transferred the money to the couple’s bank account as instructed, but also reported the matter to police. The kidnappers were detained while they were trying to withdraw the money at a bank.

 

[Revenge]

Guangdong slaughters chickens after virus found

Xinhua, January 3, 2015

Authorities in Huizhou City in south China's Guangdong Province said Friday that it had slaughtered 13,000 chickens on a poultry farm, as its exports to Hong Kong were found to be infected with the deadly H7N9 virus.

Hong Kong authorities said on Wednesday that it would cull 15,000 chickens at the Cheung Sha Wan Market following the latest discovery of the deadly H7N9 virus in poultry imported from Guangdong. Authorities in Huizhou traced the infected birds to the Guangdong Lyufeng Poultry Farm, and culled its stock. An immediate inspection was also made in some 1,000 poultry farms in the city. The virus has not been detected in some 7.68 million samples from the farms.

Hong Kong has raised its response level in hospitals to "serious" from "alert", after a 68-year-old woman was hospitalized in Hong Kong on Dec. 25, and tested positive for avian influenza, the region's first since early 2014. The woman arrived from the neighboring mainland city of Shenzhen almost two weeks earlier.

 

[xsztcvn]

didn't know that fortune god wear glasses

 

[Pfizer]

Around the Nation: Fake generals jailed for cheating bank manager of 13.5m yuan

PUBLISHED : Monday, 05 January, 2015, 4:06am
UPDATED : Monday, 05 January, 2015, 4:06am

The uniformed imposters had claimed to be setting up a bank on behalf of the Central Military Commission.

Beijing

Phoney generals jailed

Three men who pretended to be generals in an elaborate scam to cheat a bank manager of 13.5 million yuan (HK$17 million) were jailed for between 12 years to life, the Beijing Times reports. The three had claimed to be setting up a bank on behalf of the Central Military Commission. In August 2012, the uniformed imposters met the bank manager, named Li, at a hotel where they persuaded him to invest in the bank in return for being named manager of its Shanghai branch. Li made the deposit and when he did not hear from them again contacted police. Investigators found forged military stamps, fake uniforms and documents in the men's offices.

Unexpected journey

An 82-year-old man who accompanied a visiting relative aboard a train failed to get off before it departed, and was taken all the way to Nanjing , the Beijing Morning Post reports. They boarded the Shanghai-bound train at the Beijing South Railway Station on December 27. He had no mobile phone or identity card, but a conductor contacted the station in Nanjing, and arranged a temporary ID. He returned to Beijing the next day.

Guangdong

Boyfriend jailed

A Shenzhen man broke into his ex-girlfriend's apartment and stole her computer out of spite after they broke up, the Southern Metropolis Daily reports. The woman had asked the man to move out of the flat in June last year. In revenge, he stole the computer with the help of another man and sold it for 600 yuan (HK$760). He was jailed for 10 months and fined 1,000 yuan.

Landslide kills three

Three villagers in Leizhou have died in a landslide as they were digging a hole on a hillside to roast sweet potatoes, the Southern Metropolis Daily reports. A companion escaped and ran back to the village to find help. The victims were confirmed dead at the scene after being pulled out. Two were 16-year-old middle-school pupils, and the third, 23, was the father of a baby boy.

Fujian

Unlucky 13

A passenger in Fuzhou could not find her seat in carriage No.13 as shown on her ticket when she tried to board her train yesterday, the Southeast Express reports. The passenger bought a train ticket to Luoyang on the railway website, which showed her seat in carriage No13. But, as she was about to board the train, the conductor told her there was no carriage of that number. Officials said two carriages were taken off due to rescheduling, and that seats had been reserved in other carriages for passengers affected by the change, the report said.

Dog guards master

A dog guarded his drunken unconscious master for three hours on a street in Xiamen on Saturday, Qingdao Television reports. Urban management officers had to put the dog in a cage as it would not let anyone near its sleeping master, including medical staff. The dog was released after the man was sent to hospital.

Jiangsu

Toddler run over

An 18-month-old toddler in Suzhou survived after being run over by a car at the waist, the news website People.com.cn reports. The accident occurred in a sprawling market on December 26, and the boy was rushed immediately to hospital. Doctors said he suffered a fractured rib and bruising to the liver and lungs, but had fully recovered. Doctors said he might have been lying in a slight depression on the road, or was protected by his thick winter clothing.

A warm gesture

A migrant worker in Nanjing caught stealing a bed sheet from a supermarket, ended up being given two blankets by police, the Yangtse Evening Post reports. The worker came to the city to work on a construction site in autumn. The 50-year-old said he did not have enough bedding to keep him warm at night but could not afford the bed sheet because he had not received any wages. Police gave him the blankets after seeing his squalid dormitory.

Sichuan

Fooled with fakes

A 60-year-old Chengdu man was fooled into spending more than 200,000 yuan on "valuable collections" that turned out to be fakes, the Chengdu Commercial Daily reports. The man's daughter found about 50 fake items under his bed, including gold bars that could be broken in two by hand and a set of the "sixth series of renminbi banknotes made from gold". Authorities have never issued a sixth series of the banknotes. The man said he bought the collections from the salesmen because he wanted to leave a fortune for his daughter. Police are investigating the case.

Snow way to propose

A 26-year-old man from Chengdu, stripped to the waist, successfully proposed to his girlfriend in freezing weather at a campsite on New Year's Eve, the Chengdu Evening Post reports. The man, dressed only in shorts with the words "marry me" penned on his belly, knelt in front of his girlfriend in the snow for five minutes as he finished his proposal. The girlfriend was moved to tears and accepted, the paper reported. His story became a popular hit on the social media.

Shaanxi

Knock, knock

Residents of a gated community undergoing renovations in Baoji woke to find heavy machinery tearing down a wall in their block of flats on New Year's Day, the Huashang Daily reports. The machinery was found on the second floor of the building, gauging out a 2-square-metre hole. It had been in the building for almost a month, knocking out walls. Residents said the construction work had caused cracks in their apartments. The builders have promised to remove the machinery from the building.

Boy, 6, rolls into fire

A 6-year-old boy was severely burned in Lueyang county after rolling into an open fire in his bedroom, the Huashang Daily reports. The boy's mother said she left him alone on a bench less than one metre from the fire to go to the washroom. She returned minutes later to find the boy face down in the fire with his jacket and hat alight. He is being treated for severe burns to his face and neck.

Yunnan

Thief snatched instead

A robber in Kunming got more than he bargained for after snatching a necklace from a woman on Saturday, the City Times reports. The woman shouted for help after the loss of her 7,000-yuan necklace, and five people quickly moved to block the robber as he tried to flee the scene. Their efforts slowed him down sufficiently for police to arrest him.

Rough-handled at ranch

Two workers at a Lijiang horse farm have paid 60,000 yuan in compensation to a woman tourist for beating her up after she refused to ride a horse, the City Times reports. The woman went to the horse farm with her family last month. She said the staff would not let her family leave without paying 100 yuan per person, even though none of them rode the horse. She was then beaten by at least 10 people from the farm. Both sides reached a settlement following a police investigation.

 

[ControlFreak]

Man 'killed cousin, 6, over threat to report sex abuse'

Shanghai Daily, January 5, 2015

A 19-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly murdering his 6-year-old cousin because she threatened to report that he was sexually abusing her, Qingpu District prosecutors said yesterday.

The suspect, surnamed Sun, was a neighbor of his young cousin, surnamed Weng, it was reported.

According to prosecutors, the child went to Sun's home on October 27 last year and followed him when he went to a cyber cafe to play online games.

But because the little girl was too young to get into the Internet cafe, Sun had to wander the streets with her, said prosecutors.

When they passed a river, Sun is said to have asked his cousin to climb over a flood wall and play there alone.

The child was annoyed by this and threatened to tell her mother that Sun had sexually abused her several times, said prosecutors.

Afraid of being found out, Sun pushed his little cousin to the ground and strangled her, according to prosecutors.

He also struck her repeatedly with a concrete block until she was dead, it is claimed.

An autopsy found that Weng had been sexually abused.

Afterward, Sun switched his cellphone to "airplane mode" to stop it from receiving phone calls and texts and went to look for a cyber cafe, said prosecutors.

When his family tried to contact him via the QQ instant messaging service Sun blocked them, it is claimed.

Sun is said to have gone on the run and was held in a cyber cafe on December 30.

Prosecutors said that Sun became addicted to online games in middle school and often stole from his father to go to Internet cafes. At one time, he spent 20 days in an Internet cafe, said prosecutors.

Qingpu prosecutors said 80 percent of sexual assault cases they deal with involve someone known by the victim.

 

[flickr]

Woman who insisted on making phone calls during flight detained by Beijing police

PUBLISHED : Monday, 05 January, 2015, 12:32pm
UPDATED : Monday, 05 January, 2015, 1:05pm

Laura Zhou [email protected]

A Chinese woman was detained by police at Beijing International Airport after allegedly repeatedly trying to make phone calls on her phone during a flight. Photo: Xinhua

A Chinese woman who allegedly repeatedly tried to make phone calls on her mobile phone during a flight has been detained by Beijing police, mainland media reported.

The flight crew alerted police after the passenger, identified only by her surname of Yu, tried several times to make phone calls before the aircraft travelling from Changchun had landed at Beijing International Airport, the Beijing Times reported.

The woman, who had been attempting to contact people to pick her up, initially switched off her phone when flight attendants and other passengers asked her to stop. But later she turned the phone back on and refused to turn it off, the report claimed.

She allegedly claimed the flight attendants were “being too fussy”, the Times reported.

The woman was detained by police once the plane had landed.

When questioned by police, Yu allegedly claimed that she had often made phone calls during flights and had never been stopped before.

China’s civil air safety regulations state that people who use mobile phones or laptops that pose a threat to an aircraft’s navigation during a flight can be fined 2,000 yuan (HK$2,520). Under public safety law they can also be detained for up to five days.

 

[Midway]

Gang filmed subjecting schoolgirl to violent slap attack for 'wearing the wrong trousers'

Pupil attacked in Zhejiang province because she did not have on the correct school uniform

PUBLISHED : Monday, 05 January, 2015, 1:08pm
UPDATED : Monday, 05 January, 2015, 3:32pm

[email protected]

A video of the the bullying has been posted on social media. Photo: Youku.com

Five pupils who subjected a schoolgirl to a savage attack in which she was repeatedly slapped around the face for wearing the wrong school uniform have been punished after video of the assault surfaced on Chinese social media.

In the minute-long video the victim leans against a wall while she is struck more than 10 times by several pupils in turn.

“Should I record you guys?” the girl holding the camera is heard saying, while chuckling at the start of the video. A boy tells her to film the proceedings.

The victim remains quiet throughout most of the ordeal and refuses to fight back.

“You hit her too hard, change to another side,” the girl filming can be heard saying on the footage. The pupil hitting the girl then slaps the other side of her face.

Zheng Chaolong, the deputy principal of Jiangshan Second Middle School, in Zhejiang province, eastern China, told the China News Service that the school had investigated the case and ordered the pupils to apologise.

One of the children received an oral warning and two others were punished for violating school discipline, Zheng said. He did not specify what punishment they had received.

A person at the school office told the South China Morning Post, “We’ve already dealt with this” and hung up the phone.

The five attackers, all in the ninth grade, saw the eighth grade girl not wearing her proper school uniform trousers on December 12, according to the China News Service report..

Two days later, the five pupils found the girl and took her to the attic of the school building. Four pupils struck the girl while the other recorded the incident.

Deputy principal Zheng admitted that the incident had exposed defects in the school’s management and promised to improve the moral education of the students, the China News Service said.

 

[ControlFreak]

Around the nation: Harvard graduates see big future for alpacas in China

PUBLISHED : Monday, 05 January, 2015, 7:47pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 06 January, 2015, 8:34am

Qin Kou wants to run his alpaca empire from his home town, Wuhan. Photo: SCMP Pictures

ANHUI

Burning greed unfulfilled

A man who tried to steal money from five cash machines by burning them has been jailed for four years and fined 3,000 yuan (HK$3,800) in Hefei , the Anhui Commercial Daily reports. The jobless 31-year-old set fire to an automatic teller machine in May, thinking he could take money from it. Only the plastic cover was damaged. After four similar attempts, he was caught in June, having destroyed about 15,000 yuan in cash.

Girl’s lucky escape

A 17-year-old girl caused a scare at a train station in Fuyang on Saturday by climbing on top of a train and getting very close to high-voltage power lines, the Yingzhou Evening News reports. She told police she had argued with her mother and wanted to go away to find her father, but could not afford a train ticket. Had she touched the cables she would have been killed instantly.

HENAN

Jackpot for hot pot

A hot pot shop in Zhengzhou is offering a million-yuan reward to any customer who can prove the eatery uses stale oil, Zynews.com.cn reports. The shop has fixed to a wall a clear box containing the reward in neat stacks of 100 yuan notes.

Saved from icy river

A 36-year-old man dived into the icy four-metre-deep Ying River to rescue an elderly woman, Dahe Daily reports. The man, an irrigation official, was inspecting the river with his colleagues when they saw the woman floating face up in the river. Realising that she was still alive, the official removed his shirt and dived into the freezing water. The woman, 67, was on her way to meet her husband, who farms by the river, when she fell in.

HUBEI

Taking it on the jaw

A 24-year-old woman in Wuhan dislocated her lower jaw after bingeing on pig’s trotter soup for three days over the new year, the Wuhan Evening News reports. The woman read online that trotters were good for the complexion. A doctor who treated her said the hospital gets similar cases every year.

Bringing home the alpaca

Two Harvard graduates plan to introduce alpaca products to China when they return home to Wuhan in May, News.cnhubei.com reports. The irresistibly cute animals, which are related to camels but are native to South America, have become immensely popular in China. The name in Putonghua sounds like “grass m&d horse”, a fictional creature that looks like an alpaca and which sounds close to an obscene phrase. Qin Kou and a fellow Chinese student plan to import alpaca meat – said to be low in cholesterol – and eventually live alpacas, to China. They also plans to sell alpaca sock puppets and alpaca woollen products.

JIANGSU

Baby’s blanket ignited

A 3-month-old baby and his 3-year-old sister were seriously burnt in Suzhou when a blow-dryer ignited a blanket, the Yangtse Evening Post reports. The girl was drying her feet and socks while sitting at the foot of a bed where the baby was sleeping. The blanket caught fire and ignited the baby’s clothes. The mother rushed them both to hospital. The baby survived although a doctor said his case was the worst seen at the hospital burns unit. The girl suffered serious burns to one leg.

Cranes ‘eat wheat crop’

Farmers in Yancheng say endangered cranes have eaten more than 100 hectares of wheat, China National Radio reports. A group of 15 farmers said endangered red-crowned cranes and protected common cranes nest close to their fields, causing crop losses worth more than 800,000 yuan. A local agriculture official said there had been damage, but not nearly as much as the farmers claimed.

SHANDONG

Fake pharmacist jailed

A man who illegally made and sold medicine has been jailed for 14 years in Heze and fined 100,000 yuan, Dzwww.com reports. The man made about 900,000 yuan in two years making and selling painkillers and supplements, some of which the court said were toxic.

Kidnapper arrested

A man who held an 11-year-old boy for a 400,000 yuan ransom last month has been arrested in Rizhao , the Qilu Evening News reports. The man lured the boy into his car while he was waiting for his mother outside an English tutorial centre. He then texted the mother asking for the money in cash. Police located his home the next day and arrested him. He said he had debts of about 200,000 yuan.

SHANGHAI

Rail ban on fold-up bikes

Folding bicycles have been banned on trains in the municipality, Xinmin.cn reports. The move was put in place ahead of the Lunar New Year travel season next month to avoid injuring passengers on crammed trains. The railway operator was offering another service to send cyclists’ bikes to their destination, according to the report.

Driving a bomb

Two men were caught by police in Jiading district for carrying 15 tonnes of counterfeit fireworks in a truck, the Labour Daily reports. Traffic police stopped the vehicle for speeding on a highway, and found the products with the logo of a fireworks company. The products were later found to be counterfeit.

SICHUAN

‘Phlegm’ in drink

A man in Nanchong says he still feels nauseous after drinking a bottle of herbal tea contaminated with a phlegm-like substance, despited being treated in hospital, Cnncw.cn reports. The bottle has a glob of a yellow, sticky substance floating near the top. After taking two sips from the bottled tea, the man had a stomachache and checked into hospital. Doctors pumped his stomach and hooked him to an IV drip, but he said he still did not feel well. The 42-year-old contacted the local distributor for the drink, only to be told that the person was no longer the agent. The State Administration for Industry and Commerce will investigate the incident.

Rare snow leopard spotted

Wildlife cameras detected snow leopards in Sichuan on New Year’s Eve, Xinhua reports. The provincial forestry department said the new sightings in the Wolong National Nature Reserve showed that snow leopards were active in a larger area of the reserve than was thought. The snow leopard is a rare endangered species, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that China is home to about 2,500 of the big cats out of a global population of between 4,000 to 6,000.

ZHEJIANG

Best plan ruined

A man in Wenzhou had his driving licence suspended for six months and was fined 2,000 yuan for drink driving, Zjol.com.cn reports. When police pulled over the man, they also found a passenger, a man in a suit, who had been hired to drive the man home, but had been ordered out of the driver’s seat for driving too slowly.

Laptop miscalculation

A young man was detained in Jinhua after he tried to resell two laptops he stole from his colleagues after their first day working together, Zjol.com.cn reports. He began working for a club late last month, but was not happy with his wages, so he took away the unattended computers in the room he shared with workmates after his first day on the job. He tried to resell them on his WeChat account, unaware that his customer was an undercover policeman.

 

[Pfizer]

Blackmailers use fake sex photos to target two Chinese female officials

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 06 January, 2015, 2:54pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 06 January, 2015, 2:54pm

Nectar Gan [email protected]

Two female officials in Liuzhou city, in southern Guangxi province, received blackmail letters containing a fake sex photograph on the same day. Photo: Simon Song

Blackmailers created fake sex photos of two Chinese female officials to try to force them to hand over hundreds of thousands of yuan, China News Service reported today.

Both officials in Liuzhou city, in southern Guangxi province, received letters on Monday containing the same explicit photograph – with an image of each of their faces added to the picture of a woman in a sexual encounter with a man.

The increasing number of corrupt Chinese officials caught up in sex scandals has led mainland blackmailers to use forged sexually explicit photographs to help them extort money.

One of the female officials, identified by the alias “Ayuan”, was sent a letter by a “detective” who claimed to have been commissioned to follow and investigate her, the report said.

She was told to deposit 116,000 yuan (about HK$146,000) into a bank account within two days, or he would “strike a devastating blow to her” by handing the photos over to graft-busters and also uploading the pictures onto the internet.

Although the sexually explicit photo showed the man with a woman who appeared to be her, Ayuan discovered the image had been photoshopped – with her face and head added to the body of another woman, the report said.

“The editing skill was so bad that I spotted it immediately,” she was quoted as saying.

Ayuan told police the image of her in the picture had been copied from a photograph taken of her at a work-related event. She said the blackmailer had probably found and copied the photo on the internet.

The second female Liuzhou city official to be blackmailed found an image of her face had also been photoshopped onto the same picture of another woman with a man.

Police confirmed they were now investigating the two incidents.

In recent years, Chinese officials have been caught up in an increasing number of sex scandals. Many cases have come to light after incriminating photos were leaked online.

In the past, cases of adultery in China have usually involved male officials caught with their mistresses. But last November two female officials were reported by Shanxi graft-busters to have “committed adultery with others” – the first time a report was made public about Chinese female officials allegedly involved in adultery.

The increasing number of corrupt Chinese officials caught up in sex scandals has led mainland blackmailers to use forged sexually explicit photographs to help them extort money.

In March 2013, police arrested eight suspects in Hunan province who had allegedly blackmailed officials using fake sex photos.

The suspects had allegedly used the fake photos in 210 blackmail letters to demand a total of 45 million yuan from officials.

Police said the suspects, who had also prepared a further 150 blackmail letters, had already received 255,000 yuan.

Officials said carrying out a crackdown on the practice of forged sex photos, which had become an “illegal industry” in the region, was now a top priority for authorities, Xinhua reported.

In 2012, officials at the land and resources bureau in a county in Guangxi province reportedly blurred images of themselves featured on government websites to prevent blackmailers from making copies and using them in fake sex photos.

The officials said many of them had received blackmail demands using fake sex photos in the past two years.

 

[Revenge]

Donations at China's temples go mostly to developers

Staff Reporter
2015-01-06

A woman holds up incense sticks to while other worshipers turn a prayer wheel at Guzhe Temple, Beijing, Oct. 24. (File Photo/CNS)

The money stuffed in donation boxes in China's Buddhist and Daoist temples is in most cases not going to temple administrators but to the management agencies of the space surrounding religious venues, reports the Chinese-language Beijing News.

The thousand-year-old Guzhe Temple in Beijing is an A4-level national tourist site managed by a private tourist development firm, in addition to the monks that live in and run the temple itself. The astonishingly numerous — more than 70 — donation boxes place around the temple are distinguished into two types. The ones inscribed with Chinese words meaning "planting seeds in the field of happiness," which account for 30% of the total boxes, belong to the monks and are used for religious purposes, while the rest, labeled merely "donation box," belong to the recreational site operator.

In other words, there is a greater chance that the money from worshipers or visitors to end up funding some real estate or tourist site developer, especially given that most of the commercial boxes are placed in more conspicuous spots like next to the information booth and souvenir stores.

It has been an open secret in China that tourist developers use temples of historic interest to collect funds, according to the report. The developer of the Guzhe Temple, for example, listed in one of their operation analysis reports in 2010 that it needed a total of 118.5 million yuan (US$19 million) to upgrade tourist facilities around the temple. Most of the funds would come from a private backer, while nearly 40 million yuan (US$6 million) was listed as being "sought elsewhere."

A temple staff member said that the money would most definitely be collected from the donation boxes.

A spokesperson for the Buddhist Association of China in Beijing said it is hard to monitor the donation boxes as they are easily accessible, and even if the association sends representatives to remove them, they are replaced the next day, said the spokesperson.

Under Chinese law, non-religious groups are not allowed to organize religious events on undesignated "non-religious sites" and are banned from receiving donations in the name of religion.

The venerable Ming Xian, head of the Beihai Buddhist Hall in Qinghai and deputy director of the Buddhist Culture Center at the Chinese Culture Promotion Society, told reporters that tourist developers and management agencies of ancient temples have no right to place donation boxes in temples because they are non-religious organizations. Mixing their own donation boxes with temple donation boxes should be considered fraud, the monk said.

An employee from Beijing's Bureau of Religion said tourist sites that encompass historic temples and use them as key attractions are entitled to commercial acts such as running a souvenir store. However, they are not allowed to set up donation boxes.

 

[Pfizer]

Around the nation: massive lingzhi mushroom found in Guangxi

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 07 January, 2015, 5:19am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 07 January, 2015, 5:19am

A shop owner in Hezhou has been showing off a giant lingzhi mushroom he bought.

BEIJING

Death at 'Devil's crossing'

A man was killed by a train at a notoriously dangerous railway crossing in the capital, the Beijing Youth Daily reports. The accident happened at about 6.30pm and delayed services for half an hour. Local members of the political consultative conference have submitted proposals for three years hoping to redesign what has become known as the "Devil's crossing".

Truck driven up tree

A truck veered off a road in Changping district and came to rest up the trunk of a tree, the Beijing Times reports. The driver, in his 30s, mistook the accelerator for the brake and drove off the road, over a lamp post and a through a gate before hitting the tree. He escaped with minor injuries.

GUANGXI

Photoshop failure

Two female tour guides in Liuzhou were sent blackmail letters with faked "scandalous photos" of them, but they simply laughed at the poor Photoshop skills, Chinanews.com reports. One tour guide received a photo showing "indecent photos of a man and woman" with the tour guide's face added onto the woman's head. The letter demanded 116,000 yuan (HK$146,000) within two days. The sender claimed to be a private detective. Another tour guide received a similar threat using the same photo, but with a different head in the picture.

Massive mushroom

A shop owner in Hezhou has been showing off a giant lingzhi mushroom he bought, the online news platform News.qq.com reports. The mushroom is 107cm in diameter and weighs 14.9kg. Lingzhi mushrooms (Ganoderma lucidum), also called reishi, are believed to promote health and longevity, lower the risk of cancer and heart disease and boost the immune system. They're mostly found south of the Yangtze River.

HEBEI

Farmers dump milk

Plummeting milk prices have forced dairy farmers to dump their milk, feed it to cattle and even sell pregnant cows, T he Beijing News reports. After a milk shortage in 2013, prices surged so many dairy farmers bought more cows. The price has since fallen while the cost of feeding the cows has remained high. According to the report, an industry expert said a spike in imported milk powder had driven local milk prices down.

Locks lopped for charity

A young woman who has already donated bone marrow twice has cut her metre-long hair for charity in Shijiazhuang , Hebnews.cn reports. She had grown her hair for nine years and raised 125,000 yuan for girls in need. The Guinness World Record for the longest hair belongs to another Chinese woman, whose hair measured 5.6 metres when it was cut in 2004.

HEILONGJIANG

Milking the milkman

A man has been detained by police in Qiqihar for swindling 270,000 yuan from a milk trader by claiming to have close connections that could help him win contracts, the Hecheng Evening News reports. The 40-year-old said the trader should give him 60,000 yuan as a gesture of goodwill, so that trust could be built. He asked for 210,000 yuan more from him before disappearing. Records showed he had cheated several other people before, making about a million yuan altogether.

Motorcyclist surrenders

A motorcyclist turned himself in to police in Qiqihar after a fatal hit-and-run accident last week, Heilongjiang.dbw.cn reports. The motorcyclist initially disposed of his machine, but later decided to turn himself in. The victim of the accident died two days after being hit. He had just bought a lottery ticket, the report said.

HUBEI

Boyfriend in a rage

A 23-year-old man turned himself in to the police after stabbing a man he found with his ex-girlfriend at a cinema in Huanggang , news portal Hgdaily.com.cn reports. The man noticed the couple midway through the film and confronted them. He soon became enraged and dragged the man aside, stabbing him with a fruit knife he had bought from a counter to cut the sugar cane and apple he took into the cinema. The victim suffered serious injuries.

Accomplice's revenge

A man was arrested in Huanggang last month for a burglary he committed with another man, already detained, who turned him in after he realised his accomplice had reneged on a promise to look after his wife and child, the Dongchu Evening News reports. The duo agreed before the burglary that if one of them was caught, the other would take care of his family's finances, the report said.

HUNAN

Better luck second time?

A 45-year-old man who has been standing in public in Hengyang draped with a banner saying he is seeking a wife has told a reporter the sad tale of his earlier marriage, Xtol.cn reports. His first wife disappeared in 1999 and he only realised five years later that she married him solely to have a baby for her rich but impotent husband from Hong Kong. The two met in Hengyang in 1998 when she was managing her husband's business on the mainland. She wanted to have a baby with the man because having a son would let her inherit more of her husband's fortune. She ran off with the baby, and the man spent the next five years searching for her.

Kind woman murdered

A 37-year-old man has been sentenced to death in Xiangtan for robbing and killing a woman who occasionally let him eat for free at her restaurant, the Sanxiang City Express reports. She befriended the man, who was a frequent customer, and offered him free meals when he was in financial trouble. In April, 2013, he broke into her home looking for something valuable to steal but killed her when she suddenly came home.

SHANXI

Taiyuan to limit cars

Authorities in Taiyuan will limit the number of vehicles on the road to combat pollution and traffic congestion, Xinhua reports. The city already has more than a million cars and their number should not exceed 1.1 million this year, the city government decreed. Taiyuan also plans to impose a number plate rotation system that would reduce the number of cars travelling on a single day.

Qing statues toppled

A stone statue of a Qing dynasty general has been found with its head in a ditch, the Huashang Daily reports. Other statues of people and horses at the tomb in Xian have toppled and are scattered throughout a small village. A local heritage official said he was waiting for funds to preserve the area and re-erect the statues.

SICHUAN

Lost for words

A burglar who pretended to be mute and weak with hunger when discovered by a returning homeowner turned out to be an able-bodied serial thief after Nanchong police ran a background check on him, Cnncw.cn reports. The owner found the man eating when he returned, but he had not stolen anything. He wrote his name to the police, who ran a check. He has been detained for 15 days.

Woman survives plunge

Deyang police were searching for a man missing since he jumped into a river with his wife on Monday, Newssc.org reports. Police received a report saying the couple leapt together, but the woman's down jacket kept her afloat. Police reported that the woman was safe.

 

[ByTheWay]

By the way going nicely to my plan again.

 

[flickr]

Foot-and-mouth disease found in east China

Source: Xinhua Published: 2015-1-7 8:38:50

Live pigs in east China's Anhui Province have been found to be infected with foot-and-mouth disease, the Ministry of Agriculture announced Tuesday.

The virus was detected in 556 live pigs in several farms in Maanshan City, 314 of which were dead on Jan. 2, and test results confirmed on Tuesday that the pigs were carrying the A-type virus, said the ministry.

All infected pigs and another 56 raised with them have been destroyed, and the epidemic contained, the ministry said.

 

[flickr]

Censor’s cleavage cuts in Chinese TV costume drama spark calls for rating system

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 07 January, 2015, 2:08pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 07 January, 2015, 5:45pm

Laura Zhou [email protected]

Actresses in the period drama "The Empress of China" reveal ample cleavage ......

Which are then cut out by censors through close-cropping.

Calls for a rating system for Chinese television dramas have grown after online backlash over censors cutting all cleavage from scenes in a popular TV drama about China’s only female emperor.

The drama, The Empress of China, also known as the Saga of Wu Zetian - renamed “The Saga of Wu’s Breasts” by social media bloggers - was pulled from the schedules of commercial satellite station Hunan TV for “technical reasons” late last month, Xinhua reported.

When it returned a few days later, the show, starring the famous Chinese actress Fan Bingbing in the title role of Wu Zetian – who ruled in the Tang dynasty (618-907) – had been conspicuously edited.

Scenes of female characters, with cleavage showing dressed in period costume, had been cropped out – leaving only close-ups of their heads.

Mainland media said it showed it was time to introduce a rating system for TV dramas; China also has no rating system covering films released in cinemas, which are reviewed and sometimes re-edited before screening.

Some social media bloggers also argued that the drama had been too sexy for children who were watching the show.

The Global Times insisted that a system of control was necessary. “The reality is that censorship exists in many countries and it is unlikely to be reversed in China,” it wrote.

An editorial on the bjnews.com, the website of The Beijing News, said the lack of any rating system was the reason why the drama had been censored.

Even the slight hint of chest in this scene, featuring famous actress Li Bingbing......

prompted censors to crop it out altogether.

Shi Anbin, a media professor of Tsinghua University, told the Nanfang Dailythat without an established standard for rating different content, TV producers had no idea how to produce a drama.

He also argued that audiences could watch an unedited version of programmes on the internet even if a TV version was edited.

Changes to The Empress of China sparked fury among mainland internet users, who argued that censors had gone too far.

An online survey released by the Sina Weibo microblogging service on Monday found that nearly 95 per cent of respondents disapproved of the censorship of The Empress of China.

Some mainland bloggers, who renamed the drama “The Saga of Wu’s Squeezed Breasts”, mocked the decision by censors.

They circulated a series of edited pictures on social media, showing people how to highlight the head and hide the breasts when it comes to other characters.

One of the pictures shows Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting of Mona Lisa – but only with her head. “This is what the well-known painting looks like in the eyes of Chinese censors,” internet users said.

Bosomy scenes like this are a big no-no for China's censors ......

But Chinese netizens mocked the decision by censors to edit the scenes, calling the drama “The Saga of Wu’s Squeezed Breasts”.

The Global Times newspaper noted in an editorial that while the censorship was “largely done out of moral concerns”, the resulting public outcry should serve as a warning for the future.

“While it is powerful, censorship lacks authority,” it said. “In this sense, when using censorship, more considerations should be given to public opinion to garner support and avoid similar incidents.”

China’s broadcasting censors, which examine every drama before it is aired on TV, have issued regulations banning the showing of behaviour including adultery, sexual abuse, nudity, ghosts, murder, rape, suicide, gambling and drug uses – on TV screens.

However, rules governing censorship in China are opaque and reasons are not provided about why cuts are made.

Negative portrayals of contemporary politics are often banned, as are revealing scenes and issues that authorities believe could lead to social unrest.

The strict approval process has been criticised as arbitrary at times, with films and TV series often scuttled at the last moment – and sometimes, as in the case of The Empress of China – even after they have begun airing.

Last month, the premiere of acclaimed director Jiang Wen’s latest film, Gone with the Bullets, was abruptly delayed due to eleventh-hour demands by censors.

Additional reporting Agence France-Presse

 

[Pfizer]

Around the nation: money works wonders for stroke victim

Also slap paralyses student's face and son chained to stairs

PUBLISHED : Friday, 09 January, 2015, 12:59am
UPDATED : Friday, 09 January, 2015, 12:59am

A Shenzhen man who suffered a stroke in 2013 suddenly moved when a nurse asked him to grab a 100-yuan note. Photo: SCMP Pictures

BEIJING

iPhone thieves spend big

Three men stole 240 iPhone 6s from a warehouse in Haidian district by digging a hole through the wall, The Beijing News reports. One of the suspects had been a driver for a logistics company and was familiar with the warehouse and knew it was not guarded at night. The three broke into the building on December 13 and later sold the phones for 1.34 million yuan (HK$1.7 million), which they spent on cars, gold, gambling and paying debts. They were later arrested.

Fewer commuters

The capital has seen an average of 800,000 fewer subway passengers a day since fares were raised on December 28, The Mirror reports. Line No. 10, a circular route between the Third and Fourth Ring roads, has been most affected, losing about 340,000 passengers a day. Most of the decrease occurred in non-peak-hours, the report said.

GUANGDONG

Money works wonders

A man woke from his coma in Shenzhen after a nurse took out a 100-yuan banknote and waved it in his face, saying he could have it if he grasped it, the Nanfang Daily reports. The man suffered a stroke and collapsed at an internet cafe in August 2013, and remained unconscious for 200 days. Since then, he had opened his eyes but did not respond to stimuli. When the nurse tried enticing him with money, he reached out his hand and held onto the bank note. He still has trouble moving his arms, but is well enough to go home.

Licentious licence

A married woman had sex with a driving instructor five times in half a year because he promised her a fast-tracked driving licence, the Shenzhen Media Group reports. Her husband said that over the next few months, the woman would go for lessons lasting seven or eight hours. He confronted the instructor – who denied the affair – and the driving school, demanding 30,000 yuan in damages. Police are negotiating with both parties to settle the incident.

GUANGXI

Sinkhole swallows truck

A truck fell into a three-metre-deep sinkhole that suddenly appeared in a road in Guilin, Chinanews.com reports. Only the cab remained above ground, but the driver climbed out unharmed. Inspectors said a karst cave beneath the road might have caused the collapse.

Kidnap victim rescued

Police have rescued a man in Guigang from kidnappers who were demanding a ransom of 1.5 million yuan from a company in which he was a shareholder, Chinanews.com reports. The hostage was seized by three men on Sunday and had been kept in a cave. The kidnappers threatened to kill him if the police were alerted. The police freed the hostage on Tuesday and arrested the kidnappers.

HENAN

Son neglects mother

A woman has been living on the side of a road in Zhengzhou for four months waiting for her son to return from Shanghai, the Zhengzhou Evening News reports. The 73-year-old said she last saw her son at a nearby park. He had been working as an electrician in Shanghai, but did not want her to go to a home for the elderly, so asked her to wait for him. When he left to work in Shanghai a few years ago, she collected refuse to pay her rent.

Slapped student paralysed

A boarding school pupil in Xinyang was slapped so hard by his teacher that half his face was paralysed, the Dahe Daily reports. When the 10-year-old was discovered playing cards in the dormitory after hours on December 24, the teacher slapped him and his classmates while wearing a glove. When the boy returned home for the holidays, his mother noticed that one side of his face was slightly distorted. Doctors at a local hospital confirmed the nerves on the right side of his face were damaged. The principal paid 10,000 yuan for the boy’s treatment, and the teacher is no longer in charge of her class.

HUNAN

Wedding woes

A man’s elabourate plans to honour commitments to two women at the alter became spectacularly unstuck in Hengyang, People.com.cn reports. The first woman, his true love, waited for the groom for hours on her wedding day, only to receive a text message from him saying he couldn’t marry her that day because he had been arrested for fighting. The woman went to the hotel where they had planned to get married, only to find the groom marrying another woman. It turned out the man’s parents disapproved of the relationship and set their son up to marry the second woman. The man still loved the first woman, so he found two imposters to play his parents at a wedding with the woman he loved. He found out too late that both parties had scheduled the weddings at the same venue on the same day.

Comic relief

An anaesthesiologist at a hospital in Changsha drew cartoons to explain procedures to a deaf woman who was about to give birth by caesarean section, Rednet.cn reports. The 25-year-old anaesthesiologist started working at the hospital about six months ago. He said he drew a lot in his free time, and he used a short comic strip to show the woman lying in bed in the operating theatre, and what posture she would be in after receiving the anaesthetic. She was also instructed to relax, but let him know immediately if she felt nauseous, painful or dizzy. The mother successfully gave birth in the two-hour operation.

SHANDONG

Seeing red over wine bill

A man in Jinan paid 7,200 yuan for wine ordered by his blind date before realising that he was possibly being conned, the Qilu Evening News reports. The man, surnamed Zhang, said he was approached by the woman through an online dating site. On their first date in December, the woman brought him to a bar and ordered four bottles of red wine, before leaving the dinner in a hurry, claiming that she had to go back to her office to attend to some business. Zhang met a man outside the bar, who said he had a similar experience there before, and knew others who were cheated. The woman could not be reached for comment.

Love-struck girl dissuaded

A 15-year-old girl caught the train alone from Changsha to Qingdao to meet a boy she had met online but was stopped by the police, the Qilu Evening News reports. The girl’s parents found her missing on Sunday and learned from the railway authorities that she had taken a train to Qingdao. The police found her on the train and talked her out of her plan. Her parents brought her home.

SICHUAN

Trapped for a week

A woman who fell down a hole in Wanyuan survived for a week by licking water from the walls, the Chengdu Economic Daily reports. The 78-year-old was walking in a bamboo forest close to her home when she slipped into the hole and was knocked unconscious. She yelled for help but no one came. When she became thirsty, she licked the damp walls of the cave to survive. After seven days of searching, her son found her and took her to a hospital.

Son chained to stairs

A man chained his stepson to a stairwell in their residential building on Christmas Day because he said the boy spent all day at internet cafes instead of studying at school, the West China City Daily reports. A police officer found the boy and phoned his stepfather, who not only admitted to the act, but asked the police to lock the boy up. The parents refused to take him home, so firefighters had to cut him free.

YUNNAN

Elevator fee for pupils

A Kunming high rise building housing several canteens that serve lunch to primary school pupils started charging 5 yuan for use of its elevators, Chinanews.com reports. To avoid the fee, pupils must climb 22 floors. The property management office said the fees paid for maintenance of the elevators. It decided to suspend the charge until next semester.

Six die in accident

A truck in Puer fell more than 100 metres into a ravine, killing six people, China.com.cn reports. The truck broke apart on the way down, causing the victims to be thrown out.

 

[Midway]

Around the nation: Parents reunited with daughter 30 years after she was kidnapped

Also: Rats eat woman’s eyes; pious thieves burgle by night, pray by day

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 07 January, 2015, 7:00pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 08 January, 2015, 3:57pm

An ageing couple in Anhui were reunited with their daughter, second from right, this week after she was kidnapped 30 years ago, aged four. PHOTO: SCMP Pictures

ANHUI

Daughter finally found

An elderly couple in Bengbu have finally been reunited with their daughter who was kidnapped 30 years ago, the Xinan Evening News reports. The girl was only four when she was taken by a homeless hawker whom the couple had briefly taken in at their cafe. The parents sold their house and the business to search for the girl across Anhui, Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu. On Sunday, police in Jiangsu phoned the couple to tell them their daughter had been found.

Rats eat woman’s eyes

Rats have been blamed after an elderly woman was found dead with her eyes missing in a nursing home in Huangshan on December 30, People.com.cn reports. An autopsy concluded that her eyes had been eaten by rodents, which other patients and volunteers said infested the facility. The nursing home said it would place traps and keep cats to deal with the vermin.

CHONGQING

Balloon airport hazard

Aviation authorities in the metropolis said more than a hundred balloons were blown over the airport on New Year’s Day, forcing several planes to delay their landings, the Chongqing Evening News reports. The balloons were released by partygoers on New Year’s Eve. Airport authorities said balloons were found every year, but strong winds had blown a greater number than usual over the airfield this year.

Taxi blitz launched

Traffic authorities and police have launched a crackdown on unlicensed taxis that will last until the middle of March, the Chongqing Morning News reports. The crackdown will focus on areas around the train station and the airport, the report said. Thirty-one unlicensed taxis were discovered on the first day of the campaign. Drivers face fines of between 30,000 yuan and 100,000 yuan (HK$38,000 to HK$126,000).

GUANGDONG

Cabbies fined

Twenty-five taxi drivers in Shenzhen were fined 1,000 yuan each for refusing fares, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reports. The city’s Transport Commission recently staged a crackdown on airport taxis that refused to take passengers to nearby destinations by pretending they did not know the way. Drivers were told to use GPS devices or ask for directions from their companies.

A penny saved …

A bus company owner in Dongguan has paid for a new car with 85,000 one-yuan coins, the Southern Metropolis News reports. The owner bought the car on Tuesday with 17 sacks of coins that weighed half a tonne in total. Five workers at the shop spent one hour to count 10,000 of them. The owner said he once bought a car with 300,000 yuan in coins, and also used them to buy petrol.

FUJIAN

Deranged man in park

A mentally ill man was found dancing in a park in Fuqing and flaunting thousands of yuan in cash, Fjsen.com reports. The man waved bundles of 100-yuan banknotes in his hands and had another bundle tied around his neck, attracting a large crowd of onlookers. Police took him back to the station, deposited the cash into his bank account and contacted his family.

Catching the worm

A woman, 56, regurgitated a 20cm tapeworm after being admitted to a hospital in Xiamen with abdominal pain, Fjsen.com reports. The woman said she frequently suffered stomach pain and had been treated several times in hospital, without success. A course of deworming pills worked on this occasion. The woman’s son said that she often ate raw home-grown vegetables that were not properly washed.

HENAN

Drunk gets into tight spot

A drunk man in Luoyang attempted to squeeze through a gap between two walls to get home, but ended up getting stuck for two hours, Dahe.cn reports. The passage was barely more than 10cm wide and too narrow for rescuers to use equipment. A slim firefighter took off his jacket to reach the man, who was unhurt.

ID cards pile up

A lost and found company in Zhengzhou has accumulated nearly 10,000 identity cards, but has no idea what to do with them, China News Service reports. The manager said the company handed over 8,500 identity cards to the police several years ago, but now the Public Security Bureau would no longer take them. He said the cards posed a security risk, as swindlers had expressed an interest in buying them. Some had even threatened to break into the company to get them.

JIANGSU

Garden planted in road

A roadside strip of land in Wuxi was temporarily turned into a vegetable plot by nearby residents, the Modern Express reports. The garden, which stretched for about 1km and covered more than 2,000 square metres, was planted with carrots, pumpkins, cabbages and other vegetables. A man even used a public rubbish bin to store soil to fertilise the plants. Urban management officers later cleared the plot.

Drunks dragged off plane

Two drunken passengers were taken off a plane in Nantong for quarrelling loudly before departure, the Beijing Evening News reports. The two men, in their 40s and 50s, boarded the Beijing-bound plane on Sunday evening and soon began yelling at each other. Other passengers and flight attendants tried to stop them, but to no avail. Police were called to remove them after the flight was delayed.

SICHUAN

Offering starts blaze

A 98-year-old woman in Liangshan prefecture burned 9,000 yuan in cash as offerings to her deceased husband, starting a fire that severely damaged her home, Newssc.org reports. The woman, who has a brain disorder, started burning the banknotes on the bed. The fire spread from the sheets to the whole house. Firefighters pulled the woman to safety and put out the blaze in an hour. She was not hurt.

Rush to work sparks brawl

A man running late for work beat up a woman ticket inspector at a bus station in Nanchong, ewssc.org reports. The 30-year-old school teacher arrived at the station at about 9am. To avoid a long queue at the ticket entrance, he tried another entrance where he attempted to persuade the inspector to let him pass, but was refused. He then struck her in the face. Security guards took him to a police station where he was detained for two days.

ZHEJIANG

Mother kills newborn

A young mother killed her new-born daughter and dumped her in a rubbish bin in a village near Taizhou, Zjol.com.cn reports. The mother, 21, was arrested several hours after a cleaner found the dead infant the next morning. The mother admitted killing her baby, born early on Monday, following a dispute with her boyfriend. Police are investigating.

Pious thieves

A group of thieves drove from Ningbo to Zhoushan to burgle houses at night and climb Mount Putuo to worship the Buddha in the daytime, Chinanews.com reports. The five men arrived in Zhoushan on December 23 with a hired driver. They broke into 11 houses in two nights, and paid a visit to the famous Buddhist temple to burn incense and pray. The five were arrested.

 

[ControlFreak]

Medical student loses appeal against death sentence in China for ‘April Fool’ poisoning

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 08 January, 2015, 10:58am
UPDATED : Thursday, 08 January, 2015, 6:42pm

Laura Zhou [email protected]

Lin Senhao, 28, from Guangdong, told his trial he poisoned his roommate as an 'April Fool's joke'. Photo: Xinhua

Lin Senhao, a former master’s student at Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, lost his appeal today against a death sentence imposed for intentional homicide last February after poisoning his roommate.

His roommate died in April 2013 after swallowing a toxic chemical that Lin was studying, which he had placed inside the dormitory’s water cooler.

Lin, 28, from Guangdong, had told his trial he had added the poison as an "April Fool's joke".

Victim Huang Yang, who was 28, from Sichuan province, died in hospital of multiple organ failure two weeks later. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Huang Yang, who was 28, from Sichuan province, fell ill with a fever and began vomiting after drinking the water containing N-nitrosodimethylamine, a odourless, colourless, water-soluble compound, which can cause serious liver damage.

He died in hospital of multiple organ failure two weeks later.

Huang’s father, Huang Guoqiang, told the Legal Evening News before the appeal verdict that he had been hoping for the sentence to be upheld. He had been prepared to appeal if the verdict had been overturned.

At his trial, Lin admitted that he killed Huang by giving him poison. But he argued that the poisoning had merely been an April Fool’s joke – with Huang drinking the poisoned water on April 1 – because he did not get on with his roommate, mainland media previously reported.

The two students started at medical school in 2010. Only a few days before Huang was poisoned, he had been accepted into the school’s postgraduate programme, while Lin was forced to halt his education owing to personal reasons.

At his appeal hearing early last month, Lin changed his plea and claimed that he had not meant mean to kill Huang. He said he had diluted the water after adding the poisoning, sina.com.cn reported.

His lawyer argued that Huang had died of liver failure because he was suffering at the time from the liver disease Hepatitis B, rather than as a result of the poisoning.

Lin also made an apology to the victim’s parents at the first trial, but this was rejected, China Youth Daily previously reported.

In May last year, a group of 177 students from Fudan University submitted a petition letter to the court, asking for a lighter punishment to be handed to Lin, whom they described as a “not a extremely brutal man”.

The case attracted widespread media interest, and was similar to a case 20 years earlier when a Tsinghua University female student, Zhu Ling, 19, was poisoned with the toxic chemical thallium.

Although Zhu’s friend and family claimed she had been poisoned by her roommate, the case remained unsolved.

Zhu survived, but was left paralysed and needs the constant care of her elderly parents.

 

[Revenge]

China deletes millions of porn files in bid to cleanse the web

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 11 January, 2015, 5:19am
UPDATED : Sunday, 11 January, 2015, 9:40am

Agence-France Presse in Beijing

Mainland China deleted more than three million pieces of pornographic content from the internet last year as part of a campaign to cleanse the country's online sphere.

Zhou Huilin, a deputy director of the National Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal Publications Office, said his office had been "remarkably effective" last year, Xinhua reported yesterday.

The mainland has been cracking down on internet porn for a decade, and has been stepping up its oversight of the web in recent months.

In 2006, a 28-year-old man who ran the country's most popular pornographic website community, with up to 600,000 members, was sentenced to life in prison.

More than 10,000 websites or pages that contained what was described as illegal or harmful information were also shut down by authorities, according to the Xinhua report.

The authorities also confiscated more than 16 million illegal publications - including 12 million pirated ones - and dealt with 212 cases that involved fake journalists or bogus media organisations.

The mainland has more web users than any other country, with a government agency last year estimating the figure at 632 million.

The country is home to a huge e-commerce market and the internet has been used to put the spotlight on government abuses, presenting a challenge to the ruling Communist Party.

Beijing maintains tight controls over online activity, blocking websites it deems politically sensitive in a system dubbed the "Great Firewall of China".

It requires social media companies to censor user-generated content.