Around China

Beijing

Former telecom chief gets life in jail

Lu Xiangdong, former executive director and deputy manager of China Mobile, the country's largest telecommunication company, has been sentenced to life in prison for taking bribes worth more than 20 million yuan ($3.3 billion). Lu's wife was given a three-year sentence with five-year reprieve as an accomplice. Caixin.com reported Lu is likely to appeal.

Customs clips pigeon smuggling

Beijing Customs has cracked down on a racing-pigeon smuggling ring worth an estimated $16 million. A suspect, Zhang Qiwen, is believed to have imported 2,684 carrier pigeons through a trade company in July this year from three suppliers in Belgium, Beijing Evening News reported. Zhang declared the deal to customs but undervalued each of the imported pigeons as worth only $23 with a total value of $61,732.

Top court praises Guangdong effort

Courts in China should learn from the Guangdong provincial high court how to tackle cases under transparent and regulated judicial procedures, the country's top court said on Monday. Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People's Court, praised an innovative online implementation bureau developed by Guangdong High People's Court. He said the approach was important for overcoming difficulties in verdict enforcement.

Model uses fake photos to find wife

A male model searching for a wife online has been outed by netizens for digitally superimposing his head onto photos of other male models in fashion magazines. In model Liang Chao's recent post on Sina Weibo, he portrayed himself as a 30-year-old, foreign-educated man with an annual income of 700,000 yuan ($115,000), but netizens discovered that Liang's photos were fake.

Shanghai

Taxi firm tests Wi-Fi services

A Shanghai taxi company has begun testing free Wi-Fi in its cars and is planning to extend the service to all taxis next year, according to the Oriental Morning Post. Passwords are not required for the service. The Jinjiang taxi company said it started a trial run of the service in October by installing a Wi-Fi device in one taxi and found more than one-third of passengers were interested in using the free service.

'Leftover women' too aggressive

A survey found that the number of shengnyu, or "leftover women", is rising in the city because they are too aggressive in their relationships, according to the Shanghai newspaper Labor Daily. The term "leftover women" is widely used in China to refer to unmarried women around 30 or older. More than 70 percent of the Shanghai men polled for the survey said a husband does not need to earn more money than his wife because there are more women in positions of power in the city.

Professor denies pollution test

Song Weimin, a professor at Fudan University's School of Public Health, denied a news report about his experiment that said human lungs can turn black after six days of breathing smog. Song said he did not expose the rats in his experiment to polluted air, but killed the rats and put pollutants into their lungs. The experiment does not prove that human lungs would turn black after six days of haze, Song told Beijing News.

Healthcare, food safety top issues

A recent survey showed that healthcare, food safety and housing prices are the livelihood issues that concern Shanghai residents the most, following the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee. The survey, conducted by the public opinion research center at Fudan University, polled 320 residents aged above 18 from 17 districts in the city.

Guangdong

Talented boy hired as engineer

An 11-year-old boy who has patented several inventions has been invited to be a contributing engineer by a company, Nanfang Daily reported on Tuesday. The company in Huizhou asked him to help develop solar lamps. Zhu Yanzhen, a student at a junior high school, took out his first invention patent for a type of lamp in 2009 when he was only 7 years old.

New rule to control housing market

Starting from Nov 25, the minimum down payment on the purchase of a second home in Guangzhou will be raised from 60 percent to 70 percent. The Guangzhou branch of the People's Bank of China issued the requirement on Monday in an aim to control the housing market. The bank said it may continue to raise the minimum down payment for second homes in the near future.

Better to marry an only child: survey

An online survey shows that about 25 percent of people would like to marry an only child after the revised one-child policy was released last week during the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee, Southern Metropolis Daily reported. Under the new policy, couples will be allowed to have two children if one of the parents is an only child.

Sichuan

Earthquake volunteer in jail

Chen Yan, a famous volunteer nationwide for his service after the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake five years ago, has been sentenced to three years with a reprieve of three years for fraud. In late 2010, a woman asked Chen to find jobs for her daughter and son-in-law. Chen asked her for 120,000 ($19,700) yuan as gift money for people who could help. Chen spent all of the money, some for his own purposes, but did not find satisfactory jobs for the couple. The woman complained to police who arrested Chen in May.

Man's debt balloons twentyfold

A man surnamed Chen was surprised to find that a fee of 967 yuan ($160) for overdrawing on his bank account had grown to 19,000 yuan in six years. He recently realized his massive debt when he applied for a bank loan to buy an apartment in the provincial capital, Chengdu. The bank said he had a poor credit record and could not lend him money. Chen said he had lost the credit card and had forgotten about the loan.

Shaanxi

Suspects confess to Buddha theft

Four suspects believed to have stolen the head of an ancient stone Buddha 16 years ago were caught recently by police but the ancient relic is still missing, Xi'an Evening News reported on Tuesday. The stone statue stood in a temple that was built in 593 to 600 AD in Linyou county, Baoji. The statue's head was stolen on Aug 25, 1997. In September, one of the suspects, surnamed Feng, was caught and confessed that he and three others stole the head 16 years ago. Police detained the other three suspects.

Guangxi

15-year-old student killed in melee

One student was stabbed to death in a street brawl on Saturday involving more than 30 students in Hechi, Xinhua News Agency reported. The students, most of middle-school age, fought each other, resulting in the death of a 15-year-old student, the agency said, adding that the main suspect, surnamed Luo, 14, had surrendered.

Hubei

Delivered food to affect health

Ninety-nine percent of restaurants in Wuhan are not licensed to make takeout lunch deliveries, Wuhan Evening News reported on Tuesday. About 4.21 million lunches are delivered every day in the city, the report said, but of the 5,000 restaurants providing takeout services, only 22 were licensed. About 90 percent of the takeout lunches were delivered by small restaurants, raising concerns over food safety.

10m yuan award for new academician

Starting next year, any company in Wuhan will receive an award of 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) if one of its employees becomes a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said an official from the Wuhan government. According to cjn.cn, a major news portal in the province, the incentive is part of the city's plan to boost its engineering design sector.

Hunan

Body of boy found in sewage pipe

The body of a 5-year-old boy was found on Tuesday in Liuyang after he fell into a sewage pipe on Sunday. The boy, from Huanyuan, was playing in Liuyang Industrial Park on Sunday when he fell into an uncovered sewage pipe. The report said that construction workers forgot to put the cover back when construction for the sidewalk was underway in the area.

Xinhua - China Daily

(China Daily USA 11/20/2013 page3)