East

Xiamen man, 22, blames parents for his crimes
A 22-year-old man in Xiamen, Fujian, was arrested one night last month while vandalizing expensive cars and stealing items from them, police said.
They were stunned when the man, surnamed Wang, claimed he committed the crime and others like it -- to vent his hatred against his millionaire parents.
The relationship between Wang and his parents turned sour last September. Wang apparently has been addicted to online games. Whenever he quarreled with his parents, he said he would go out, smash open windows of luxury sedans on the road and steal valuable things from them.
He said he once stole two sets of golf equipment worth about 150,000 yuan ($19,200) from a car.
Southeast Express

Jinan nutritionists bond to publicize their services
Upset by the low demand for their services, more than 20 licensed nutritionists in Jinan, capital of Shandong, recently worked out an alliance to introduce their profession to the public.
Liang, a member of the alliance, said he earned a certificate as a professional nutritionist last year in the belief the occupation had great potential. However, Liang was disappointed to find that few Chinese are aware they can turn to nutritionists for help even though they knew the importance of a balanced diet.
It was said that in Japan one of every 300 people hires a professional nutritionist, but across China, the number of certified nutritionists is fewer than 4,000.
Qilu Evening News

Wenzhou man donates 30,000 yuan for surgery
For the father of a 5-year-old leukemia patient in Jilin Province, the biggest New Year's wish is to be able to personally thank a businessman in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, who gave the family 30,000 yuan ($3,842) in response to a message for help from the father even though they have never met.
The father, surnamed Wu, was informed that his son needed a bone marrow transplant, which would cost the family 400,000 yuan ($51,200). Trying all the ways available, the family was still short by 30,000 yuan. The desperate father then sent hundreds of short messages to randomly selected phone numbers for help.
A businessman in Wenzhou surnamed Zhen was the only person to call back. With Zhen's money, the boy had the surgery a week later and was recovering now.
Today Morning Post

North

New Year's housemaids free up parents' time
Instead of giving household goods to their parents as gifts as is traditional, many dutiful young people in Anshan, Liaoning, hired housemaids for their hardworking parents during this New Year's holiday.
"I had a very easy day this New Year's holiday with the help of a housemaid my son booked for me," a mother surnamed Wang said. Without doing much housework, another mother said she had more time to spend the holiday with her family members.
Booking temporary housemaids as special gifts to their parents are likely to be popular again at Spring Festival, the time for traditional family-reunions for Chinese, which starts on February 18.
North Morning News

Fast-thinking cabbie lies, tells robber she has VD
A woman taxi driver scared off a robber who she said wanted to rape her by threatening him with a fabricated venereal disease.
The robber forced her to drive to a remote grove in Huadian, Jilin, where he robbed her of her money and tried to rape her last week. To get herself out of the trouble, she falsely claimed that she had been infected with a venereal disease.
To her surprise, the robber fell down in gratitude for telling him before he got out of the taxi and ran.
The suspect was caught a few days later and put behind bars on charges of robbery and attempted rape.
East Asia Economy and Trade News

Busy signal on pick-up results in thief's arrest
Police in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning, arrested a man who admitted he tapped into other people's phone lines for his own purposes.
A man surnamed Zhang caught the thief red-handed at the connector box near his house last week. He became suspicious when he picked up his phone and heard a busy signal.
When he found the caller outside, he called police. The thief admitted that he had used Zhang's and many other users' phone lines for his own benefit over the past few months.
Shenyang Today

South

Hong Kong gets tougher on animal protection
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Hong Kong (SPCA) has signed a cooperation pact with the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department to enforce the animal protection law.
SPCA inspectors will receive training on how to collect and process evidence against animal abuse, and both will step up patrols at locations about which there have been complaints.
The Legislative Council passed an amendment to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance last month, raising the maximum fine to HK$200,000 (US$25,600) and imprisonment up to three years. A man was jailed for eating dog meat under the amended law.
Ta Kung Pao

No joke: Four yolks in Guangdong egg
A chicken egg with four yolks surprised not only the owner, surnamed Deng, but also many of her neighbors in Maoming, Guangdong, this week.
Deng, a 40-year-old housewife, said she broke the egg to cook at home.
Many of her curious neighbors, relatives and friends immediately rushed in to see the special egg, which was larger than an average chicken egg, when they learned about it.
Maoming Evening News

Grandma's message:Study hard, contribute
Study hard and contribute to society: That's the message of encouragement that a 70-year-old woman in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, wants to leave to her grandchildren.
The woman, surnamed Xu, wrote her 30,000-character reminiscences in three months and finished it last week. She said she has nothing to offer her grandchildren except the reminiscences.
She teaches young generations how to face adversity and overcome difficulties by relating her own personal experiences, including the hard life she faced when she was young.
Information Times

Central

Scales master sees sales going aweigh
Changsha resident Wen Jinhui has become the last person to be producing scales that can weigh items of less than 0.1 gram in Hunan's capital.
Wen, 54, said special skills and patience are needed to produce such a sensitive scale that can weigh even a hair.
He started learning to make steelyards at age 14 and once had eight students, but none of them wants to learn how to produce such a sensitive scale, which has been used by the Chinese for more than 2,000 years.
In his peak years, Wen opened eight outlets to produce and sell scales in Changsha.
Sanxiang Metropolis News

Farmer claims hen extraordinarily old
Farmer Chen Yubin says he'll apply for a new Guinness world record for his hen, which is more than 20 years old, in Zhengzhou, Henan's capital.
Chen, 32, said his mother began raising the hen in his family's courtyard since he was just 12. The average life span of a chicken is usually 7 to 8 years.
The brown-and-black hen is 20 centimeters long, and 10 centimeters in height, and weighs 0.9 kilograms. And she is still healthy.
The oldest hen in the Guinness Book of World Records records was 14 years old from the United States.
Dongfang Jinbao

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