Climber stranded on cliff for hours

A mountain climber was trapped halfway up a cliff for three hours before being rescued by police officers and firefighters.

Xu, 32, was scaling a peak in Jiyuan of Henan Province after travelling from Hubei Province, on Monday, when he used his mobile phone to call for help.

The rescue services climbed to the top of the cliff using a different route, dangling ropes down to the stranded climber.

Dahe Daily

Father returns to pick up abandoned son

A father that abandoned his 3-year-old son, who is suffering from leukaemia, returned to the hospital where he had left him after 10 days.

Huang Wei, 33, was compelled to go back to the hospital in Zhengzhou of Central China's Henan Province to see his child Huang Guan.

The man said he would never discard his boy again, however difficult life is.

He has received 40,000 yuan (US$4,900) in donations but still needs more money to cover the cost of medical treatment, which runs to about 200,000 yuan (US$24,700).

Dahe Daily

Pigeons invent airborne three-legged race

A pair of pigeons with their feet tied together flew around in the wild for a week before returning home, still tied together.

Farmer Li tied the right foot of one pigeon to the left foot of another on his way to the market in Wuyang, Henan Province. But the cheeky birds flew off on arrival.

Two weeks later, Li found the two pigeons on the roof of his home. "It is an amazing thing; how did they fly and find food during the past two weeks with their feet tied up together?" Li asked himself, before deciding to keep the amazing birds as pets.

Dahe Daily

Wife charged with trying to poison husband

A woman is alleged to have poisoned her husband with soup because she was so mad with him, but then saved his life.

The wife from a town in Tianmeng, Hubei Province, is said to have told her husband she had just tried to kill him when he started to convulse.

She rushed him to hospital where doctors said he was lucky to survive.

Chutian Metropolis News

Cheating students plead for second chance

Fourteen university students were chucked out of college after cheating in exams, but they have appealed to a court, hoping for a lighter punishment.

The students from Shaoyang, Hunan Province said they felt regret about their actions and handed in letters of apology to the school authorities in the hope of being given a second chance.

Their lawyers say the school failed to submit the cases to a higher department before ordering them to leave.

Legal Weekly

The child formerly known as 'D'

A couple gave their only child a special name to encourage him to be special in the future.

The baby from Dengfeng, Henan Province, decided to name their pride and joy Hu D.

But the registration police refused to register the baby with this name, because it was impossible for them to put the letter D into the name column in their computer. They finally came up with a Chinese character that sounds the same.

Dongfang Today

(China Daily 10/28/2005 page5)