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SCMP Reporters

ANHUI
Death sentence for bribery
The former land resources bureau chief in Suzhou city was sentenced to death on Friday with a two-year reprieve for accepting more than 20 million yuan (HK$24.45 million) in bribes from real estate developers between 2005 and last year, Xinhua reports. His son, a division chief with the bureau, was given life imprisonment for taking bribes.
Fire drills for students
Nearly 12 million students will participate in fire drills across the province during a two-week campaign that began yesterday to promote fire-safety awareness, the Legal Daily reports. Sixteen schools from 16 cities had their drills yesterday morning, requiring students to come to school on their day off.
BEIJING
Parking fever
More than 600 people lined up in Chaoyang district overnight on Friday in the hope of securing a cheap space in a car park that opened near their apartments, the Legal Evening News reports. The 700 outdoor parking spaces cost just 130 yuan a month, compared with 400 yuan in an enclosed parking garage.
Parents fight new school
Several hundred angry parents protested in the rain on Saturday at the site of a new primary school affiliated with Renmin University in Haidian district. They were unhappy that more than 1,000 primary school children were relocated to the new site, which the parents said had poor facilities, China National Radio reports. The school was moved to accommodate more students.
GUANGDONG
Mystery body in river
Guangzhou police pulled a man's body from a river in Haizhu district on Saturday morning, but his identity and the cause of death were still unknown yesterday, the Information Times reports. The body was spotted by a worker at a nearby car repair shop while he ate breakfast along the riverbank.
Welfare fraud
More than 6,400 residents in Shenzhen who are ineligible to receive low-income subsidies defrauded the government of nearly 1.9 million yuan in such subsidies last year, according to the city's audit bureau, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reports. Authorities did not say how these people would be punished.
HENAN
2 held for fatal kidnapping
A couple was arrested in Anyang last week in connection with the kidnapping and death of a 32-year-old woman in Beijing's Changping district last month, the Dahe Daily reports. The body was found in a landfill site in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province. Police said the couple, both in their 30s, wanted to blackmail the woman's family, but she suffocated to death when her mouth and nose were covered.
Official's wealth queried
A civil servant in Jia county, Pingdingshan, made several bank account transfers ranging from 100,000 to 10 million yuan between 2006 and last year, prompting questions from the public about the money's origin, People.com.cn reports. But local propaganda officials said the money came from companies the man ran.
HUNAN
Security deputy executed
The former deputy director of state security in Zhanjiajie was executed on Friday after being convicted of killing four people with the help of accomplices over eight years, the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald reports. Some of the victims' bodies were dismembered. Prosecutors said Zhang Zhihuai had money disputes with at least three of the victims. All the killings occurred after Zhang quit his job with the Public Security Bureau and went into business for himself.
Tourist town replicated
Authorities in the Xiangxi autonomous prefecture are planning to spend 5.5 billion yuan to build a new town that is nearly identical to the century-old Fenghuang town, which has been inundated with too many visitors, the Beijing Times reports. More than 3.1 million people visited Fenghuang in the first half of the year, three times as many people as authorities say the town can handle.
JIANGSU
Policeman in death leap
A policeman jumped to his death yesterday morning from the seventh floor of the Binhai county police station in Yancheng city after he was "invited for a talk" with the county's party disciplinary authorities the night before for alleged violations of party discipline, China News Service reports.
Criminals on the run
Police in Nanjing have solved more than 2,230 crimes and arrested 8,227 suspects in the two months since the city launched a campaign to crack down on crime, Longhoo.net reports.
SHANGHAI
Unhealthy results
A survey by the Shanghai Health Bureau of more than 8,600 residents between May and July found that 55 per cent of the men were smokers, compared with just 3 per cent of the women, the Oriental Morning Post reports. The survey also found that 29 per cent of all those interviewed were overweight, and that Shanghai residents sit in front of computers for four hours on average a day.
More people take trains
More than 61 million people travelled by train to visit Shanghai and other cities in the Yangtze River Delta region during the summer's two-month peak travel period, which ended on Friday, China News Service reports. Railway authorities said the average daily passenger flow reached 990,000 people - 10 per cent more than during this year's Lunar New Year holiday period in February.
SICHUAN
Pork scam uncovered
At least 32 people were arrested by provincial police last month for buying sick or dead pigs from farmers at cheap prices to make sausage and bacon, the West China City Daily reports. About 30 tonnes of pork were seized when police raided 18 small workshops run by the gang, which bought the pigs from farmers in Guangan and Nanchong and sold the processed pork in Nanchong.
Five die in collision
Five people died and three were injured when a van and a car collided head-on on an expressway near Qiuxi town, Neijiang , on Saturday morning, China News Service reports. The dead were all in the van. Two other people in the van were injured along with the driver of the car.
ZHEJIANG
Warehouse burns down
A 1,000 square metre warehouse belonging to a textile factory burned down in Zhuji on Saturday, the Qianjiang Evening News reports. About 100 firefighters and 13 fire engines went to the scene. No one was injured. The cause of the fire was under investigation.
Drug ring busted
A drug-smuggling ring was busted through a joint effort by police from Zhejiang , Yunnan and Hubei, China News Service reports. The drugs were smuggled from Myanmar and sold in Zhejiang after being transported through Yunnan and Hubei. Police arrested nine people.


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