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China Digest, November 26, 2012

Developers for six skyscrapers planned in the capital's central business district have asked the municipal planning commission for permission to make their buildings taller, by up to 100 metres, to help them better match their surrounding landscape, which will include the 510-metre-tall China Zun building to be completed in 2016.

Agencies

BEIJING

Race to the top

Developers for six skyscrapers planned in the capital's central business district have asked the municipal planning commission for permission to make their buildings taller, by up to 100 metres, to help them better match their surrounding landscape, which will include the 510-metre-tall China Zun building to be completed in 2016, the Beijing Morning Post reports. China Zun will be Beijing's tallest building. The public has been given a month to provide feedback on the six revised blueprints.

Reluctant father pays

An octogenarian has been ordered by the Tongzhou District People's Court to pay 75,000 yuan (HK$92,550) in child support to his former housekeeper, with whom he had a child in 2001, the Beijing Times reports. The man married the woman in 2008, but he has refused to pay child support since they divorced last year.

GUANGDONG

Corrupt official jailed

An official in charge of a grain storage facility in Zhuhai has been sentenced to 8-1/2 years' jail for taking more than 1 million yuan in kickbacks from subcontractors, the New Express newspaper reports. The Jinwan District People's Court found that Zhou Cheng took 400,000 yuan from a man contracted to run a shipping port affiliated with the grain storage facility between May 2008 and April 2010. Zhou also took more than 660,000 yuan in other bribes between May and December last year.

Miscarriage after theft

A pregnant woman who was caught stealing a 208-yuan can of baby formula from a supermarket in Guangzhou's Baiyun district last Tuesday claims she had a miscarriage because employees at the store beat her up when they caught her stealing, Southcn.com reports. The woman, from Leiyang, Hunan, was two months pregnant and in Guangzhou to find work. She said she tried to steal the formula for a nine-month-old baby at home. Pictures were posted online showing the woman badly bruised.

HEILONGJIANG

TV host spills on affair

A local television host in Shuangcheng recently claimed on her microblog that she was forced into an improper relationship with a legislator with the municipal People's Congress for several years, and the local government is now investigating her allegations, The Beijing News reports. The TV host said she met the legislator during an interview several years ago, and he forced her to divorce her husband in December 2009. The official is also the general manager of a state-owned company.

High-speed train in service

The Harbin-Dalian high-speed train line will be put into service on Saturday, but will operate at a reduced speed during cold months, The Beijing News reports. It is the world's only high-speed railway designed for a cold, high-altitude region. The train's maximum speed will be 350km/h, but the speed will be limited to 200km/h until March.

HUBEI

Teen rapist jailed

A farmer from a Huangpi district, Wuhan, has been sentenced to three years' jail for raping and impregnating a mentally retarded 16-year-old girl earlier this year, the Wuhan Morning Post reports. The rape came to light after the girl's grandmother discovered that the teen was three months pregnant and contacted police. The man, who was detained in June, confessed to luring the girl with food and cash to have sex with her.

Pig farm job snubbed

University graduates who attended a job fair at Wuhan Polytechnic University in Wuhan over the weekend snubbed a recruitment booth for a pig farm in Hunan, although the recruiters were seeking someone with a bachelor's or master's degree, the Wuhan Evening News reports. Despite not receiving any applications, the recruiters defended their high standards, saying they were not looking for labourers to look after the pigs, but someone with the management skills and expertise to help run a modernised farm.

LIAONING

Outbreak wipes out pigs

An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Dalian has killed at least 43 pigs at a farm since last Monday, and the remaining undisclosed number of pigs at the farm will be culled to prevent further spreading of the highly contagious disease, Xinhua reports. The National Foot-and-Mouth Disease Reference Laboratory confirmed that the outbreak occurred at a pig farm in the city's Puwan New Area, and the disease strain was the most common type O.

Long-time fugitive nabbed

Police in Fumeng county, Fuxin, have detained a man who recently went to a local police station to obtain a new ID card, after they discovered that the man was a wanted fugitive who had been on the run since 2000, the Huashang Morning Post reports. Officers became suspicious when the man appeared reluctant to make eye contact and became nervous when told he had to have his picture taken. He was wanted for stealing aluminium plates from a textile factory in March 2000. He later told police he thought no one would recognise him after so many years.

SHAANXI

Checks after explosion

Quality supervision authorities in Xian have launched a 40-day citywide inspection of pressurised boilers, after a natural-gas boiler exploded in a residential complex and killed six people in the Xingping area of nearby Xianyang city early last Wednesday morning, the Xian Evening News reports. The explosion caused the collapse of the three-storey building and also injured one person. Boilers in places with a lot of people, such as in schools, shopping malls, hospitals and public bath houses will be accorded priority in the Xian safety checks.

Sinking land evacuated

All 60 households inside a residential building attached to a vocational school in Xian have been ordered to evacuate from their homes by tomorrow after a sudden ground subsidence occurred on Saturday and destabilised the building, which will be torn down, the Xian Evening News reports. The cause of the subsidence was still under investigation, and there were no plans to demolish the school. The families were each given 10,000 yuan in temporary financial assistance, along with three days to remove their belongings, but it was unclear whether they would be further compensated.

SHANDONG

Man's burning passion

A 38-year-old man suffered burns to more than 60 per cent of his body when he doused himself with petrol and set himself on fire outside of his girlfriend's home in Huangdao district, Qingdao last Friday, following the rejection of his marriage proposal, Jxnews.com reports. The man, from Nanchang, Jiangxi, was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Help for unemployed

The provincial government has said it plans to set up a database of unemployed university graduates who are struggling to find work, the Dazhong Daily reports. Authorities will use the database to help determine which graduates may benefit from additional vocational training or recruitment counselling. Graduates from impoverished families or those who have struggled for years to find work will also be given preferential treatment in the filling of vacancies that are subsidised by local governments.

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