China Digest, January 19, 2013

Guangdong

Luxury hits new heights

A 308-metre-high, 81-floor luxury apartment block will be built on Shennan Boulevard, Shenzhen's busiest main road, early this year, the Shenzhen Evening News reports. It said the project would be the highest of its kind in Asia.

Medicine profiteer jailed

A Shenzhen woman has been jailed for 21/2 years for profiting from illegal sales of medicine worth nearly 500,000 yuan (HK$623,000) she bought with her retired mother's social security card, the Southern Metropolis Daily reports. The woman used the card to buy medicine from more than 20 hospitals and community health centres since 2009. She sold the medicine to drug dealers. Her mother was entitled to a 95 per cent refund on medical expenses in retirement.

Hebei

11 hurt in fireworks blast

Eleven people were injured in an explosion at a fireworks store in Xingtang county yesterday morning, Xinhua reports. A two-storey house collapsed as a result of the blast in the village of Yangcun. The store, run by a villager, has an expired business licence and was in the process of applying for a new one. An investigation is under way.

4 killed in highway chaos

Four people were killed and nine injured when more than 20 vehicles were involved in nine separate collisions on a two-kilometre section of the Daqing-Guangzhou expressway in Qiu county on Thursday morning, Xinhua reports. Police said the section was covered in heavy fog at the time. The injured have been sent to local hospitals.

Henan

Property bosses detained

Three bosses of property developers have been detained by the Zhengzhou People's Procuratorate on suspicion of being accomplices of a corrupt official who owned dozens of flats in the provincial capital, the Henan Business Daily reports. Zhai Zhenfeng , director of the housing administration bureau in Erqi district, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of abusing his post for illegal gain.

Police target deputy

Jiaozuo city People's Congress deputy, Wang Yucheng , is suspected of swindling more than 10 million yuan from investors, the Henan Business Daily reports. It said police were applying for a permit from the congress that would allow them to arrest Wang, the boss of a cement plant.

Hunan

Two deaths at foster home

Concerns have been raised after two children died at the Hengdong County Welfare House, just a kilometre from a hospital, www.voc.com.cn reports. The authorities have been urged to investigate if the foster home was guilty of dereliction of duty over the death of a three-year-old girl and a boy. It called a junior doctor to treat the children rather than send them to the hospital.

Absent officials apologise

Letters of self-criticism written by two officials in Shaoyang were published on Wednesday on the front page of the Shaoyang Daily, the newspaper of the city's Communist Party committee, apologising for their absence from an economic conference on Monday, the Southern Metropolis Daily reports. The move was ordered by party secretary Guo Guangwen to improve work ethics.

Jiangsu

Drunk motorists punished

More than 9,600 people were sentenced to criminal detention for drink-driving in Jiangsu last year, the Modern Express reports. Two-thirds were caught in rural areas - mostly motorcycle riders.

Commodity prices rise

More than half of 300 types of important commodities sold across the province were more expensive last year, Xinhua reports. Vegetable prices led the way, with prices generally up more than 10 per cent from 2011. Among 17 major vegetables monitored, the prices of 13 increased. Pork prices rose by about 4 per cent.

Jiangxi

Organ traffickers jailed

Four people have been sentenced to between six months and four years in jail by the Poyang County People's Court for trafficking human kidneys, www. jxnews.com.cn reports. The two ring leaders met in 2009, when they had both sold a kidney. In April last year they found two more partners and started their organ-trafficking business. They advertised on social networks and gave prospective kidney sellers room and board.

Help for medical students

The provincial authorities plan to offer financial support for more than 2,400 students from several medical colleges across the province in the next three years, covering their tuition and accommodation fees, the Economic Evening News reports. In return, the students will have to work for medical units in rural areas in the province for at least five years after graduation.

Shanghai

Man kills roommate

A 26-year-old man stabbed his 23-year-old roommate to death and dumped the body in a manhole early yesterday in the Pudong New Area after they quarrelled while drinking, www.eastday.com reports. The stabbing occurred at around 4am in Yiyuan village in the Kangqiao area. During the quarrel, the man picked up a kitchen knife and stabbed his roommate in the neck.

Drink-driving cases rise

City police say drink-driving cases are on the rise this month as the number of banquets and get-togethers increase ahead of the Lunar New Year, the Shanghai Daily reports. Police said about 80 per cent were caught between 7pm and 10pm.

Xinjiang

Livestock saved from snow

More than 130,000 livestock have been sent from the snow-capped Altay mountains to the Ulungur River region, where they can graze better, Xinhua reports. The livestock had been trapped for months in the mountains, which have seen heavy snow this winter. Almost 1,400 people helped move the livestock down the mountain and supply them with sufficient food.

Illegal hunters arrested

More than 10 people have been arrested this year in Manas county, in the Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, for illegally hunting wild animals, www.ts.cn reports. It said police would launch a campaign to prevent illegal hunting in the area's mountains, deserts and forest parks.

Zhejiang

Free congee for the needy

Some 300,000 bowls of laba congee - rice porridge with nuts and dried fruit - will be handed out free to pilgrims, orphans and the elderly in nursing homes in Hangzhou today, Xinhua reports. Handing out the congee to the public on the eighth day of the last month of the lunar calendar is a Chinese tradition.

Man's life in safe hands

A quadriplegic man in his 30s in Gankeng village, Shangzheng township, has been kept alive for five years by a simple and crude respirator machine made by his parents, zjol.com reports. It said the home-made machine cost the family a few hundred yuan while a professionally made one usually cost tens of thousands. To make the machine work, the parents have to press a ball bladder nearly 25,000 times by hand each day without a break.