China Digest, January 24, 2013

ANHUI

Drug suspect held 5 days

Police have detained a man for five days after catching him with two doses of a banned drug at the Hefei railway station on Tuesday morning, the Anhui Commercial News reports. Police conducted a random search and found he possessed a stimulant containing both methamphetamine and caffeine. Police said his girlfriend tried to bribe them with 11,000 yuan (HK$13,580) to let him go. Police were still deciding whether to punish the woman.

5 killed on highway

Five people were killed and another was critically injured when a taxi collided head-on with another car on a highway in Lingbi county, Suzhou , on Tuesday, Xinhua reports.

BEIJING

Hospital computers crash

The city's entire hospital computer network went down for two hours on Tuesday morning - the second disruption in two days - the Beijing Times reports. Patients were unable to check in, and doctors struggled to diagnose and treat patients because access to their medical files was unavailable. The network crashed for 12 hours on Monday. The cause of the failure was being investigated.

Van strikes pedestrians

A van ploughed into a bus stop on a bridge in Fengtai district on Tuesday afternoon, killing one person and injuring four others, The Beijing News reports. The commuter who died was knocked off the bridge. The driver was injured and remains under investigation. Police think he lost control while distracted.

GUANGDONG

Police follow the money

A former accountant for a pharmaceutical company has been sentenced in Foshan to 12 years in jail for siphoning 9.1 million yuan (HK$11.2 million) from her employer from 2006 to 2011, the Guangzhou Daily reports. Her employer became suspicious of her luxurious lifestyle, and police began investigating her in May. She bought properties, cars and deposited 3.9 million yuan in a prepaid account at a beauty salon. She was arrested in July.

ATM user vents anger

A 24-year-old man became enraged on Sunday and started damaging ATMs belonging to two banks in Liwan district, Guangzhou, because he was unable to withdraw cash using three bank cards, the New Express newspaper reports. He was later arrested and told police that his first credit card was retained by an ATM because he entered the wrong password, and the other ATMs didn't accept two other bank cards.

HUBEI

Passengers dealt surprise

Railway authorities in Wuhan have apologised after a video feed accidentally appeared on televisions in a departure hall and showed technicians playing cards, the Wuhan Morning Post reports. Travellers posted images of the screens online, sparking criticism. Railway authorities said the technicians were taking a break while fine-tuning the video system.

Boy hurt in sewer blast

An eight-year-old boy was severely injured after throwing a firecracker down a sewer manhole in Hannan district, Wuhan, on Tuesday, the Wuhan Evening News reports. The ground shook and the manhole cover blew off, hitting the boy and injuring his head and right hand. The explosion was probably the result of methane igniting in the sewer. The boy was taken to hospital with severe burns to much of his body.

HUNAN

Graft sentence upheld

Hengyang prosecutors say the life sentence handed down recently by a city court was too lenient for a convicted official who embezzled 60 million yuan while serving as deputy director of planning for Changsha , the Legal Weekly reports. The prosecutors were appealing against the sentence in the provincial high court. However, the Hengyang Intermediate People's Court defended the sentence, noting that the official showed remorse and the court recovered all of the money.

School closures on hold

Provincial education authorities have suspended all closings of rural schools, pending a thorough review of rural education and to ensure that students don't have to spend more than 40 minutes commuting to school each day, the Beijing Times reports. Future closures of rural schools will be subjected to strict reviews.

JIANGXI

Embezzler a big loser

A former accountant for the memorial of Mao Zedong's third wife, He Zizhen, in Yongxin county, Jian , has been sentenced to six years in jail for running off with 570,000 yuan that he stole from the memorial four years ago, the Jiangnan City Daily reports. The man turned himself in last month, penniless, telling police that he spent half of the money and the rest was stolen on a train as he fled to Hunan .

The wrong party spirit

Two township-level officials and a village head in impoverished Shangrao county have been fired for organising a large house-warming banquet for 290 guests on Sunday, using money they collected from local businesses, the People's Daily reports. Seventy-three vehicles, including two police cars, were counted at the party.

JILIN

Pull of family too strong

A young couple in Changchun has filed for divorce after just six months of marriage, because they couldn't agree on whose family to visit for the Lunar New Year holiday next month, the City Evening News reports. The husband is a Xinjiang native, and the wife is from Guangdong.

Belching cars targeted

The provincial government plans to remove nearly 176,000 vehicles from roads by the end of 2015 for not complying with emission standards, Xinhua reports. The crackdown could reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides by 30,200 tonnes a year.

LIAONING

Power consumption rises

Residential power consumption in Dalian rose more than 9 per cent last year to 3.78 billion kilowatt hours, and the city's total electricity consumption was 28.7 billion kWh, the Dalian Evening News reports. Dalian alone accounts for 15.12 per cent of all electricity used in Liaoning.

Thrift pays off

A 27-year old man from Tiexi district, Shenyang , used 20 years' worth of red-packet money from holidays and special occasions to make a 150,000 yuan down payment on an apartment, the Liaoshen Evening News reports. He had been saving the money since he was seven, and bought an 80 square metre home for about 400,000 yuan. He took out a bank loan to pay for the rest.

SHANDONG

Robbery suspect held

Tengzhou police have detained a 45-year-old suspect for the robbery of a woman in Shanghai's Baoshan district three weeks ago, Qilu Evening News reports. The man was caught when in Tengzhou while attending a relative's wedding .

Cattle trucker's reward

A truck driver is offering between 1,000 and 3,000 yuan for each of three cows that remain missing after his truck overturned near Xintai on Friday, Dzwww.com reports. The truck was carrying 46 cows, 21 of which wandered off. Police were only able to round up 18.