Briefs, February 9, 2013

Zhou Zhenhong, a former member of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Communist Party and head of its provincial United Front Work Department, has been stripped of his party membership and official posts and faces government prosecution, according to a decision from the party's anti-graft agency. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said its investigation found that Zhou took advantage of his position to benefit others and also accepted bribes. He was found to have received large quantities of cash and expensive gifts, and was involved in corruption cases in Maoming city. Xinhua

A man driving an SUV knocked down eight pedestrians and crashed into a line of posts outside a shopping mall in Kunming yesterday morning, igniting a load of flammable goods in the vehicle, police said. The fire was put out by police officers and the mall's security guards. An official news portal cited a witness as saying that officers later unloaded six cylinders of liquefied gas and several petrol barrels from the torched SUV. Police were investigating, Xinhua said. The driver, surnamed Ma, suffered burns but his condition was not life threatening. The pedestrians also escaped without potentially fatal injuries. Staff Reporter

Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping chatted with taxi drivers, sanitation workers, migrant workers and police in Beijing, praising their dedication to work during the Lunar New Year holidays, state media reported on their microblogs. Xi went to a subway construction site, sanitation office and taxi company, and asked the cabbies for advice on solving the problem of finding a taxi at rush hour in Beijing. He Huifeng