China Digest, February 23, 2013

Anhui

Bomb hoax grounds flight

A man was detained in Hefei on Thursday morning after he made a phone call falsely claiming that there was a bomb on a plane, the Beijing Morning Post reports. The man had an argument with his girlfriend and told police she had taken explosives onto a flight to Shenzhen. The plane made an emergency landing in Nanchang , Jiangxi .

Bus shelters not replaced

Huangshan residents have been forced to guess the location of bus stops and wait in the rain after shelters were removed eight months ago, the Xinan Evening Post reports. Bus drivers said they guess where the stops are by recognising trees or estimating the distance from a previous stop, and sometimes missed them. The bus authority said it was waiting for the urban planning authority to confirm the location of stops before it could begin construction.

Beijing

District-level meetings cut

The Haidian district government says it has more than halved the number of district-level meetings this year in response to the central government's call for less bureaucracy, The Beijing News reports. More than 140 work units had planned 158 district-level meetings for this year, but only 44 were approved. Seventy-eight general meetings had been planned, but only 34 will be allowed to proceed.

Parking to be made easier

Beijing's Development and Reform Commission plans to create 30,000 more parking spaces around hospitals, museums and exhibition centres, the Beijing Daily reports. The commission said the extra capacity would mainly be provided by making better use of parking spaces at government offices, schools and businesses. Ten car parks are also planned at subway stations off the fourth ring to allow passengers to park and ride.

Guangdong

Official ran shop at work

A 30-year-old employee of the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau in Shenzhen's Luohu district has been fired after an internet posting exposed her for running an online shop during working hours and using the office phone for her business, the Guangzhou Daily reports. The woman said she was responsible for promoting self-employment and opened the online shop three years ago to gain experience so that she could teach others. She said the goods she sold were mostly bought by family and friends.

Samaritan's name cleared

A motorcyclist had his name cleared by police after he was accused of running into an elderly man in Qingyuan , the Guangzhou Daily reports. The motorcyclist had seen the elderly man by a roadside a week ago alongside a capsized tricycle, and offered him a lift home. The elderly man and his son then accused the motorcyclist of being responsible for the accident and only let him go after he gave them 2,100 yuan (HK$2,600). He then called police, who found no marks on his motorcycle indicating that it had been involved in a collision.

Hubei

Radiation leaks denied

The provincial Health Department has denied claims that radiation leaks in operating theatres at a Wuhan hospital led to three doctors developing thyroid cancer, the cnhubei.com news portal reports. Doctors said on the internet that the operating theatres were unable to block radiation from X-ray machines. But the department said the radiation level was within government guidelines.

Jail for poster of sex clip

A 44-year-old man in Luotian county, Huanggang , has been jailed for eight months for uploading a video of himself and his mistress to a pornographic website, the Chutian Metropolis Daily reports. The man had been involved with the married woman since 2007. Her family called police after the clip racked up more than 345,000 hits and she was forced to leave town.

Hunan

Court takes long recess

The Shigu District People's Court in Hengyang has come under fire for taking a Lunar New Year break that was nine days longer than the week-long public holiday, the people.com.cn news portal reports. A woman who won a case in the court 10 years ago went there last Saturday, the first working day after the Lunar New Year, because the verdict had not been executed. She called the judge who ruled on her case but was told he would return to work after the Lantern Festival as that was the court's tradition.

5 punished for indiscipline

Five civil servants in Zhuzhou have been punished since Hunan authorities published an office discipline rule forbidding the playing of cards, drinking alcohol and rudeness towards residents, the Zhuzhou Evening Post reports. One lost a fifth of his bonus because he watched a television drama online during office hours, while another was fined 1,000 yuan for playing online games. One received a "severe warning" from the Communist Party for gambling.

Shaanxi

Child molester detained

A 60-year-old kindergarten teacher in Gaoling county, Xian , has been detained for molesting children, the Huashang News reports. The man visited a five-year-old's home last month and exposed himself while her grandmother was preparing tea. Her relatives later discovered that four other families had similar experiences. The man had been on the run but was caught this week.

Finance chief arrested

The finance chief of Jianhua township in Ansai county, Yanan , was arrested on Monday for embezzling 2.13 million yuan in less than two years, the Procuratorial Daily reports. County prosecutors received a tip-off about Zhang Liuchun on the eve of the Lunar New Year and detained him.

Sichuan

Armed robbers held

Yibin police who detained two suspects for armed robbery discovered that the pair had themselves been the victims of a recent robbery in Yibin, the newssc.org news portal reports. The suspects, aged 30 and 28, used fake guns to rob a man of his cellphone and 570 yuan at a petrol station on February 15.

Hunt after hit-and-run

Chengdu police are looking for an SUV driver who fed after knocking down two pedestrians on Wednesday night, the West China City Daily reports. Several passers-by heard a loud bang and saw a man and a woman lying on the ground near the SUV. The driver got out of the vehicle and ran away. The injured were sent to a hospital, which said one had died. However, the fatality had yet to be confirmed by police.

Yunnan

Payout for village rampage

The China Railway Tunnel Group has agreed to pay 300,000 yuan in compensation after its workers damaged 57 households in Yan village, Funing county, Xinhua reports. Two employees driving through the village on February 12 were beaten after they splashed mud onto villagers. The next day, more than 100 workers from the construction company rampaged through the village.

Quake jolts Lijiang county

A 4.2-magnitude earthquake jolted Yongsheng in Lijiang at 5.43am yesterday, Xinhua reports. The epicentre, at a depth of 14 kilometres, was 7.8 kilometres from the county. Some houses were damaged and officials had been sent to check on casualties.