BEIJING
Jailed for knock-off bags
A woman was sentenced to a year in jail and fined 10,000 yuan for selling knock-off luxury bags at a market in Fengtai district, the Beijing Evening News reports. Police confiscated 250 bags, which she had purchased for about 20 yuan each.
Garbage pit clean-up
Beijing authorities ordered the removal of a refuse pit near the Miyun Reservoir, the capital's largest source of drinking water, Xinhua reports. The rubbish came from a waterway-dredging project in 2009, but the issue was only recently addressed after complaints were made via an environmental hotline.
GUANGDONG
Hostage taker subdued
A 25-year-old man was taken into custody Sunday after overdosing on drugs and taking a female nurse hostage at a hospital in Baoan district, the Baoan Daily reports. At 1am, the man rushed into the emergency room and grabbed the nurse. Police subdued him while giving him a bottle of water after more than two hours of negotiations.
Curbs on school places
To halt the soaring price of apartments in Luohu district, Shenzhen, each apartment will be granted only one application to a top school in the district every nine years, even if the home changes hands, the Shenzhen Daily reports. The new rules, effective this year, are intended to prevent parents from buying apartments in a residential area just so their children can gain admission at a top school nearby.
GUIZHOU
New shale gas projects
The provincial government recently signed an agreement with the Ministry of Land and Resources to begin commercially exploiting shale gas in 2016, Xinhua reports. The province is estimated to have about 10 trillion cubic metres worth of shale gas reserves - the fourth-largest total among all mainland provinces. The project could take three years.
Required village residency
Authorities in Suiyang county, Zunyi , have ordered 117 village-level officials to live in their villages for at least 22 days a month, www.gog.com.cn [1] reports. About 80 per cent of all county and village-level officials must also live in their villages for at least 12 days a month. Authorities did not say what prompted the order, just that it would benefit the people.
HENAN
Movie crasher detained
A senior official of Nanyang city has been suspended from his post and is in police custody for driving a government vehicle into a movie theatre and injuring 26 people on Sunday morning, Xinhua reports. The accident occurred around 11am when the party director of Wancheng district's Culture, Radio, TV, Film, Press and Publication Bureau mistook the accelerator for the brake.
Teen suicide suspected
A 15-year-old girl is believed to have jumped to her death from the 14th floor of her residential building on Saturday afternoon because her mother refused to drive her to school and insisted she take the bus, the Dahe Daily reports. Relatives had been visiting the family, and the mother said she needed to drive them home and couldn't bring her daughter to school that day.
JIANGSU
Aluminium in snack seeds
Seven types of snack seeds sold at supermarkets and shops in Suzhou have been found to contain aluminium, which can cause brain and nerve damage when consumed, Xinhua reports. Quality-inspection authorities found the amount of the aluminium additive, used to keep the seeds dry, exceeded safe standards in all samples.
Big crowds at temple
About 520,000 people packed into the area around the Confucius Temple in Qinhuai district, Nanjing , on Sunday night for the annual Lantern Festival, Jschina.com.cn [2] reports. Authorities had expected only about 400,000 people to attend. More than 5,000 police officers were dispatched to maintain order.
SHAANXI
Huge dam planned
Xianyang authorities will spend more than 12 billion yuan to build a massive reservoir, the largest of its kind in the province, the Xianyang Daily reports. The 230-metre-tall arch dam is expected to be completed within eight years, generate 330 million kilowatt hours of electricity and provide 500 million cubic metres of water for neighbouring cities.
Car crash kills three
Three people died and nine others were injured in a four-vehicle pile-up in Baoji on Saturday night, reports News.cnwest.com [3] The accident started when two cars crashed around 6.15pm. Two hours later, while traffic officers were at the scene, a truck driver lost control and crashed into the cordoned-off area. One officer was killed.
SHANGHAI
Book lover turns thief
A self-proclaimed book addict has been sentenced in Xuhui district to five months of detention for stealing 385 books from local community libraries over an 18-month period, starting in March 2011, Eastday.com [4] reports. He would borrow a book, return it, and then steal it after the librarian checked it back in and set it aside at the counter.
Jail for illegal-blood row
Four men have received jail sentences ranging between eight years and life in connection with the stabbing death of another man, triggered by competition over illegal blood donations, the Shanghai Morning Post reports. The incident happened on July 6 when the rival illegal businessmen fought outside a commercial plaza in Shanghai.
TIBET
Earthquake hits region
A magnitude-5.4 earthquake shook Gerze county, Ali prefecture, at 1.11pm yesterday, at a depth of nine kilometres. A magnitude 4.1 aftershock followed at 1.22pm, China News Service reports. The number of injuries was not immediately available.
100 new tour guides
To ease a shortage of personnel in Tibet's travel industry, 100 professional tour guides from across the country will be sent to the region in April, reports Chinatibetnews.cn [5] The guides will be chosen from travel agencies in 23 provinces and they must be fluent in at least one foreign language. Currently, there are only 164 certified tour guides in the region, which was visited by 8.7 million foreign and domestic tourists in 2011.
YUNNAN
Berserk official suspended
A deputy chairman of Yunnan Mining, who is also a member of Shizong county Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, was suspended from his political post on Monday after an online video showed him going berserk at Changshui International Airport in Kunming , Yunnan.cn [6] reports. Yan Linkun smashed two computers at a boarding gate on February 19 after he and his wife and two 10-year-old sons were told they couldn't board an 11.05am flight to Shenzhen because the gate had already closed.
Huge snake haul found
Forestry police in Ruili seized 4,815 snakes that were being smuggled into the city from Myanmar on Friday, Xinhua reports. Police stopped a vehicle on a highway near the city and found a snake-filled container weighing 3.8 tonnes. One suspect was detained.