Around the nation: Woman chooses cats over career

BEIJING

Fake reporters arrested

Beijing police have arrested 11 people for posing as state television reporters and swindling over 300 victims spanning 21 provinces of 200,000 yuan as hush money, the Beijing Youth Daily reports. The group would dig up scandals about government departments and private companies, then pose as CCTV reporters to demand bribes in exchange for not reporting the negative news.

Sprinter beats the subway

A video of a man racing the Beijing subway has become a hit on mainland social media, the Beijing News reports. Professional sprinter Pan Hailong alighted at Nanlishilu station and raced the train to the next station, Fuxingmen. He completed the 800-metre sprint, climbed 203 steps and passed two ticket barriers in 2 minutes and 34 seconds. Pan said he was inspired by a video of a similar stunt executed in London.

CHONGQING

Death by faulty jack stand

A truck driver died after a jack stand he was using collapsed while he was underneath the truck undertaking repairs, Cqcb.com reports. The man was dead by the time rescuers pulled him out of the vehicle. Police said this was the municipality’s second such case this year.

Druggie’s delusions

A 19-year-old drug abuser was detained after he asked police officers to save him from passers-by whom he believed were sent to kill him, the China News Service reports. Police found him kowtowing to pedestrians on the street, begging them not to kill him. The teenager later confessed to having taken the drug Ice, which caused him to hallucinate.

GUANGDONG

Runner collapses at race

A Guangzhou runner has died after collapsing and falling into a coma as he neared the finish line in Saturday’s Zhuhai International Marathon Race, the Guangzhou Daily reports. Doctors said Fang Yong went into cardiac arrest during the race and died after four hours of emergency treatment in hospital. He leaves behind his wife and two children, the younger born just this year.

Thief’s clothes snatched

Dongguan police have arrested an amateur snatch thief whose female victim stripped him naked after he robbed her of a gold necklace, Ahscb.com reports. The victim said she had grabbed the thief by his coat after he snatched the necklace off her neck. She pulled off the man’s coat, pants and underwear as he struggled to escape. Police later nabbed the thief after checking CCTV footage at internet cafes near the crime scene.

HUNAN

Dispute over fake smokes

Police have detained a shop owner and three men who vandalised his store in Changsha, Hunan Television reports. The men accused the shop owner of having sold them counterfeit cigarettes. CCTV footage showed the trio entering the store with a 1-metre-long knife, knocking over shelves, and threatening the owner with the weapon. The owner has denied selling counterfeit products.

Paternity test for cow

Two villagers from Yanglin town, near Yueyang city, have ordered a paternity test for a free-range cow that both claim to own, Voc.com.cn reports. Marks painted on the cow had faded and neither villager could tell whom the 10,000-yuan (HK$12,650) animal belonged to, so they sent blood samples of the cow and those that could be its parents to a local laboratory to determine its paternity.

JIANGSU

Reaching high for love

A lovelorn young man was almost arrested in Kunshan city after he scaled an apartment building to reach the 10th floor in an effort to win back his ex-girlfriend, Jiangsu Television reports. He miscounted the number of floors and ended up on the balcony of the ninth-floor instead. Neighbours called the police after he knocked on their balcony window at midnight, mistaking their flat for his former girlfriend’s home. The man said he had travelled to Kunshan from Shanghai to try and fix their long-distance relationship, but that his ex-girlfriend had refused to let him into her flat.

Body donation saga

A Suzhou medical consultant who donated her parents’ bodies for medical purposes has been forced to move three times over six years to escape her neighbours’ criticism, the Shanghai Morning Post reports. The woman said she had donated the bodies according to her parents’ wishes, but her neighbours accused her of selling the bodies for profit. She was not compensated, except for having her parents’ names carved on a monument at the local Red Cross, she said.

SHAANXI

Toilet seat on fire

A Xian resident’s toilet caught fire after his heated toilet seat went up in flames, the Hua Shang Daily reports. The man said he returned home to find his flat filled with smoke and flames rising from the seat. An employee at the shop where he bought the electric seat nine years ago said the seat’s aged, frayed wires had caused the fire. The man said he did not know he had to switch off the seat when it was not in use.

Cats over career

A 28-year-old woman from Xian has quit her job in order to care for nearly 70 stray cats that she adopted, the Hua Shang Daily reports. The woman, who goes by the name of Kitty Zhou and houses the cats in her two-bedroom apartment, quit her full-time job to become a street vendor. She said she spends about 2,000 yuan a month on the animals and that she might have to find foster homes for them when her money runs out.

SICHUAN

Erroneous windfall

A bank in Nanchong city mistakenly wired 490 million yuan to one of its clients, the Guangzhou Daily reports. The client, Mu Ping, said Nanchong City Commercial Bank sent her a text message on Friday, informing her of the transfer. She thought it was a bogus message at first, but later found the money in her account, she said. The woman, who earns 3,000 yuan a month, reported the mistake to the bank. A bank employee said the transfer was caused by a system error.

Bid for attention

A Chengdu teenager faked a suicide attempt on Weibo to get public attention because he was lonely, the Chengdu Business Herald reports. The 16-year-old had posted on Weibo on Thursday that he would blog his suicide live the following evening. “Be prepared. It will be bloody and violent,” his message read. A search for the boy, involving over 60 police officers, was launched and he was eventually found playing online games in an internet café. He told police he was sick of working at a salon and could not bear the loneliness of living in the city.

ZHEJIANG

Cold river plunge

A man from Ningbo city plunged twice into a freezing river to save a driver trapped in a sinking car, Jinbaonet.com reports. The man was on a cab when he passed the accident scene, stopped and jumped into the water to the driver’s aid. He could not open the car’s locked door, so he swam back to get a hammer before jumping back into the river and pulling the driver to shore. But it was too late and the driver had drowned.

Cyclist’s family helpless

The family of a Hangzhou cyclist killed in a traffic accident in Taiwan is struggling to find legal aid, Qianjiang Evening News reports. The cyclist, 63, died after being hit by a tour bus in Taitung. His family members do not know which of Taiwan’s government departments to approach for help and have also been struggling to find a lawyer with experience in helping mainland tourists.