Society

China Scene: Newborn stolen from ward

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-17 14:21

Students pen their blessings for the upcoming Guangzhou Asian Games on paper planes during an event at Changshan Primary School in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Wednesday. [Yu Huali/For China Daily]

Central

Newborn stolen from ward, hospital blames sleeping mom

A 3-day-old baby was stolen from a hospital in Hengyang, Hunan province, last week.

Two men, who are still unidentified, are the prime suspects in the case.

Tang Shulan, 35, the missing infant's mother, told the police she was asleep in the hospital ward at night, with her baby boy beside her in a cot, but when she woke up the baby was gone.

Tang said the lock on the door of her private ward was broken when she checked in.

She said two suspicious-looking strangers came into her ward the previous day and inquired about her baby.

Authorities at the hospital, which has no surveillance cameras, admitted they were partly to blame for the incident, but added that a "mother should be a little more alert".

(China News Service)

North

Months after selling off car, gambling addict steals it back

Police in Jincheng, Shanxi province, last week detained a man who allegedly stole a car he sold to a migrant worker months ago.

The accused, surnamed Shen, sold his off-road vehicle to a migrant worker for 35,000 yuan ($5,200) this April. The worker reported the car stolen on July 23.

Subsequent investigations led the police to Shen, who broke down and confessed to stealing the car and reselling it for 20,000 yuan. Shen said he blew up the money in a card game.

(Sanjin City News)

Scattered moon cakes bring traffic to screeching halt

A truck transporting a load of moon cakes overturned on an expressway in Shanxi province last Thursday, causing a massive traffic jam.

The truck reportedly lost control after one of its tires burst, scattering hundreds of moon cakes all over the expressway near Xiangyuan county.

The police arrived on the scene and helped the truck driver collect the moon cakes. Traffic resumed after more than an hour.

(Sanjin City News)

Family walks away from land to protect gazelles

A family in Hulunbuir, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, has left a piece of land to give the space to 26 Mongolian gazelles and rented another plot for their own domestic animals.

In 1999, the family took in two sick Mongolian gazelles, which gave birth to 24 cubs. The family is considering giving up the 3,000-mu (200-hectare) pastureland to protect the gazelles, which are listed as second-class nationally protected animals.

(Xinhua News Agency)

East

Man cycles 700 km to report to work in another province

A native of Shenzhen, Guangdong province, cycled more than 700 km to Xiamen, Fujian province, to take charge of his new post.

Liu Jianhua's Shenzhen-based company had asked him to join its Xiamen branch no later than Sept 10. Liu arrived two days before the deadline.

He set off on his cycle, carrying 15 kg of necessities, on Aug 31 and arrived in Xiamen on Sept 8.

Liu said he was inspired by a couple who had cycled from China to Switzerland. "People are cycling across international borders. I have just crossed a province."

(Xiamen Evening News)

Nasty hangover: Dude forgets where he parked his car

A resident of Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province, sought police help when he couldn't remember where he had parked his car last week.

The man, surnamed Ding, distinctively remembered driving to a restaurant for a high school reunion but had no recollection of where he had parked his car.

It turned out, Ding had passed out at the party and one of his former schoolmates dumped him in a nearby hotel room.

After failing to locate his car the next morning, Ding, battling a major hangover, approached a couple of traffic policemen standing on the street and amused them with his tragic tale.

It took the cops three hours to find Ding's car, which was sitting pretty in an alleyway barely 200 meters from the restaurant.

(Nanchang Evening News)

South

Driver with 83 unpaid traffic tickets taken into custody

Police in Changping, Guangdong province, have arrested a 60-year-old man who had accumulated as many as 83 traffic tickets.

Traffic cops flagged down a minibus during a random check and found that the driver's license was counterfeit. On punching the vehicle's license plate number in their records, they found it had 83 unresolved traffic violation tickets.

The driver said he once owned a driving license for agricultural machinery that expired decades ago. He said he bought his fake license for 1,200 yuan ($178).

(Nanfang Daily)

West

Ex-army official held for possession of two grenades

An army veteran has been arrested for illegal possession of two hand grenades in Kaili, Guizhou province.

The accused, surnamed Yang, has confessed to stealing the explosives from a simulation training camp while he was serving in the army in Yunnan province. He retired in 1995.

Yang's wife informed the police of the hand grenades, saying her husband often threatened to blow her up during fights.

On the police's insistence, Yang's wife stole the hand grenades from her husband's cupboard and handed them over to the cops, who used the explosives as evidence to arrest the suspect.

(Guizhou City News)

(China Daily 09/17/2010 page5)