China Scene: East

Smoker singes eyebrow, sets fire to quilt

A man singed an eyebrow and nearly set fire to his home after he fell asleep while smoking on Monday.

Li, of Nanchang, Jiangxi province, was lying on his bed watching TV and smoking after lunch.

He fell asleep but awoke to searing pain in his hand. There was smoke coming from his quilt.

Li extinguished the fire but discovered he had singed an eyebrow.

(Jiangnan Metropolis Daily)

Soft landing saves worker after tea row

An elderly man jumped from a 10-m cliff in Qingdao, Shandong province, last Sunday after a quarrel over tea.

Luo, 63, landed on thick grass and suffered only bruises. A migrant worker from Anhui province, Luo had helped himself to someone else's thermos of tea on the construction site that morning.

The owner of the thermos was unhappy when he discovered Luo drinking his tea. He yelled at Luo and beat him.

Humiliated, Luo said he wanted to die. Later he admitted it was too trivial a matter to warrant suicide.

(Peninsular News)

(China Daily 04/15/2008 page6)