China Scene: West

Resident knocked flat by falling cat

Mu, a resident of Chongqing municipality, was knocked out cold by a falling cat on Saturday morning.

Mu was sitting in front of her apartment building at about 11 am when she saw two cats playing on the roof of a house next door. Soon after, one of them fell and hit her on the head. The force of the blow knocked her to the ground. The cat fled the scene.

Mu went to hospital to have her wounds, which were minor, treated. No one in the community knew where the cats came from.

(Chongqing Commercial Daily)

Vicious poodle wanted dead or alive

The government of Chengjiang township, Chongqing municipality, recently flashed images on TV of a poodle that is wanted for attacking three people.

Wu Jiufang, 60, one of the three people bitten by the dog, said the animal is less than 30 cm tall and very vicious. Residents said the dog had also injured four other dogs.

On Saturday evening, the local government issued a notice on TV warning people to watch out for the dog and to kill it if they see it. The government has also sent several teams out to look for the dog.

(Chongqing Morning Post)

Umbrella fails to save boy's life from fatal fall

A six-year-old boy died after jumping off a tall building with an umbrella in hand on Sunday evening in Dazhou, Sichuan province.

A witness who lives in the same building said she saw the boy, who lived on the fifth floor, standing on the terrace with an open umbrella. She shouted at him in an attempt to stop him, but he did not listen. She called the emergency hotline, but the boy was already dead by the time rescue workers arrived.

The boy's parents are migrant workers in the city and were working late that evening. The boy was thought to have been copying what he had seen in cartoon.

(Chengdu Commercial News)

ET controlled me, jailed man says

Pan Yuyu, a resident of Chongqing municipality, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Tuesday after two gas tanks fell from his room, killing one person and injuring another.

On Jan 1, Pan booked into a local hotel and placed two gas tanks on the windowsill of his room on the 11th floor. While he was out, the tanks fell to the street hitting two pedestrians. One was killed instantly, and the other received severe injuries.

Pan was arrested the next day. He said he had placed the tanks on the windowsill because he was being controlled by an extra terrestrial.

Pan was sent to hospital for a mental examination, and was found to be suffering from mild schizophrenia.

(Chongqing Evening News)

Zhao Jun, 17, a second grade student in a high school in Ningshan county, Shaanxi province, has invented a feeding appliance for the disabled.

He learned that there were 6,806 disabled people in his county, of whom 40 percent had no arms. Zhao decided to invent an appliance to help these people feed themselves. After more than a year of hard work, Zhao successfully invented an appliance, which was patented by the State early this month.

(Chinese Business View)

(China Daily 04/30/2008 page6)