Photos reveal snapper's naked ambition

A woman in her 60s called the police last Tuesday claiming to have been extorted after someone took a photo of her washing in a public bath house, reports the Anhui Business news.

The lady in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui Province, said the photo was taken with a mobile phone.

Earlier this month, another woman found a naked photo of herself in her mailbox days after washing in the same bath house.

Police are investigating and hope to snare the sneaky photographer soon.

Valuable phone gets flushed on train

Six policemen walked for four hours recently to retrieve a mobile phone after it slipped out of a man's pocket while he was using a toilet on a train from Qingdao to Nanchang.

The man claimed to have saved documents worth millions on the phone and offered a 4,000 yuan (US$483) reward for its safe return, reports the Chutian Metropolis News.

Local police said 57 items have been reported lost from train bathrooms this year, of which 17 have been found. They ask passengers to check their belongings before using the toilet.

UFO farmer to boldly go for it

A farmer's obsession to build an aircraft in the shape of UFO has won the support of neighbours and friends and a 500,000 yuan (US$60,386) cash investment. Du Wenda became hooked on UFOs from movies and the television.

And his lack of education - he only got as far as junior middle school - has not diminished his ambition to build his own, reports the Star Daily.

Du's UFO is designed to fly, swerve at any angle, and even sail on the water, the report said.

He launched the project in the summer of 2003, raising some 500,000 yuan from his neighbours and friends and employing more than 40 workers, though most of their skills extend no further than electric welding or cutting.

Du, of Suzhou, Anhui Province, has designed the craft himself drawing on the knowledge he gained at school and what he has taught himself since.

Confused computer ages woman

A 24-year-old woman recently became a grandma thanks to a computer error, reports the Qilu Evening News.

The mistake came about after the woman from Jinan of Shandong Province asked her mother-in-law to register a residence for her son.

When she went to the police station to fix the problem she was told the computer network had crashed and that she may have to get used to being a "grandma" for the time being.

Woman beats alcoholic at own game

A woman in Qingdao, a coastal city in Shandong Province downed a whole bottle of spirit and almost died after fighting with her alcoholic husband, reports the Qingdao Morning Post.

The woman told her husband that if he continued drinking, she would help him finish all the alcohol in the house.

The sozzled spouse became addicted to alcohol two years ago after taking a job as a salesman, and drank a lot with customers.

The husband promised to stop drinking earlier this month but fell off the wagon. In a rage, his wife grabbed the bottle of spirit and guzzled away.

Company targets official corruption

The country's first company that helps people report governmental corruption began operating last week in Jinhua of Zhejiang Province, reports the Oriental Morning Post.

The company has already received six complaints, one from local villagers who suspect their village director of misappropriating public funds.

Wu Zexi, owner of the company, said they will look into all issues, and make their money through service charges and bonuses the government grants for effective investigations.

Historic birth-rate lows spell teacher gloom

Prospects for more than 20,000 new teaching graduates in Taiwan are bleak as falling birth rates force many schools to close or merge, reports Xinhua News Agency.

Only 0.3 per cent have found teaching jobs.

Last year some 210,000 babies were born, the lowest number recorded, a census revealed. And in 2009 it is expected there will be a fall of 87,000 in primary school enrolment.

In the light of these predictions the local education bureau has decided to recruit 60 per cent fewer teaching graduates this year.

Container ship sank after collision

A container ship collided with a boat loaded with sand at a port in southeastern China's Fujian Province.

There were no casualties in the head-on accident which occurred at 8:35 am on Tuesday when the ship, the Jiulianshan, carrying 73 containers, entered Songmen Wharf.

The ship sunk with all 73 containers while the sand-hauling boat was barely damaged. All 15 crew members were saved in time.

By press time, rescuers were salvaging the sunken ship while an investigation into the cause is under way, reports Xinhua News Agency.

(China Daily 10/18/2004 page4)