Briefly

HUNAN

Customs seizes venomous ants

Customs officials in Changsha, Hunan province, seized venomous live ants from a parcel shipped from overseas, they said on Monday. They found four test tubes inside a parcel containing seven ants, probably purchased by people who wanted them as pets. Laboratory tests suggested the ants belonged to four genera native to Australia that are not found in China. They were large, highly aggressive and venomous, customs said, adding that the parcel was destroyed.

HEBEI

Senior Shijiazhuang official investigated

Deng Peiran, mayor of Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, is under investigation for suspected "severe violation of discipline and the law", the province's top anti-corruption authority said on Monday. Deng, 57, is also deputy Party chief of the provincial capital. He has been the city's mayor since April 2017, according to the province's disciplinary authorities. Deng was born in Xianxian county in Cangzhou, Hebei, and has worked in various positions in Tangshan, Hebei, and Cangzhou.

BEIJING

New bullet trains to be put into service

A new type of Fuxing bullet train with a top speed of 250 kilometers per hour will soon be put into use on several railway lines, China State Railway Group said. The CR300 bullet train is the latest addition to the Fuxing bullet train family that now covers top speeds ranging from 160 km/h to 350 km/h. It marks an important step in China's railway development, and shows that China will continue to lead the world in high-speed rail technology, the company said.

CHONGQING

Oldest captive giant panda dies at 38

Xinxing, the world's oldest captive giant panda, died at a zoo in Chongqing on Dec 8, the zoo announced on Monday. She was 38, an age equivalent to more than 110 human years. Xinxing began to show symptoms of drowsiness and loss of appetite on Oct 21. Her condition worsened quickly in the next few days and she developed shortness of breath, a cough, abdominal distention and had trouble defecating, Chongqing Zoo said. Experts from several medical institutions including the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda made an all-out effort to save her but she died at noon on Dec 8. Xinxing was born in 1982 in the wild in Baoxing county, Sichuan province. She was brought to Chongqing Zoo when she was about a year old. Xinxing had become the matriarch of a huge family of over 150 pandas by the end of last year. Her offspring are spread across China and in other countries and regions, including the United States, Canada and Japan.

SICHUAN

25 held responsible for deadly forest fire

Twenty-five officials have been held responsible for a forest fire that killed 19 people and injured three others in Sichuan province early this year, an investigation report said on Monday. The fire started in Jingjiu township in Xichang, Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, on the afternoon of March 30. It killed 18 firefighters and a local guide and injured three other firefighters, the provincial government investigation found. The fire was caused by a power failure, it found. People were organized to put out the fire recklessly in the absence of expert judgment, resulting in heavy casualties among firefighters, the investigation found. Yu Shunkai, who was in charge of power pole safety, has been transferred to the judiciary for investigation of criminal responsibility, it said.

Xinhua - China Daily