Dogs face hardship A worker at the Aixin Jiayuan dog home in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, feeds dogs on Sunday. The home has been facing huge pressure to deal with a surge in dogs since the city published a new regulation governing dog raising in May. The death rate in the home has been increasing because of insufficient funding and personnel. Photo by Hu Yuanjia / for China Daily

Beijing

Taxi needle tests positive for HIV

A syringe found in a taxi that pierced a man's skin on Aug 21 had fluid that tested positive for HIV antibodies, Beijing police confirmed on their micro blog on Monday.

"The city's center for disease control and prevention and its counterpart in Chaoyang district tested the unidentified fluid in the syringe," the police said.

Police also confirmed that a man reported to police on the evening of Aug 21 that he was pricked by the syringe.

"We request residents to provide clues and assist police. People who have information can call the police hotline," police said, adding they have created a special team to investigate the case.

The victim, who took a taxi in Haidian district in Beijing, was pierced by a syringe on the back of the front seat.

Hebei

Flood leads to massive fish deaths

A flood triggered by recent torrential rain poured into Baiyangdian Lake in Hebei province, leading to unhealthy conditions in the water that caused the death of thousands of tons of fish, the local government said.

About 1 million kilograms of fish are thought to have been killed in nearby waters over an area as large as 133 hectares in Baoding, Hebei province, over three days. Economic losses may reach 10 million yuan ($1.6 million), according to local fish farmers.

The local government said the floodwaters and currents stirred up fish food and waste in the lake, decreasing oxygen in the water and killing the fish.

But fish farmers believed that pollution was the primary cause.

The farmers claimed the pollution came from companies upstream. They said they will launch an investigation and may sue some companies.

Guangdong

6,544 win license plate lottery

The first round of a license plate lottery in Guangzhou on Monday resulted in 6,544 drivers winning license plates for new cars in the Guangdong provincial capital.

A total of 58,405 hopeful drivers entered the lottery, but only 11.2 percent were awarded the licenses. The chance of winning in the lottery was four times greater than for those who took part in a similar drawing in Beijing.

The lottery is part of a system introduced this month in Guangzhou to govern the issuance of license plates for new cars. Under the new system, some plates are distributed through a lottery and some through a public auction.

In July, the city set a limit on the number of licenses it would grant new cars, saying it would distribute no more than 120,000 of them to local residents, companies and organizations each year.

Guangzhou is the fourth city on the Chinese mainland to place limits on car registrations, after Beijing, Shanghai and Guiyang in Guizhou province.

28 punished for deadly accident

Twenty-eight people found responsible for a building collapse that killed six and injured seven others in Guangdong province in November have been punished, authorities said on Sunday.

Several officials, including Zheng Xinqin, the deputy head of the Chengqu district of Shanwei city, and Zhuo Hongzuan, director of the district's urban and rural construction bureau, were given disciplinary punishments.

Others, including the construction bureau's deputy director Peng Youyi, have been placed in judicial investigations.

A building under construction in Shanwei partly collapsed on Nov 22, burying 13 people. Six died and seven others were injured. According to an investigation report, defects in the design and construction of the supporting system of the building were to blame for the collapse.

Cement plant blast kills at least 9

At least nine people were killed after a blast ripped through a cement factory in South China's Guangdong province on Monday, local authorities said.

The accident happened around 2:30 pm when workers at the Longshan Cement Co Ltd in the city of Yingde unloaded dynamite from three vehicles, the city government said in a statement.

Nine people have been confirmed dead and another one was missing, it said. Nine people were injured.

An investigation is under way.

Liaoning

Typhoon Bolaven to make landfall

Typhoon Bolaven is expected to make landfall in Northeast China's Liaoning province on Tuesday, the meteorological center of Shenyang, the provincial capital, said on Monday.

The center issued a yellow alert for Bolaven on Monday morning, the second-highest level in the country's four-tier color-coded weather warning system, predicting the severe typhoon will land in the city of Dandong in Liaoning and the northwestern region of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Tuesday evening.

Ferry services on the Dandong section of the Yalu River, which is on the border between the DPRK and China, have been suspended, local flood control authorities said on Monday afternoon.

Fishing boats have returned to the harbor and authorities are evacuating scenic spots in the city before Bolaven, the 15th typhoon of the year, arrives.

Sichuan

Landslide kills one, injures 13

A landslide on Sunday has damaged homes, leaving one person dead and 13 others injured in Sichuan province, local authorities said on Monday.

The landslide tumbled down a mountain into a disused quarry at 7 pm, forcing water contained in the quarry to spill out, flooding eight homes and a passing vehicle in Wenxing county, a county government spokesman said.

One person had been confirmed dead and another 13 sent to a hospital for treatment as of Monday afternoon.

An investigation into the cause of the landslide is under way.

Shanxi

Miners trapped after collapse

Seven miners were trapped after the roof of a coal mine collapsed on Monday morning in Luliang city, Shanxi province, the local government said.

Around 6:40 am on Monday, a 10-meter-long mine roof collapsed in the Nuanquan Coal Mine in Luliang's Zhongyang county, according to the city government.

Thirteen miners were working in the mine when the collapse happened, including six who have been rescued.

Rescuers rushed to the scene and have made contact with the trapped miners.

Rescue work is under way.

Xinhua China Daily