Guangdong

Kindergartens getfood for thought

Kindergartens in Guangzhou must publicize their menus, the city's education authority said. They must also optimize a nutrition assessment system, the authority said. The requirements follow reports that some private kindergartens in Baiyun district provided food that did not match that stated on menus. The authority also said kindergartens must provide special menus for children suffering from anemia, malnutrition and food allergies.

Police net 30 in tax fraud swoop

Police in Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu, Gansu and Jiangxi provinces have detained about 30 suspects in a crackdown on tax fraud, Nanfang Daily reported on Tuesday. The main suspect, surnamed Zhang, allegedly defrauded export tax refunds worth 180 million yuan ($29.4 million) through false value added tax invoices in the past three years, police said. Zhang, 27, set up an import and export company in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, in 2008. He confessed that all of the invoices the company received were false.

Sichuan

Blaze kills girlslocked in house

Two girls died when a fire broke out in a house in Sichuan province early on Saturday morning after their grandmother locked the door to go and work in the fields, China News Service reported on Tuesday. At about 7 am, neighbors in Shouxing, a village in the town of Zengkou, saw heavy smoke coming from the house. They broke down the door and found the girls, aged 2 and 4, unconscious. They died soon after arriving at a hospital.

Beijing

Authorities to curb gala extravagance

Authorities will curb extravagance on official galas and punish those who violate the rules against such behavior, a notice said on Tuesday. All departments should end luxurious and extravagant galas and encourage frugal events, according to a notice jointly issued by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and four other central government departments.

Yunnan

Row over 3 yuanfee proves costly

A township official in Yunnan province was dismissed after he beat a parking attendant. Wang Yubin, deputy head of Shuguang township in Guangnan county, argued with the attendant over a 3 yuan (48.5 US cents) parking fee on July 31 when he parked his car before calling several of his relatives and friends and then beating the attendant.

Guangxi

Cash urged forseriously ill man

Internet users have called on the Red Cross Society to cover all medical fees for a seriously ill man who has donated 66,200 milliliters of blood - the volume for 13 adults - in the past 13 years, Beijing Times reported. Luo Zhi from Beiliu, a city in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was diagnosed with a form of meningitis in June and doctors said 500,000 yuan ($81,650) is needed for further treatment. Around 160,000 yuan has been collected from public donations, with Guangxi Red Cross Society donating 66,000 yuan.

Henan

Storm shocksleave 5 dead

Five people have died and three been injured by electric shocks during three rainstorms in less than two months in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, Dahe Daily reported on Tuesday. In one case, a taxi driver waiting for passengers died after being hit by a broken high-voltage power line. Jing Weiqiang, 26, was electrocuted by fallen high-voltage power lines on his way home on Aug 8, while Zhao Yuping, 31, mother of a 3-year-old, died from an electric shock the same day, the report said.

Police detain fleeing driver

A truck driver who fled the scene of a road accident that left 11 dead and 12 injured in Henan province has been arrested, police said. Zhang Nanxiang was arrested in Zhoukou early on Tuesday morning, less than a day after the truck he was allegedly driving was involved in a head-on collision with a minibus in Xinyang. The collision occurred on Monday and all the casualties were on the minibus.

Jiangsu

Baby missing after public-toilet birth

A baby fell into a septic tank and disappeared shortly after the mother gave birth at a public toilet in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on Monday morning, Modern Express reported on Tuesday. The mother used the toilet on her way to the hospital with her husband. The baby was born but fell into a sewer pipe connected to a 2-meter-deep septic tank. The small entrance to the tank has made the rescue difficult, and the baby was still missing as of Tuesday.

Shandong

Drunken man left in a tight spot

A man woke to find himself trapped in a container at Qingdao port in Shandong province after drinking all night with friends. The man, surnamed Jiang, told reporters that he drank with his colleagues at a restaurant until 4 am on Friday. He said he remembered being taken to a taxi and asking to be delivered to his dormitory, but woke to find himself in the container. It took police and workers more than two hours to find and free him.

China Daily - Xinhua

(China Daily USA 08/14/2013 page3)