Pulse

Around Beijing

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-12 07:57

Court Pair in court for art robbery

Two suspects were tried on Wednesday morning on a charge of stealing books and statues from late master Ji Xianlin of Peking University.

Beijing No 1 Intermediate Court found that on the night of Dec 15, 2009, the 48-year-old suspect, Wang Ru, directed a 58-year-old housekeeper, Fang Xianyu, to break the window of Ji's house and transferred many books and statues worth more than 3.3 million yuan. Wang claimed she was the secretarial assistant of the foundation named after Ji and the move was to protect the master's legacy.

Ji's son reported the loss to local police and all the goods were returned. The court has not given its verdict.

Community

Girl survives bite from deadly cobra

A 17-year-old girl was discharged from hospital on Tuesday after being bitten by a poisonous cobra, Beijing News reported.

The girl kept two pet snakes, one of which was the cobra.

On May 5, the girl was bitten on her right index finger while she was feeding the cobra.

The girl immediately took a taxi to a nearby hospital and received emergency treatment. Her vital signs stabilized three days later.

Crime

Thief uses stolen phone in fraud bid

A thief is under criminal detention for sending fraudulent text messages to the relatives of the owner of the lost cell phone.

In April a man, Wang, found his cell phone had been stolen.

He called the police and warned his relatives of the possible fraud following police advice. Several days later Wang's sister received a message, which asked for 8,000 yuan.

Police took the opportunity and caught the thief when he came to get the money. They later found that the thief was involved in 10 other burglary cases.

Accident

Porsche joy ride turns deadly

Half an hour after using a fake identity to defraud a car dealer of a Porsche, a man in Chaoyang district crashed the car and died on the spot.

Zhang, on Monday drove the Porsche away during a test drive. Police found him dead in the crashed car 30 minutes later.

The man apparently was not familiar with the sports car and made it run at more than 200 km/h as soon as he started it.

The car overturned after hitting two trees.

Police have launched an investigation into the case.

Court

Victim's family calls for leniency

A 27-year-old woman broke down in tears in Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court on Tuesday for having beaten a girl to death, Beijing Times reported.

Working as a newsstand owner, Han Aihua beat the 17-year-old Zhang, with an iron bar for 40 minutes six months ago, because she suspected Zhang had torn some newspapers. The victim later died in hospital.

Han's relatives have agreed to pay 400,000 yuan to Zhang's family.

The victim's family pleaded for leniency for the defendant.

A verdict is pending.

Community

Improved lunch service for CBD

White-collar workers in the capital's central business district can buy food at lunch carts in June, Beijing Morning Post reported.

Problems with lunches have bothered people working there for a long time. Compared with unsanitary small restaurants and expensive hotels, lunch carts will provide good quality food at a reasonable price. Certain catering enterprises will bid and be appointed to guarantee food safety.

More than 100,000 workers will benefit from the decision.

Business

Tesco improves supply chain

Tesco, the largest retailer in Britain and the third largest in the world, is trying to improve its supply chain in China by initiating talks to connect farmers with seed companies.

The company has been working with a seed company from the Netherlands to breed better seeds for Chinese farmers. Tesco then buys all the crops harvested directly without other resellers.

The project has enabled the company to reduce purchase costs and to monitor all links on its supply chain. It was also said to have increased farmers' income by up to 20 percent, based on information gathered from more than 1 million farmers cooperating with the company.

(China Daily 05/12/2011 page)