Zhejiang

Navy rescues fisherman

The Chinese naval vessel Zhoushan has rescued a sailor injured in a fire on board a Chinese fishing boat at sea, a navy source told Xinhua on Saturday. Fire broke out on the fishing boat Zhelingyu 90058 with 24 fishermen aboard on Friday in the East China Sea. Six crewmembers were killed and one was badly injured. The Donghai fleet of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy received a distress signal on Friday afternoon and dispatched the Zhoushan from a destroyer force patrolling nearby waters, according to the PLA navy source. The injured sailor was taken to the hospital for further treatment. He is now in a stable condition.

Ningxia

Wedding car tragedy kills 3

Three people were killed and two others injured when a wedding car fell into a reservoir in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region on Friday. The accident happened at about 10 am, when the wedding car slid into the Sikouzi Reservoir of Haiyuan county, killing the driver, the bride and the bride's grandmother. Two other passengers were rescued from the 20-meter-deep reservoir by local people, according to a police official. An initial investigation attributed the accident to an icy road caused by two days of snow.

Shanxi

4 die in house collapse

Four people were killed and another was injured when a house collapsed in an orchard in Shanxi province, authorities said on Saturday. Five people were buried in the rubble on Friday afternoon in the orchard in Gaojiazhuang village in Linyi county, a county government spokesman said. Rescuers pulled the five from debris, but four later died in hospital. The injured person is receiving treatment. The cause of the collapse is under investigation.

Xinjiang

Snowstorms kill livestock

Continuous snowstorms in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region have killed more than 300 heads of livestock and disrupted the lives of 13,000 people, the local government said on Saturday. About 900 people have been relocated after heavy snowstorms and avalanches toppled 150 houses and damaged another 4,630 in seven counties or cities of the region's Kazak autonomous prefecture of Ili, according to a statement issued by the prefecture's government. Eight people were injured in 25 avalanches along the highway between Sayram and Guozigou, two tourism resorts, between Jan 27 and Feb 1. It snowed continuously for 119 hours and reached up to 2 meters near Guozigou, the statement said. According to Xinjiang's weather department, more snow is expected in the northern part of the region in the following days.

Indonesia

Corby's release from prison imminent

Convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby is spending what is likely to be her last weekend in an Indonesian jail cell following her likely approval for parole this week. Indonesia's justice minister on Friday announced the Australian's application for parole had met all of the requirements and authorities were waiting only for the required paperwork before freeing Corby from Kerobokan prison. "She can go on Monday, if we receive the letter on Monday morning," Kerobokan Prison boss Farid Junaedi said late on Friday, referring to the minister's decree. Corby, now 36, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the importation of 4.2 kilograms of cannabis into Bali, Indonesia, in 2005. She will serve out her parole in the Kuta home of her sister Mercedes Corby and her husband, Wayan Widyartha.

Turkey

Man arrested over Sochi Games threat

Turkish security forces on Friday seized a Ukrainian man who officials said made a bomb threat and tried to hijack a passenger plane, demanding to go to the Winter Olympics venue of Sochi just as the opening ceremony was taking place. Turkey scrambled an F-16 fighter jet to accompany the Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane as it landed at Sabiha Gokcen airport at 6:05 pm, after a flight from the Ukrainian city of Kharkov with 110 passengers on board. The suspect, a 45-year-old man, had a small bag containing electronic goods but no bomb, Istanbul's governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu told reporters after the operation to capture him. He said some force had to be used to seize the suspect, but no weapons were used.

Xinhua - Reuters

(China Daily 02/09/2014 page2)