Xuanyu Zhong, the son of a Chinese government official, stood before a British court recently on charges of sexually assaulting a girl at Northumbria University in December 2011. Daily Mail reports that Zhong, 25, spurred by an obsession with rape porn, spiked a girl's drink with a date-rape drug one evening. At the court hearing, Daily Mail reports that he expressed his intent "to copy the videos" -- the many rape videos he watched -- "by raping his drugged victim." Instead, he "changed his mind at the last minute and sexually assaulted her instead."
Around 1 pm yesterday, a massive fire engulfed a row of warehouses near Changsha South Railway Station in Hunan province. Witnesses say they heard explosions, though the specific cause of the explosions remains unknown. There were no reported injuries. Firefighters needed two hours to put out the flames.
Li Tianyi, sometimes known as Li Guanfeng, is the 17-year-old son of well-known People's Liberation Army singer Li Shuangjiang, which was why it was so shocking, in February, when he was accused of participating in a gang rape. The public quickly judged him guilty, and predictably renewed curses of the country's privileged youth while anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop, the Chinese justice system to fail.
The latest attack in Xinjiang saw 100 knife-wielding motorbikers assault a police station in Karakax county, Hotan, according to state media. "We will step up actions to crack down upon terrorist groups and extremist organizations and track the wanted," said Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, as reported by Xinhua, which states simply: "Xinjiang was hit by violent terrorist attacks in the past few days."
You know why Chinese media shouldn't be writing about African American suffrage? Because, lacking historical context and understanding of American society, they're likely to misinterpret facts, or run a piece headlined, “A federal state of the United States cancels African-American suffrage."
Cancels?
China Radio International, take a bow.
Chip Starnes, 42, is having a hell of a week. He was able to send an SOS to Associated Press reporters on Monday -- through bars in a first-floor office window, apparently -- that he was being held captive by nearly 100 workers at a medical supply plant in Beijing who are demanding better severance packages.
"I feel like a trapped animal," Starnes told The Associated Press on Monday from his first-floor office window, while holding onto the window's bars. "I think it's inhumane what is going on right now. I have been in this area for 10 years and created a lot of jobs and I would never have thought in my wildest imagination something like this would happen."
Unrest in Xinjiang has turned deadly once again, as riots that began around 6 am yesterday in Lukqun township, Shanshan County, Turpan Prefecture -- about 250 kilometers from Urumuqi -- have left 27 dead, including 10 rioters. Reports Xinhua:
Knife-wielding mobs attacked the township's police stations, the local government building and a construction site, stabbing at people and setting fire to police cars, officials with Xinjiang's regional committee of the Communist Party of China confirmed.
Proving that chengguan need sex more than anyone, women who give "happy endings" will not be prosecuted or publicly shamed in Foshan, Guangdong province. Or something like that. Reports SCMP:
Most massage parlours operate “justifiably” and the act itself is difficult to crack down on, the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper has found, along with a legal loophole which is as ambiguous as the sex trade itself.
It doesn't get much more disturbing than this. Two girls were found starved to death on the fifth floor of an apartment in Nanjing, Jiangsu province last Friday. According to the Telegraph, the mother Ms. Le, was arrested on Sunday.
Edward Snowden -- ever elusive, unidentifiable -- is reportedly leaving Moscow for either Cuba or Ecuador. Reports AP:
The former National Security Agency contractor and CIA technician fled Hong Kong and arrived at the Moscow airport, where he planned to spend the night before boarding an Aeroflot flight to Cuba. Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said his government received an asylum request from Snowden, and the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said it would help him.
