Wednesday January 23, 2013

Boy dies after being caned non-stop for two hours

Compiled by BEH YUEN HUI, LEE YEN MUN and A. RAMAN

A 12-year-old boy died after being allegedly caned non-stop for two hours by his parents.

China Press and Guang Ming Daily reported that the boy had been accused of stealing from the parents' workplace in Taichung, Taiwan after the employer complained that NT$2,000 (RM208) was missing.

The 42-year-old father, identified as Chien, and his wife, 39, then questioned the boy who refused to say anything, which agitated them.

They then took turns to beat the child on Friday night and went to bed after that.

When Chien woke up at about 5.30am, he saw his son sleeping in the toilet and carried him to his room before leaving for work.

The couple only found out that their son had stopped breathing when they came back in the evening. They were arrested following the discovery of over 50 injuries on the child's body.

Chien told investigators that the boy had a habit of stealing money since he was 10.

> Major dailies reported that rabbit head is the latest delicacy in Beijing.

According to a manager, rabbits were reared at a farm in Sichuan, adding that the shop sold about 500 rabbit heads a day, priced at eight yuan (RM3.90) each.

Rabbit head is a delicacy in Sichuan, and some people eat it as a snack. Each year, over 10 millions rabbit heads are consumed in the province.

> Guang Ming Daily also reported that a father from China's Hebei province threw his nine-day-old daughter to the ground, causing her death. He had wanted a son.

The man, known only as Zhang, already has a daughter and had hoped that their second child would be a boy.

He was disappointed that the newborn was a girl.

He also believed the child brought bad luck to the family as he was injured at his workplace the day the child was born.

Other News & Views is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.