Six jailed in China for selling tainted bean sprouts
BEIJING: Six people in China’s Liaoning province have been given jail terms for producing and selling bean sprouts that were grown using a toxic fertilizer.
Ruan Wenming, Li Hongwei, Guo Juan and Yang Jun were sentenced to two years in prison and fined 10,000 yuan ($1,565) each, according to a verdict from the People’s Court of Shenyang’s economic development zone.
In another case, the Huanggu District People’s Court in Shenyang sentenced Wang Changzhi to 10 months in prison and Chen Yanling to six months in prison. Wang and Chen were also fined 20,000 yuan each, reported Xinhua.
The six were found guilty of applying urea and enrofloxacin to their bean sprouts to increase their output, according to the verdicts.
Urea is a toxic chemical compound that is sometimes used in fertilizers, while enrofloxacin is an antibiotic. Both are banned for agricultural use in China. (IANS)
Dead Pakistani teenager’s liver transplanted
ISLAMABAD: The liver of a dead Pakistani teenager, who had pledged to donate his organ, was successfully transplanted in Lahore city.
The cadaveric liver transplant was carried out at the Shaikh Zayed Hospital Friday, Dawn reported.
The cadaveric liver was donated by Mohammad Arsalan, a 16-year-old class 10 student who had met with a road accident.
Arsalan was admitted to the hospital three days ago with multiple injuries. He died of his wounds Thursday night.
Arsalan’s father Naveed Anjum said his son had pledged to donate his liver.
The transplant took 12 hours to complete and the recipient was a 40-year-old man from Sialkot.
It was the fourth cadaveric liver transplant in Pakistan. (IANS)
First tax-free holiday in Arkansas a boon
LITTLE ROCK: Arkansans shopped until they dropped on Saturday, braving temperatures deep into the triple-digits to take advantage of the state’s first sales tax holiday weekend.
”I have never seen anything like this,” said Clancy Graham, a manager at Little Rock’s RK Collections Boutique, an independently owned store.
”If we could do this three times a year, it would be amazing. It has done crazy good stuff for our business.” (Reuters)
Trash becomes treasure for one Thai artist
BANGKOK: From custom-built motorcycles to statues of Yoda, one Thai artist is building works of art using scrap metal from Bangkok’s garbage heaps, recycling trash to create his very own treasure.
A former woodcarver, Rungroja Saengwongpaisarn began working with metal in 1996 at the request of a patron, soon fusing his passion for conservation with his art and creating a distinctive style.
”It’s using metal that was discarded. We are giving the material a new life by using it to create art,” the 54-year-old Rungroja said.
Where some see junk, he sees raw material, salvaging discarded car parts and household goods such as woks with his team everyday. The items are then used to craft statues, models and even robots.
An ancient Asian warrior snarls on one side of his gallery, which also contains a toothy dinosaur, elephants and a pensive Yoda.
Recycling has paid off for the sculptor, whose works range in price from 60 dollar to 40,000 dollar and can take anywhere from 3 days to up to one year to complete. One of the more challenging pieces was a three-metre (yard) high robot that weighed about 450 kg (990 pounds).
Finding parts that match his vision can be a challenge.
”The difficult thing is to make the scale of each model, like this one,” Rungroja said, displaying a small motorcycle.
”The face of the model is quite meticulous… Different models will require different types of details.”
His latest work, a motorcycle dubbed ”Pre-Alien,” is the third motorcycle he’s built. Each takes him about three months to complete and sold his last one to a Japanese collector for more than 10,000 dollar.vvv
Rungroja expects ”Pre-Alien” to sell for more than 15,000 dollar. The motorcycle weighs about 180 kg and can hit speeds of up to 100 kilometres an hour — not bad for a pile of junk. (Reuters)vvv