Here's yet another prime example of how Taiwan is light years ahead of the rest of Asia: A court has ruled against an employee of a gay massage parlour who sued his boss for defamation after he used his image in an advertisement placed on a gay magazine. The judge's rationale? The assertion that someone's gay is no longer defamatory today. more ›

Changchun police have arrested a murderer who has been wanted for 16 years straight in Yangquan, Shaanxi Province. The murderer, as it turns out, is a member of the local CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) named Hou Jun (侯军). more ›

If you thought that deploying geriatrics was a safe way of ensuring your protest will be a success, then think again. Malcolm Moore of the Daily Telegraph reports that on Tuesday, busloads of policemen dealt "briskly and aggressively" to clear a noisy crowd of 300 grandparents protesting outside a local court. The next day, the court sentenced activist grandmother Zhang Weiming, 65, to three and a half years jail for "organising a crowd to create a disturbance". Zhang has been spending the last eight years fighting for the rights of some 100,000 Shanghainese sent to Xinjiang in the 1960s by Chairman Mao. more ›

A man named nicknamed Junjun was looking for work in Nanjing, and met a man surnamed Zhang at a job fair. After being offered a place to sleep, Zhang took advantage of Junjun's kindness and raped his host. A later confrontation with Zhang resulted in Junjun attacking him with a stick, and then subsequently being charged and convicted of committing willful and malicious injury. more ›

Xu Chi of Shanghai Daily reports that the three expatriate thieves who were caught on closed circuit television stealing Da Marco's reservation book have returned the book to the restaurant three days later: more ›

Foshan's Nanhai District Procuratorate has formally approved the arrest of Hu Jun, the first of two drivers who ran over two-year-old toddler, Yueyue, in the double hit-and-run that has gripped the nation and the world this week. The formality paves the way for the next step in the legal process of a case that will be highly watched by all quarters of Chinese society. more ›

The parents of Yueyue, the Foshan toddler who passed away after a week-long battle for her life following a horrific double hit-and-run that has hogged international headlines, have engaged a lawyer to sue the two drivers that knocked her down. more ›

Remember the woman who was stabbed by her own son at Pudong Airport earlier this year -- the one who was attended to by a foreigner when all the other bystanders were prepared to just gawk? Well, the case has finally made it to the courts. Shanghai Daily describes the scene at the courtroom as follows: more ›

"A German, identified as Christian, the sales director of a transport company, had been driving along Qilianshan Road in Baoshan District on the night of August 7. His car was in a collision with a pedestrian. A blood test recorded 3.13 milligrams of alcohol per millimeter, while the limit is 0.8mg/ml. A Greek named Santos, manager of a local plastic company, was found drunk driving without a driving license on Yan'an Road early on July 27. His blood alcohol content was above the limit. And South Korean Lee Chi-Young, a company representative in Suzhou, was stopped on May 21 on Yan'an Road. His blood alcohol content was 0.96mg/ml. Under an amendment to China's Criminal Law effective on May 1, drivers with alcohol levels at or above the legal limit are considered guilty of dangerous driving." more ›

Giving "gay marriage" a whole new meaning, a gay Beijing man was denied a divorce from his lesbian wife by a district court after their child planning scheme went awry. more ›

"AN American man has reached an agreement with his ex-girlfriend in dividing their apartment after mediation through a district court. The American, identified as Jerry, agreed to pay 670,000 yuan (US$103,077) in compensation to his ex-girlfriend surnamed Lu while she would transfer her ownership of the apartment, now valued at 4.8 million yuan, to Jerry. Jerry, 47, was sent by an American construction planning and design company to work in Shanghai in 2002. He fell in love with Lu, 17 years younger than he, in 2004. The two planned to marry and Lu asked Jerry to buy an apartment. With Lu's help, Jerry bought an apartment for 1.44 million yuan on Xikang Road. Both of their names were on the deed. The couple never married and broke up two years later. Lu's name remained on the deed even though she married another man. In September, Jerry sought sole ownership of the apartment and filed a lawsuit with the Jing'an District People's Court. The American said he had paid for the apartment and Lu had previously agreed to transfer her ownership after she accepted 80,000 yuan in compensation. But Lu didn't take her name off the deed, he told the court. Lu argued she contributed by negotiating with the real estate agency. She also told the court she paid for decoration. Judges said that Lu didn't deserve half because they never married." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

"POLICE have arrested a 23-year-old man who is believed to have killed a young woman and had sex with her corpse last month, prosecutors said yesterday. Zhang Fenglang, from Shandong Province, said he killed the woman because she looked like his ex-girlfriend, who had left him, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors said Zhang would be charged with murdering and robbing the woman on March 9 in suburban Minhang District. Zhang allegedly fled Shanghai and was arrested by police in his hometown in Shandong on March 30. He was sent back to Shanghai to face criminal proceedings. The suspect allegedly told police he had no intention of ending the woman's life until he saw her face, which sparked his anger after he recalled being dumped by his ex-girlfriend." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

"TWO Shanghai men have been imprisoned for raping a foreign intern student, a local court said today. One man was charged with raping the 20-year-old French student, her name not revealed, in his apartment last November; the other was accused of being an accomplice, according to the court. The main convict was sentenced to three years and three months in jail while the other was to spend two years behind the bars. The French student worked as an intern in a Shanghai company, said the court. The convicts were caught soon after the student called the police. The victim has returned home." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

Last April, we told you about a grisly gay sex murder case in Hunan, which involved a gay singer and the death of six men in elaborate sex games involving sado-masochism, erotic asphyxiation and hanging. more ›

"The Philippine government said China on Wednesday executed three Filipinos convicted of drug smuggling despite last-minute appeals for clemency and political concessions by the Southeast Asian country's leaders. Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, 32, and Ramon Credo, 42, met their families for the last time early Wednesday before they were put to death by lethal injection in Xiamen city in southeastern China, said Philippine Consul Noel Novicio. Elizabeth Batain, 38, was allowed to meet with her relatives hours ahead of her execution in southeastern Shenzhen city, Novicio said. The three were not aware they would be executed Wednesday, although their sentences were promulgated early in the day, Novicio said. It was the first time that Philippine citizens were executed in China." [AP via NPR] more ›

"A couple who filed for divorce in Shunyi District People's Court in Beijing is trying to outbid each other to avoid getting custody of their 4-year-old son, Beijing Times reported on Wednesday. The couple were married in November 2000, and had a son seven years later. However, neither one, both ending their second marriage, wants custody. The wife said their relationship was not good, as her alcoholic husband often beat her. She said she can't take care of her son because she has no job or place to live. The husband said the boy was too young to be separated from his mother, and offered him a 300-yuan ($46) monthly allowance. The couple couldn't agree on who would take the child, and decided to bid over giving up custody rights. The one who outbids the other will be free from taking custody. The court will hold a hearing over the bidding." [China Daily] more ›

24 people are to be prosecuted over the fire that killed 58 and injured 71 in November of last year. Among the charged are government officials, welders, construction supervisors and the heads of the construction company itself. Charges include bribery, neglect and illegal contracting. more ›

"Kim Soo-seok, 44, a South Korean, is accused of abducting a young fellow countryman who studied in Shanghai in a bid to extort 300 million won (US$295,000) from the victim's wealthy father. His two alleged Chinese accomplices, Jin Mingyu and Chi Minhao, both ethnic Koreans, face charges of illegal detention before the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court. The two alleged accomplices pleaded guilty, but Kim said he was entrusted by a friend in South Korea to demand payment of the debt." [Shanghai Daily] more ›