POLICE rescued 37 babies after swooping on 103 child traffickers working across four regions in Shandong Province, China Central Television (CCTV) reported Monday.

    The new-born babies — reportedly fed on instant noodles and leftover vegetables by the traffickers — were sold, with boys attracting prices of between 50,000 yuan (US$8,000) and 80,000 yuan. Baby girls attracted lower prices, police said.

    Chen Shiqu, director of the Ministry of Public Security’s Anti-trafficking Office, told CCTV that it was a relatively new form of crime, with smugglers arranging for pregnant women to give birth in an abandoned factory in Jining, south of Shandong, and then selling their children.

    The traffickers, working in the regions of Taian, Linyi, Qufu and Jining, reportedly recruited pregnant women willing to sell their babies, and arranged for them to live in the factory.

    After giving birth, the women did not nurse their children. They left the factory after handing over their babies to the traffickers, CCTV said.

    The babies were transported — hidden in handbags or other luggage — to a morgue at a hospital for infectious diseases, in the suburbs of Jining, where they were kept until buyers were found.

    “The infants were abused,” Hou Jun, a Jinan detective, told CCTV. “The traffickers fed them with instant noodles or some left-over vegetables while waiting for buyers.”

    A police raid on the morgue revealed many babies were in poor health, with some suffering from bedsores because of the poor level of care, the report said.

    One policeman told the CCTV program that one baby had almost been smothered to death by traffickers after they hid the baby beneath thick bed covers.

    The TV report said mothers that sold their babies were among the 103 traffickers detained by police.

    The traffickers have been found guilty of offenses linked to child trafficking and are now awaiting sentencing.

    According to China’s criminal laws, child traffickers can be jailed for at least five years.

    Traffickers that sell more than three children aged less than 14 years old can face sentences of more than 10 years in jail, or even the death penalty.(SD-Agencies)Firefighters speak with a victim after one passenger died and 84 others were injured on the subway when smoke filled the L’Enfant Plaza station during the evening rush hour Monday in Washington, D.C. Eighty-four people were taken to the hospital with “various injuries,” including one firefighter. An electrical arcing event happened 330 meters in front of the train, which filled the tunnel with smoke, local media reported.

    SD-Agencies