6 disabled freed

    Police rescued six mentally disabled people from allegedly* being forced to do heavy unpaid labor at a brick factory in Xuanwei, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, media reported on Sunday.

    Bai Wanjia, the only one of the six victims who could name the address of his home, was returned by police on August 30 from the Shengheng Brick Factory in Yangchang Township, Xuanwei to his home in Banmao Village, Pu’er, some 500 kilometers away, news site thepaper.cn reported on Sunday.

    Ride cheating

    Uber China said it will update its technology to close a loophole* that has been taken advantage of by drivers to forge their business records, Chinese media reported on Monday.

    Many users of the ride-hailing service posted online screen shots of their unanswered bookings during the three-day holiday of the Mid-Autumn Festival. They claimed that Uber drivers didn’t contact their clients for the reserved trip but started a trip without picking up a passenger and completed a trip in less than a minute. Fees for the brief “service,” usually at 10 yuan (US$1.5) per trip, were charged from the app users’ account despite the fact that they didn’t actually use the service.

    Typhoon Meranti

    Typhoon Meranti has left 28 people dead and 15 others missing in the eastern Chinese provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang.

    Meranti, the strongest typhoon to hit China this year, made landfall* in Xiamen City, Fujian, on Thursday morning. It was also the strongest typhoon to hit southern Fujian since 1949. Fujian flood control authorities said on Saturday that 18 people died and 11 others were missing.

    Official sacked

    An official from eastern China’s Zhejiang Province was dismissed due to online accusations around a photo, the Wenzhou Metropolis Daily reported.

    The photo shows the official being carried by two insurance company employees while walking through a muddy puddle* during the Typhon Meranti disaster relief in Taishun County of Zhejiang Province on Friday. The official was later identified as Bao Xuwei, a county education bureau official.(SD-Agencies)