It was a joke, not indecency, rules judge

A Hong Kong cook who took off his pants in front of a woman co-worker has been acquitted of a charge of indecent assault.

The cook, 34, jokingly asked the waitress, 26, to bathe him when she asked if he would take a shower before leaving for home. The waitress retorted: "Then you have to take off your pants first." And the cook immediately obliged. The waitress hosed him with cold water in retaliation, which led to a struggle.

The woman later sued the cook for indecent assault. But in the court trial on Thursday, the judge acquitted the cook, saying her remarks construed an agreement.

Mom jailed for caning thieving son

A Hong Kong woman was arrested on Thursday for caning her seven-year-old son as punishment for stealing.

The woman, living in Shau Kei Wan, caned her son after discovering he had stolen HK$20 ($2.6) from his grandmother. The boy called the police. The grandmother, however, insisted that the woman was a good mother and the punishment meted out was not excessive.

70-plus brigade to keep Beijing clean

Ten men and women aged 70 on average, were organized last Friday in Haidian District to discourage peddlers and keep people from pasting small ads along the streets.

The crew, aimed at keeping Beijing clean, is the first of its kind and will help law-enforcement departments keep a lid on activities deemed polluting to the environment.

Non-stop online games blinds teen

Three days and nights of non-stop online games rendered a teenager temporarily blind last Thursday in Qingdao, Shandong Province. An avid gaming fan, 19-year-old Zhang Ning had to stop playing and concentrate on studies after he entered senior high school.

Recently, Zhang sat his national college entrance exams and begged to play online games to relax. He got so hooked on to them that he could not take a break. By the third day, he started feeling pain in his eyes. On Tuesday, he was terrified to find he could not see.

Doctors said Zhang was suffering from acute optical neuritis and added that they could only say if his eyesight would recover after more detailed examination.

(China Daily 06/26/2007)

（英语点津 Linda 编辑）

About the broadcasters:

Matt Doran is an award-winning American newspaper journalist and an undergraduate student at Albion College. He is currently a polisher for China Daily Website and is on summer break from Beijing Foreign Studies University, where he will resume his study of Chinese in the fall.

Suzann Riddle is a senior double majoring in Health Care Management and Economics at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. She finds herself at China Daily Website after visiting many areas of China as a Holland Fellow, Appalachian's international exchange program with Fudan University.