Adult diapers are hot seller in China

SHANGHAI, China (AP) – Along with food and firecrackers, Chinese are adding a new item to their lunar New Year shopping: adult diapers.

Sales have soared ahead of the holiday as travelers prepare for long trips home aboard trains so crowded that even the toilets are jammed with people, newspapers said Tuesday.

In Foshan, a southern industrial city with a large migrant population, supermarkets report diaper sales have risen 50 percent since the main travel season began on Jan. 14, the papers said.

The problem arises from the need to sell twice as many tickets as there are train seats to accommodate the crush of travelers. Those without seats must find some place – any place – to put themselves, including in overhead racks, between cars and in toilets.

Just purchasing a ticket can mean lining up for hours.

Chinese will this year make around 2 billion plane, train, ship and automobile journeys during the 40 days around the holiday, which this year falls on Jan. 29. Trains carry around 4 million people per day over the period.

“The deep seated concept of a reunion with families … prompts people to repeat the journeys, even though they know clearly how difficult the journeys are,” psychologist Pan Hong was quoted as telling China Daily.

ZANESVILLE, Ohio (AP) – Lewis Miller joked with his son as he opened his gas bill that the amount likely would give him a heart attack.

Then, he saw that The Energy Cooperative of Newark had billed him $8,095 for the first nine days of service on his new account for his apartment.

“I thought I was just going to lay down and die,” Miller said. He then had an anxious weekend because he received the bill Friday and couldn’t reach the gas company until Monday.

When Miller reached the Energy Cooperative, the error was corrected.

Brian Byrd, a spokesman for the utility, said the company apologized to Miller for its mistake.

“These things are very rare, but they can happen,” Byrd said.

The company suspects that a contractor mixed up or misread the numbers while taking a reading of Miller’s meter. The information is downloaded into a computer that checks for billing errors by looking at what a customer was charged in the past. Since Miller’s account was new, there was nothing to compare it to, Byrd said.

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) – Talk about unwanted house guests.

A 78-year-old Australian woman was rushed to a hospital after she was bitten by a 5-foot snake, a newspaper reported Monday.

Valerie Makin, a great-grandmother from the southern city of Melbourne, was sitting on her couch knitting and watching television when she saw the unwanted visitor, the Melbourne Sun newspaper reported.

As she tried to flick it away, it sank its fangs into her left arm, the paper said.

“She never even raised her voice,” said Makin’s daughter, Janice Milinkovic, who was in her bedroom when her mother came in and said she had been bitten.

Makin was rushed to a nearby hospital, but she did not suffer any poisoning because the snake’s fangs only punctured the skin and the venom did not enter her bloodstream, the newspaper said.

The creature – known as a brown snake – crawled under the couch where it remained until a pest control inspector removed it from the house, the report said.

WACO, Texas (AP) – A minister opposed to a new Hooters restaurant says no more protests are planned now that it’s open.

“We’ve done all we can do. We’ll just leave the rest to the Lord,” said the Rev. Greg Brumit, who disapproved of the increased traffic in the neighborhood as well as the skimpy outfits worn by Hooters waitresses. “They’re welcome to come down the street to our church.”

Last fall, Brumit was among dozens of ministers who wrote a letter to city and county officials, saying Hooters should not come to Waco.

After the opposition was publicized, the McLennan County Sheriff’s Department and East Texas Medical Center Emergency Medical Services said they would ask their employees not to eat at Hooters in uniform.

Waco is home to Baylor University, the world’s largest Baptist university. The restaurant’s grand opening was held Tuesday.