There has been a baby boom across China since the start of the Year of the Horse on January 31 as couples try to have their child born in what they consider an auspicious year.

More births are expected as the third plenary session of the 18th Communist Party central committee back in November 2013 announced that couples where one spouse is an only child will soon have the chance to have two children.

Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces have already implemented the approval process for the two-child policy. Another nine provinces are expected to complete the process soon.

The Beijing city government will provide support by improving hospitals, nurseries and primary schools and by protecting women's right to maternity leave, said Wang Delin, vice-chairman of the legislative affairs committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress.

It is a significant change to the national family planning policy restricting many couples to a single child that has been in effect for more than three decades and part of a plan to raise the fertility rate and ease the financial burden of a rapidly ageing population.

According to a nationwide survey by China Youth Daily in November, 62.5 per cent of respondents wanted to have two children, while 5.9 per cent wanted to have three or more.

An 18-year-old man beat a doctor to death with an iron bar at a hospital in Heilongjiang province last month because he was unhappy with the treatment of his illness, police say.

Sun Dongtao, head of the ear, nose and throat department at a hospital affiliated with the state-owned Beiman Special Steel Company in Qiqihar, died while receiving emergency care.

There have been frequent reports of patients attacking medical staff in recent years in China. In 2012 a 17-year-old migrant worker killed one and injured three medical staff members at a hospital.

He said he had visited a doctor at the hospital six times over two years for leg pain but didn't see any improvements.

"Over the past two years, 11 ministries have called for better security at hospitals, but attacks on doctors are happening constantly and security for doctors has not improved," said Li Huijuan, a lawyer specialising in doctor-patient cases.

Changes in the average physique of Chinese soldiers over the past 20 years have created a need for newer and larger armaments.

The PLA Daily cited research findings that today's average Chinese soldier is nearly an inch taller and has a waistline almost two inches larger than the average 20 years ago.

Because the soldiers' average size has grown larger military equipment is urgently needed, the researchers said.

A soldier of average size could feel cramped in some tanks, which were designed to accommodate the smaller troops of 30 years ago.

The research measured 28 features of the human body, compared with seven in previous studies. A new database of ergonomic parameters was compiled on such factors as hand strength, which would help determine the optimum sensitivity of triggers.

"In the past, the air force would not select tall pilots because military aircraft cockpits were usually small," said a spokesman for the People's Liberation Army.

"But since advanced aerodynamic design and cutting-edge electronics have been adopted in new-generation planes, there is considerably more space for pilots, allowing tall people to fit in."

A stray Tibetan mastiff which had been confronted by 10 armed police officers for more than four hours was leashed by a butcher in only a few seconds in Guangdong Province, Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

None of the 10 police dared to get close to the mastiff, which weighed more than 11 stone and was of a particularly dangerous breed.

They asked for help from a 40-year-old butcher, who has been slaughtering pigs for more than 20 years and is known by locals as a man that even the fiercest dogs fear.

The butcher, known as Brother Fu, walked up to the mastiff, patted it on the head and put a leash around its neck without meeting any resistance.

"I told it that I never eat dog meat. The mastiff might have understood what I said and behaved," he joked.