Death penalty over graft

    The maximum penalty for convicts found guilty of embezzling* or accepting bribes worth 3 million yuan (US$463,000) or more in an “extremely serious case” with “extremely vile* impact” will be the death penalty, according to a new judicial explanation issued on Monday.

    The ruling was jointly issued by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate*. A two-year suspended death sentence may be issued if there are mitigating* factors, according to the judicial document. In practice, courts tend to be more lenient when sentencing those who have cooperated during the investigation.

    Organs donated

    A woman died at only 21 but not before giving new life to a pair of twins, and also to four other people.

    Shao Ziyan had been in a coma since February 23 when she gave birth to twin boys. After 53 days of treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU), her heart stopped beating at 10:01 a.m. on Friday. Hours later, her heart, kidneys and liver were successfully transplanted onto four people. Her corneas* were also donated and frozen and will be used in the future, local online news portal in East China’s Zhejiang Province zjol.com.cn reported on Saturday.

    Real name for live video

    Beijing has introduced new measures to regulate live online video broadcasting in a bid to further fight illegal content, Chinese-language newspaper The Mirror reported.

    Representatives of more than 20 companies have signed a self-discipline pact at the capital city’s law-enforcement unit for the culture sector, vowing to clean up their programs.

    Vaccine scandal

    A total of 202 people have been detained in connection with a scandal over an illegal black market vaccine ring, the Chinese Government said on April 13, as it vowed to improve supervision of the market.

    The case, involving millions of illegal sales of vaccines through a black market drug ring, has ignited public ire in the world’s second-largest pharmaceuticals* market. The State Council said that 202 people had been detained, and 357 health and regulatory officials had received punishments. (SD-Agencies)