Life sentence

    Former deputy head of China’s national political advisory body Ling Jihua was sentenced to life imprisonment* on Monday for taking bribes, illegally obtaining state secrets and abuse of power.

    Ling accepted bribes totaling over 77.08 million yuan (US$11.6 million) personally and through his family, according to the first-instance* ruling by the First Intermediate People’s Court of Tianjin. He pled guilty and decided not to appeal, the court said.

    Unverified online news

    Online media news reports based on content made on social media must verify* information before publication, China’s Internet regulator said on Sunday.

    News websites must accredit* these sources, and they are banned from fabricating stories or distorting facts, according to a notice issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China. The office said in a circular that all news websites must ensure the reports they publish are “true, comprehensive, objective and impartial.”

    Heavy rain

    China’s meteorological* authority on Sunday renewed its orange alert for heavy rain across much of the southern region in the coming 24 hours as three days of heavy rain in southern China have left 50 people dead and another 12 missing.

    Thunderstorms were expected to continue to hammer the provinces of Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from Sunday morning to Monday morning, with precipitation reaching up to 220 millimeters in some areas, the National Meteorological Center said.

    Organ donation

    A Briton died and donated organs to six Chinese in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province, on June 29, making him the second foreigner in the province’s organ donation history, the Qianjiang Evening News reported.

    Mark Terence Osborne, 49, was sent to the operating room at 9 a.m. on the 118th day on the hospital bed and donated his corneas*, kidneys, liver and heart. His wife, surnamed Wang, decided to make the donation under his former will and with his daughter’s consent back in the United Kingdom when he was diagnosed as cerebrally dead. (SD-Agencies)