A court in north China has jailed a local official for 13 years for covering up a deadly mining accident, state press said yesterday of a disaster that occurred ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games.
Li Hongxing (李宏興), a county head in Hebei Province, was convicted of “abuse of powers” for ordering a local mine to pay 2.6 million yuan (US$380,000) in hush money to up to 10 journalists, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
The accident on July 14 last year in Yu County killed 34 miners and was covered up in an apparent bid to spare China embarrassment in the run-up to the Olympic Games, previous media reports said.
After a Cabinet-level inquiry into the cover up, state prosecutors brought charges against 48 government and mining officials in Yu County and 10 journalists, the reports said. Officials at the Hebei court where the trial took place were unavailable to comment on the case yesterday.
More trials are expected soon, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
Li was also convicted of accepting 570,000 yuan in bribes as head of Yu County from 2003 to last year, it said.
He was sentenced to a total of 13 years in prison, including two years for the “abuse of power” charges and 12 years for the bribery charges, the Beijing Youth Daily said, citing the court verdict.
Li plans to appeal the verdict, it added.
The identities of the journalists have not been revealed.
Yu County is about 80km west of Beijing.
Relatives of the dead miners were also given money and threatened to keep them quiet, earlier reports said. Over 3,200 miners were killed in China’s mines last year, according to official figures, but workers’ rights groups say the number is much higher as accidents routinely are covered up to avoid costly mine shutdowns and fines.
China’s coal mines are among the most dangerous in the world, with safety often ignored in the quest for profits and a drive to meet surging demand for coal, the source of about 70 percent of China’s energy.
On Nov. 21, 108 miners were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS