Syringe attackers in China's Urumqi to face harsh punishment.

BEIJING, September 7 (Itar-Tass) - Syringe attackers in China's
Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, will face harsh punishment.
Under the Chinese laws, they will face from three years in prison to life
sentence or even death penalty, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

Panic and tension hit Urumqi again after the riots on July 5, which
left almost 200 people dead, mainly ethnic Han people. New riots were
evoked by syringe attackers. Most of suspects in the unrest were detained.
The regional authorities had earlier sent 1,500 officials and police
officers to communities densely populated by Uygurs. A total of 7,000
officials will be engaged to help ease tensions after syringe attacks,
said Wang Lequan, secretary of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional
Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Sunday.
He admitted that syringe attacks sporadically continue and accused
Uygur separatists in Xinjiang and abroad of organizing the riots.



.White-collar crimes on rise in Russia - top investigator.

MOSCOW, September 7 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Investigative Committee
chief Alexander Bastrykin said the number of white-collar crimes,
including those involving high-ranking officials, is on the rise in the
country.
"We regularly receive materials on white-collar crimes. Over the six
months alone we got over 30,000 cases, including those against
high-ranking officials - governors, vice-governors, general directors of
holdings and big corporations," he said in an interview with the
Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.
In January-June 9,000 criminal cases on white-collar crimes and
corruption were instituted as against slightly over 10,000 cases in 2008
alone.
"At present, we are deciding the future of a vice-governor who imposed
a damage worth 300 million roubles," Bastrykin said adding that earlier
the vice-governor of the Tyumen region and ex-vice-governor of the
Primorsky Territory were convicted.
"There are hundreds of cases against parliamentarians and heads of
local legislatures. Over the past six months 14 federal judges were
charged," he said.
Bastrykin stressed that over the same period the criminal charges for
bribery increased to 700.
"Bribes are really not limited to money or property. There are even
such exotic forms as sexual services or drug dealing," the top
investigator said.
"There are more and more cases, when high-ranking officials, abuse
their powers in favour of commercial firms. They take part in the
management of such companies, allocate budget funds, issue licenses and
permits to them and secure their win in tenders and bidding contests,"
Bastrykin said.
The top investigator believes that a provision on confiscation of
property should be returned to the Criminal Code, as "the current practice
did not prove effective." "Figuratively speaking, today we can arrest only
that what a criminal had, when he was caught red-handed, while it is
impossible to confiscate what he had stolen before The top investigator
believes that a provision on confiscation of property should be returned
to the Criminal Code, as "the current practice did not prove effective."
"Figuratively speaking, today we can arrest only that what a criminal had,
when he was caught red-handed, while it is impossible to confiscate what
he had stolen before," he said.

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