China launches national campaign against illegal, obscene publications

BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities launched a nationwide
crackdown Wednesday on illegal and pornographic publications, destroying 46.85
million items.

The crackdown covered the country's 31 provinces, cities and autonomous
regions, according to the National Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal
Publications Office.

There were 17 provinces, cities and autonomous regions destroying up to 1
million illegal items, including Shanghai, Jiangsu and Beijing.

Guangdong Province had the largest number at 10 million, the office said.

On April 12, the office began a national crackdown on obscene audio-visual
products, confiscating nearly 3 million discs during a 10-day period.

Jiang Jianguo, a senior official from the office, said the government
wanted to purify the social environment and fulfill its commitment against
pirated content to the world community.

"This has become a world issue that requires more international
cooperation," Jiang added.

China's audit office recovers 26.77 billion yuan embezzled in 2007

BEIJING, April 17 (Xinhua) -- China's National Audit Office (NAO) said Friday it had recovered 26.77 billion yuan (3.94 billion U.S. dollars) of fund, which was found embezzled in 2007, by the end of October last year.

However, the office did not reveal the total amount of embezzled fund.

In its first auditing document issued this year, which explained the follow-up work on embezzled fund discovered in 2007,the NAO said 30 officials were arrested, prosecuted, or convicted in the process, and 117 were given disciplinary punishments.

As for the expenditure of 29.38 billion yuan found "problematic" at the ministerial level last year, the office said 17.5 billion yuan was a result of technical errors in the budgeting work, such as lack of detailed budgets.

More than 70 percent, or 8.4 billion yuan, of the remaining 11.88 billion yuan has been retrieved, according to the document published on the NAO website.