Police catch 175 looters in biggest artifact find

Chinese police have caught 175 looters who broke into a Neolithic archaeological site in what officials are calling the country’s biggest recovery of stolen artifacts. The Ministry of Public Security announced Tuesday that the operation rescued 1,168 cultural relics worth more than 500 million yuan, or about USD80 million. The looters are suspected of illegally excavating in Niuheliang, a site in northeastern Liaoning province that includes tombs and other facilities, the ministry said. Authorities found artifacts such as a coiled jade dragon, which is one of the earliest known representations of the mythological creature. The ministry said the looters were split into 10 gangs that handled everything from site excavation to sales. More than 1,000 police from six provinces took part in the recovery operation. The statement did not say when the recovery operation took place.

Court fines chemical company USD12m for polluting, jails staff

A court in eastern China fined a manufacturer of weed killer 75 million yuan (USD12 million) and imprisoned employees of the company and its contractors for discharging wastewater that severely polluted streams. The fine levied by the Longyou county court on Jinfanda Biochemical Co., which makes glyphosate, was the largest ever for a polluter in Zhejiang province, state media reported Tuesday. Zhejiang is one of the most prosperous but also most polluted provinces in China. The Longyou county government said Jinfanda hired four unqualified companies that dumped 35,000 tons of hazardous waste into streams. The county court convicted the company on May 18 following a lengthy trial involving 15 defense lawyers, and it fined the company 75 million yuan and one of the contractors 4 million yuan, the government statement said. The court also sentenced 18 defendants to prison for 17 months to six years, the government said. The individuals were each ordered to pay fines from 10,000 yuan to 1 million yuan.