Briefly

Former vice-governor of PBOC arrested

China's top procuratorate has approved the arrest of Fan Yifei, former vice-governor of the People's Bank of China, for suspected bribery. The approval was disclosed by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the country's top procuratorate, via its website on Tuesday. Further investigation of Fan's case is still underway, the SPP said. Fan was placed under disciplinary and supervisory investigation late last year, and was removed from the Communist Party of China and his work posts earlier this month.

Ex-senior grain official sentenced to 15 years

Xu Ming, former deputy head of the then State Administration of Grain, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for bribery-related crimes by a court in Fujian province on Tuesday. While obtaining a sentence of 14 years for accepting bribes, Xu was also given a two-year prison term for using his influence to take bribes after leaving his posts, according to the Intermediate People's Court of Xiamen. In combination, the court decided to give Xu a 15-year imprisonment, with a fine of 4.1 million yuan ($570,000), adding that his illicit gains and interests that were sealed up, seized and frozen from the bribery have also been turned over to the national treasury.

China launches space experiment satellite

China used a Long March 6 carrier rocket to transport an experimental satellite into space on Tuesday morning, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, a leading State-owned space contractor. The company said in a news release that the rocket blasted off at 11:18 am at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province and soon placed the Shiyan 25 satellite into its preset orbit. The satellite will be used to verify new technologies for Earth observation, it said. The launch mission was China's 25th rocket launch this year.