Runaway officials turn selves in

Li Min, a former official of a State-owned enterprise who fled to Germany in 2001 after allegedly embezzling 1.3 million yuan ($19,058) returned to China to face justice six years later.

Instead of extradition, Li voluntarily came back thanks to persuasive prosecutors' three-year cross-ocean phone calls, sources with the Fangshan district people's procuratorate in Beijing said yesterday.

Prosecutors traced the phone number of her son in Germany, and relentlessly urged him to persuade her to stop running from the law.