Abuse of power on the increase

BEIJING - Chinese prosecutors handled 6,375 cases involving malpractice and the abuse of power by civil servants between November 2009 and August 2010, a 6 percent increase on the corresponding period the previous year, the country's top procuratorate said on Wednesday.

Concurrently, prosecutors across the nation handled 3,019 cases of job-related crimes with severe consequences, a 9 percent increase over the same previous year's period, Cao Jianming, prosecutor-general of China's Supreme People's Procuratorate, said in a report to the country's top legislature.

A total of 298 officials at and above the county level were investigated, an 8 percent rise from the previous year, Cao said.