After insults to hero, one sorry, one isn't

A man in Huaian, Jiangsu province, has been prosecuted for insulting a firefighter who died while saving people.

It is China's first public interest litigation involving the denigration of a dead hero.

The 21-year-old firefighter, Xie Yong, fell to his death on May 12 from the 18th floor of a residential building that was on fire. He removed his air respirator and gave it to a colleague who had trouble breathing. Then, to escape, he climbed down a rope but slipped. Xie and his colleagues saved 36 people trapped in the building and evacuated more than 110.