Briefly

Harbin snow park to close as days warm up

Harbin Ice-Snow World, the largest theme park of its kind in the world, is set to close on Wednesday night as temperatures rise, organizers announced on Monday. As of Sunday night, the 64th day of its 26th edition, the park has welcomed 3.47 million visits this season. Situated in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province in Northeast China known as the "city of ice", this year's park was constructed with 300,000 cubic meters of ice and snow. Beyond its artistic ice sculptures, the park boasts a range of interactive winter attractions, including a snowflake ice maze, ice rinks and a massive ice slide.

Former AVIC chairman expelled from CPC

Tan Ruisong, former board chairman of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, has been expelled from the Communist Party of China for seriously violating Party disciplines, the country's top anti-graft body said on Monday. The decision came following an investigation by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision upon the approval of the CPC Central Committee, according to a statement released by the anti-graft agency. The statement said Tan's offenses include obstructing the investigation, engaging in superstitious activities, abusing his power for sexual favors and embezzling large amounts of public funds and property. By taking advantage of his various positions, Tan was also found to have sought benefits for others in enterprise restructuring, mergers and acquisition, project contracting and employment, and accepted large sums of money and valuables in return, the statement read.

Court rejects appeal of death sentence

Tianjin High People's Court upheld the death sentence of Bai Tianhui, a former general manager of China Huarong International Holdings who took bribes, on Monday after hearing his appeal of the sentence. The high court announced the decision on its official WeChat account, saying that it rejected Bai's appeal and kept the original ruling by the Tianjin No 2 Intermediate People's Court intact. The sentencing has also been submitted to the Supreme People's Court, China's top court, for review, it added. In May, Bai was sentenced to death by the intermediate court for accepting bribes of more than 1.1 billion yuan ($151.8 million). He was also deprived of political rights for life, with confiscation of all his personal assets, and the illicit gains Bai had made — and the interests earned from them — were ordered to be turned over to the national treasury.

China Daily - Xinhua