CHINA / National

33,000 economic crimes busted in first half
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-08-08 11:16

BEIJING -- China's police organs cracked 33,000 economic crimes in the first six months of this year which involved 58.14 billion yuan (7.27 billion U.S. dollars) of illicit money, up 6.8 percent and 89.5 percent over the same period last year.

The information was released by Wu Heping, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security at a regular news conference held here Tuesday.

The number of homicide, rape, arson and explosion cases in the January-June period this year went down 14.9 percent, 6.3 percent, 17.5 percent and 18.3 percent from the same period last year, he said, giving no definite figures.

During the first six months, the country saw 129,000 fire accidents, leaving 871 people dead, 991 injured and 394 million yuan (49.25 million U.S. dollars) of economic losses, down 1 percent, 41.7 percent, 20.2 percent and 45.3 percent respectively.