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This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
A total of 1,600 criminal defendants were declared innocent by Chinese courts from the beginning of 2013 to the end of last year.
More than 1,800 cases involving extended detention were handled in the same period.
Judicial authorities say several high-profile wrongful convictions revealed in recent years have harmed equity and justice.
A senior judicial officer said the fundamental reason for miscarriages of justice lies in the lack of faith in human rights protection, adding that illegally obtaining evidence, extracting confessions by torture and other violations have been seen when judicial officials handled criminal cases.
The authorities have taken measures to avoid wrongful convictions, including implementing the principles of presumption of innocence and no punishment in doubtful cases, excluding illegally obtained evidence and protecting lawyers' right to defense.
Several wrongfully executed convicts have been exonerated recently. In one case, a young man who had been found guilty of rape and murder and executed in 1996 was finally declared innocent last December by a court in Inner Mongolia.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Hebei Province of Northern China, home to seven of the country's top 10 polluted cities, reported cleaner air in the first half of this year.
The air quality index of 83 days, or 46 percent of the first half of this year, was below 100, the national standard for clear air. There were only 62 such days in the first half of last year.
The average density of PM 2.5, the major pollutant in pollution, dropped by 23 percent compared with that of the same period last year, to 79 micrograms per cubic meter. The average density of sulfur dioxide dropped by 25 percent compared with the same period last year.
The environment protection department attributed the cleaner air to pollution reduction measures, including the closure of small steel manufacturers as well as reduction in coal consumption.
Hebei Province produces around a quarter of China's steel. It faces enormous challenges as its air pollution is a source of public anger locally and in neighboring regions including Beijing.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
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