CHINA. SINGER YU'S BROTHER HAS NOT BEEN EXECUTED FOR DRUG OFFENSE: BEIJING

news reports that Taiwanese singer Yu Tien's adopted younger brother had been executed in China on charges of narcotics trafficking were incorrect, a spokesman for the Chinese government said. Li Weiyi, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, told a regular news conference that Yu Fu-hsing, charged with smuggling heroin into Xiamen, was still awaiting trial at the highest People's Court in Fujian. Li said court trials were very serious matters. He deplored the fact that incorrect news reports had misled people and caused distress to the family members of the defendant. However, he declined to disclose the whereabouts of the accused and his present condition. Over the past few days, news media in Taiwan had widely reported that popular singer Yu Tien's 49-year-old younger brother, Yu Fu-hsing, who moved to Xiamen 12 years ago, had been executed with a number of other drug traffickers by lethal injection on June 26 by Chinese authorities for smuggling heroin into China from Thailand. The news originated from reports in Hong Kong newspapers, which said that Yu Fu-hsiung had been sentenced to death in March for carrying 10 bricks of heroin totaling 3.8 kilograms worth about NT$100 million in street value.