A Chinese court sentenced a disgraced provincial vice...

A Chinese court sentenced a disgraced provincial vice governor to death for accepting bribes and because he could not account for assets which outstripped his income, state media said.
Wang Huaizhong, a former governor of the central province of Anhui, was the latest in a string of officials convicted as part of an intensified campaign against corruption.
"In the face of irrefutable evidence, he indulged in sophistry in every possible way and refused to admit guilt," the official Xinhua news agency quoted the People's Intermediate Court in the northern city of Jinan as saying.
"His attitude was disgusting and he was severely punished in accordance with the law."
The court convicted Wang of accepting bribes totalling 5.17 million yuan ($623,000) between September 1994 and March 2001, Xinhua said.
Wang was unable to account for another 4.8 million yuan in assets seized by the authorities, the agency said, adding that he used most of his ill-gotten wealth to try to bribe investigators into dropping an investigation.
"His assets clearly exceeded his legal income. The difference was huge. He could not explain its legal origin," Xinhua quoted the court as saying.
Wang had pleaded not guilty, saying "history will prove this is the biggest miscarriage of justice" when he made his final defence on December 10, the semi-official China News Service said.
Wang, who was taken into custody in April 2001 and expelled from the Communist Party in September this year, has 10 days to appeal.
China's leaders have warned in recent years the Communist Party faces self-destruction if it fails to crack down on corruption, a scourge that toppled many dynasties.
Corruption was virtually wiped out in the years after the puritanical Communists came to power in 1949, but has staged a vengeful comeback in the wake of economic reforms introduced in the late 1970s.