Briefs, February 8, 2013

The high-profile Beihai "four lawyers" perjury case came to an end on Wednesday as prosecutors dropped the charge against the last defendant, Guangxi lawyer Yang Zaixin, Caixin magazine reported yesterday. Yang and three other lawyers were detained in 2011 after their clients, defendants in a murder trial, retracted their confessions, claiming they had been tortured. The perjury case prompted an outcry among lawyers across the country. The city's intermediate court also ruled on Wednesday that the five defendants in the related murder trial - involving the death of a man in 2009 - were not guilty on the grounds of insufficient evidence. He Huifeng

Authorities have detained a driver and a local government official on suspicion of causing the accidental death of a 13-month-old boy who was run over by a van during an argument between his parents and local officials demanding that the couple pay a fine for violating the country's strict family planning limits. The boy was the rural couple's third child. Most couples in the countryside are limited to two children. The Communist Party propaganda department for Ruian in the eastern province of Zhejiang said in a statement yesterday that the accident occurred after the mother was told to board an official's van and during a scuffle the baby was dropped under the rear wheel of the vehicle. The boy died in hospital. AP