The former head of China’s state-owned Huarong Asset Management company was sentenced to death Tuesday for bribe-taking, in one of the harshest punishments for economic crimes in recent years.

Lai Xiaomin, 58, was also found guilty by the Second Intermediate People’s Court of Tianjin of lesser charges including corruption and bigamy.

Life sentences and suspended death sentences commuted to life after two years are frequently handed down in corruption cases, but death sentences without the chance of reprieve have become rare in recent years.

Such sentences are automatically appealed to China’s highest court.

Lai was placed under investigation by the ruling Communist Party’s corruption watchdog in 2018 and expelled from the party later the same year.

In its ruling, the Tianjin court cited the “especially enormous” size of the bribes Lai accepted, saying they exceeded 600 million yuan ($93 million) in one instance.

In total, it said Lai collected or sought to collect 1.79 billion yuan (US$260 million) over a decade in exchange for abusing his position to make investments, offer construction contracts, help with promotions and provide other favours.

He was also convicted of embezzling more than 25 million yuan (almost $4 million) in state assets and starting a second family while still married to his first wife.

Although Lai provided useful details about malfeasance by his subordinates, the seriousness of his bribe taking and “degree of harm caused to society” were not enough to win him leniency, the court said in its ruling.

“Lai Xiaomin is lawless and greedy in the extreme,” the ruling said. “His crimes are extremely serious and must be punished severely under law.”

Huarong is one of four entities created in the 1990s to buy non-performing loans from banks, helping to revive the state-owned finance industry. Such asset management companies expanded into banking, insurance, real estate finance and other fields.

Lai was accused of squandering public money, illegally organising banquets, engaging in sexual dealings with multiple women and taking bribes, the anti-corruption agency said in 2018.

Investigators seized hundreds of millions of yuan (tens of millions of dollars) in cash from Lai’s properties, the Chinese business news magazine Caixin reported in 2018.

Lai was one of hundreds of officials at government agencies, state companies and the military who have been detained in an anti-corruption crackdown launched in 2012

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has approved over 50 per cent hike in electricity tariff payable by customers of the 11 Distribution Companies, DisCos.

This is coming just two months after it finally implemented a much opposed hike in November 2020.

According to a revised Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) signed by the new Chairman of NERC, Engr. Sanusi Garba, on December 30, 2020, and sighted Tuesday, the new tariff increase took effect on January 1, 2021, and supersedes the previous Order NERC/2028/2020.

In the new Order NERC/225/2020, the commission said it considered the 14.9% inflation rate rise in November 2020, foreign exchange of N379.4/$1 as of December 29, 2020, available generation capacity, US inflation rate of 1.22% and the Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) of the power firms to raise the tariff.

The revised Service Based Tariff (SBT) also saw increase in the rates payable by all classes of electricity users unlike the one of November 2020, that exempted low power getters.

This is effective till June 2021 while a Cost Reflective Tariff (CRT) expected to raise the new cost higher will be activated from June to December 2021, the NERC Order revealed.

Daily Trust had reported that in December, 2020, NERC notified that it had begun a review for another tariff, which has been completed and had taken effect from January 1, 2021.

NERC had raised tariff for the DisCos in September but that drew outrages from customers and the organised labour, prompting the federal government to suspend it while parties dialogued.

By November 1, 2020, the suspended tariff was implemented after some discounts were given for customers who get 12 hours and above power supply daily.

However, those with less than 12 hour supply did not get a tariff hike, according to the NERC order of November 2020.

Japan’s top-ranked sumo wrestler Hakuho has tested positive for coronavirus.

The Mongolian-born grand champion took a Covid-19 test after losing his sense of smell, the Japan Sumo Association (JSA) said.

The news comes as Japan considers declaring a state of emergency in and around Tokyo, where virus cases have surged.

It has imposed relatively relaxed restrictions so far, with a more contained outbreak than some countries.

Activities like sumo wrestling have continued despite the pandemic, but cases have emerged in the sport too. In May, a 28-year-old Japanese sumo wrestler died from organ failure caused by the virus.

Hakuho – the longest-serving yokozuna or top-ranked wrestler in Japan – had been preparing for the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament, due to start in Tokyo on Sunday.

He will now seek the advice of specialists while the other wrestlers in his stable will also be tested, JSA said.

Also on Tuesday, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said that a state of emergency declaration for Tokyo and the surrounding area would be decided on Thursday, according to local media reports.

Japan has recorded nearly 249,000 coronavirus cases and more than 3,500 deaths since the start of the pandemic. While the figures are vastly lower than countries like the UK and US, the Japanese government has been concerned by what it has described as a “very severe” third wave of infections.

South Korea is trying to secure the release of a tanker seized by Iran.

The MT Hankuk Chemi was seized by Iranian forces near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, and its crew of 20 detained. Iran said the ship had violated environmental rules.

The incident comes amid tensions over Iranian funds frozen in South Korean banks because of US sanctions.

A senior South Korean official was due in Iran in the coming days to discuss the issue.

But an official told Reuters news agency that “the plan is unclear” as to whether Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun’s visit would still go ahead.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told reporters that South Korea was making diplomatic efforts to try to secure the release of the tanker and its crew, which includes sailors from Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea and Vietnam.

“We have been trying to figure out what happened through the Iranian Embassy in South Korea and the South Korean Embassy in Iran and continuing to make efforts to address this situation,” she said, according to Yonhap news agency.

South Korea’s Defence Ministry on Tuesday said it had dispatched its anti-piracy unit to waters near the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping route in the Gulf region, to “ensure the safety” of South Korean nationals.

In a statement, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said the chemical tanker’s seizure was over a “purely technical issue and due to polluting the sea”.

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A US police officer who was called out to arrest a family suspected of shoplifting instead bought them some food so they could have a decent Christmas dinner.

Matt Lima was called to a food store in Somerset, Massachusetts, last month, a police statement said .

Two women were reported not to be scanning all of their groceries.

When questioned, the family said they had fallen upon hard times and could not afford to pay for all the food.

They had still wanted to give the children a Christmas dinner.

Mr Lima served them with a “no trespass” order, but did not press charges as all the items on the shopping receipt were for food, police said.

He then bought them gift cards worth $250 (£180) with his own money so the women and their two children would be able to buy food for their Christmas dinner at another shop of the same chain.

“The two children with the women reminded me of my kids, so I had to help them out,” Officer Lima said.

“Obviously, this family was in need and I can’t imagine having to make the decision to go to Stop and Shop [the food store] and just only pay for what I can afford – or do I go there and try to take things for Christmas dinner for the kids?” he told local TV .

Veteran broadcaster Larry King has tested positive for coronavirus and is being treated at a hospital in Los Angeles, according to US media.

Sources close to his family told ABC News and his former employer CNN that he has been at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre for over a week.

In a career spanning over 60 years, King has multiple accolades, including two Peabody Awards and an Emmy.

He has faced several health problems in recent years, including heart attacks.

Representatives for King, 87, have not publicly commented on his hospitalisation, and details of his current condition are unclear.

“Larry has fought so many health issues in the last few years and he is fighting this one hard too, he’s a champ,” a source told CNN.

News of his hospital treatment was first reported on 1 January by entertainment outlet Showbiz 411, which noted that he was being treated in isolation and was unable to receive family visits.

King rose to fame in the 1970s with his radio programme The Larry King Show, on the commercial network Mutual Broadcasting System.

He was then the host of Larry King Live on CNN, between 1985 and 2010, holding interviews with a host of guests, including politicians, athletes, entertainment figures, and conspiracy theorists.

He also wrote a column for the USA Today newspaper for over 20 years.

Most recently, King hosted another programme, Larry King Now, on Hulu and RT, Russia’s state broadcaster.

During his career, the interviewer has faced multiple problems with his health, including diabetes, angina, heart attacks and lung cancer.

Two of his five children also died last year within weeks of each other – one from a heart attack, another from lung cancer.

In 1988 he founded the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, a charity which helps to fund heart treatment for those with limited financial means or no medical insurance