January 4, News from Beijing

The Chinese communist regime has sentenced Li Fujun, 37, an associate professor at Xinxiang Medical College in central Henan province to four years in prison, a Hong Kong-based rights watchdog said on Monday.

The center said Li Fujun had been arrested in October, and that the court accused him of posting an article on the Internet on how Falun Gong could cure illness.

The center also said that to avoid international condemnation for religious persecution, China had sent as many as 5,000 Falun Gong adherents to labor camps - a punishment that requires no court trial.