In China, 41 people involved in election fraud have been sentenced to varied jail terms. Liaoning provincial government said in a statement that these people stood trial in 15 intermediate courts and were handed various prison terms. <br/><br/>Convicts had bribed voters in the election of deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) in China's parliament. <br/><br/>Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the NPC, said that the electoral bribery in Liaoning was the first of its kind at the provincial level since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.