World IN BRIEF : CHINA : Reports on Orphans Officially Denied

China rejected published and televised reports that its orphanages killed children by starvation, saying care was improving and orphanage directors could go to prison if they let a child freeze or starve to death. “Dying rooms do not exist in China,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Chen Jian told a news briefing. The spokesman was reacting to a human rights report and a British television documentary that allege large-scale death by negligence in “dying rooms” at a Chinese orphanage. “The overall situation is good,” Chen said. “Not only has it improved, but it is getting even better.”