11.   The Buddha statue was listed by the Beijing city government as an important cultural relic, but the house where it was displayed had no alarms, Xinhua said.

12.   The code narrowed the uses of the death penalty for theft to bank robbery and theft of cultural relics, Kamm quoted the judge as saying.

13.   Twelve people convicted of robbing cultural relics from ancient tombs were executed Thursday.

14.   UNESCO is the U.N. agency responsible for the preservation of cultural relics.

15.   In recent years, China has increased protection of cultural relics in an effort to safeguard national treasures.

16.   A proportion of the profits earned from the auctions is to be handed over to the bureau to fund protection of cultural relics, it added.

17.   China Friday announced it will increase protection of cultural relics in an effort to safeguard national treasures and to encourage patriotism.

18.   Wang Gelin, director of the research department at the office of cultural relics, said no country in the world had such archeological treasures as China.