41.   The offensive by Chechen law enforcement officials began Tuesday when they beefed up police checkpoints around the region and threatened harsher punishment for hostage-takers.

42.   Yilmaz has proposed restricting the building of mosques, harsher punishment for people who wear turbans or veils in public and making it easier to close radical Islamic institutions.

43.   Zhang is the first Falun Gong member reported dead since Chinese authorities announced harsher punishment for practitioners.

44.   Hearings into the financial scandal resumed late last year after the prosecution appealed for harsher punishment and the defence demanded the release of the defendants on health grounds.

45.   A provincial administration in southern China has pledged harsher punishments against corrupt officials following public outrage over earlier lenient sentences, reports said here Tuesday.

46.   The meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Lee Hong-Koo, also decided to amend laws to hand down harsher punishment for those responsible for such accidents.