A woman has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the intentional homicide of her two daughters. The girls starved to death after being left alone at home in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

"Yue Yan was addicted to drugs and took little care of the girls. The victims were young children, and that usually means the defendant receives a severe sentence," said Zhou Kan, the presiding judge, at Nanjing City Intermediate People's Court.

Yue escaped the death penalty because she is pregnant. Under Chinese law, women who are pregnant at the time of trial cannot be sentenced to death.