Xinhua selects world pictures of the year 2019

Zhang Yingying's mother (C) is seen at a press conference after sentencing in Peoria, Illinois, the United States, July 18, 2019. Brendt Christensen, who kidnapped and killed Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying in 2017, was sentenced on July 18 to life imprisonment without the possibility of release. Judge James Shadid announced the verdict in a federal court of Peoria in the U.S. state of Illinois, after the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision on whether Christensen should be sentenced to death or life in prison. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)