An ex-convict was indicted in China for the gruesome...

An ex-convict was indicted in China for the gruesome murder of a woman who was beheaded, scalped and the skin from her face cooked in a pot, a police official said.
Ethnic Korean Piao Yongzhi is accused of murdering 29-year-old Shi Wanxia out of lust for her long hair, police officer Du Changqing told Reuters by telephone from Kaishantun, in the northeastern province of Jilin.
The 40-year-old Piao took the victim's head back home after beheading her with an axe and seriously wounding her sister on September 16, Du said.
He then peeled off the scalp and hair and cooked the facial skin with some pepper.
The victim's hair and skull were discovered in his storage room. Authorities found the victim's face boiling in a pot when they searched the house.
The suspect had been sentenced to life in prison for a 1977 murder and was released in 1997, Du said.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Piao, the officer said. He did not say when the trial would begin.
Details of especially grisly or otherwise high profile cases are routinely published in advance of trials at which the verdicts are almost certain.
State media reported five criminals were executed in Beijing for killing 14 people in violent muggings in the Chinese capital.
Between August 1999 and 2000, a pair of thugs bludgeoned 70 pedestrians for their money in road underpasses and overpasses with wood and iron sticks and hammers, killing 12 and wounding more than 58, the People's Court Daily reported.
Three others beat up or attacked 34 people with wooden sticks in Beijing crosswalks or underpasses, killing two, the newspaper said.
The five made off with some 880,000 yuan ($106,000) in the attacks.