China executed 26 people convicted of robbery, rape...

China executed 26 people convicted of robbery, rape and murder as the police mounted a drive to rid the streets of criminals and warn potential offenders ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays. Men were executed in different provinces over the past few days, all by the traditional method of a bullet in the back of the head. Among them, six men convicted of robbing trucks carrying melons and vegetables have been executed in Hainan. Another group of four criminals was executed in south China's Hainan Province, for robbing trucks transporting vegetables along the "Green Passage" in Hainan. Between January 1996 and April 1999, the group, among them Wang Bulei, had robbed over 10 vegetable-carrying trucks along the expressways in Hainan and Guangxi. The goods they seized were valued at 100,000 yuan.