China executed some 24 people after a public sentencing...

China executed some 24 people after a public sentencing rally. The condemned were executed for murder, kidnapping and robbery in the northeastern city of Shenyang, a court official told Reuters.
"Forty criminals were publicly sentenced at a 10,000-people rally on September 11," said the official at the Intermediate People's Court in Shenyang. "The total number of death sentences was probably 24."
China insists it is not ready to do away with capital punishment and rejects outside pressure to stop executing criminals.
Calls within China for the abolition of capital punishment are rare among a public concerned about increasing crime spawned by widening income disparities during two decades of market reforms which have put millions out of work.