CHINA. GANG LEADER RECEIVES DEATH SENTENCE

Xiong Xinxing was sentenced to death for charges including heading an underground organization and causing the death of a man in Jiujiang in Central China's Jiangxi Province. The Jiujiang Intermediate People's Court also handed down sentences to 15 other gang members, ranging from suspended death sentences to two years in prison. According to the court, Xiong, 38, was found to have run a gambling business and carried out extortion from 1997. The court also ruled that Xiong's gang was responsible for the deaths of three people and for seriously injuring five others. Xiong was arrested in 2005. Police also seized eight guns, 227 bullets, and a number of knives and swords. Gang assets worth 140 million yuan (US$ 17.5 million) were frozen.