CHINA. NINE GANG MEMBERS EXECUTED IN XUCHANG AFTER DEATH PENALTY UPHELD

nine members of a gang were executed after a high court upheld the death sentences handed down to them during an earlier local trial in China's Henan province.
According to the court, the nine, all members of a 67-strong gang active since 1993 in the provincial capital of Zhengzhou, extorted money from local market vendors using violence and were also responsible for murder. The Xuchang Municipal Intermediate People’s Court first sentenced the gang, lead by Song Liugen, Ma Xianzhou and Hao Hongshan, to death in January 2005.
Two other gang members scheduled for execution had their sentences commuted to life in prison, while the remaining gangsters were all jailed, state news reported.