CHINA. TWO MEN EXECUTED FOR OIL THEFT

Ding Hanqin and Luo Xingguo, two men who led an oil theft ring, were executed in Guangyuan City, southwestern China's Sichuan Province, for stealing oil from a pipeline in western China.
The other six members of the ring received sentences ranging up to death with a two year reprieve.
The Guangyuan Intermediate People's Court found the group had used hand drills to make holes in an oil pipeline owned by the China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Corporation on December 19, 2003. The men reportedly made off with more than 17 tons of diesel oil.