Four ring leaders of a gang in south-west China's Sichuan...

Four ring leaders of a gang in south-west China's Sichuan province were sentenced to death. The four were among 35 people convicted in the biggest organised crime case to hit Sichuan province in recent history, the Huaxi Metropolitan Daily said. They were sentenced by the intermediate court of Mianyang city with alleged ring leader Zhao Xiaodong and two of his lieutenants being sentenced to death and a third convicted ring leader given the death penalty with two years reprieve, the paper said. Following the verdict, Xinhua news agency reported that China's top law enforcement official Luo Gan had announced that the ongoing three-year "strike hard" campaign against organised crime had proven effective and would continue. "Various types of criminal offences are re-emerging recently and this calls for a continuation of the 'strike-hard' policy," Luo was quoted as saying.