On January 29, authorities in China's southern boomtown...

On January 29, authorities in China's southern boomtown of Shenzhen, a freewheeling special economic zone plagued by drugs, prostitution and organized crime, executed Zhang Guojin and 5 members of his criminal extortion gang shortly after sentencing them to death. A seventh accomplice received a suspended death penalty and another was sentenced to life imprisonment. It was the third mass execution in Shenzhen, since August 1998. Charges against Zhang and his gang were not detailed, but a newspaper said they made use of violence and threats to run a protection racket around Shenzhen's Wenjindu and Huanggang border crossings with Hong Kong. One gang member was also found guilty of suffocating his girlfriend to death after a quarrel.