Six members of a gang that murdered five people, ran...

Six members of a gang that murdered five people, ran illegal casinos and peddled guns in the southern island province of Hainan, were sentenced to death by the Hainan Provincial Intermediate People's Court. Xinhua news agency reported that the gang had run rampant in the provincial capital of Haikou from 1993 to 1999. "The gangsters had murdered at least five persons and left five others seriously injured as they engaged in illegal activities such as running underground casinos and lottery companies and forcibly monopolising the local fishing sector," the agency added. Xinhua did not say if the convicted planned to appeal their sentences or when the executions would take place, but such sentences are typically carried out within a matter of days in China.