The central Chinese province of Hebei has executed...

The central Chinese province of Hebei has executed 16 "serious criminals" for crimes including rape, murder and robbery, state media said. The Shijiazhuang Daily said the executions were necessary "to ensure that people in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei, are safe over Chinese New Year", which begins on January 22.
The Intermediate People's Court sentenced the 16 and executed them "recently", it said. According to the newspaper, 13 were executed by lethal injection.
It did not specify how the others died but a bullet to the back of the head is often the favoured method of execution in China. It said the criminals were convicted of crimes including rape, homicide, robbery and kidnapping.
As an example, it cited a man named Zhang Jianhua who on February 2, 2003 raped a young girl who was mentally ill and then killed her with a blow to the head.
In another case, a man named Li Hanchin killed the son of a neighbour in his village as a revenge attack after a quarrel.