Three people were executed in China after being convicted...

Three people were executed in China after being convicted of stealing six luxury vehicles and strangling their drivers. Li Xiaoping, Wang Qinghai and Cheng Long were executed after being found guilty of stealing five Mercedes Benzs and one Audi and murdering the drivers in a spree that began in July 2001, the Beijing Daily Messenger reported. Li, 41, from Beijing, was identified as the ringleader in the hijacking of the cars valued at over 5.9 million yuan (712,000 dollars). He sold them in northeastern China where his two younger accomplices hailed from, the paper said. The group would wait outside the gates of upscale apartment blocks in the capital or just tail the cars before hijacking them and killing the drivers. Only one car owner was killed, with the other murder victims being hired drivers. Li was arrested in April 2003 and his two accomplices were tracked down in northeastern China two months later.