CHINA: XINJIANG DEATH SENTENCES APPROVED

February 23, 2011: China's highest court has approved the execution of four men convicted in a series of murders in the restive western region of Xinjiang described as acts of "terrorist violence".
The four were accused of killing nine people in three separate incidents between August and November last year, the Xinjiang-based wlmqwb.com website reported. In the most serious incident on Aug 19, six men detonated a homemade bomb near where a security patrol was forming up, killing eight people including three civilians and two attackers. Fifteen people were also injured.
In the second case, one of the accused killed two men with a homemade gun on Sept 29. In the third case, a man stabbed one person to death and injured two others in an altercation on Nov 2 after he refused to stop his vehicle for a police inspection.
Two of the accused were sentenced to death and two more were given suspended death sentences that are usually commuted to life in prison with good behaviour, the site said. (Sources: AP, 24/02/2011)