Last updated: 19-05-02, 10:04 China's state media today announced eight executions in Beijing, and the handing down of two death sentences in relation to weapons sales in the northwest of the country. The eight were put to death in the Chinese capital earlier this month on the order of the Beijing's Higher People's Court, the Xinhua news agency said. Four of them were found to have organised a crime syndicate in the city, targeting recreational facilities and restaurants, the agency reported. They were also found guilty of killing a total of six people, according to Xinhua. In a separate report, the semi-official China News Service said two people had been sentenced to death in northwestern Qinghai province for the illegal sale of guns. They were members of a gang of five selling both real and fake handguns of a type popular in the Chinese armed forces, according to the service. China has entered the second year of a "strike hard" anti-crime campaign that began in April 2001. The campaign has resulted in at least 2,468 executions for the entire year, the London-based rights group Amnesty International said recently. The number of executions, was "more than the total number of people executed in the rest of the world in the previous three years," Amnesty said.
China plans moon base
19may02
BEIJING: State media reports China - which is pushing ahead with a fledgling space program - plans to establish a base on the moon in order to exploit its mineral resources.
The Beijing Morning Post, quoting an official with the Chinese space program, said the long-term goal is to set up a base on the moon and mine its riches for humanity's benefit. The paper said China has adopted a three-step plan that will eventually make it possible to fly to the moon. It said China first wants to put an astronaut in space, establish a space laboratory and eventually set up a space station. China earlier this year launched its third successful unmanned test flight, which travelled 108 times around the earth on a flight that ended April 1.