China executes serial killer

Yang Xinhai, 35, was put to death a fortnight after he received his sentence at the Luohe City Intermediate People's Court in central China's Henan province, the sina.com website reported.

Yang, characterized as an introverted drifter, had not appealed his death sentence, according to the report. Executions in China are usually carried out with a bullet to the back of the head.

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Yang was said to have bicycled from one murder scene to the next beginning in 2000, and was not caught until November last year.

He later confessed that if he had not been caught, he would have carried his murder spree to Tianjin, a city of 10 million near Beijing, and then perhaps to the capital, sina.com said.

Police have listed robbery and rape as motives in the case, but Yang was also described as a deranged killer who simply enjoyed what he was doing.