Chinese pair put to death

TWO former vice-mayors in eastern China who were convicted of bribery were executed yesterday, the country's supreme court said, two of the harshest sentences handed down to high-level officials in recent years.

The Supreme People's Court confirmed that death sentences on Xu Maiyong and Jiang Renjie had been carried out.

Xu was convicted in May of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power during his time as vice-mayor of the city of Hangzhou, west of Shanghai.

The second official, Jiang, was a former vice-mayor of Suzhou city in coastal Jiangsu province. He was convicted of taking bribes from property developers between 2001 and 2004 when he was in charge of urban planning.