China executes four by lethal injection

The Chinese authorities have executed four criminals in southwest China's Yunnan province by means of lethal injection, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The four died soon after receiving the injections and no painful reactions were reported," said a court official at Kunming, where the sentences were carried out.

"Capital punishment can be carried out by shooting, lethal injection, or other methods", the agency said, quoting the relevant law, which it said took effect in January, 1997.

The court began to study the use of lethal injections last year and over 1,000 experiments had been carried out on animals by 28th March this year, when the it carried out executions using lethal injections for the first time in China.

"Of the 99 countries in the world that still have capital punishments, only China and the United States use lethal injections," the agency added.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.