Chinese Whack Food and Drug Chief

No mystery about this one. That silence you hear is coming directly from Human Rights Watch, the ACLU and Amnesty International. Then again, those far-left groups never have any problem with Communist dictatorships.

China executes food and drug chief

The former director of China's food and drug watchdog was executed today after being found guilty of taking almost $1 million in bribes, Xinhua, the official newsagency said.

Zheng Xiaoyu, 62, the former director of the State Food and Drug Administration, was executed on Tuesday morning, following the approval of China's Supreme People's Court, Xinhua said.

Zheng was sentenced to death in late May after being found guilty of accepting 6.5 million yuan ($992,000) in bribes in exchange for granting approvals for hundreds of medicines, some of which proved dangerous.

His execution comes ahead of the Communist Party's five-yearly Congress expected to be held in or around October. The showpiece political event is typically preceded by official campaigns against corruption within party ranks.