Serial killer sentenced to death in SW China

KUNMING - A man was sentenced to death on Saturday for killing 11 people in Southwest China's Yunnan province, a court ruling said.

Zhang Yongming, 57, was accused of fatally strangling 11 people in Jinning county from March 2008 to April 2012, according to the Kunming Intermediate People's Court ruling.

After the murders, Zhang used various means, including dismemberment, burning and burial, to destroy the evidence, it said.

Zhang was given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve in 1979 for the crime of intentional homicide. He was released in September 1997 after receiving a number of sentence reductions, the ruling said.

Zhang was given a piece of land by the village and a subsistence allowance from the local government, but he did not feel grateful and continued to commit crimes, the ruling said.

Zhang did not show any remorse in court and refused to apologize to the relatives of the victims.