Region sentences eight for felonies

URUMQI - Eight people in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region were sentenced to death or imprisonment on Monday after being convicted of murder or abducting children, local courts announced.

The eight people were involved in five separate cases.

In one case, a ring headed by Umair Tohti coaxed young children in Xinjiang into working as migrant laborers in Huizhou city, southern Guangdong province, and then forced them into doing "hard work" by beating and abusing them, according to the sentence handed down by the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court.