China executes two over tainted milk powder scandal

China has executed two people for their role in a scandal involving tainted milk powder that resulted in the deaths of six children.



More than 300 thousand other infants were made ill from milk powder contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertiliser.



Court officials say Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping are the only people to have been executed over the scandal although 19 others were sentenced to prison terms.



The Xinhua news agency reports that Zhang Yujun was convicted of endangering public safety by dangerous means, for selling more than 770 tonnes of the tainted milk powder from July 2007 to August 2008.



Geng Jinping, who managed a milk production centre, was convicted of supplying milk containing melamine to the now-bankrupt Sanlu Group and other dairies.



The two men were sentenced in January in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei, where Sanlu was based.