following talks with his Italian counterpart, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari defended the execution of Saddam Hussein and other former Iraqi officials, which prompted Italy to lead a push for a worldwide moratorium against the death penalty.

some 500 children are currently in Yemeni prisons, often alongside adult criminals, says a new report on children, released by the Rights and Freedoms Committee of the Consultative Council.

“The Italian act is beautiful and noble. It showed courage and was the right thing to do, even if noone else supports it. The request for a UN moratorium on the death penalty gives hope to millions of people around the world who, like me, want the barbarity to end. And it would please me if my government did the same,” Mario Cuomo, ex governor of New York, said in an interview with La Repubblica.

Justice Minister Clemente Mastella wants to bring the important issue of the death penalty to the attention of the European Union.

The fight for the UN moratorium against the death penalty "is an ongoing one," said Massimo D'Alema, Foriegn Minister on Tg 1. D’Alema is in Brasil for talks with re-elected president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has asked Mr. Jalal Talabani, President of Iraq and the Iraqi Government not to ratify the Appeals Court’s decision to execute Saddam Hussein and requested a moratorium on the death penalty in Iraq.

the Sudanese central Khartoum criminal court convicted Mutassim Khairallah, 35, and Imad Tabben,

Thousands of Peruvians have joined a march in Lima supporting a proposal to introduce the death penalty for members of the Shining Path rebel group.

Rwanda's cabinet has voted to scrap the death penalty, Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama says.

Bahrain is to keep the death penalty for drug traffickers. The Shura Council voted overwhelmingly in favour

The European Union parliament called on member states to reconsider their relations with Libya unless it releases six foreign medics

An Iranian convicted of murdering his brother and sister-in-law as well as their two children 27 years ago was hanged in the central city of Isfahan, the government newspaper Iran reported.