the seminar entitled “Kazakhstan from the Moratorium on Death Penalty Toward the Adoption of the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR” took place in the country’s capital Almaty.

a Bangladesh court sentenced seven top Islamist militants to death for killing two judges in a bomb attack in southern Jhalakati town in 2005.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he will "insist" that fugitive Lai Changxing should not face the death penalty if returned to China, a sanction Beijing had declined to rule out.

the European Union pressed China about its use of torture and the death penalty as EU and Chinese officials wrapped up two days of meetings on human rights issues.

experts from 8 countries will convene in Almaty on Monday, May 29, to attend the Coordination meeting of NGOs “Kazakhstan from the Moratorium on Death Penalty Toward the Adoption of the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR”.

Abdi kadir Shuriye was executed in Beledwen, central Somalia, after being convicted a few days previously of killing Ahmed Nur whilst attempting to steal his mobile phone.

the sole surviving suspect from the Beslan school siege has been found guilty of murder and terrorism at a court in southern Russia.

a verdict has been postponed until next year in the 12-year genocide trial of Ethiopia's former Marxist ruler.

the Constitutional Council of Kazakhstan proposed to keep the death penalty as a punishment for terrorism.

Pakistan postponed the execution of Briton Mirza Tahir Hussain for a month in order to give his family the chance to reach a settlement with the family of a taxi driver he was convicted of murdering.

China's courts will allow video cameras to record proceedings of appeal hearings involving death sentences, said Chief Justice Xiao Yang.

Hands Off Cain’s leaders, Sergio D’Elia and Elisabetta Zamparutti, expressed their full appreciation for the statement made by newly elected Prime Minister Romano Prodi in favour of a universal moratorium on executions.