Niaz Ahmed, a man sentenced to death for raping and killing a seven-year-old girl, was executed in eastern Pakistan after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf turned down his plea for clemency.

prosecutors accused 15 Uzbek men of plotting rebellion in the eastern town of Andizhan but human rights groups questioned the credibility of their trial and said Uzbekistan was covering up a massacre.

the Persian Gay & Lesbian Organization has released photos and details of a 22 year old man it says was given 100 lashes for being gay.

the European Commission shares in the concern on the human rights situation in Iran, particularly with regards to the death penalty, but does not indent to interrupt the politics of constructive dialogue with the regime.

the Karnataka High Court upheld the death sentence on Swami Shraddhanand, who had been found guilty of the sensational murder of his wife Shakereh.

two Saudis convicted of murder were beheaded by the sword in the conservative Muslim kingdom, the interior ministry announced.

a young Iranian man was hanged in a penitentiary centre in the city of Yazd, central Iran.

an Iranian convicted of armed robbery was hanged in public in the southwestern city of Ahvaz.

the Barrackpore Fast Track First Court, India, sentenced eight people to death in connection with the murder of Archideb Bhattacharya, a private tutor and small-time businessman, in the Kharda police station area of North 24 Parganas district.

a man convicted of robbing, raping and killing two women in the 1980s was executed, Japan's first hanging of the year.

Ali Fesahat, an Iranian man convicted of murder, was hanged in a prison in the central province of Yazd, for murdering 22-year-old Ahmad Kheyrandish.

the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague decided to transfer to Croatia the cases of two generals charged with killing Serb civilians in 1993, the first such referral to Croatia by the court.