the international conference “Promoting human rights and religious freedom in North Korea: where do we go from here?”, organised by Freedom House together with the Transnational Radical Party, was held in Rome.

five people convicted of gang- raping a woman were hanged in the early morning at the district jail in Sialkot, about 125 km north of Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, Pakistan, jail Superintendent Abdul Razaq Niazi said.

Derrick O'Brien was put to death by lethal injection for his part in the 1993 gang-rape and murder of two Houston teenagers. O'Brien, 31, was condemned for raping and killing Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16, in a Houston park on June 24, 1993.

an Iranian man convicted of murder has been hanged in the western city of Boroujerd in Lorestan province, the official news agency IRNA reported.

it was reported that a prison warden in northeast China was executed for beating and ordering other guards to torture an inmate to death.

an Iranian man convicted on two counts of raping minors has been hanged in the northern city of Shahrud.

The Chinese justice system has condemned six Protestant leaders to death for homicide and fraud.

two Iranian men convicted of drug trafficking were hanged in the southern city of Kerman, reports said.

Parliament has approved the death penalty for jeopardising public safety or damaging public utilities during its initial stages of review of the first anti-terrorism draft law in Bahrain.

a murder convict was hanged to death in Balochistan’s Machh Jail this morning.

a court in southern Iran has sentenced a man to ten times execution, the official news agency reported.