a court in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region sentenced to death 12 members of militant group Ansar al-Islam for numerous killings and explosions, an Arbil judiciary official said.

responding to intense public criticism over the high rate of executions, China's apex court established three new criminal tribunals to review certain types of death sentence passed by provincial courts.

a US jury found Zacarias Moussaoui eligible for the death penalty, and the convicted Sept. 11 conspirator shouted as he was led out of the court: "You'll never get my blood. God curse you all."

Sita Raman, a 32 year old former soldier, was sentenced to death for murdering his friend by stabbing him twice in the neck at Nilai, near Bernama, Malaysia.

Chinese police vowed to clamp down on pipeline oil theft, even threatening to impose the death penalty. According to police oil theft cost the industry more than 1bn yuan ($124.6m, £71.8m) and led to 2,877 arrests.

Abdur Rahman, an Afghan Christian convert who had faced the death penalty for abandoning Islam, arrived in Italy and was granted asylum.

a 35-year-old man, Umaru Auta, was sentenced to death by hanging for stealing a bicycle. Auta had been arrested by the police in 1999 in a village near Toro, in Nigeria’s Bauchi State, and arraigned on a three-count charge of robbery, assault and unlawful possession of arms.

a Lebanese military court dropped a death penalty against the head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in the country.

Kevin Kincy, a former pizza delivery man with a long criminal record, was executed for the robbery and slaying of a Houston-area man 13 years ago.

Australia should publicly oppose the death penalty for terrorists if it expects to be taken seriously in its efforts to save Australians from death row, senior defence lawyer Lex Lasry said.

Zhao Chun, leader of an organized crime ring in the suburban county of Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning Province, was sentenced to death for crimes including murder.

the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence handed down to Kazutoshi Takahashi, a 71-year-old man, for a 1998 double-murder in Yokohama.