Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment in an Easter gesture slammed by critics as an abuse of power. "I wish to announce that we are changing our policy on those who have been imposed the death penalty. We are reducing their penalty to life imprisonment," Arroyo said in a statement as the mainly Catholic country observed Easter festivities.

the Netherlands Parliament has rebuffed a call by Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk to end a moratorium on the deportation of gay asylum seekers from Iran.

an Iranian man convicted of a number of crimes including drug dealing, adultery and sexual harassment has been hanged in public in the northern province of Qazvin, the Etemad Melli newspaper said.

new Justice Minister Bire Kimisopa said during a press conference in Port Moresby that Papua New Guinea was not yet ready to impose the death penalty.

the Pakistan Supreme Court admitted for regular hearing the appeals of four junior Air Force officers and a civilian against their death sentences for their involvement in an assassination attempt on President General Pervez Musharraf in 2003.

a court in Afghanistan awarded capital punishment to three people convicted of abducting and later killing a child in the southern province of Kandahar. Abdul Shakoor, 20, hailing from Farha, Baryalai Almas, 19, from Parwan and Musa Khan, 19, from Kunar were all sentenced to death.

the Pan-Religion Union for the Abolition of the Death Penalty held a press conference in South Korea’s National Assembly building and released a statement calling for an urgent end to capital punishment.

Malaysia’s Court of Appeal upheld a High Court decision to send an Indonesian man to the gallows for trafficking in cannabis.

human rights groups claim that the village courts, set up in Rwanda in 2001 to deal with a crippling backlog of genocide cases, are being hijacked by villagers using the pretence of genocide allegations to settle land disputes and family feuds.

the Nghe An People’s Court, central Vietnam, sentenced Tran Van Hoi, 34, to death for drug trafficking.

Alice Hoagland's son, Mark Bingham was killed on September 11 as he joined with fellow United Airlines passengers to ground a plane that may have been headed toward the White House.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai called for a review of capital punishment while authorities sought to replace the firing squad with remotely-fired weapons to shield the troops from any trauma.