Wen Mengjie, 49, was sentenced to death for accepting bribes and embezzling public funds worth CNY15 million (US$1.85 million), Chinese media said.

the leader of an Afghan gang that kidnapped an Italian aid worker in May, was sentenced to death, along with an accomplice, for the earlier kidnapping and killing of an Afghan businessman.

Iranian authorities publicly hanged three men all in their twenties in the town of Sabzevar, north-east Iran, the state-run Fars news agency reported.

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo temporarily stayed the execution of 13 death row inmates including 11 convicted rapists.

the Shariat Appellate Bench of Pakistan’s Supreme Court stayed the execution of four convicts who had been sentenced to death for raping a Christian girl, Saima Bibi, in Faisalabad in 1999.

a 21-year old Kuwaiti convicted of the premeditated murder of a compatriot was hanged and his hooded corpse displayed in public.

Angela Johnson was sentenced to death by a federal court after being found guilty of involvement in the murder of five people in the state of Iowa in 1993. She says she is innocent.

three Saudis were beheaded by the sword after being convicted of murder in separate incidents, the interior ministry said.

Hands Off Cain headquarters in Rome hosted the presentation of “The Last Day” (“Ultimo giorno”), a day of television dedicated exlusively to the death penalty, to be aired on December 31, 2005, on the satellite chanel ‘Planet’ from 7:30 am till midnight.

a court in Manila, the Philippines, sentenced 8 men to death for kidnapping a Chinese Filipino national.

an Iranian national -- only identified as a youth named Mohsen -- was hanged inside Tehran's Evin prison.

an Iranian national, only identified as Morteza, escaped the noose after winning the forgiveness of relatives of his victim.