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.

over 20 Kyrgyz prisoners sentenced to death have appealed to President Kurmanbek Bakiyev requesting their convictions be re-examined in a letter published by the local media.

Afghanistan will free Abdur Rahman, a man who faced the death penalty for converting to Christianity, following Western pressure for his release, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. Rahman, 40, was jailed this month for rejecting Islam and converting to Christianity in a case that raised a storm of international protest and threatened to create a rift between Afghanistan and the United States and other Western backers.

a Chinese woman was executed for trafficking 31 children, the Supreme Court said, after another two men were sentenced to death earlier this week for kidnapping and selling baby boys.

an Afghan court dropped its case against Abdul Rahman, a Christian who faced execution for converting from Islam, referring the matter to Kabul's top prosecutor for a final decision, court spokesman Wakil Omari said.