Russia should ratify the protocol on the death penalty, Chairman of the Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee Mikhail Margelov said.

Mohammad Zadeh Sawali, a Pakistani national, was beheaded by the sword in the northern Saudi town of Arar after being convicted of killing a compatriot residing in the kingdom, the Saudi interior ministry announced.

Eyvazali Hosseinzadeh, an Iranian man convicted of murder, was hanged in public in northwestern Ardebil province for killing a man in 1999.

two Turkish citizens were executed in Libya, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. ''Selim Aslan and Yunus Ozkan, who were sentenced to death in Libya as they were accused of committing murder in 1995, were executed today. We express condolences to their families,'' the Ministry said in a written statement.

despite calls to countries retaining capital punishment to be transparent about their executions, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's latest report on the use of the death penalty worldwide laments the absence of a full accounting for death sentences and their consequences.

the Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari has approved the first death sentence handed down by a Iraqi tribunal and confirmed by the court of cassation - the country's highest court.

Ali Safarpour, a 20 year old Iranian man convicted of killing police officer Hamid Enshadi, was hanged in public in Poldokhtar in the western province of Lorestan.

two Nigerian men appeared in court charged with committing sodomy and could face being stoned to death after they were caught together in a toilet in the northern Muslim city of Katsina.

while lauding Sudan for including provisions in its new constitution that strengthen the rights of children and women, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) called for the elimination of exceptions allowing the death penalty for youngsters under 18.

suitor Imarul, who uses one name, and four other men were sentenced to hang after being convicted of killing a 14 year old girl whose family spurned his offer of marriage. After the family accepted an offer from another man, Imarul and his accomplices broke into the victim's bedroom as she slept and abducted her, court official Abdur Rahman said.

the US Supreme Court granted a last-minute stay of execution to Robin Lovitt, a man convicted of murder in Virginia, because much of the evidence was accidentally destroyed.

China voiced "resolute opposition" to Australia's decision to grant asylum to Chen Yonglin, a former Chinese diplomat, and dismissed his accusations that he faced execution if repatriated as "lies not worthy of response".