an Iranian man convicted of rape was hanged in public in Salmas, northwestern Azarbaijan province, the Shargh daily reported.

in the largest campaign since 1999, police have made massive arrests across the country in an operation against Falun Gong followers, especially in the provinces of Shandong, Jiangxi, Sichuan, and Inner Mongolia, this according to Falun Gong sources.

according to the Maariv daily China had become the number one destination for Israelis desperate for a life-saving transplant donor as Chinese authorities were selling organs taken from executed prisoners.

the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), René van der Linden, strongly condemned the June 12 execution of four convicted murderers by the Palestinian Authority.

the President of Croatia Stjepan Mesic gave his approval to the initiatives presented by Hands Off Cain and the Transnational Radical Party, engaged in bringing about a universal moratorium on executions, and gave his support to efforts for the obtainment of a United Nations backed resolution for the universal abolition of capital punishment.

the Federal High Court of Ethiopia sentenced to death Colonel Tiruneh Habteselassie for genocide committed during the Dergue regime in the former Kembata and Hadiya district. Habteselassie was found guilty on two charges, homicide and extrajudicial imprisonment of people.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Union's external relations chief, met Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi to press for the release of five nurses from Bulgaria who were facing execution for allegedly infecting hundreds of children with the AIDS virus.

Adrian O. Robinson of Hamilton pleaded guilty in Harris County Superior Court to 19 crimes, avoiding a possible death penalty, with the understanding he will never be released from prison.

two women were meted the death penalty by the Mandaluyong City regional trial court (RTC) for selling ecstasy to agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) three years ago.

there are 2,100 children in jails across the Philippines, 20 of them on death row.

speaking in Helsinki at the conference for Ministers of Justice of the Council of Europe, the European Union Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini relaunched the idea that EU member states should hold a day of protest against the death penalty each year.

Stephen Mobley, a man who shot a pizza store manager in the back of the head during a 1991 robbery, was executed in Georgia after courts rejected his last-minute appeals.