five young Australians jailed for life in Indonesia after being caught smuggling heroin from Bali have had their sentences cut to 20 years, but an appeal court upheld the death penalty on two ringleaders. The five were members of the so-called "Bali Nine" gang arrested on the resort island in 2005 while trying to smuggle more than 8.2 kg (18 lb) of heroin to Australia.

following a three day trial, the Bombo-based Division Court Martial (DCM), Uganda, sentenced to death Lance Corporal Charles Ssekamatte, a soldier attached to President Yoweri Museveni's security detail, for the murder of a civilian in Sembabule District.

a trade official convicted of corruption in northern China's Hebei province was executed.

inmates who believe DNA can prove their innocence would no longer face a deadline for pursuing the issue under a measure passed today by the House.

a “young man” was hanged in the central city of Isfahan charged with killing a local police commander.

moves to abolish the death penalty in the Philippines received a big boost when Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban said the law on capital punishment "as written" was unconstitutional.

an Iranian man convicted of murder was executed in a prison in Shiraz and a "thug" flogged near Tehran.

the Baghdad Central Criminal Court issued a death sentence against a man convicted of kidnapping, the state- funded Al Sabah newspaper reported.

an Iraqi court tried and sentenced to death a man allegedly linked to Al Qaeda who confessed to the 2003 truck-bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad.

in an historic judgement, Senior Justice Anita Allen sentenced convicted murderer Maxo Tido to death for the 2002 murder of 16-year-old Donnell Connover.

Willie Brown Jr., a man convicted of killing a woman during a convenience store robbery in 1983 was executed by lethal injection.

an Afghan man was hanged in central Iran in the early hours of the day, Iran’s official news agency reported.