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.

though no New Jersey prisoner has been executed in more than 40 years and the state's death penalty remains on a court-ordered moratorium on technical grounds, the state Senate voted on December 15 to study the issue and delay any execution until 2007.

Jordan's state security court handed al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi his third death sentence in absentia for planning a failed suicide attack at the border post with Iraq.

Ali Babai-Pour was hanged in Tehran, Iran, for killing his brother after an argument.

Han Guizhi, the former head of the top advisory body of Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for accepting 7.02 million yuan (US$ 875,000) in bribes.