the Democratic candidate Tim Kaine beat the Republican Jerry Gilmore in the elections to become governor of Virginia.

Hands Off Cain was awarded the peace prize “Love and Psyche 2005” by the 11th MEDFILM festival, a competitive international film festival dedicated to human rights.

Iran’s State Supreme Court upheld a death sentence against a woman who had been accused of murdering her abusive husband, the state-run Fars news agency reported.

the number of people sentenced to death in the United States and the number executed fell again in 2004, according to the latest government figures.

Steven Van McHone was executed by lethal injection in the early morning for the 1990 shooting deaths of his mother and stepfather.

an Iranian man convicted of murder was hanged in a prison in the central city of Isfahan.

two young men were hanged in a public square in the northern city of Gorgan after being found guilty of lavat, or homosexual relationship, the daily Kayhan reported.

a Nigerian Islamic Sharia court sentenced two men to death by hanging for killing and sexually abusing a three-year old girl.

the Pentagon said the United States would not seek the death penalty against any of the five Guantanamo Bay prisoners it had announced charges against on November 7.

Saudi Arabia executed Saudi national Saeed al-Qahtani in the southern town of Khamis Mushayt.

Charles Daniel Thacker, a man convicted of strangling a schoolteacher during a sexual assault in 1993, was executed by lethal injection.

a Chinese man who was tortured into a false confession, jailed for nearly two years and wrongly sentenced to death was suing two local law courts for compensation.