according to the "Jordan Times", the Criminal Court sentenced a 27-year-old man to death after convicting him of murdering three of his friends over a 10-year period.

the elimination of all references to the death penalty in the constitutional project approved by the DRC’s National Assembly on May 13 showed the country’s will to create the foundations for a democratic regime with the full respect of human rights, declared Javier Solana, European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

the head of the Federation Council international affairs committee, Mikhail Margelov, said it was necessary to finalize the ratification of the sixth protocol of the Convention on Human Rights on abolishing the death penalty by the end of June 2005.

five people were sentenced to death and three others were jailed after being convicted of abducting and selling 19 young boys. Li Bifang, Jiang Chengpu, Yuan Guiyuan and Liu Weibing received death sentences for abducting boys aged between two and six by the Kunming Intermediate People's Court. Another gang member was given a two-year suspended death sentence while three others convicted of assisting the abductions were sentenced to eight to 13 years in jail.

two Polish members of the European Parliament who planned to attend a dissident meeting in Cuba were denied entry by the island's Communist authorities and sent back to Europe.

it was reported that the Afghan court responsible for crimes against national and external security sentenced four men to death on charges of involvement in an armed robbery and for the murder of two people in the Dehsabz District of Kabul Province.

an Iraqi court sentenced three rebels to death for rape, kidnapping and murder, the first death sentences passed in connection with the ongoing insurgency.

Rahmatollah Ghanbarzehi Gorgich, an Iranian man convicted of raping a female student, was hanged in public in the southeastern city of Zahedan, in the Sistan-Baluchestan province.

two men accused of murdering a taxi driver were executed by a firing squad on the orders of a tribal council in rural Pakistan, witnesses said, highlighting the rule of deep-rooted tribal customs.

sixty-two prisoners were still under sentence of death although the death penalty was declared invalid in South Africa 10 years ago, the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg heard.

Tahassin Ali Mutar Janabi, an Iraqi army captain who served under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, was sentenced to death.

a young man was hanged in public in the southern Iranian city of Ahwaz, accused of armed robbery and disturbing the peace.