four young Chinese men were executed in the capital Beijing for robbery and murder. Yan Shusen, Wang Jianzhong, Zhao Qian and Sun Shizhong -- all peasants in their early 20s -- were executed for robbing a van driver before killing him in 2004.

Oklahoma became the fifth state to allow the death penalty for certain sex crimes although legal scholars questioned the constitutionality of the new state law.

Thailand was to release 25,000 prisoners across the country on June 9 in an amnesty to celebrate the King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 60th anniversary on the throne, officials said. Thai authorities often grant royal

five members of Vietnam's biggest drug trafficking ring were executed.

the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court executed Lu Shuangfu and Ren Jianhua for the murder of a woman in 2004.

Chinese fugitive Lai Changxing, the alleged kingpin of a multi-billion-dollar smuggling operation, will not be deported on June 2 as planned, Canada's Federal Court ruled.

an Asaba High Court in Nigeria, presided over by Justice Tessy Obiajulu Diai, sentenced 26-year-old trader Henry Ihiaeme to death by hanging for stabbing to death Endurance Odjegba during a scuffle over a bottle of beer on October 28, 2001.

Hands Off Cain welcomes the news that Philippine law makers voted to abolish the death penalty.

a Lahore High Court division bench, Pakistan, stayed for a day the execution of three condemned prisoners, Muhammad Ilyas, Muhammad Abbas and Muhammad Ilyas, scheduled to be executed later in the day, the daily times reported.

an Iranian man convicted of murder and two others convicted of rape have been hanged in Tehran's Evin prison, the Etemad Melli newspaper reported.

Philippine legislators have passed a bill to abolish capital punishment, and President Gloria Arroyo is likely to sign it into law, officials said. The proposed law abolishing the "heinous crimes" act of 1994 passed without dissent in the Senate late Tuesday after a more contentious vote in the House of Representatives, they said.

Iranian authorities have stoned a man and a woman to death, according to a report that has surfaced in Persian-language websites.