two condemned prisoners were hanged in Pakistan’s central Multan Jail and the Dera Ghazi Khan District Jail. Tahir Saleem had shot dead his uncle Muhammad Latif when he recognised him during a robbery attempt on October 12, 1996.

the United Nations urged Iraq to commute all sentences of capital punishment after the northern Kurdistan region executed 10 people earlier in the week.

Hands Off Cain announced it would participate in today’s vigil, promoted by Christian Democratic party leader Pierferdinando Casini, outside the Indonesian embassy in Rome.

four prisoners were hanged by Iran’s judicial officials inside Zahedan Prison. State-run daily Khorassan identified those executed as Shah Mohammad, Nader Rigi, Abdolali Balouch and Mohammad Shakib.

Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura has expressed his unwillingness to give the go-ahead for executions before he steps down on September 26 with the outgoing Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, according to sources.

over 6,000 people watched the public execution of a convicted murderer in the Somali capital Mogadishu, the first execution since the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) seized power from an alliance of warlords on June 5.

the Philippines signed a United Nations protocol banning the re-imposition of the death penalty in the country.

Iraq's northern Kurdistan administration executed 11 people, officially described as terrorists, sentenced to death for taking part in beheadings and bombings.

Pakistani authorities hanged four men from the same family who had been convicted of murdering local rivals over a small chunk of land, jail superintendent Tariq Babur Khan said.

the execution of three Christians in Indonesia brought thousands of protesters to the streets in the hometown of one of the dead, where they freed prisoners and burned an official's house, a witness said.

Clarence Hill, a convicted killer who argued that Florida's use of lethal injection amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, was put to death after the US Supreme Court narrowly denied him another stay. Hill, 48, was executed for the 1982 murder of a Pensacola police officer in a savings and loan robbery. He did not reply when asked if he had a last statement, staring straight at the ceiling.

three Indonesian Catholics imprisoned in Palu, province of central Sulawesi, will not be executed at least until tomorrow. “The execution will take place on Friday in the early hours,” (Palu time), said Fr Jimmy Tumbeleka, the spiritual director of the three condemned men, who has accompanied them throughout their detention.