the Bac Giang People's Court, Vietnam, handed out death sentences to Than Nhan Lam, 37, Than Nhan Sang, 28, Do Van Hoa, 37, and Nguyen Quang Thang, 37, on charges of drug trafficking.

an Inner Mongolia court sentenced a college president to death for hiring a man to kill his former employee.

a man was hanged in Tehran's notorious Evin prison for alleged murder charges. Death sentence for the man identified by his first name Esmail, was endorsed by the mullahs' supreme court.

New Jersey lawmakers have voted to suspend executions while a study commission examines the fairness and expense of the state's death penalty.

two Thai fishermen, Bualoi Posit, 23, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, were sentenced to death for the rape and murder of student Katherine Horton after an unusually short trial and sustained political pressure.

a Vietnamese court sentenced five people including a woman to death for trafficking drugs, a court official said.

a group of 40 law enforcement officers, current and former prosecutors, and judges at the state and federal level have urged California lawmakers to enact a temporary halt to executions in the state while a commission examines the accuracy and fairness of the death penalty.

California executed Clarence Ray Allen, its oldest condemned prisoner, by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison after last-ditch court appeals for a stay of execution failed.

California's Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has denied clemency to the oldest prisoner on California's Death Row, saying a murderer's life should not be spared because he is old and ill.

Wichai Somkhaoyai, and Bualoi Posit, the two Thai fisherman who raped and murdered British backpacker Katherine Horton should be spared the death penalty but locked up for life, the victim's mother said.

the FBI is reviewing the cases of all state and federal prisoners scheduled for execution to determine whether bureau fingerprint examiners made errors that led to death sentences.

it was reported that an eight-man Law Society committee would study judicial and death penalty systems in countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong and India and compare it with Singapore's in order to prepare a report to be submitted to the Ministry of Law in October.