the People's Court in the northern province of Hoa Binh has sentenced four people involved in the largest drug trafficking ring in the province to death.

Asghar Mohammadzadeh, an Iranian man convicted of murdering two brothers, was hanged before dawn in a prison in the north-eastern city of Mashhad.

two Iranian men were hanged in prison in Yasooj, southwestern Iran, for murdering three people in a fight.

Mohammed Bijeh, a man convicted of raping and murdering 16 boys was lashed 100 times, and then hanged in front of a large, angry Iranian crowd who pelted him with stones and scuffled with police.

an Iranian man convicted of murder has been hanged in prison in the Caspian Sea town of Noshahr, the Jomhuri Eslami newspaper reported.

Yaghoub Ali Mirshekari, an Iranian man convicted of killing 10 truck drivers to steal their vehicles, was hanged in public in the southeastern city of Zahedan.

an Iranian convicted of murdering a soldier during an armed robbery has been hanged in Saravan, in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, Jam-e-Jam daily reported.

Saudi authorities executed Said bin Seif al-Zibya, a Saudi national convicted of killing a compatriot after an argument in Assir, in southern Saudi Arabia.

the US Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Ronald Rompilla, a Pennsylvania man on death row for a 1988 murder, ruling that his lawyers had failed to properly represent him.

Iran publicly hanged Ghobad Siah-Mansour, a serial bank robber who killed a policeman during a clash with security forces.

a man accused of murdering a taxi driver was hanged in Karoon Prison in the southern Iranian city of Ahwaz, according to the state-run news agency.

Shirin Ebadi, a leading Iranian human rights lawyer and Nobel Laureate, said that the hardline Islamic regime was still using medieval punishments on its people, including the stoning of women for adultery and the torture of dissidents.