Japan hanged three death-row inmates in its first executions since 2010, reigniting the debate over capital punishment in one of the world’s richest countries.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington issued the 22-page decision in a case filed by 21 condemned convicts against the federal Food and Drug Administration, which they alleged had violated its own rules by allowing entry of the powerful anaesthetic into the United States without first ensuring its efficacy.

After spending 12 years behind bars at Luzira Maximum Security Prisons, in Uganda, for

in Zimbabwe, Justice Martin Makonese sentenced Colgate Buffen Mudenda to death by

In the UAE, the Fujairah Court of Appeal upheld the verdict of the Court of First Instance

The High Court in Alor Setar, Malaysia, sentenced a Nigerian man to death after finding

A Uighur man accused by the Chinese government of being the mastermind behind deadly

Countries that carried out executions in 2011 did so at an alarming rate but those employing

In Malaysia, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein told the Parliament that a total of 860 prisoners have been sentenced to death for various offences such as murder, drug trafficking, firearms offences and kidnapping up to 28 February 2012.

In Bangladesh, a speedy trial tribunal sentenced to death Tajul Islam Sagar for

In Nigeria, the Supreme Court re-affirmed the death sentence passed on a security guard, Stephen

William Mitchell, 61, black, was executed in Mississippi.