activists in Singapore protested against the planned execution of Nguyen Tuong Van, a convicted Australian drug carrier, and urged the government to relax its harsh drug laws. Speakers at a forum, organised by Singaporean civil rights group Think Centre, said that Singapore's tough drug laws were not in line with international standards.

a young married woman and her lover were sentenced to death by a Tehran judge for having ‘illegal sexual relations’, the daily ‘Etemad’ reported.

according to the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill of 2005, presently a draft, rapists found to have infected their victims with HIV and AIDS would face death as the maximum sentence upon conviction by courts in Swaziland.

the state of Delaware executed Brian Steckel for the 1994 murder and rape of a friend's neighbor.

Hastings Wise was put to death by lethal injection for killing four workers at an Aiken County plant in September 1997 out of revenge for being fired.

Melvin Wayne White was executed for the slaying of a 9-year-old girl who was abducted and raped in 1997 after attending a neighborhood barbecue.

in Lebanon the death penalty is “not only applied but is unlikely to be abolished anytime soon. It is a disgrace to our country,” declared former Lebanese Prime Minister Silam Hoss in an interview with Aki news agency.

Lebanese national Hasan Khalil al-Rahim was sentenced to hang by a court in Beirut for the murder of a money broker in Akkar province in August 1997.

a 14-year-old Egyptian boy faces execution in Saudi Arabia after a flawed trial in which he was convicted for the murder of another child, Human Rights Watch said.

an Appeal Court of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico recently held that it would be unconstitutional to extradite Juan Melendez Cruz to Pennsylvania if he faces a possible death sentence, Death Penalty Information Centre reported.

He was reacting to a report by the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat which quoted Arab diplomatic sources as saying Tripoli was likely to annul capital punishment soon as part of a deal to allow the nurses to be released.

Hands Off Cain adheres to the candle light vigil, promoted by the Italian daily Il Foglio, to be held on November 3 in front of the Iranian embassy in Rome and also denounces Europe’s policy of ‘constructive dialogue’ with the Mullah’s regime.