the European Union vowed to step up efforts aimed at a global ban of the death penalty in the wake of the recent executions of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and two of his co-defendants.

President Bush said the Iraqi government had "fumbled"

the leaders of all political groups of the European Parliament, with the exception of the extreme right, have signed a declaration for a universal moratorium on capital punishment in view of its abolition.

the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso

an Iranian court dropped a death sentence against a teenager convicted of stabbing to death one of three men who

Sergio D'Elia, Secretary of Hands Off Cain

Saudi Arabia beheaded a Saudi man for murdering another Saudi national after an argument, in the first execution reported in the kingdom in 2007, the Saudi Interior Ministry said.

“I believe that life is precious and must be protected and respected, and that all human beings have the right to live in dignity”, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated at a press conference in New York.

Saddam Hussein's half brother and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court were hanged today. A government spokesman said the head of one of the accused, Barzan Ibrahim, had been severed during the hanging.

Carlos Granados, a man convicted of murdering his girlfriend's 3-year-old son, was put to death by lethal injection in Texas' first execution of the year.

Peru's Congress rejected President Alan Garcia's bill seeking to introduce the death penalty for terrorists.

all Italian political parties are backing the decision "to campaign at the United Nations for a global ban on the death penalty" announced by Prime Minister Romano Prodi. "No crime can justify one person killing another," Prodi said.