Justice Minister Clemente Mastella wants to bring the important issue of the death penalty to the attention of the European Union.

The fight for the UN moratorium against the death penalty "is an ongoing one," said Massimo D'Alema, Foriegn Minister on Tg 1. D’Alema is in Brasil for talks with re-elected president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has asked Mr. Jalal Talabani, President of Iraq and the Iraqi Government not to ratify the Appeals Court’s decision to execute Saddam Hussein and requested a moratorium on the death penalty in Iraq.

the Sudanese central Khartoum criminal court convicted Mutassim Khairallah, 35, and Imad Tabben,

Thousands of Peruvians have joined a march in Lima supporting a proposal to introduce the death penalty for members of the Shining Path rebel group.

Rwanda's cabinet has voted to scrap the death penalty, Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama says.

Bahrain is to keep the death penalty for drug traffickers. The Shura Council voted overwhelmingly in favour

The European Union parliament called on member states to reconsider their relations with Libya unless it releases six foreign medics

An Iranian convicted of murdering his brother and sister-in-law as well as their two children 27 years ago was hanged in the central city of Isfahan, the government newspaper Iran reported.

“I want to convince the Mayors of all European cities to take a stand and keep up the battle against the death penalty,” Walter Veltroni, the Mayor of Rome, said.

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.