a federal judge halted executions in Missouri until the state makes sweeping changes to ensure that inmates do not suffer excruciating pain when they are put to death.

in a sharp rebuke of President George W. Bush's tactics in the war on terrorism, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unlawful the military tribunal system set up to try Guantanamo prisoners.

an Iranian man convicted of murder was hanged in public in the southern city of Shiraz.

according to reports from the Chinese government's state-run media organization, Xinhua News Agency, China has executed in the last week as many as 52 people found guilty of drug law violations.

Marco Pannella formally asked Italy’s government to be appointed with the objective of saving Saddam Hussein from the death penalty.

Good Friend, a support organization for North Korea with news from internal sources, revealed that on May 17th and 19th, public executions were administered on the riverbanks of the Susung creek next to the Sunam market in Chongjin.

Kyrgyzstan's Supreme Court sentenced to death Otabek Akhadov, an Uzbek citizen, after he was found guilty of several murders connected to what officials describe as an ethnic-Uighur extremist group active in neighbouring China, the man's lawyer Nina Zotova said.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed a law abolishing the death penalty on the eve of her trip to the Vatican, but vowed she will not relent in battling terrorists and criminals.

a United Arab Emirates appeal court commuted to imprisonment a sentence of death by stoning handed down by a lower court against a Bangladeshi convicted of adultery. The court ordered Shaheen Abdel Rahman jailed for a year and then deported to his home country.

a senior Vatican cardinal was quoted as saying that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein should not be executed because all life is sacred.

the Manila Regional Trial Court, the Philippines, imposed a death sentence on eight men after finding them guilty of kidnapping a 12-year-old Chinese-Filipino student and his maid on March 15, 1999.

press reports said that two men convicted on charges including murder, organised crime and assault were hanged in public in Iran.