North Korea has resumed public executions. In October a factory chief accused of making international phone calls was shot down at a stadium before a crowd of 150,000 people.

Afghan officials say 15 prisoners have been put to death by gunfire in the country's first execution in more than three years. The convicted criminals were shot in a Kabul prison late on Sunday. The French news agency quotes an official as saying most of the prisoners had been found guilty of murder.

The European Union has called on Iran to halt the executions of two Kurdish journalists sentenced to death on charges of being "enemies of God."

Blacks convicted of killing whites are not only more likely than other killers to receive a death sentence – they are also more likely to actually be executed, a new study suggests.

Authorities in Iran have delayed at the last minute the execution of a child offender, Sina Paymard, to allow his family to try and raise the compensation money demanded by the relatives of the man he stabbed to death.

In April, 20-year-old Said Mohammad Reza Musavi Shirazi was executed. His crime? A murder he allegedly committed when he was 16. According to a June 27 Amnesty International report, in Iran, defendants younger than 18 are being hanged after quick decisions and hurried procedures.

Iran was urged by a human rights group to stop executing people under the age of 18, saying that the country leads the world in this practice.