A convicted murderer was hanged in northern Nigeria...

A convicted murderer was hanged in northern Nigeria in the country's first execution under Muslim sharia law, which has sparked riots in the West African country.
Officials said that Sani Yakubu Rodi was hanged in the central prison in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna. He had been convicted in November 2001.
Rodi had originally been sentenced in the nearby city of Katsina and was due to have been executed by stabbing - the same way he was found guilty of killing pharmacist Zainab Hamza Kankia and her two children in June 2001.
Judicial sources said sharia authorities had changed their mind to avoid triggering widespread outrage in Nigeria, where non-Muslims have strenuously opposed sharia's implementation because of its harsh sentences such as amputation for theft.
"There is no way authorities would have carried out the original sentence of stabbing to death of the condemned man," an official source in Kaduna told Reuters about Rodi's hanging.
Although Rodi was convicted in Katsina, he was transferred to Kaduna Central Prison, which is the only one in the region equipped for hanging, officials said.
His body was immediately transferred to Katisna to convince local residents that he had indeed been executed, they added.
Residents of Katsina said hundreds of townsfolk had trooped to the city's general hospital to view the body.