An Iranian man convicted of murdering a university...

An Iranian man convicted of murdering a university student was hanged publicly near Tehran, drawing loud cheers from a crowd of some 1,000 people who turned out to watch the execution.
"He was from a family of professional criminals. He was a thug with a long record of armed robbery and assault," a judicial spokesman from the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, told AFP.
"Around a thousand people who witnessed the hanging were thanking the police and shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)," the official enthused.
The convicted murderer, identified only as Kazem, 23, had shot Mehdi Atiedan, a 22-year-old university student, in October 2003 and stolen his car.
Following ballistics tests, the killer was also linked to a prior armed robbery in which a woman was shot and injured.
Press reports said the hanging, which took place on Sunday, was the first public execution in Tehran province in 2004.