IRAN HANGS MAN FOR RAPE

Iran hanged a man convicted of rape in the central city of Qom, the governmental newspaper Iran reported. The man, identified only as Reza, along with a friend in July 2007, abducted the couple who had stopped to help them with their broken motorcycle on the road between Qom and the central city of Isfahan. The woman was raped in the presence of her husband after the men bound his hands and legs, the report said. The provincial appeals court also sentenced the man's accomplice, identified as Amir, to five years in exile, three years in prison and 99 lashes.