IRAQ: 42 TERROR CONVICTS EXECUTED

Iraq executed 42 "terrorism" convicts over the past week, the justice ministry said, defying international condemnation of its extensive use of the death penalty, as deadly violence intensifies.
"The justice ministry carried out, during the past week of this month, death sentences for 42 convicts, among them one woman, all of them convicted of terrorism crimes," the ministry said in a statement on its website.
The statement was accompanied by a photo of a noose on a black background, a reference to the way in which executions in Iraq are usually carried out.
The ministry did not specify the exact dates of the executions, but the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said they took place "between October 8 and 9."
"UNAMI reiterates its call on the government of Iraq to adopt a moratorium on the implementation of all death sentences," it said in a statement.
The latest executions bring the number of people who have been put to death in Iraq this year to at least 132, compared to 129 executions in all of 2012, according to an AFP tally based on reports from the justice ministry and officials.