IRAQ: SIX EXECUTED DESPITE MORATORIUM CALLS

Iraqi authorities carried out six more death sentences, bringing to 23 the number of people executed in a week, defying international calls for a halt to Baghdad's use of capital punishment.
A total of 119 people have been executed by Iraq so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on public justice ministry announcements, already far outpacing 2011 when 68 people were put to death.
Executions in Iraq are normally carried out by hanging.
"The justice ministry carried out six executions against convicts against whom final verdicts were issued and approved by the presidency," the ministry said in a statement on its website.
Four of the convicts had been tried on anti-terror charges, while two were found guilty of kidnappings and murders, it said.