Lebanon was preparing to execute three convicted murderers...

Lebanon was preparing to execute three convicted murderers in the country's first imposition of the death penalty since 1998, a judicial source said, sparking protests from the European Union and human rights groups.
An order to carry out the executions on January 17 was signed by President Emile Lahoud with the approval of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and Justice Minister Bahej Tabbara. Ahmad Mansour, who killed eight co-workers in July 2002, was due to be hanged.
Remy Antoine Zaatar, convicted of killing two members of the civil defense and a Syrian army officer in June 2002, and Badih Hamadeh, a Sunni Muslim militant who killed three Lebanese soldiers the same summer, were due to be executed by firing squad.
The executions were scheduled to take place at Roumieh prison, near Beirut.
"The restoration of capital punishment, after a suspension which has lasted almost six years, is proof of failure on the part of the state," Nasser Saghiyeh, a leader of Human Dignity, which groups four non-governmental organisations, told AFP. "The president of the republic is placing the responsibility on the legal system, the prime minister on his colleague at the justice ministry, and both of them are saying it's the president who has the final say," Saghiyeh said.
"But in fact each one of them has the power to withhold approval," he said. For Nada Adhami, a lawyer and human rights activist, capital punishment "only encourages violence ... Nobody has the right to kill in cold blood, even if it is done in the name of the state and society."