76-year-old Alan Shadrake has been sentenced to jail in Singapore for a book which criticises the country's judiciary over the death penalty.

The Vatican has spoken out against the death sentence handed down to Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz yesterday.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's sentence of death by stoning has been suspended, but Amnesty International insist that it must be scrapped altogether.

Concerns have been expressed that proposed reforms to China’s application of the death penalty may not result in significantly fewer executions.