Executions rise in 2013: Amnesty

The number of known executions worldwide rose to at least 778 last year following a surge in Iraq and Iran, Amnesty International said yesterday, but China remains the world's biggest state executioner by far.
Beijing is thought to have killed thousands of its own citizens, more than the rest of the world put together, the London-based human rights organisation said. The countries which follows China are Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
The rise in the known judicial uses of the death penalty -- from at least 682 in 2012 -- was chiefly due to Iraq and Iran, the report said.
Iran put at least 369 people to death in 2013 and Amnesty said there was credible evidence from sources in the country that at least 335 further executions were carried out in secret.
People were executed in 22 countries in 2013, one more than the previous year, although Indonesia, Kuwait, Nigeria and Vietnam all resumed use of the death penalty. Only five other countries have executed in each of the past five years: Bangladesh, North Korea, Sudan, the United States and Yemen.