(New York Times) Nick Cumming-Bruce - UN human rights experts called on Wednesday for an urgent halt to a surge in executions in Iran in recent weeks, observing that the more moderate tone adopted since President Rouhani's election has yet to yield any moderation in the country's punitive practices. Iran reportedly hanged 40 people in the first two weeks of January, 33 of them in the last week, Ahmed Shaheed, the UN expert monitoring human rights in Iran, and Christof Heyns, the organization's expert dealing with summary executions, said in Geneva. Iran executed 625 people, including 28 women, and a number of political detainees in 2013, an increase of more than 100 over the number of recorded executions in 2012.
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