Amnesty: 2,390 executed last year

LONDON, March 24 (UPI) -- At least 2,390 people were executed in 25 countries last year, with at least 8,864 more sitting on death rows, Amnesty International said Tuesday in London.

Asia led the world in executions, with China carrying out more executions than the rest of the world put together with at least 1,718. The Middle East and North Africa were next with 508 executions, Amnesty International said.

The group said that stonings and hangings were among the "cruel and inhumane methods" used in Iran last year, where at least 346 people, including eight juveniles, were put to death. In Saudi Arabia, where executions usually take the form of public beheadings and in some cases followed by crucifixion, at least 102 people were executed, Amnesty International reported.

"The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment," said Irene Khan, secretary-general of Amnesty International. "Beheadings, electrocutions, hangings, lethal injections, shootings and stonings have no place in the 21st century."

She added that the risk of executing the innocent continues, citing as examples four inmates released from death row in the United States in 2008 on grounds of innocence.