31.   Police have said the motive may have been that Fernandez was trying to convert Muslims, though there is speculation that it was a contract killing to raise funds.

32.   A businessman and former presidential aide was shot to death in his office in the capital Baku in an apparent contract killing, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

33.   A former judo champion was shot dead in this city in the Ural Mountains in what appeared a contract killing, police said Wednesday.

34.   A former state minister was sentenced to five years in jail by a court in eastern Germany Wednesday for trying to arrange the contract killing of his wife.

35.   A man was shot dead in his Moscow apartment building early Sunday in what police are calling a contract killing, a news agency reported.

36.   A prominent lawmaker in the outgoing parliament and former Ukrainian central bank chief was shot dead in what looked like a contract killing, police said Thursday.

37.   A prominent legal official was gunned down in an apparent contract killing in the violent southern republic of Dagestan, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday.

38.   A prominent Russian theater director was beaten to death in his apartment in an apparent contract killing, a news report said Monday.

39.   A security chief for a Ukrainian bank was fatally shot in the capital Kiev Wednesday in an apparent contract killing, police said.

40.   A third suspect was charged Thursday in the apparent contract killing of a prominent journalist in the southern Russian republic of Kalmykia, a news agency reported.