1.   After those first hangings, Clive Thomas tried to kill himself by eating bars of soap, according to hospital officials.

2.   Almost as quickly as they began, the executions stopped, just four months after the first hanging.

3.   Those deaths were its first hangings in five years.

4.   Three convicted murderers were executed in the first hangings in Zimbabwe for three years, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported Tuesday.

5.   A Jordanian child-rapist was among five convicted murderers executed in Jordan on Wednesday and Thursday in the first hangings this year, police sources said.

6.   Three Japanese prisoners on death row were executed Friday at the Tokyo and Osaka detention houses, the first hangings here in six months, news reports said.