A new report from advocacy group Amnesty International found that executions around the world increased to at least 676 in 2011, up nearly 25 percent from 2010.
Some 20 countries, at least, were known to have carried out executions in 2011, a decline from the 23 countries, at least, that conducted executions in 2010, Amnesty reported.
Amnesty attributed the increase to an increase in judicial executions in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, though the number does not include executions in China, believed to be in the thousands of people each year.
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