"North Korean Defense Minister Executed by Antiaircraft Fire, South Says"

"Hyon Yong Chol is reportedly killed for falling asleep at military events and showing disrespect to Kim Jong Un"

Mr. Hyon’s execution was watched by hundreds of officials at a public execution site north of Pyongyang, the intelligence service said at the hearing. Satellite images taken in October of that site showed what appeared to be six antiaircraft guns and unidentified people at an imminent execution, a recent report by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea said.

South Korean government officials have said dozens of officials have been executed, some by machine gun, since Mr. Kim took power. The highest-profile case came in late 2013 when Jang Song Thaek, an influential adviser and an uncle to Mr. Kim, was executed for treason.

“I just know it was not efficient... It took a long time.”

"The execution of a convicted murderer in Arizona lasted for nearly two hours on Wednesday, as witnesses said he gasped and snorted for much of that time before eventually dying."

State officials disputed these accounts, contending that Wood was never in pain and that he was only snoring. 

“I’m telling you he was snoring,” Stephanie Grisham, spokeswoman for the Arizona attorney general’s office, said in an e-mail to The Washington Post. “There was no gasping or snorting. Nothing. He looked like he was asleep. This was my first execution and I have no reason to minimize this.” (link to the story)

Undated file photograph of Joseph Wood

Update: Lawyers demand outside probe of two-hour Arizona execution