Author, 3 Others Hanged in Japan

Japan has hanged four people, including a prison author whose sentence for murders he committed as a 19-year-old sparked a national debate on capital punishment, media reported today.

Norio Nagayama, 48, who was convicted of killing four people in a 1968 shooting rampage, became a best-selling author while in prison. He and convicted murderer Hideki Kanda, 54, were hanged in Tokyo, news reports said. In Sapporo, a married couple who killed six employees in a fire they set to collect insurance were also executed.