Iran hangs three men in public for murder, rape

 TEHRAN, Jan 7- An Iranian man was publicly hanged  for murdering a woman and two others were hanged for rape, newspapers said  on Monday.

 The Jomhuri-ye Eslami daily said a 22-year-old man was hanged in the  western city of Ilam on Sunday for murdering a 28-year-old teacher in her  house last year.

 He had broken into her house to steal her jewellery, it said.

 Another newspaper, Kayhan, said Gholamreza Akbari and Mohsen Zolfaqari  were hanged in public in Qom, in central Iran, on Monday for raping a woman  neighbour last month.

 The two men had entered the neighbour's house with intent to steal and  fled after raping the woman, Kayhan said.  Iran strictly enforces Islamic Sharia law according to which the  punishment for murderers and rapists is execution.