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CILACAP, Indonesia (AP) — Foreign governments and local media reports say Indonesia has executed eight people convicted of drug smuggling, brushing aside last-minute appeals.
Gunshots were heard about shortly after midnight from the island where Indonesia carries out executions. The eight include two Australians, four Nigerians, a Brazilian and an Indonesian man.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott calls the executions "cruel and unnecessary" and announced that Australia will withdraw its ambassador from Jakarta in response. Abbot says the two Australian men had spent a decade in jail before being executed and had been "fully rehabilitated" in that time.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff says in a statement that the execution of a second Brazilian citizen in Indonesia this year "marks a serious event in the relations between the two countries."
Indonesia's attorney general says a Philippine woman also convicted of drug smuggling was granted a stay of execution while the Philippines investigates her case.
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APPHOTO XTS106: An ambulance carrying a coffin arrives from the prison island of Nusakambangan where the executions were carried out, in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, April 29, 2015. Indonesia brushed aside last-minute appeals and executed eight people convicted of drug smuggling, according to foreign governments and local media reports Wednesday, although a Philippine woman was granted a stay of execution. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana) (29 Apr 2015)
<<APPHOTO XTS106 (04/29/15)££
APPHOTO XBM107: Protesters, who have been keeping vigil at the Indonesian Embassy in the financial district of Makati city east of Manila, Philippines, celebrate following an announcement of the delay of the execution of convicted Filipino drug trafficker Mary Jane Veloso in Indonesia, before dawn Wednesday, April 29, 2015. The execution was put off because her alleged boss had been arrested in the Philippines, and the authorities there requested Indonesian aid in pursuing the case. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) (29 Apr 2015)
<<APPHOTO XBM107 (04/29/15)££
APPHOTO XBM106: Protesters, who have been keeping vigil at the Indonesian Embassy in the financial district of Makati city east of Manila, Philippines, celebrate following an announcement of the delay of the execution of convicted Filipino drug trafficker Mary Jane Veloso in Indonesia, before dawn Wednesday, April 29, 2015. The execution was put off because her alleged boss had been arrested in the Philippines, and the authorities there requested Indonesian aid in pursuing the case. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) (29 Apr 2015)
<<APPHOTO XBM106 (04/29/15)££
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