An 'execution binge' in Iran....

Nice way to start off the new year...

A rights group monitoring Iran is denouncing a spike in reported executions coming at an average rate of one person every eight hours since the beginning of the year.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran says at least 47 prisoners have been hanged since Jan. 1, including a reported Kurdish activist accused of fighting against the state. A statement from the New York-based group Sunday says other jailed Kurds also are at risk of facing the gallows.

Most of the others executed were convicted of violent crimes such as murder.

Hangings are common in Iran. But a spokesman for the rights group, Aaron Rhodes, described it as an "execution binge."