Honour killing: Family stones woman to death

A woman was stoned to death by her own family in front of a Pakistani high court on Tuesday for marrying the man she loved, police and a defense lawyer said.

Nearly 20 members of the woman's family, including her father and brothers, attacked her and her husband with batons and bricks in broad daylight before a crowd of onlookers in front of the high court of Lahore, said police official Naseem Butt.  He said Farzana Parveen, 25, had married Mohammad Iqbal, with whom she had been engaged for years in opposition to her family.

Her father had filed an abduction case against her husband, which the couple was contesting, her lawyer Mustafa Kharal said.

Arranged marriages are the norm among conservative Pakistanis, who view marriage for love as a transgression.

Hundreds of women are killed every year in Pakistan in so-called "honor killings" carried out by husbands or relatives as a punishment for alleged adultery or other illicit sexual behavior.