A US judge has temporarily blocked the state of Mississippi from carrying out executions.

Ambulances carrying coffins have arrived at a prison island and relatives paid final visits to their condemned loved ones in a sign that Indonesia will imminently execute eight foreigners and one Indonesian man, despite an international outcry.

Australia wants corruption allegations against Indonesian judges investigated before their death sentences against two Australian drug traffickers are carried out, the foreign minister has said.

As much of the US debates the use of lethal injections against a backdrop of drug scarcity and botched executions, Tennessee has found an alternative — the electric chair.