DEATH PENALTY: Central Asia Nearing Abolition
By Kuban Abdymen
BISHKEK - The vast region of Central Asia is moving closer to becoming death-penalty-free and hopes are high that legislation banning all executions will be adopted in all countries in the near future. But other human rights challenges remain.
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DEATH PENALTY-CHINA: Letters From Death Row
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - Their numbers are taboo. Their stories condemned to oblivion. The world of China's death row prisoners is too forbidding, the execution grounds too sordid to yield a compelling book that would escape the scrutiny of the communist state censors.
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AFGHANISTAN: 'Double Standards' Boost Taliban
Analysis by Sanjay Suri
LONDON - Military forces from Western powers are fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, but it is the policies of these very governments that is boosting the Taliban, going by several indications over recent days.
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RIGHTS-NIGERIA: Grim, Overflowing Death Rows
By Toye Olori
LAGOS - Some 600 people are now crammed into Nigeria's disease-infested death rows and the number is certain to rise with a justice system that critics say has been resisting reform since the end of military rule in 1999.
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DEATH PENALTY-PAKISTAN: A Jail Superintendent's Aversion
By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI - Superintendent Nusrat Hussain Mangan of the central jail in the southern port city of Karachi considers himself fortunate that he has never had to witness a man being hanged.
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DEATH PENALTY-US: Abolitionists See Victory in View
By Adrianne Appel
BOSTON - Campaigners against the death penalty in the U.S. believe the momentum for a country-wide ban on executions is now unstoppable and some are predicting all their death rows will be closed down within 15 years.
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RIGHTS-IRAN: Anti-Stoning Women Activists Held Indefinitely
By Kimia Sanati
TEHRAN - The indefinite detentions of the prominent lawyer Shadi Sadr and Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, a leading campaigner against the award of stoning sentences for adultery, are being seen here as part of increasing pressure on women's rights activists by the Islamic republic.
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HUMAN RIGHTS: Brazil Proposes Additional Millennium Goals
By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA - Global abolition of the death penalty and other human rights aspirations could be achieved through mechanisms similar to the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the United Nations, according to a proposal by the government of Brazil.
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RIGHTS: One Fumbled Execution Sets U.S. Further Thinking
By Mark Weisenmiller
TAMPA, United States - Last December's botched execution by lethal injection in the U.S. state of Florida has raised to new levels the controversy surrounding capital punishment -- and focused public attention here squarely on this particular way of carrying out a death sentence.
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MOROCCO: Huge Amnesty Signals Historic Day
By Abderrahim El Ouali
CASABLANCA - A royal birth followed immediately by an amnesty for more than a dozen death row prisoners among others is being interpreted here as a signal that Morocco is on the verge of making history in the Arab world by being the first to abolish the death penalty.
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IRAQ: Outrage over Imminent Execution of Iraqi Women
By Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
BAGHDAD - Three young women accused of joining the Iraqi insurgency movement and engaging in "terrorism" have been sentenced to death, provoking protest from rights organisations fearing that this could be the start of more executions of women in post-Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
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News from International NGOs:
Iraq: We'd Like To Abolish The Death Penalty --- Indonesia: Ag Criticised Over Death Penalty --- Drc: Member Of Opposition Threatened With The Death Penalty --- Italy Working Towards Presenting Resolution To Un General Assembly

WORLD PRESS REVIEW:
Study Finds That Death Penalty Appeals Move Quickly In Georgia --- China To Decrease Number Of Executions But Keep Death Penalty --- Pakistan. Two Convicted Terrorists Hanged In Multan Jail --- Bangladesh. Six Top Islamic Militants Executed --- Two In Three Britons 'Support Death Penalty Return' --- Death Penalty May Be Abolished In Morocco --- When Will The Referendum On The Death Penalty Be Held?