DEATH PENALTY: A Life Defending Lives
By Julio Godoy
PARIS - In 2000, when French journalist and publisher Michel Taube founded 'Ensemble contre la peine de mort' (Together against the death penalty), his vision was that the group would become a world voice in the fight for the universal abolition of capital punishment.
MORE >>

CHINA: Dead Serious on Food and Drug Safety
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - China has confirmed the seriousness of recent international scares about rampant fraud and counterfeiting in its booming economy in a most dramatic way -- by sentencing to death the country's former top drug regulator.
MORE >>

NIGERIA: Rights Activists Await Break With Past
By Toye Olori
LAGOS - The return of democracy to Nigeria in 1999 after years of military dictatorship has not brought an end to extra-judicial killings; rather, the number may have doubled in what is now often a daily occurrence, says the Civil Liberties Organisation -- a human rights group based in the financial hub of Lagos.
MORE >>

UNITED STATES: Retrial Possible for Most Famous Black Inmate
By Adrianne Appel
BOSTON - The talents and skills of leading U.S. lawyers, pathologists, scientists and independent criminal investigators are likely to be marshalled to save the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal if he is granted a new trial -- and also to highlight the role skin colour may play in U.S. death penalty convictions.
MORE >>

MOROCCO: Suicide Bombings Delay Death Penalty Abolition
By Abderrahim El Ouali
CASABLANCA - The Moroccan government has pulled back from presenting to parliament its long-expected bill on the abolition of the death penalty, apparently on the grounds that the recent suicide bombings here call for a delay and re-thinking on how to deal with Muslim extremism.
MORE >>

GUATEMALA: Inmates in Limbo
By Inés Benítez
GUATEMALA CITY - Twenty-one inmates have spent years on death row in Guatemala because of a legal vacuum that has brought a de facto halt to executions but has done away with the president's right to pardon prisoners or commute their sentences.
MORE >>

IRAN: Execution Surge Bucks Worldwide Trend
By Kimia Sanati
TEHRAN - The near-doubling of the number of executions in Iran to 177 prisoners in 2006 has only steeled the resolve of human rights activists here to raise public awareness of the idea that capital punishment is not an effective deterrent to crime and should be abolished as inhuman.
MORE >>

UNITED STATES: Three Newspapers Reverse 100-Year-Old Stand
By Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON - Three established U.S. newspapers, two of them among the 10 largest in the country, in three different states have in the past weeks abandoned their century-old support of the death penalty and become passionate advocates of a ban on state-sponsored killing.
MORE >>

PAKISTAN: Freed Briton Urges Govt. to End Executions
By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI - "Many think I escaped the noose because of my nationality. That may be so, but if you ask me, I got a new lease of life because God meant me to live."
MORE >>

CUBA: Soldiers Accused of Hijacking Could Face Death Penalty
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA - Two Cuban soldiers who attempted to hijack an airplane to fly to the United States are both wounded and awaiting trial, Cuban President Fidel Castro announced Tuesday, while accusing the United States of fomenting illegal emigration.
MORE >>

GERMANY: Struggle to Resolve Justice Issues
By Julio Godoy
BERLIN - Thirty years after the German's chief federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback was assassinated by left-wing terrorists, a debate has re-surfaced over what should be the appropriate punishment for a convicted killer -- and whether politically motivated crimes deserve exceptionally harsh punishment.
MORE >>

UNITED STATES: Young Lawyers Halting Executions
By Adrianne Appel
BOSTON - Youthful idealism and perseverance are helping to win the day against the U.S. conservative establishment and its huge law enforcement resources in the life and death legal struggle to halt execution by lethal injection -- and with that the final end to the death penalty in the country.
MORE >>

News from International NGOs:
China: The Olympics Countdown - Repression Of Activists Overshadows Death Penalty And Media Reforms -- Executions Fall As Pressure Grows For Universal Moratorium -- Unjust And Unfair: The Death Penalty In Iraq

WORLD PRESS REVIEW:
D'alema Says Text For Un Resolution Is Ready -- Italy And Germany In Charge Of Writing Resolution -- Eu Under Pressure To Push China, Other Asian Nations To Abolish Death Penalty -- Malawi High Court Scraps Automatic Death Penalty -- Australian Facing Death Penalty In Sudan -- Pakistan Christian Converts Could Face Death Penalty For Leaving Islam -- China Seeks Extradition Pacts In Spite Of Death Penalty -- Bali Nine Lawyer Hopeful Death Penalty Will Be Abolished -- Calls To Abolish The Death Penalty Emerge Nationwide Schwarzenegger, However, Plans To Restart Capital Punishment Soon -- Supreme Court Dismisses Death Penalty Case -- Death Penalty Banned In Third Trial