Q&A: 'Arab Legislations Go Far Beyond Islamic Law'
Interview with Tahar Boumedra from Penal Reform International by Baher Kamal
CAIRO - Is Islamic law -- Sharia'a -- the only legal instrument regulating the death penalty in Arab and Muslim countries?
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DEATH PENALTY-US: Charges of Racism Offer New Evidence
By Michael J. Carter
SEATTLE - Race played a "real" role in deciding who was sentenced to death in hundreds of capital trials over a seven-year period in one Texas county, according to new academic research to be published shortly.
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DEATH PENALTY-ZAMBIA: Inmates Plead for Deliverance
By Newton Sibanda
BLUSAKA - The common prayer of those on Zambia’s jam-packed death row is for divine intervention to end their hell on earth and let the waiting hangman carry out his job speedily, according to a recently released inmate.
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DEATH PENALTY-US: Catch-Up Wave of Executions Feared
By Adrianne Appel
BOSTON - Anti-death penalty activists are bracing themselves for a wave of executions across the U.S. after the state of Georgia moved swiftly to end the life of William E. Lynd following the Supreme Court's ruling that lethal injection was not a violation of the constitution.
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RIGHTS-JAPAN: Broadcasters Break Hanging Secrecy Taboos
By Catherine Makino
TOKYO - The final seconds in the life of a Japanese death row inmate -- the rasping muffled last words, the trapdoor springing open, the whip of a noose and a Buddhist gong signalling the end -- has made radio history here, waking listeners up to what goes on in one of the most secretive execution systems in the world.
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EUROPE: Still without a 'Coherent' Human Rights Policy
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS, May 8 - More than 50 years after its inception, the European Union continues to lack a "coherent and hard-hitting policy to uphold and promote human rights around the world", a new report by the EU's only directly-elected body has complained.
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DEATH PENALTY-PAKISTAN: Stonings - Sign of Taliban Resurgence
By Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, May 7 - The Taliban have confirmed that their sympathisers have executed by stoning a runaway couple in this remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan -- their first known use here of this long drawn-out death sentence for a so-called "honour crime".
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RIGHTS-SOUTH AFRICA: Death Penalty Referendum Call - Critics Cry Populism
By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Mar 12 - Jacob Zuma, the president of the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party in South Africa, has of late been called a chamaeleon who adapts his speeches to what his audience wants to hear. It's a tactic that has proved controversial, not least when Zuma took up the issue of the death penalty.
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DEATH PENALTY: Another Mexican on His Way to the Scaffold in US
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, May 6 - The Mexican government’s aggressive strategy to prevent the execution of Mexican citizens in the United States has so far failed to bear fruit, despite a landmark international court ruling.
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News from International NGOs:
India: a "lethal lottery" -- ACHRS report: The death penalty in the arab world in 2007 -- Human Rights memorandum to russian president Medvedev -- USA: way of life, way of death -- Human Rights Watch concerned about Peru

WORLD PRESS REVIEW:
EU condemns US resumption of executions -- USA: Convicted murderer gets lethal injection -- USA: American bar association president calls for moratorium -- Gambian president threatens to behead gays -- DR Congo: Three separatists sentenced to death -- Ghana: Judges endorse death penalty -- Ethiopia: Supreme Court hands death sentence to Mengistu -- Algeria: 14 sentenced to death in absentia for terrorism -- Iraq. Church opposes death penalty for archbishop's killer -- Iran hangs two for murder in family feuds -- UK: Gay student who faced execution in Iran granted asylum -- Yemen: Court approves death penalty -- UAE: Former inmate saves two friends from death row -- Taiwan: Justice minister bids to scrap death penalty -- Japan: Gangster sentenced to hang for mayor's assassination -- China clarifies defence lawyers' role in capital cases