In other news...

Taken from SF Weekly

For weeks now I am intensely following the uprisings in the Middle East and of course we get flooded with the nuclear situation in Japan. Sometimes I forget that there is also other news.

Here is a short list of some items that have intrigued me over the past days, but time was too short to elaborate on these:

Use of death penalty declining

According to an annual report by Amnesty International, the use of the death penalty globally is continuing to fall (BBC, VRT)

Graph by BBC

If we exclude China (executions are thought to be between 2000 and 8000), we can see that the number of executions has dropped from at least 714 (in 2009) to at least 527 (in 2010), this although now 23 countries have carried out executions in 2010, 4 more than in 2009.

More:

• Visual representation of the use of the death penalty in 2010 (Amnesty International)
• Full report in Dutch
• The end of the death penalty in Belgium

Cricket diplomacy

Upcoming cricket game between India and Pakistan: Will the presence of Indian PM Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani and their respective entourages at Wednesday's semi-final between India and Pakistan help revitalise the jaded peace process? (BBC)

Cricket diplomacy between India and Pakistan has a chequered history. Sometimes it has come as an icebreaker; at other times; it has merely marked a deceptive lull before another storm.
  Soutik Biswas

Cuban reform coming?

The guardians of Cuba's struggling socialist system seem to have decided that their revolution now needs a dose of evolution. (BBC)