News headlines in 2011, page 88

As the blistering summer heat gives way to the first undertones of winter’s chill, the political landscape in the highly contested north Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir also appears to be changing colour.

Capital punishment continues to exist because in some countries people are barraged with propaganda depicting it as a curb on crime, which it is not, said Federico Mayor Zaragoza, chair of an international commission against the death penalty that inaugurated its new headquarters in Geneva Monday.

What was once a glaring weakness in the seven-month Syrian revolution and uprising against the government of President Bashar al-Assad is now slowly transforming into one of its strengths with the coalescence of opposition groups into the Syrian National Council (SNC) earlier this month.

'Is Afzal Guru really the person that so many Indians supposedly want dead? Or are they taking out their frustrations on an easy target?' asked Human Rights Watch, referring to the death sentence handed down to the Kashmiri man who was convicted of conspiracy in the 2001 suicide attack on the Indian Parliament.

Excluded from the 2010 Human Development Index, Cuba will issue a report of its own, which will reflect the impact of an economic crisis that has lasted for 20-plus years, and will show social and health indicators typical of the developed world.

Campaigners from around the world have called upon the Arab League and on the African Commission on Human and People's Rights to explore the possibility of adopting regional protocols to abolish the death penalty.

Zimbabwe’s justice minister is frantically trying to fend off probes into allegations of human rights abuses perpetrated by President Robert Mugabe’s regime since the country’s independence in 1980.

The encampment of disenchanted young protesters in New York City's financial district has exposed growing anger around the United States over rising inequality and a stubborn jobs crisis.

Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has called for a speedy investigation into Sunday night's deadly clashes in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, that left at least 26 dead and more than 300 injured, mostly Coptic Christians.

Efforts by the government and thousands of volunteers in Argentina have succeeded in slashing the illiteracy rate to just 1.9 percent, with a goal to eliminate it completely within the next four years.