Apparently alarmed at deteriorating law and order in...

Apparently alarmed at deteriorating law and order in Georgia, the country's president publicly expressed his regret at being forced into abolishing the death penalty. "If it were not for problems with the Council of Europe, Georgia would not have abolished the death penalty," Eduard Shevardnadze was reported as saying in a meeting with his government. The president's statement followed reports by law-enforcement agencies that there had been a sharp rise in crime in the country in the past months. "The death penalty has been abolished, and these people (the criminals) fear nothing," Shevardnadze said, adding that in many cases those in custody lived better than ordinary people in the country.