AUSTRALIA. CALL FOR END TO DEATH PENALTY

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer should use a regional economic meeting in South Korea to call for the abolition of the death penalty across the region, Amnesty International said.
Downer was in Busan, South Korea, for the 17th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Joint Ministerial Meeting to discuss trade, bird flu and North Korea.
He had promised to raise the issue of Tuong Van Nguyen, an Australian man on death row in Singapore, with his Singaporean counterpart in a last-ditch attempt to save his life.
"It's simply not enough to argue that Australian citizens should not be executed in Asia," Amnesty's anti-death penalty coordinator Tim Goodwin said in a statement. "We encourage the Australian government to go one important step further and lead the call for the abolition of the death penalty across the region."