GLOBAL INTEREST IN DEATH PENALTY REVIEW; UN CITES SADDAM'S EXECUTION

Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said she senses a global interest in revising the death penalty, triggered in part by the public execution of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein. "I sense that this year there is an opportunity to move towards abolition in some countries, moratorium in others and transparency in some which still surround the application of the death penalty with secrecy," Mrs Arbour told reporters. The execution of Saddam "may have created an environment in which people are asking a lot of serious questions" about the need for a review of capital punishment. She indicated that she would not be bringing up the matter with the US government or courts the same way her office does in other, more receptive countries.