Worldwide, 106 countries have abolished the death penalty in law for all crimes, and 142 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.
Last year saw a small drop in the overall number of executions around the world, large numbers of death sentences were carried out for non-violent crimes such as drug offences.
Amnesty International has urged all states that retain the death penalty to establish an immediate moratorium on executions as first step towards abolition.
The Prime Minister's office has said that it will consult Britain's churches over the scrapping of the country's blasphemy laws, after the principled need to do so was strengthened by a tabled amendment in the House of Commons.
Britain’s black communities have still to throw off the mentality of slavery and need to invest in the future of its young people and rediscover their self-confidence, leading US civil rights campaigner the Rev Jesse Jackson says.
Methodism in Britain will focus its attention on Wales next month, as Cardiff hosts the annual Methodist Youth Conference from 16-18 November 2007 in the new Urdd Centre in the Bay area - where BBC TV series Doctor Who is based.
The official ecumenical body Action of Churches Together in Scotland is holding a national service this weekend at the David Livingstone Centre in Blantyre, to commemorate the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807.