fter the then foreign secretary Jack Straw phoned Georgia's governor in a failed bid to have the sentence commuted.Before his death, Housel told BBC News Online: "I believe in God and I believe in an afterlife, so I am not necessarily afraid of dying."It's a bizarre thing to know the exact date and minute of your death in advance and be totally powerless to stop it."I worry about how my actions have hurt others and constantly replay the events that led up to Jeanne Drew's death."Jackie ElliottJackie Elliott denied murdering an 18-year-old woman in 1986ReutersBritish-born Jackie Elliott was executed in March 2003 by lethal injection in Texas, for the gang rape and murder of 18-year-old Joyce Munguia in 1986.Elliott's defence team had attempted last-ditch appeals to both the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the US Supreme Court but failed on both occasions.His conviction was controversial as his legal team had argued new DNA tests could have proved that while Elliott was at the scene, he did not commit the crime but these tests were not allowed.After a final meal of tea and biscuits and a failed last-ditch attempt by UK foreign secretary Jack Straw to have Elliott's punishment changed to a life sentence, the 42-year-old was injected with a lethal dose of drugs.RelatedSaudi Arabia: Blood Money Saves Indonesian Maid from BeheadingIwao Hakamada: World's Longest Serving Death Row Inmate ReleasedGlenn Ford Released: Louisiana Death Row Inmate Freed After 30 YearsTexas Death Row Inmate Ray Jasper Compares US Justice to Slavery and Nazism in Final LetterTop Five Countries with the Highest Rates of Executions <div Z 2LG/R
India Elections 2014: Five Challenges Incoming Government Will Have to BattleBy M RochanApril 8, 2014 13:28 BSTA woman shows her ink-marked finger after casting her vote in the northeastern state of Assam on 7 April.ReutersIndia's month-long elections are under way with 814 million voters casting ballots to elect the next government. The results will be out on 16 May.The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is tipped to form the next government,Nike Air Max 2015 Men Black Green Leather, has promised fiscal discipline and banking reforms, among other policy plans, in its election manifesto.Though the party has not provided details, it is clear that any incoming government will have to face an uphill task of fixing India's economy.The new government,Nike Air Max 2015 Woman Shoes Black Peach Pink, which is expected to table the annual budget in June or July,Nike Air Max 2012 Womens UK, will have to chalk out plans to containing the nation's fiscal deficit.However, the outgoing Congress-led government's austerity drive, which included a $13bn cut in spending, will be hard to sustain, according to Reuters. At the same time, tax collections are not likely to improve immediately with growth hovering at a decade low.The following are some key areas the incoming government will have to grapple with as it tries to revive growth in Asia's third largest economy:CAD and GoldInvestors will be tracking New Delhi's moves on the current account deficit (CAD). Three upward revisions to the import duty on gold in 2013, to a record 10%,Nike Air Max 2011 Womens Black, and restrictions tying purchases to exports helped bring down CAD to an expected 2% of GDP from a record high 4.8% in the previous financial year.While official gold imports in 2013 were pegged at 750 tonnes, an additional 200 tonnes was believed to have been smuggled into the country, the World Gold Council has estimated.The BJP has promised to review gold import duties within three months of assuming power.Monsoon RainsA new government may have to deal with a factor it cannot control: the El Nino weather pattern normally associated with weak rains, which could pull down agricultural output.The annual monsoon accounts for 70% of India's rainfall and irrigates more than half its farmland.Citigroup has estimated that below average rainfall in the June-September monsoon could cut 0.50-0.90 percentage points off its economic growth forecast and push up already high consumer prices.Boosting InvestmentsBJP leader Narendra Modi, the chief minister of the Gujarat state and frontrunner for the prime minister's post
