US officials have dropped their objections to Islam playing a role in Iraq's legal system, according to members of Iraq's constitutional committee . Shiite and Kurdish negotiators have said that US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad has proposed that the Iraqi constitution name Islam as "a primary source" of law, which would give clerics authority [...]

With just a few hours remaining before Monday's midnight deadline , drafters of the Iraqi constitution have settled some crucial issues, but are still struggling with the role that Islam should play in the nation's law, as well aa with questions of Shiite autonomy. A meeting of the Iraqi National Assembly is scheduled for Monday [...]

According to a report published Sunday in the Dallas Morning News , eligible black jurors were being excluded from Dallas County juries by prosecutors more than twice as frequently as whites were turned away as recently as 2002. Earlier this year the US Supreme Court overturned the 1986 murder conviction of a black man accused [...]

The US military announced Sunday that following a preliminary inquiry, the US Naval Criminal Investigations Service has been asked to launch a formal probe into the killing by US Marines of a relative of Iraq's UN ambassador during a June house raid. Engineering student Mohammed al-Sumaida'ie, the 21-year-old son of the first cousin of Ambassador [...]

In a letter written by Saddam Hussein to a Jordanian and delivered through the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross the former Iraqi president, facing trial this fall and possible execution, says that he will be "sacrificed for our precious Palestine and our beloved, patient and suffering Iraq." The letter, censored by [...]

An influential son of Libyan leader Colonel Muhamar Gaddaffi has said that the Libyan government will soon free 131 political prisoners, and will also provide compensation to citizens who had their assets, properties or homes confiscated in the 1970s at the time of Gaddaffi's so-called "Green Revolution." The reform-minded, UK-educated second-eldest of seven Gaddaffi sons, [...]

Indicted former Rwandan government official Michel Bagaragaza has been transferred from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to The Hague due to security concerns. Earlier this week, Bagaragaza pleaded not guilty to genocide charges after surrendering himself to the UN-backed tribunal in Tanzania. Bagaragaza has been indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide [...]

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, London’s chief of police, is defending his handling of the investigation into the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes , by his officers July 22. In an interview Sunday with British tabloid News of the World, Blair says that his actions following the shooting were not inappropriate, as [...]

The Iraqi government Sunday defended its decision to reinstate the death penalty, saying that without sufficient punishment there will be no security in the country. The statements come a day after Ashraf Qazi, special representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, asked Iraq to reconsider executing three convicted felons. Last week, Iraqi vice president Adel Abdel [...]

A spokesperson for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said Sunday that Iraq's constitutional committee may seek more time to work on the draft constitution if they cannot meet Monday's deadline to submit the document to the country's parliament. Iraqi leaders are already working under an extended deadline after they missed the original August 15 date. [...]