Middle East spokeswoman for Amnesty International Nicole Choueiry expressed the group's opposition Monday to a recent announcement from Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari that the death penalty would be retained in Iraq and that the new government would be willing to use it to combat serious offenses like murder, kidnapping, and drug dealing. Al-Jaafari vowed [...]

In a 7-2 decision the US Supreme Court ruled Monday that it is unconstitutional to force capital murder defendants to appear before juries in shackles. The majority said that viewing a prisoner in shackles would be too damaging to the jury's perception of the defendant. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas claimed in dissent that [...]

An appeals court for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Monday set aside the life sentence of Juvenal Kajelijeli , convicted in 2003 of genocide and incitement to commit genocide, and converted it to 45 years with credit given for seven years served. An ICTR press release cited violations of Kajelijeli's fundamental rights during his [...]

In a commencement address at Pace Law School Sunday, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's Chef de Cabinet Mark Malloch Brown referred to the US as an "ungainly giant" that prefers to play by its own rules rather than those of the international community. He also pointed to US opposition to the International Criminal Court [...]

Republican Dino Rossi is challenging the 2004 election victory of Democratic Washington Governor Christine Gregoire , the closest statewide election in history. Rossi, who won the first count by 261 votes and a machine recount by 42 votes, is alleging illegal votes were cast by felons and dead people. A final hand recount gave Gregoire [...]

The US Supreme Court said Monday it will decide an unsettled issue of abortion law: the standard to apply when judging the constitutionality of abortion restrictions. That issue and the issue of whether a health exception should exist for parental consent laws for minors are set to be decided in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of [...]

Staff Sgt. Shane Werst's military trial is set to start Monday in the shooting death of Iraqi detainee Naser Ismail. Werst was charged in November 2004 after a soldier in his squad reported that Werst shot Ismail, already in custody after a house raid, and then planted a gun on him to give the appearance [...]

A military policeman has pled guilty to assault and two counts of making a false statement in the 2002 beating death of an Afghan prisoner . In a plea bargain Spc. Brian E. Cammack also agreed to testify in other cases related to the deaths of two other prisoners. Cammack admitted to beating prisoner Mullah [...]

Iran's hard-line Guardian Council Sunday rejected all reformist candidates in the upcoming presidential election, disqualifying more than 1,000 potential candidates. Just six conservative candidates were selected to run in the election, prompting a crisis meeting by reform groups who threatened to boycott the election. The decision by the Guardian Council parallels a move last year [...]

United Nations Director of the Electoral Assistance Division Carina Perelli said Sunday that Lebanese politicians agree that electoral reform must be a top priority after the upcoming parliamentary elections, the first without a Syrian military presence in 30 years. When the Lebanese go to the polls in four rounds of voting between May 29 and [...]