Thailand's ruling political party announced plans Wednesday to amend the nation's newly adopted constitution . The People Power Party (PPP), which which won 233 out of 480 parliament seats in the first election since the current interim military-backed government took power in a September 2006 bloodless coup , intends to make sweeping changes, including stripping [...]

China is denying human rights, including basic religious freedom, to Tibetans, according to an annual report released Tuesday by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office . The report found: Violations of human rights continue in Tibet. We regularly raise our concerns, including individual cases…We continue to make clear our view that the best way to [...]

A Nebraska bill that would have banned the death penalty, replacing it with a sentence of life in prison without parole, failed in the Nebraska Legislature on Tuesday, receiving only 20 of the 25 necessary votes to move forward. Last month, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that execution by electric chair, the only method authorized [...]

Three Indonesian Islamic militants sentenced to death for their roles in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings filed a new appeal Wednesday, after withdrawing an earlier appeal this week following refusal of the Cilacap district court to grant a change of venue and transport the militants to a district court in Bali. According to defense lawyers, [...]

Hollinger Inc. , the Canadian holding company with an interest in former newspaper publisher Hollinger International , has agreed to pay the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) $21.3 million to settle claims that from 1999 to 2003 it violated securities law by failing to disclose to investors payments and other transactions that benefited the [...]

The Maryland General Assembly has passed legislation to establish the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment, which would study the implementation and execution of the death penalty in that state. The state House approved HB 1111 by a 89-48 vote on Monday, and the Senate later approved SB 614 by a 32-15 vote. The Commission will [...]

Sharon Bradford Franklin : "The Supreme Court heard oral argument today in Munaf v. Geren and Geren v. Omar, in which two American citizens being detained by U.S. authorities in Iraq seek judicial review of their detentions through habeas corpus. The United States government argues that the American military personnel detaining Mr. Munaf and Mr. [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston Tuesday urged Guatemalan lawmakers not to override a presidential veto of a bill that would restore the country's death penalty in a way he said would be contrary to international human rights law. Alston said: This law can only be intended as an end-run [...]

German prosecutors Tuesday charged the chair of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) with libel and inciting racial hatred for comments he made about a German soccer player. Udo Voigt and two other party officials allegedly published a pamphlet and circulated online messages before the 2006 World Cup saying that soccer player Patrick Owomoyela should [...]

US President W. George Bush on Tuesday issued presidential pardons to 15 people convicted of crimes that ranged from drug offenses to wire fraud to violations of fish and wildlife regulations. He also commuted the sentence of a woman convicted of conspiracy to distribute crack-cocaine. Bush has issued a total of 157 pardons in his [...]