Amnesty International Friday urged governments worldwide not to transfer genocide suspects to Rwanda until fair trials there can be guaranteed. The human rights group is concerned about the Rwandan justice system's fairness and impartiality with respect to international standards of justice. The director of the group's Africa Programme, Erwin van der Borght, said: The various [...]

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US Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said Friday that he will not support the nomination of Michael Mukasey as US attorney general, citing Mukasey's continuing reluctance to unequivocally denounce waterboarding as torture. Mukasey must receive ten votes from the Senate Judiciary Committee for his nomination to advance to the full Senate with a [...]

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The UN Human Rights Committee Friday called on Libya to end the use of torture and to investigate torture allegations by five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had been detained in Libya for eight years on suspicions that they deliberately infected hundreds of Libyan children with the HIV virus . The call came [...]

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Canada's ruling Conservative Party government said Thursday that it will not ask Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer to commute the death sentence of a Canadian-born man on death row in Montana . The announcement marks a sharp departure in Canadian foreign policy; the Canadian government has traditionally tried to save Canadians from execution in foreign countries. [...]

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Two environmental advocacy groups Thursday filed an amended complaint challenging the constitutionality of the Real ID Act in response to actions taken by US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff last month. Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club argued that Chertoff violated the constitutional separation of powers by using his power under the Real ID [...]

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The government of Pakistan plans to amend the Pakistan Army Act to include a provision enabling the army to court-martial civilians for certain offenses, Pakistan Attorney General Malik Qayyum said Friday. The offenses that could subject civilians to court-martial trials include abduction, use of arms and terrorism, and will particularly apply to offenses committed by [...]

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