Republicans introduced the Secure Borders FIRST (For Integrity, Reform, Safety and anti-Terrorism) Act to the US House of Representatives Tuesday as a challenge to the White House-sponsored immigration proposal. The bill declares English the nation's official language, requires background checks on all workers, bars all current illegal immigrants from gaining legal status, and calls for [...]

The US Department of Defense announced Tuesday that six detainees have been transferred from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and into the custody of other home countries. Two of the transfers were to Tunisia and the four other detainees were transferred to Yemen. The detainees became eligible for transfer from the US military prison [...]

The Somalia transitional government offered amnesty Tuesday to the former Islamic extremist group that controlled the capital of Mogadishu last year. The declaration was announced hours after an assassination attempt against presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamed Mahamud "Hubsired." The government announced that the move was intended to foster a sense of good will before its scheduled [...]

The Supreme Court of Kuwait Tuesday affirmed death sentences for two of six Islamist militants convicted in 2005 for their involvement in a clash with police that left several people dead, but commuted the other four to life in prison. The men, members of an al Qaeda linked group called the Peninsula Lions , were [...]

Statement on the prison population delivered to UK House of Lords, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, June 19, 2007 . The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Lord Falconer of Thoroton): My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall now make a Statement on the prison population. The [...]

The UK justice minister told the House of Lords Tuesday that he has given authority to prison governors to "release on licence for offenders who are coming to the end of their sentence" as a way to relieve overcrowding of prisons across England and Wales. Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Lord Falconer [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Leandro Despouy Tuesday urged Iraq to stop carrying out death sentences , saying that the use of capital punishment despite threats of violence against the judiciary and the continued lack of independent tribunals and adequate defense counsel violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and [...]

A Republican-sponsored amendment to a North Carolina bill aimed at allowing capital punishment to resume in the state failed Monday when state House Democrats struck down language that would have forbidden the North Carolina Medical Board (NCMB) from disciplining a doctor for participating in an execution . The amendment, proposed by Republican House Minority Leader [...]

Thai police Tuesday charged former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra with concealing assets and illegally holding stock in publicly listed companies, as interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont repeated his previous guarantee for Thaksin's personal safety . Department of Special Investigations (DSI) Director General Sunai Manomaiudom ordered Thaksin to return to Thailand to face charges and said [...]

Members of the UN Human Rights Council (UNCHR) on Monday reached an agreement on final rules governing the body, agreeing to a final text that requires proposed resolutions condemning human rights violators to have the support of at least 15 members before they can be submitted to the 47-member body for a simple majority vote. [...]