Iraqi Justice Minister Hashim Abderrahman al-Shebli told AP Saturday that he had submitted his resignation to the Cabinet Thursday, citing internal "differences" within the coalition government. Al-Shebli did not specify the particular "differences" that led to his decision to resign, but the secular Iraqi National List and Sunni representatives from the Iraqi Accord Front have [...]

A US military commission at Guantanamo Bay recommended sentencing Australian detainee David Hicks to seven years in prison late Friday but all but nine months of that were effectively suspended by a military judge under the terms of a plea agreement kept secret from the panel of military officers during its deliberations. Hicks is expected [...]

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passed a resolution on "Combating defamation of religions" by a vote of 24 to 14, with 9 abstentions Friday, expressing a "deep concern at attempts to identify Islam with terrorism, violence and human rights violations… and the ethnic and religious profiling of Muslim minorities… in the aftermath of the [...]

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended his role in the firings of federal prosecutors Friday, admitting that there has been some confusion but that his involvement in the matter was limited to signing off on recommendations made by his former chief of staff Kyle Sampson . Gonzales told reporters that his motivations for the decisions [...]

Judge Arthur Hunter of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court issued a delayed order for the release and suspension of prosecution for as many as 42 criminal defendants Friday in light of the fact that the city's public defender's office does not have the resources to adequately represent the indigent suspects. If Hunter's order stands, [...]

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri , the suspected mastermind of the 2000 USS Cole bombing and a Guantanamo Bay detainee, said his confession to the attacks was coerced through five years of torture, according to transcripts released Friday. The transcripts from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal hearing do not provide any details of the alleged torture, and [...]

The US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks violated federal rules against sharing non-public endangered species information with private industry groups, according to an investigative report released Thursday. Julie MacDonald, who joined the Bush administration in 2002, admitted that she gave internal US Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) information to private [...]

A ground-breaking UN disabilities rights treaty opened for signature Friday. The treaty would protect the 650 million persons living with disabilities worldwide and is expected to be signed by more than 70 countries. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities holds that all disabled people should be treated as full-fledged citizens and completely [...]

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick (D) said Friday he plans to reverse the restrictions placed on stem cell research by former governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney . Patrick emphasized during a meeting with the state Life Sciences Collaborative that "life sciences should be guided by science, not ideological politics." He also announced his intention [...]

The UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution Friday calling on Sudan to allow a group of rights experts to visit the region of Darfur , but did not actually criticize the Sudanese government for the atrocities occurring there. The resolution passed by consensus without a vote by the 47-nation council after Germany agreed to [...]