US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld confirmed Wednesday that military officials are conflicted about the specific guidelines on interrogation techniques to be included in a new Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation during a hearing with the Defense Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee . Defense officials are struggling over whether to include different standards [...]

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Syrian authorities have arrested leading human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni just days after Sunday's arrest of prominent writer Michel Kilo , prompting speculation that a large government crackdown on dissidents is underway. Amnesty International said in a statement Wednesday that at least eight civil society activists have been arrested in the past week, mostly in [...]

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The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Wednesday lifted its stay of execution for Derrick S. O'Brien , citing insufficient factual or scientific evidence proving that lethal injection causes suffering and leads to a painful death. Death penalty opponents have criticized the lethal injection process, claiming that the painkiller sodium pentothal does not last long enough [...]

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