Hammam Hammoudi, head of the drafting committee for the permanent Iraqi constitution , has said that 80% of the draft is completed and he anticipates the August 15 target date will be met with a national ratification referendum to follow as scheduled in October. An arbitration committee has been created to deal with conflicting issues [...]

Legislation to criminalize sexual harassment was presented Sunday to the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress . The draft amendment to the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women , designed to protect women's rights, mandates that no one shall be allowed to subject women [...]

The Jerusalem District Court Sunday approved the city's annual gay pride parade, clearing the way for an international gay pride event later this summer. The parade, planned for this Thursday, had caused a divide in the deeply religious capital city. Opponents, including Jews for Morality, had sent an open letter to city officials voicing objection, [...]

Leading Syrian human rights activist Aktham Naisse , was acquitted of all charges by a Syrian State Security Court Sunday. Naisse, chairman of the Committees for the Defense of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights in Syria, was arrested in 2004 and charged with spreading false information and forming an underground association after publishing a report [...]

After visiting the Guantanamo Bay detention center Saturday , House Republicans and Democrats reported that conditions at the facility are improving. The lawmakers traveled to the detention facility to witness interrogations and observe living conditions of the suspected terrorists. Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) said that "he Guantanamo we saw today is not the Guantanamo we [...]

Sixteen US House members visited the Guantanamo Bay detention center on Saturday, with a Senate delegation to follow. The trip was planned in response to mounting concerns on both sides of the partisan aisle about alleged human rights violations at the prison. Military officials gave a classified briefing to lawmakers and then led them on [...]

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani , the relatively-moderate cleric and former president of Iran who lost Friday's run-off election to hardline conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , contended Saturday that there had been what he called "organized and illegal" efforts to ensure his defeat. Rafsanjani, president from 1989 to 1997, ran on a platform calling for better relations with [...]

A bill due to be considered in the Russian state Duma next week would allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to circumvent the two-term limit on presidents set by the Russian Constitution . The legislative amendment introduced Thursday by United Russia lawmaker Alexander Moskalets would allow Putin to run again if he stepped down before his [...]

Afghanistan began to register voters Saturday for the parliamentary elections scheduled for September 18, a day after UN Special Representative Jean Arnault told the UN Security Council that greater security will be necessary to prevent violence at the polls. The Wolesi Jirga and Provincial Council election has been threatened by the Taliban and regional militants [...]

An Italian judge ruled Saturday that Calisto Tanzi , founder and CEO of Italian dairy and juice company Parmalat , will stand trial in the $18 billion fraud case that caused the company's downfall. Parmalat Finanziaria SpA admitted in 2003 that a $5 billion account with Bank of America was fake, leading investors to lose [...]