The US expects a major overhaul of the discredited UN Commission on Human Rights to occur this year, but will insist upon an actual improvement of the current model rather than adherence to artificial deadlines, the State Department's lead negotiator Mark Lagon said at a Washington roundtable on UN reform Thursday. The commission has come [...]

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International arrest warrants have been issued for former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and husband Asif Ali Zardari on charges of corruption in a number of unspecified cases stemming from the former prime minister's term in office from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Interpol issued "red notices" Thursday, which serve to inform other [...]

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The US military in Afghanistan began court-martial proceedings Friday for a US soldier accused of abusing detainees last year in the southern Uruzgan province. Army Spc. James Hayes is accused of punching detainees in the chest, shoulders, and stomach during the incident, and faces charges of conspiracy to maltreat, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, [...]

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Marvin Bieghler was executed in Indiana Friday morning after the US Supreme Court overturned a stay ordered by the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Bieghler was convicted for the 1981 deaths of Tommy Miller, who Bieghler suspected tipped police to Bieghler's drug dealing activities, and Miller's pregnant wife, Kimberly Jane Miller. Bieghler had appealed [...]

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The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit challenging federal airport regulations that require passengers to show identification before boarding airplanes. Libertarian activist John Gilmore had argued that the regulations, which have not been publicly disclosed, constituted an illegal search and violated his right to travel freely. The federal [...]

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Leading Friday's international brief, the UN Security Council is considering sanctions against both rebel and government elements in Cote d'Ivoire that are accused of purposefully delaying and sabotaging fragile peace negotiations in the nation, which has been the scene of armed conflict since rebels seized the northern territories in 2002. Several hundred UN staffers have [...]

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