China's legislature on Tuesday barred all but the nation's highest court from approving death sentences, a move that state media called the country's biggest change to capital punishment in more than 20 years. China is believed to account for most of the world's court-ordered executions, putting to death hundreds of people a year for crimes ranging from murder to such nonviolent offenses as tax evasion. Human rights groups have been protesting what they call miscarriages of justice and the extensive, arbitrary use of capital punishment. The change, which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2007, "is believed to be the most important reform of capital punishment in China in more than two decades," the official Xinhua News Agency said. The Supreme People's Court announced last year it would start reviewing death sentences, ending a 23-year-old practice of allowing provincial courts to have final review. In June, state media said the court had begun hiring dozens of judges for the task...
http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com
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Editor - 07:47:00 10-31-06
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 Iran Offering Cash to Travel Agents for American Tourists |
Iran has said it would offer cash incentives to travel agencies to encourage Western tourists to visit the country, giving a premium for Americans , the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Tuesday.The proposal is Iran's latest bid to reach out to ordinary Americans in an attempt by the Islamic Republic's political leadership to show that its quarrel is with the U.S. administration — not U.S. citizens.It came as the United Nations Security Council deliberates a draft resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran for its disputed nuclear program."Iran's tourism department will pay US$20 per person to those who attract European or American tourists to the country," the agency quoted Mohammed Sharif Malakzadeh, deputy head of the department, as saying.Visitors from other countries would earn travel agents US$10 a tourist, Malakzadeh said....
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,226416,00.html
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Editor - 07:44:00 10-31-06
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| Saddam Trial Witness Describes Massacre Witness at Saddam Hussein's trial says he survived massacre by feigning death |
A witness testified at Saddam Hussein's genocide trial Tuesday that he survived a massacre by feigning death when Iraqi soldiers shot at Kurdish detainees lying at their feet.The witness, who testified from behind a curtain to conceal his identity, said he was one of dozens of prisoners who were taken in buses to an execution site in western Iraq in April 1988 during the crackdown by Saddam's regime on the Kurdish population.Saddam and six co-defendants are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in the Operation Anfal crackdown, which the prosecution says killed some 180,000 Kurds. Saddam and one other defendant are also charged with genocide....
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/31/ap/world/mainD8L3L5R80.shtml
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Editor - 07:41:00 10-31-06
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| Ruling May Affect S. Dakota Abortion Vote Appeals Court Rules Against State Notification And Consent Law |
In a ruling that CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen says could influence South Dakota's vote next Tuesday on whether to ban nearly all abortions, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down the existing notification and consent component of the state's abortion statute. South Dakota can no longer enforce a 2005 law that would require doctors to give additional warnings to women who seek abortions. In a 2-1 ruling, the panel of judges upheld a lower court's ruling that has prevented the state from enforcing the law. Planned Parenthood, which challenged the measure, has demonstrated a likelihood it will win in its argument that the law violates the U.S. Constitution, the panel said. The law, passed by state lawmakers in 2005, would require doctors to tell women that abortions end human lives and may later cause serious psychological problems for women who have abortions. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/31/national/main2138524.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._2138524
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Editor - 07:35:00 10-31-06
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| Bomb targets Iraq wedding party |
A bomb has ripped through a wedding convoy in Baghdad, killing at least 15 people, four of them children, the interior ministry says. The bomb struck a procession of vehicles at dusk in Ur, on the outskirts of Baghdad's Sadr City. It was not immediately clear if the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber or a remotely detonated device. The bomb came as Iraq's prime minister announced a lifting of a blockade on the Shia stronghold of Sadr City. At total of at least 19 people were injured in the attack. Earlier, at least 30 bus passengers were kidnapped by an armed gang on a road north of Baghdad, according to Iraqi police. An official said the bus, carrying mainly Shia passengers to the town of Balad, was stopped at a fake checkpoint 40km (24 miles) from the capital. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/middle_east/6102768.stm
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Editor - 07:32:00 10-31-06
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| Civilian deaths turn Afghans against NATO: report |
A leading human rights group on Monday urged NATO to do more to avoid civilian casualties in Afghanistan, saying reports of increasing civilian deaths were "turning the local population against" the Western alliance. Fighting between NATO forces and a resurgent Taliban this year has been the bloodiest since U.S.-led forces removed the strict Islamist movement from power after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.Afghan authorities are investigating allegations that about 60 civilians were killed last week as a result of NATO operations in Kandahar province, where the Taliban was born. Local leaders and villagers said dozens more were wounded and 25 houses were razed during several hours of NATO bombing."NATO's tactics are increasingly endangering the civilians that they are supposed to be protecting, and turning the local population against them," said Sam Zarifi, Asia research director for New York-based Human Rights Watch....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061030/wl_nm/afghanistan_casualties_dc
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Editor - 22:44:00 10-30-06
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