US District Judge Marcia Cooke Tuesday refused to rule out the possibility of a life sentence for convicted terrorism conspirator Jose Padilla . Cooke found that the enhanced terrorism penalties could be applied, rejecting the defense's argument that evidence linking Padilla and his co-conspirators to actual terrorist groups was insufficient for federal terrorism standards to [...]

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The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is spearheading US efforts to form an international database of biometrics data on major criminals and terrorists, the UK Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday. The program, called "Server in the Sky," would be a cooperative venture by participating countries to collect and share information such as fingerprints, iris and palm [...]

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Amnesty International Tuesday called on Iran to abolish executions by stoning , an execution method that Iran denies is still in official use. Amnesty decried stoning as a "grotesque and horrific" practice designed to inflict maximum suffering on condemned adulterers; it pointed to language in the Iranian penal code that said stones used should be [...]

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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour Tuesday urged the Sri Lankan government to abide by international law as a 2002 ceasefire with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) , or "Tamil Tigers," expires Wednesday. Fighting between government forces and the Tigers escalated in 2006, and last month the government announced it [...]

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A judge on one of Pakistan's anti-corruption Accountability Courts Tuesday dismissed charges against former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto following her December 27 assassination . Charges that Bhutto possessed assets beyond her known income, brought by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) , were rejected in light of her death. Corruption charges against Bhutto's former Director [...]

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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to step up deportation of illegal immigrants serving time in US prisons and jails during 2008, ICE Assistant Secretary Julie L. Myers said in an interview published Tuesday in the New York Times. Myers said ICE deported nearly 64,000 illegal immigrants who were serving time for criminal convictions [...]

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