The number of executions worldwide dropped in 2006 from 2,148 the year previous to 1,591, according to new statistics issued by Amnesty International. Over 90 percent of the year's executions were conducted in six countries: Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan, the USA and China. At 177, Iran's execution rate nearly doubled in 2006. Iraq and Pakistan joined the ranks of the world's deadliest regimes with 65 hangings and at least 82 executions respectively, and Amnesty reported at least 1000 executions in China, where rights activists say the true total may be closer to 8000. The United States, with 53 executions in 2006, is the only Western Hemisphere country to have carried out any executions since 2003.

Amnesty said that some 20,000 prisoners remain on death row worldwide, and repeated its call for a worldwide moratorium on executions, noting that 99 countries - most recently, the Philippines - now support a ban on capital punishment for ordinary crimes.

A German lawyer is planning to join forces with Spanish counterparts to file a lawsuit in Spain against former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the alleged abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons, a German magazine reported on Saturday.
The move by Berlin lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck comes after German prosecutors said on Friday they had decided against launching an investigation into Rumsfeld over the abuse claims.

"There is no safe haven for Rumsfeld," weekly magazine Der Spiegel quoted Kaleck's associate, Michael Ratner, as saying.

"If the Germans aren't bold enough then we'll try in Spain," he added.

Kaleck could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

Civil rights groups filed a suit with Germany's Federal Prosecutors Office in Karlsruhe in November seeking war crimes charges, arguing Germany could prosecute foreign violations of international law under its 2002 universal jurisdiction law.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said 11 Iraqi citizens held at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and one Saudi detainee at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay base on Cuba were victims of beatings, sleep and food deprivation and sexual abuse.

However, the German prosecutors office said it could not open an investigation as the individuals in question were not present in the country.

In addition to Rumsfeld, the suit named 13 other U.S. officials, including Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, former CIA director George Tenet and high-ranking military officers.

The 13 others will also be named in the Spanish suit, Der Spiegel said.

Two Canadian law professors and human rights activists have written to the International Criminal Court (ICC), asking it to investigate "possible war crimes" by top Canadian defence officials. Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia and William Schabas, now at the National University of Ireland, sent a letter to ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accusing Canadian Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Chief of Canada's Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier of transferring detainees to Afghan custody despite a strong possibility that they would be tortured. In response to criticism about the transfers, including opposition calls for his resignation, O'Connor Wednesday announced the start of a new arrangement between Canada and Afghanistan that will allow Canadian officials to inspect Afghan prisoners after they had been transferred to Afghan custody to make sure that they have not subjected to torture; Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday that the new agreement would soon be "formalized."

In February the Canadian government ordered an official inquiry into reported detainee abuse by Canadian troops in Afghanistan. The probe began following a civilian complaint filed by University of Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran, whose research uncovered a pattern of suspicious injuries on three detainees captured last April and later released. In 2005, Hillier signed the Canada-Afghanistan Detainee Agreement authorizing the transfers; Attaran said the agreement did not give Canada the power to inspect detainees after their transfers, thus allowing broad latitude for torture to occur.

"Today, we're making a commitment to set performance standards ... within five years, all of those energy-inefficient lighting and bulbs, they're going to be gone," Lunn told reporters in Ottawa.

More efficient lighting would include compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), which use about 75 percent less electricity than older incandescent bulbs.

In the world, many places have recently moved toward banning standard incandescent bulbs. Australia announced in February that it was going to prohibit the use of incandescent bulbs by 2010 in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Italian Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper reports that Mauro Iacconi and Angelo Santini were found guilty by a Modena court in a case in which they charged with espionage, including gaining unauthorised access to Ferrari's computers and the misappropriation of files.

Santini and Iacconi, who were dismissed by Toyota before the case was made public, have both appealed against their sentences.

Mexico City legislators Tuesday passed a bill 46-19 that would legalize abortion within the city. The bill, proposed by the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), will require city hospitals to provide the procedure in the first trimester, although abortions after 12 weeks would still be illegal. Girls under 18 would have to get their parents' consent. The bill now goes to the city's mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, who is expected to sign it. Abortion opponents will probably appeal the law to the Supreme Court.

Abortion is generally illegal throughout the heavily Roman Catholic country, with exceptions only for cases of rape. Mexico City previously loosened the country's restriction to allow abortions when the health of the mother was in danger. Conservatives in the country, including Mexican President Felipe Calderon [official website] and his National Action Party (PAN) are strongly opposed to any change of abortion law, and have vowed to appeal the law to the Supreme Court. Supporters of the bill say that the current laws endanger poor women who, unlike wealthier Mexicans, cannot afford to travel to the United States for the surgery and so must resort to unsafe back-alley abortions. Last year Human Rights Watch (HRW) conducted an extensive study of abortion availability for rape victims in Mexico, finding that those seeking legal abortions often are intimidated with insults and threats of legal retaliation by both prosecutors and health workers.

Former chess champion and liberal United Civil Front leader Garry Kasparov has accused Russian police of "brutality" after meeting with Kremlin officials Friday to give an account of his treatment at the hands of police agents following his arrest participating in the latest of a series of "Dissenters' Marches." Kasparov was detained on April 14 for hours alongside approximately 200 activists arrested for pushing into a blocked-off central square during an anti-Putin protest in central Moscow. Dozens of protesters at that rally, as well as at an April 15 demonstration in St. Petersburg, were beaten by police, leading to criticism from human rights groups. The Russian Interior Ministry has responded by conducting an inquiry into the events of the protests, and thus far maintains that any police violence was provoked. After meeting with investigators, Kasparov told reporters that all accounts of violence or illegal actions of the part of the protesters were false and were part of an "attempt to cover up the brutality and cruelty of police officers."

Kasparov and fellow opposition leader former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov have strongly criticized President Vladimir Putin and his allies in the run-up to Russia's December parliamentary elections and March 2008 presidential election. Each have accused Putin of suppressing dissent; Ukrainian publication Zerkalo Nedeli Saturday printed comments from Kasyanov stating that given the present course of Russian politics "a revolution is unavoidable," though it is not the aim of opposition leaders.