A human rights group says more than half of the Palestinians killed during Israel's three-week offensive against Hamas in Gaza earlier this year were civilians, contradicting an Israeli military claim. Israel had said that more than 60 percent of those killed in the military campaign were "terror operatives." The Israeli human rights organization B'tselem released figures Wednesday, saying that, of the 1387 killed, 773 "did not take part in the hostilities" and, that of those, 320 minors were killed. Israel ...

The trial of a woman who wore clothing that Sudan deemed indecent got under way Monday. Throngs of people waited outside the courthouse in the Khartoum as Lubna al-Hussein made her way in. In addition to the group of lawyers defending her, al-Hussein is also being represented by two Egyptian defense attorneys, she said. Al-Hussein faces up to 40 lashes for wearing pants considered too tight and a blouse deemed too sheer. She insisted on going on ...

Could George W. Bush or some of his top aides end up behind bars? It's extremely unlikely, but the Obama administration is taking its first steps along a path that could lead in that direction, with the investigation of Central Intelligence Agency interrogators involved in the war on terror. "You don't know where these things are going to end up," former CIA agent Peter Brookes told me. "They could go to very high levels in the government." The probe will ...

Fiji has been suspended from the Commonwealth after its military rulers failed to respond to a demand to restore democracy in the Pacific island nation, the organization said Tuesday. "This is an announcement I make with deep regret -- it is a step the Commonwealth is now obliged to take, and one that it takes in sorrow," Commonwealth Secretary-General, Kamalesh Sharma, said in a statement. The 53-nation group gave Fiji's leadership a September 1 deadline to announce democratic elections for ...

Samar Saed Abdullah's entire body trembles as she speaks about her impending execution. She thinks of the gallows room, the noose around her neck and that moment when she will take her final breath. "My life is meaningless," she said, choking on her tears. "I can't think of anything else. The other women, we try to help each other, but we cannot escape the reality that we are on death row and they can take us at any second." The ...

Honduras' de facto president said Thursday that he is willing to resign and let ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya back into the country, as long as Zelaya gives up his quest for leadership. The new proposal calls for the person next in line, as required by the constitution, to succeed de facto President Roberto Micheletti. Under terms of the proposal, Zelaya could return as a private citizen, but not be allowed to resume his post. Presidential elections held after both ...

American children aren't necessarily getting smarter or dumber, but that might not be good enough to compete globally, according to numbers cited Tuesday by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. He noted a special analysis put out last week by the National Center for Education Statistics that compares 15-year-old U.S. students with students from other countries in the Organization for Economic Development. It found the U.S. students placed below average in math and science. In math, U.S. high schoolers were in ...

The government of de facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti is not ready to sign a proposed agreement to end the country's ongoing political crisis, Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno said in Honduras. His remarks came on Tuesday at the conclusion of a two-day visit by a delegation of the Organization of American States. "Although the commission concludes that progress was made during its visit, it must recognize that there still no disposition toward full acceptance of the San Jose ...

The hot wind swirls around the human bones and cracked skulls that litter the forsaken desert lands in Western Iraq. We are standing in the middle of what was an al Qaeda execution site, just outside an intricate bunker complex that the organization used to torture and murder its victims, the bodies left to rot or be eaten by animals. From the back of the police truck the opening to the first bunker is barely discernible in the distance. "Al ...

Incumbent President Hamid Karzai's chief rival, Abdullah Abdullah, repeated his charges of widespread ballot fraud Monday and declared that Karzai "single-handedly put Afghanistan at risk by trying to rig the elections." As Afghanistan's elections commission prepared to release preliminary voting results in the nation's presidential race on Tuesday, Abdullah told CNN in an interview that his campaign had received what he described as credible reports of fraud in the southern provinces, where security was poor and turnout less than 10 ...