At least 1,000 prisoners are on death row in Iraq, which now has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, the human rights group Amnesty International says in a report being released Tuesday. The courts that sentence people to death do not meet international standards, the report charged, and Iraqi authorities "provide very little information on executions, and some have been carried out secretly." It criticizes the Central Criminal Court of Iraq and the Supreme Iraqi Criminal ...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday said his claim that enhanced interrogation techniques -- including waterboarding -- produced critical post-9/11 information was supported by a pair of intelligence reports released last week. "The enhanced interrogation techniques were absolutely essential in saving thousands of American lives," he told "Fox News Sunday." However, the two dossiers that were declassified at Cheney's request do not disclose what kinds of techniques were used to elicit the intelligence. The only method occasionally cited by ...

The first search of Michael Jackson's bedroom a day after his death found marijuana, skin-bleaching and hair-growing ointments, anti-insomnia pills and empty bottles of several anti-anxiety drugs, according to court documents unsealed Thursday. A substance initially suspected to be tar heroin proved not to be a narcotic, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. An affidavit, written by Los Angeles Detective Orlando Martinez, was used to outline probable cause for a warrant to search Jackson's Holmby Hills, California, ...

The H1N1 flu virus could cause up to 90,000 U.S. deaths, mainly among children and young adults, if it resurges this fall as expected, according to a report released Monday by a presidential advisory panel. The H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu virus, could infect between 30 percent and 50 percent of the American population during the fall and winter and lead to as many as 1.8 million U.S. hospital admissions, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and ...

Impairing Education American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch Aug. 11, 2009 62 pages The Gist: It seems like a scene from Oliver Twist — a young pupil being beaten by a 300-lb man wielding an inch-thick wooden paddle — but according to a new report by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, nearly a quarter of a million children were subjected to corporal punishment in public schools in the U.S. during the 2006-2007 academic year. Based on 202 ...

The world's population is forecast to hit 7 billion next year, the vast majority of its growth coming in developing and, in many cases, the poorest nations, a report released Wednesday said. A staggering 97 percent of global growth over the next 40 years will happen in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the Population Reference Bureau's 2009 World Population Data Sheet. "The great bulk of today's 1.2 billion youth -- nearly 90 percent -- are in ...

Treating flu-stricken children with anti-viral medication including Tamiflu and Relenza could do more harm than good, a new report has warned. Researchers from the University of Oxford found that while the anti-virals reduced the duration of illness by up to one day and a half, they had "little or no effect" on the likelihood of the children developing complications. The researchers conceded that they didn't know the extent to which their report applied to the current swine flu pandemic, but ...

Palestinian militant groups including the armed wing of Hamas are committing war crimes when they fire rockets into Israel, according to a report by campaign group Human Rights Watch. Three Israelis have been killed and dozens more seriously injured in Palestinian attacks since November 2008 with rockets striking populated areas up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) inside Israeli territory and putting 800,000 Israelis in danger, the report said. Two Palestinian girls died in Gaza when a rocket fell short ...

The American Psychological Association concluded Wednesday that there is little evidence that efforts to change a person's sexual orientation from gay or lesbian to heterosexual are effective. In addition, the 138-page report -- covering 87 peer-reviewed studies -- said that such efforts may cause harm. "Contrary to claims of sexual orientation change advocates and practitioners, there is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation," said Judith M. Glassgold, chairwoman of the task force that ...

Since the death of Michael Jackson on June 25, the pop star's life and history have become the subject of intense scrutiny. Now we can add a new item to the pile of Jackson resources: his Stasi file. According to a report from the Stasi, the East German secret police, that has recently come to light, on June 18, 1988, at precisely 2:52 p.m., several cars arrived at Checkpoint Charlie on the West Berlin side of the Berlin ...