Pakistan on Wednesday hanged a man convicted for attempting to assassinate former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, the seventh execution in the country after a moratorium on death penalty was lifted following the Peshawar school carnage.
A bipartisan group of six American Senators has written a letter to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, asking him to address the growing religious intolerance in his country and release the minor Christian girl arrested on a blasphemy charge.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been granted asylum by the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Reacting to David Headley's sentencing, Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said on Friday that in India the trial of the Pakistani origin American would have been more severe and would have been given a longer jail term for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
American prosecutors may seek a lesser sentence for Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley -- under a plea agreement the latter has clinched with the Federal Bureau of Investigation -- at the sentencing of the Pakistani-American terrorist in a United States court on Thursday.
A United States court on Wednesday rescheduled the sentencing of Pakistani American LeT terrorist David Headley, accused of involvement in 26/11 Mumbai attacks, from January 17 to January 24, while that of his accomplice Tahawwur Rana has been rescheduled for a second time to January 17.
Following a day of protests on Sunday across India over the brutal rape of a 23-year-old medical student, several cities held silent candle light vigils to remember the young woman.
Amid clamour for death penalty for rapists, Law Minister Ashwani Kumar on Monday said that the society as well as jurists were divided on the issue and government was open to persuasion by either side.
'True closure will come only when we as a people, as a civilisation, can relax in crowded, public places without fear, when the ugly metal detectors that greet us at the entrance of every single public space goes forever. That is a distant dream, towards realising which Kasab's sentence is but a baby-step.'
While the United States has already shown dissatisfaction over Pakistan's claims that Dr Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani physician who helped the Central Intelligence Agency track down and kill Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, had relation with militants, the Pakistan Taliban have not only rejected the reports of any links with him, but has also said that the imprisoned doctor is 'wajib-ul-qatal' (one that deserve death penalty), as he helped the US to kill bin Laden
Prominent human rights body People's Union of Civil Liberties has condemned 26/11 Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab's hanging. In a press release, PUCL also pointed out that Kasab was only a foot soldier, and the masterminds of the 26/11 terror strikes are still at large.
The execution of Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab in the wee hours on Wednesday has been welcomed by people from all over India. After nearly a four-year-long legal battle, , the Supreme Court had confirmed the death penalty awarded to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative by the trial court and later upheld by the Bombay high court.
The hanging of 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab in a Pune jail comes a day after India opposed a UN General Assembly draft resolution which sought abolition of the death penalty, with New Delhi arguing that capital punishment in India is exercised in case of a crime so heinous that it "shocks" the conscience of society.
In an unpublicised case, a young Saudi Arabian princess has been granted asylum by the British government after she pleaded that she would face the death penalty if she returned home with her illegitimate child.The young woman, married to an elderly member of the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia, won her claim for refugee status after telling a judge that her adulterous affair with her non- Muslim English boyfriend made her liable to death by stoning if she returned.
Former president of the Indian Youth Congress M.S Bitta, who was the target of the 1993 blast that Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar is accused of carrying out, on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's refusal to commute his death penalty sentence to life imprisonment, and added that he would work to ensure it was carried out.
While the conversion of girls belonging to minority communities into Islam and their marriages with Muslim boys have been lauded by religious circles in Pakistan, two Muslim-turned-Christian girls and their husbands are on the run in Punjab province.
India has got a breather with the constitutional court of Portugal staying the order of its Supreme Court on violation of extradition agreement of underworld don Abu Salem by New Delhi by slapping new charges invoking death penalty.
The sentence shall commence after he serves the sentence of imprisonment in the other cases, the judge said. This is the 19th case out of the 20 murder cases registered against the criminal, who has killed several women using the deadly cyanide after befriending and raping them.
The statement said nobody has the authority to waive death penalties prescribed by the Quran for certain crimes. "In the case of murder, only the heirs of the deceased have the right to pardon. Death punishment is awarded on the crimes such as robbery, adultery (both male/female) and blasphemy. Even an apostate is supposed to be killed," the statement said.
The court dismissed the last-ditch appeal by his mother, saying Dharmalingam has been given "due process in accordance with the law".
The indictment announced by the department of justice has accused Purinton of shooting and killing Kuchibhotla, and attempting to kill Alok Madasani, also an Indian national, because of their actual and perceived race, colour, religion and national origin.
The Delhi Police is likely to file the chargesheet in the gangrape-cum-murder case of a 23-year-old girl in court here tomorrow and will seek death penalty for the accused during the trial.
She hoped there would be a transformation in the country with a "different kind of society" where women need not live in an atmosphere of fear.
The draft bill provides for capital punishment for crimes against women and children, specifies deadline of 30 days to complete the probe since the day the complaint in such cases is lodged and puts the onus on social media platforms as well as internet provider companies to share the data for police investigation.
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