Mexico City - Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday proposed life sentences for those found guilty of kidnapping, in a move to curb a crime wave in the North American nation.
He sent the proposal to Parliament in the wake of outrage over the recent murder of a 14-year-old kidnapped boy.
The life sentences would be aimed particularly at public officials - such as police officers - involved in kidnappings, as well as those who snatch children, or abuse or sell their victims.
Baghdad - Iraq and the United States are close to reaching a deal under which all US combat troops would leave Iraq by December 2010, an Iraqi lawmaker said Thursday.
Haider al-Ababdi, a Shiite parliamentarian from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Dawa Party, said US troops would leave Iraq's cities and remain inside their bases by June 30, 2009. He said the two governments had been close to reaching a deal for about a week.
He also told broadcaster CNN that other troops would leave by the end of the next year.
New York - The United Nations urged the Sudanese government Thursday to review the death sentences of 30 African rebels in Darfur because the decisions may have failed to meet international standards.
Sudan's counter-terrorism court ruled that the rebels took part in the failed attacks against Khartoum in May and sentenced them to death. But the UN special envoy for Sudan Ashraf Qazi raised concerns that the rebels did not receive a fair trial.
Phnom Penh - The leader of a Hari Krishna-affiliated aid organization in Cambodia was to appeal a conviction for molesting a 12-year-old girl, a Phnom Penh court said Thursday.
Police said US national Thomas Rapanos Wayne, head of a Hare Krishna aid group, was found naked in the company of two girls, aged 12 and 16, when he was arrested in a guest house in the capital in March. The age of consent in Cambodia is 15.
Wayne, alias Tattva Darshan Das, 55, was sentenced Wednesday to two and a half years in prison for committing indecent acts against minors.
"He was convicted but he said he was innocent and he will appeal," court clerk Keing Bokhea said by telephone.
Berlin - A prominent centrist member of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD), whose outspoken comments have divided the party, sought Thursday to placate his critics while standing his ground on key issues.
Speaking to journalists in Bonn, Wolfgang Clement, 68, who served as Economics and Labour minister under former SPD chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, said he intended to remain in the party, despite an attempt to expel him.
"I am a Social Democrat, and I will remain a Social Democrat," Clement, who joined the party in 1970, said.
Mexico City - Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday proposed life sentences for those found guilty of kidnapping, in a move to curb a crime wave in the North American nation.
Baghdad - Iraq and the United States are close to reaching a deal under which all US combat troops would leave Iraq by December 2010, an Iraqi lawmaker said Thursday.
New York - The United Nations urged the Sudanese government Thursday to review the death sentences of 30 African rebels in Darfur because the decisions may have failed to meet international standards.
