On Tuesday, a legislation tabled in the Iraqi parliament could introduce new religious restrictions on women in the country, including laws which could make it legal for nine-year-old girls to marry and force married women to comply with their husband’s sexual demands. The bill looks to be the last legislation the current government will pass before the elections towards the …

The New York Police Department has abandoned their secret program which dispatched plainclothes detectives to Muslim neighbourhoods to snoop in on conversations and build detailed files on where people prayed, shopped and ate, the department said. The decision from new NYPD Commissioner William J. Bratton comes as he tries to distance himself from the post-9/11 intelligence-gathering methods used by his …

A Saudi court ordered the arrest of an eminent rights lawyer Waleed Abulkhair, who was on trial for defying the ruler and insulting the authorities in the conservative kingdom, according to his wife Samar Badawi. Abulkhair was on bail for organizing unapproved meetings for reformists when he went to the fifth hearing of his trial on Tuesday at a court …

On Monday, Pro-Russian insurgents covered even more Ukrainian separatist territory, as the new western-backed government in Ukraine looked for a way out of the international crisis by seeking UN help and proposing a referendum. Russia added a perilous tone to the escalation, saying that President Putin had received “a lot” of requests from the Russian-majority rust belt in Ukraine, “to …

On Monday, a UN human rights monitor urged Iran to stop the execution of an Iranian Reyhaneh Jabbari, who allegedly murdered a former intelligence official, saying that the trial was deeply flawed. Jabbari has always maintained that she acted in self-defence against a sexual assault. The case raises several concerns because of Jabbari’s alleged forced confession and the errors made …

On Monday, it came to light that the FBI had subjected a member of the defense team for the five alleged 9/11 conspirators to a “chilling” interrogation in order to gain information from the attorney. At the hearing in the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Defense attorneys said it hurt their ability to best represent their clients in the prominent terrorism …

On Friday, Switzerland confirmed that that the Palestinian authority has formally signed up to the Geneva Conventions. Switzerland is the international guardian of the treaty, which sets down all regulations on humanitarian operation and warfare in conflict zones in the world. Spokesman for the Swiss Foreign Ministry Pierre-Alain Eltschinger has said that the Palestinian Authority had declared itself a part …

On Tuesday, the Syrian army backed by pro-regime militia entered rebel-held neighbourhoods in the city of Homs after laying siege to them for almost two years. The assault comes a day after the regime had regained control of the Christian town Maalula in Qalamun. Earlier this year, a UN operation had evacuated over 1,400 people trapped in the besieged neighbourhoods …