Guatemala’s Constitutional Court overturned former dictator Efrain Rios Montt’s genocide conviction and ordered a partial retrial. Rios Montt was sentenced to 80 years in prison for the deaths of 1,771 Ixil Indians between March 1982 and August 1983 as part of a counter-insurgency campaign. By a vote of 3-2, the Constitutional Court threw out the verdict and the sentence - as well as the acquittal of another defendant - and ordered the trial court to repeat the segment of the process that took place between April 19 and May 10. The CC ruling means that retired Gen. Jose Rodriguez, who was head of military intelligence in 1982-1983, will be re-tried despite his having been found not guilty in the original process. Rios Montt, 86, is currently at the Military Hospital in Guatemala City, where he was taken eight days ago after fainting while en route to court. His conviction marked the first time any Guatemalan ruler has been called to account for the massacres and atrocities of the country’s 1960-1996 civil war. Prosecutors say 5.5 percent of Guatemala’s Ixils were killed during the rule of Rios Montt, which coincided with the bloodiest phase of a conflict that claimed more than 200,000 lives. Most of the dead were Indian peasants slaughtered by the army and its paramilitary allies.
A Moroccan court has convicted two men of homosexuality and public indecency, and sentenced each to four months in prison, in the latest case against gays in this North African nation.
Chief Washington correspondent could face up to ten years in prison if convicted of conspiracy.
Pope exorcism video goes viral.
A Truth Commission investigating human rights abuses under Brazil's military dictatorship says that those it finds guilty of torture could be brought to trial.
An 18-year-old Florida cheerleader is facing felony charges that she had sexual contact with her underage, 14-year-old girlfriend, leading gay rights advocates to say the teen is being unfairly targeted for a common high school romance because she's gay.
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Britain's House of Commons has passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in England and Wales.
Court ruled that photos taken of Osama Bin Laden after he was killed can remain classifyed
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