The United States government said this week it wants airlines and cruise liners to take biometric data from foreigners leaving the country under new plans aimed at fighting terrorism and illegal immigration. The US-Visit programme is open to consultation for the next two months.
The United States Supreme Court will on Monday take up the thorny issue of lethal injections in a bid to determine if this method of executing death-row inmates conforms with the Constitution, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment. The review comes after death-penalty opponents have demonstrated that lethal injection can in fact be painful.
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/ 21 October 2007
A month after the United States Supreme Court agreed to wade into the lethal injection debate, executions are effectively on hold across the nation as courts and politicians sit tight. On September 25, the country’s highest court agreed to examine whether lethal injections are ”cruel and unusual” punishment.
Facing stirrings of Republican revolt over Iraq and domestic policy disappointment, United States President George Bush can at least point to the Supreme Court for an enduring legacy. The US’s ultimate constitutional arbiter has tilted rightwards under Bush — a shift that could endure for decades.
Former White House aide Lewis ”Scooter” Libby was sentenced on Tuesday to 30 months in prison for perjury and obstruction in a case which also put a glaring spotlight on the flawed United States case for waging war against Iraq. Libby, formerly one of the most trusted aides to US Vice-President Dick Cheney, was convicted in March for lying to federal investigators.
The United States Supreme Court examines on Monday a case raising questions over free-speech rights in US high schools as it hears arguments over a student’s unfurling of a quirky banner proclaiming ”Bong Hits 4 Jesus”. In 2002, the student, then 18, unveiled the huge banner as the Olympic flame passed in front of a crowd.
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/ 11 October 2006
The United States Department of Homeland Security plans to develop software that analyses and summarises opinions expressed in articles, providing a possible tool for better monitoring what is written about the US in the global press. The department says it will spend ,4-million supporting research to analyse human language in texts.