Headlines for Thursday, March 26, 2009

Police to investigate Gitmo detainee claims of MI5 torture complicity
In Britain Police announced they will investigate claims that the British secret service was complicit in the interrogation, rendition and torture of a Guantanamo Bay detainee. From London Naomi Fowler reports.

UN urges legal protection of rights for Afghan detainees
Arbitrary detention is widespread in Afghanistan and violates Afghan’s constitutional rights - this according to a new report from the United Nations.

Chief human rights officer of the UN mission in Afghanistan Norah Niland:

"There's a practice and a history in Afghanistan that people are quite often seem to be guilty before proven innocent rather than the other way around. In judicial systems, people are innocent until they are proven guilty. So there's an attitude issue which is really a history of how practice has been done in the past."

The UN report monitored 2,000 Afghan detentions between since 2006. It recommends authorities strengthen oversight and accountability.

In related news, Afghan authorities arrested a television presenter on Monday for offending Muslim clerics. Watchdog group, reporters Without Borders, says journalists face intensifying pressure in the lead-up to presidential elections. We’ll have more on Afghanistan later in the program.

Farmers strike in Argentina
In Argentina, farmers are continuing their nationwide strike in a battle over trade limits and export tariffs. FSRN’s Marie Trigona reports from Buenos Aires.

Border Defoliation on Hold
Plans to spray toxic herbicide along the US-Mexico border have been suspended. US Border Patrol officials want to use helicopters to douse vegetation on a 1-mile stretch of the Rio Grande River near Laredo Texas. They say defoliation would destroy plant life and make it easier to spot people hiding under trees. But Mexican officials oppose the plan, saying it could threaten human health and taint Nuevo Laredo’s water supply. If the US decides to move forward, the aerial spraying could expand to include more than 130 miles along the border.

Maryland Restricts Use of the Death Penalty
In Maryland lawmakers have approved a bill that will place restrictions on when the death penalty can be pursued by prosecutors.

The bill will require prosecutors to have DNA or biological evidence from the defendant before they can seek a death sentence. It will also require a videotaped confession and video of the defendant at the crime scene.

Among those who rallied lawmakers to support the measure was Democratic Delegate Craig Rice, whose aunt and cousin were murdered:

“I must tell you that I place my green vote today because I feel that as a supporter and proponent of the death penalty, that we need to lay to rest the concerns and fears that we are putting people to death that are innocent. No victim's family wants to hear that an innocent person has been put to death because of the death penalty. “

Maryland’s Governor Martin O'Malley is expected to sign the reform bill. He narrowly lost a fight in January to repeal the death penalty.