Torture and other forms of inhumane treatment are still being used by several states despite a 25-year-old effort to eradicate them, U.N. experts said.“We have not yet achieved a world free from torture, but we believe that this goal is achievable, that rights and duties need to be taken seriously, and that supervisory organs with independent experts are an essential component to achieving that goal,” Claudio Grossman, head of a 10-member U.N. Committee against Torture, told the General Assembly

BEIJING (AP) ― The Chinese Communist Party has been reviewing preparations for an upcoming leadership transition, saying it will amend its constitution when it holds a key meeting in a few weeks. The announcement carried by the official Xinhua News Agency comes after the party’s 25-member Politburo met Monday. Xinhua did not provide details about the amendments. Brookings Institute expert on elite Chinese politics Cheng Li says he believes the party could be considering strengthening the rule of

L’AQUILA, Italy (AP) ― In a verdict that sent shock waves through the scientific community, an Italian court convicted seven experts of manslaughter on Monday for failing to adequately warn residents of the risk before an earthquake struck central Italy in 2009, killing more than 300 people.The defendants, all prominent scientists or geological and disaster experts, were sentenced to six years in prison.Earthquake experts worldwide decried the trial as ridiculous, contending there was no way of

Five teachers in Japan who sneaked off school grounds for a crafty cigarette in between lessons have been hit with hefty fines, officials said Tuesday.Education board bosses docked up to 500,000 yen ($6,300) from each of the five after they were caught smoking outside school gates during the working day.The five, who all work in the western city of Osaka, fell foul of a 2008 diktat by then-prefectural governor Toru Hashimoto, who imposed a total ban on lighting-up at all schools run by the autho

Six Italian scientists and a government official were sentenced to six years in jail on Monday for multiple manslaughter in a watershed ruling that found them guilty of underestimating the risks of a killer earthquake in 2009.They were also ordered to pay?more than nine million euros (almost $12 million) in damages to survivors in the devastated medieval town of L'Aquila in a case that has sparked outrage in the international science community.Seismologists in Italy and beyond were horrified by

The United Nations is already planning for a peacekeeping force in Syria should a cease-fire in that country take hold and pending a Security Council mandate, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said Monday.Herve Ladsous said, however, it was still too early to say how many peacekeepers might be deployed in such an eventual force.“I would confirm that, of course, we are giving a lot of thought to what would happen if and when a political solution or at least a cease-fire would emerge,” Ladsous told repo

CAIRO (AP) -- A man claiming to be al-Qaida's No. 2 in Yemen released an audio denying reports that he had died in a U.S. drone attack, as Yemeni officials said Monday that another top member of the terror network was killed in a drone strike earlier this month.The authenticity of the clip, purportedly made by Saeed al-Shihri, could not be confirmed. It was produced by al-Qaida's media arm in Yemen, al-Malahem, and posted on militant websites late Sunday. When top members of al-Qaida are killed,

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For months, the one reliable constant for President Barack Obama was the public's approval of his handling of foreign policy and terrorism. Al-Qaida was on the run, he would say. The war in Iraq was over. Bin Laden was dead. Crowds cheered, and national polls showed a majority in the country stood with him.But with two weeks left before Election Day, the landscape has changed. As Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney talk foreign policy in their final debate Monday night in B

Somalia piracy attacks against merchant shipping fell to the lowest in six years in the third quarter as armed guards on vessels and naval patrols cut attempted hijacks on the trade route linking Asia and Europe.One ship was attacked compared with 36 in the same quarter a year ago, the London-based International Maritime Bureau, which has been tracking incidents since 1991, said in an e- mailed report today. That's the fewest since the same period in 2006, when no attacks were reported, Assistan

BEIRUT (AP) -- Lebanese troops launched a major security operation on Monday to open all roads and force gunmen off the streets, trying to contain an outburst of violence set off by the assassination of a top intelligence official who was a powerful opponent of Syria. Sectarian clashes overnight killed at least two people.Opponents of Syria have blamed the regime in Damascus for the killing of Lebanese Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan in a Beirut car bomb on Friday. With Lebanon already tense and dee