the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”Iraq’s Deputy Justice Minister Bosho Ibrahim told Reuters the number of Iraqis on death row was around 150, higher than the U.N estimate of 115 He rejected the U.N criticisms.”They missed the truth Iraqi justice is fair,” he said “What is said in this report could be said of Saddam’s time. In the whole history of Iraq, we have never witnessed trials as fair as those being conducted nowadays.”Iraq reintroduced the death penalty in 2004 after it was suspended following the U.S.-led invasion a year earlier.The U.N. official said the pause in executions was “something of a mystery” but may have been because Iraq had no permanent justice minister for most of that period.Rights groups say trials ending in death sentences are often poorly conducted in a country where insurgents have assassinated numerous judges and the government has been rebuilt completely since the invasion in 2003.”It is of particular concern that the prohibition of the use of evidence — including confessions — gathered under duress or torture, and the right not to be compelled to .. confess guilt, are often violated in Iraq,” the U.N. statement said.HANGMAN SADDAMIraq’s most high-profile execution since 2003 was that of former dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Arab hanged in 2006 after being convicted of crimes against humanity over the killing of 148 Shi’ite men and boys in the 1980s.Some rights groups say his trial was tainted by politics.Members of Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority were outraged by a video that showed the ousted leader being subjected to sectarian taunts by official observers from the Shi’ite-led governing coalition just before he was executed.His half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was executed two weeks later in a botched hanging that tore off his head.Rights group Amnesty International has called on Iraq to make public the names of those to be executed, and the charges against them. It says the death penalty is an ineffective deterrent in a country plagued by suicide bombers and others willing to sacrifice their lives.Ibrahim rejected that argument.”Executions are necessary in Iraq, (which faces) .. terrorism,” he said. “Why are they (the U.N.) criticizing us but not criticizing the United States for practicing execution?”Amnesty estimates that more than 130 people have been executed in the past three years, and many more sentenced to death, while cautioning accurate figures are hard to obtain.The fate of tens of thousands of Iraqis, many of them Sunni Arabs, in U.S.

and Iraqi detention is a sensitive issue as the country tries to recover from years of sectarian bloodshed.(Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim; editing by Robert Woodward). * Q1 adj loss/shr $0.55 vs est of $0.42/shr loss Stocks  |  Global Markets * Revenue falls 9 pct * Says cautious about 2009 outlook * Says in compliance with debt covenants * Shares fall 8 pct, but pare losses (Recasts; adds details, updates share movement) May 6 (Reuters) – Car-rental company Dollar ThriftyAutomotive Group Inc (DTG.N) posted a narrower quarterly loss,helped by lower expenses, but said it expects fleet costs toremain challenging on a year-over-year basis. However, Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Dollar Thrifty, which had$193 million of cash and cash equivalents as of March 31, saidit is in full compliance with all of the financial covenantsunder its various financing arrangements with lenders. Shares of the company fell as much as 8 percent but paredlosses and were up 17 cents at $4.90 in midday trade on the NewYork Stock Exchange.

The company expects 2009 vehicle rental revenue to be down6 percent to 12 percent In 2008, vehicle rental revenue stoodat $1.62 billion. Rental car companies, like Dollar Thrifty, Hertz GlobalHoldings Inc (HTZ.N) and Avis Budget Group Inc (CAR.N), havebeen hurt by the slowing economy as customers cut theirdiscretionary spending on travel, translating to lower rentals. The company said it expects 2009 to be difficult asuncertainty surrounding the U.S. economic recovery willcontinue to weigh on consumer confidence. Dollar Thrifty’s exposure to its primary supplier ChryslerLLC, which has filed for bankruptcy, has been further reducedsince March 31, the company said in a statement.