MOSCOW. (Professor Mikhail Barshchevsky for RIA Novosti) - Under Iraqi law, the term for enforcing the death penalty for former President Saddam Hussein expires on December 5. A number of human rights and public organizations have sent requests to the Iraqi government to remit the death penalty.
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft which is to carry three astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) was launched in the early hours of Monday, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.