HE the Attorney-General Dr Ali bin Fetais al-Marri delivered a welcoming speech on this occasion. He said that Qatar offers great support to the judiciary on all levels and affirms its independence.

India's vice president on Monday rejected an unprecedented petition by seven opposition parties to impeach the top judge for "misbehaviour", saying that the allegations were "neither tenable nor admissible".

Chief Justice Dipak Misra came under a cloud in January when the four next highest-ranking judges in the Supreme Court criticised his distribution of cases to judges and raised concerns about judicial appointments.

A Baghdad court on Monday sentenced six Turkish women to death and a seventh to life in prison for membership of the Islamic State jihadist group, a judicial source said.

A group of judges and four court employees' organisations called on Monday for the Philippines' chief justice to step down and make a "sacrifice" to restore peace and order in the judiciary, a plea she strongly rejected.

A UN rights group said on Monday the detention of two Supreme Court judges in the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives was an attack on the independence of the judiciary and undermined the rule of law.

The judges said they were making their disagreement with Chief Justice Dipak Misra public after private talks failed to address what they said were serious problems with the running of India's highest court.

Bangladesh's Supreme Court has scrapped parliament's power to sack top judges, in a landmark verdict that lawyers said Wednesday bolstered the independence of the country's judiciary.

A privately owned newspaper in Oman said on its website on Wednesday it had been suspended from publishing, a day after the government said it had "taken measures" against a paper for insulting the judiciary.

United Nations human rights experts have urged Sri Lanka

Iran's billionaire tycoon Babak Zanjani has been sentenced to death for corruption, a judicial official said Sunday, after a long trial in which he was accused of fraudulently pocketing $2.8 billion.