Sudanese lawmakers on Tuesday adopted a law addressing how a 2011 referendum for southern independence will be conducted. Agreed to earlier this month by leaders of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of President Omar al-Bashir and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) of Salva Kiir , the referendum will require a 60 percent voter [...]
Gino Raymond : "For most commentators in France, the decision by French state prosecutors that former president Jacques Chirac had no case to answer regarding his alleged financial improprieties during his time as mayor of Paris, left only the theoretical possibility that the examining magistrate handling the allegations, Xavière Simeoni, would nonetheless press ahead with [...]
A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections said Monday that the state will begin transferring prisoners out of state to reduce prison overcrowding . State officials will transfer 2,000 prisoners , with 1,000 going to a facility in Michigan and another 1,000 going to a Virginia prison. The transfers are scheduled to begin by [...]
Mexico City's local assembly approved a same-sex marriage law on Monday, seeking to extend equal rights to gay couples throughout the city. The proposed legislation would allow for marriage, adoption, inheritance, and other human, economic, and social rights. The provisions also seek to end discrimination based on sexual orientation. Mexico City mayor Marcelo Ebrard is [...]
Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam and former hedge fund consultant Danielle Chiesi pleaded not guilty Monday to insider trading charges. The pair were indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Manhattan on charges of conspiracy and securities fraud for their alleged role in the largest hedge fund insider trading case in [...]
The Guinean military junta committed crimes against humanity during the September 28 incidents at Conakry , according to a report by a UN fact-finding mission leaked Monday. The commission concluded that military junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara should be held responsible for the violence at the pro-democracy rally in which soldiers allegedly opened fire, killing [...]
The World Trade Organization (WTO) on Monday rejected a Chinese appeal of an August ruling that Chinese controls on US imports of books, music, and audiovisual materials violate international trade regulations. The dispute originally arose in April 2007 when the US filed a complaint over Chinese restrictions allowing certain state-owned companies to reserve the right [...]
Violent crime in the US decreased 4.4 percent in the first half of 2009, according to the FBI's Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report published Monday. Specifically, murder decreased 10 percent, robbery dropped 6.5 percent, forcible rape fell 3.3 percent, and aggravated assault decreased 3.2 percent. While violent crime rates dropped across the country as a [...]
The UN on Monday called for leaders of the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to be apprehended for war crimes in southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between September 2008 and June 2009. The LRA is accused of killing, raping, and mutilating more than 1,200 men, women, and children, abducting at [...]
Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of fraud and corruption that led to his resignation last year. Olmert is accused of illegally accepting cash contributions from American businessman Moshe Talansky, double billing travel expenses to the state and charitable donors, and giving his former law partner Uri Messer access [...]
