The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) has filed a federal civil rights complaint with the US Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Office of Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity (FHEO) claiming that two leading credit rating agencies, Moody's Investor Services and Fitch Inc. , caused significant damage to African-American and Latino communities during the [...]
Former Argentine President Carlos Menem was formally charged Friday with illegally trafficking arms to Croatia and Ecuador, contrary to a 1991 UN embargo against Croatia and a 1995 Organization of American States (OAS) ban on selling arms to Ecuador. Defense lawyers contend the then-president authorized legal arms shipments to Venezuela and Panama which were then [...]
The Namibia-based Southern African Development Community Tribunal on Friday ruled that 78 white Zimbabwe farmers whose land was seized by the Zimbabwe government under its farm redistribution program were owed compensation and that the seizures were racially motivated, discriminatory and contrary to the treaty setting up the Southern African Development Community . The farmers, many [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday urged accountability for abuses as a prerequisite to quelling six years of fighting and restoring peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) . Speaking at the opening of a Special Session on the Congo crisis at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, [...]
The UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon could begin prosecuting suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on March 1, 2009 with its prosecutor's scheduled arrival at The Hague, according to a report from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the Security Council . The Special Tribunal will consist of 11 international and [...]
Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat demoted Police Chief Gen. Patcharawat Wongsuwan to an inactive position within the Prime Minister's office, according to media reports Friday. Patcharawat's removal comes a day after the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency because of continuing political protests at two airports, Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang , in the capital [...]
The European Commission (EC) Thursday called on Germany to modify its Volkswagen anti-takeover law within two months or else face referral of the matter to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) . The law, created in 1960 in order to privatize Volkswagen AG (VW) , was aimed at protecting the automaker from hostile takeovers by [...]
Moscow Military District Court judge Yevgeny Zubov Wednesday refused to recuse himself from the trial of three men accused of involvement in the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya . The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office had requested a new judge claiming that Zubov had violated procedural rules. Last week Zubov declared the trial would be [...]
The Mexican Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would amend the General Law of Health to allow terminally ill patients to refuse medical treatment. The bill passed with 84 votes in favor and only one abstention. Under the new law, a patient who has an incurable, irreversible disease and a life expectancy prognosis of [...]
The Iraqi parliament on Thursday approved a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that sets a 2011 deadline for the withdraw of US troops but also passed an additional law calling for a national referendum on the pact in July 2009. The vote on the SOFA had been delayed several times while majority Shia and minority [...]
