Thailand's opposition Democrat party Wednesday announced it would launch an impeachment bid against Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej after a series of court decisions against key officials in the government and Samak's People Power Party (PPP). On Wednesday, the Thai Constitutional Court dismissed Thai Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsup from office after finding he had [...]
A former Chinese anti-corruption prosecutor was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for torturing to death a government official in May 2007. Xiong Zhengliang was convicted of killing Liang Jiping, a deputy director of a government electricity utility, while Liang was in custody for allegedly accepting bribes. Xiong and two deputies beat and deprived Liang of [...]
A pair of Bosnian Serb cousins went to trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Wednesday on charges of murder, extermination and torture. Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic are accused of crimes against humanity related to their actions as part of a paramilitary unit during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, including several [...]
The US Senate Wednesday voted 69-28 to approve a bill amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies participating in the NSA warrantless surveillance program . Earlier in the day, the Senate had rejected three proposed amendments to the bill that would have limited immunity. The Dodd-Feingold-Leahy amendment , [...]
Israeli rights group Yesh Din published an update Tuesday to its 2006 report detailing the lack of investigations and prosecutions of Israeli settlers who commit crimes against Palestinians . According to the report, Israeli police have issued indictments in less than 10 percent of complaints filed by Palestinians monitored by the group, and most of [...]
Attorney General Michael Mukasey denied Wednesday that proposed Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) guidelines would allow agents to open terror investigations based solely on a person's race, religion, or ethnicity. Testifying at a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee , Mukasey said that travel to foreign terror "hot spots" would be one of many factors [...]
The chief judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia said Tuesday that the US government should make detention appeals by Guantanamo detainees a top priority, and devote all necessary resources to ensuring that the appeals reach trial in a timely manner. Judge Thomas F. Hogan made the comments at the first hearing concerning [...]
Judges at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) Wednesday denied the bail request of former Khmer Rouge minister for social affairs Ieng Thirith , finding that she could be criminally culpable for her actions and that she is still dangerous to society. The ECCC ordered Ieng Thirith into provisional detention in November [...]
A UK intelligence official said Tuesday that there are "very strong indications" that the Russian government was behind the murder of former KGB agent and British citizen Alexander Litvinenko . The official made the comments anonymously during a television interview with the BBC, and asserted that the type of poison used proves Russia's involvement in [...]
The US government is preventing the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from paying lawyers defending Guantanamo Bay terrorism suspects on trial before US military commissions , ACLU director Anthony Romero said Tuesday. Lawyers for the group's John Adams Project are defending detainees included on the US Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control list of sanctioned [...]
