Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Murigande and the registrar of the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) , Adama Dieng signed an agreement Tuesday allowing those convicted by the genocide tribunal to serve their sentences in Rwanda. Rwanda joins Benin, France, Italy, Mali, Swaziland and Switzerland as a country qualified to hold those convicted by [...]
US Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) pleaded not guilty Tuesday in the US District Court of Arizona to charges including extortion, money laundering, and wire fraud in connection with a complex land scheme. Renzi was indicted last month along with Texas real estate investor James W. Sandlin and former business partner Andrew Beardall. Renzi was released [...]
Italian prosecutors have filed an appeal of a Rome court's dismissal of a criminal case against US Army Spc. Mario Lozano for the alleged 2005 murder of Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari and the attempted murders of agent Andrea Carpani and Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena in Iraq, according to Tuesday media reports. The Italian agents [...]
The California Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in consolidated cases challenging California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage . In 2006, the state Attorney General requested that the Court review an intermediate appellate court's decision to uphold the same-sex marriage ban. Plaintiffs in In re Marriage Cases argued that the right to marry is protected [...]
Some 200 Afghan parliamentarians demonstrated Tuesday at the parliament building in Kabul against last month's reprinting of a cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Poste . The protesters urged the government to call on Danish envoys to discuss what they saw as a challenge to Muslim communities across the world. They [...]
A federal judge Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Barr Pharmaceuticals seeking to overturn the FDA's 2006 decision to approve the over-the-counter sale of so-called "morning after" Plan B emergency contraceptive pill to women 18 and over. The [...]
The National Parliament of East Timor voted Monday to recommend that an international commission be formed to investigate last month's assassination attempts against East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao . The parliament urged that the government coordinate with the United Nations to establish the commission, which should include a variety of [...]
Egyptian security officials arrested 54 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood Tuesday, as Egypt began candidate registration for the upcoming April 8 provincial council elections . Egypt's provincial councils administer local municipal government services. These municipal elections were originally scheduled for 2006, but the Egyptian legislature passed a law delaying the election for two years [...]
Serbian prosecutors on Tuesday ordered the arrest of an unidentified suspect believed to be responsible for the burning of the US embassy in Belgrade last month. The unidentified suspect, who is facing charges of violating public security and theft, faces a maximum sentence of up to 12 years in prison. On February 22, Serbian demonstrators [...]
US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff sent letters to the governors of several states on Monday, urging them to comply with an upcoming deadline to adopt comprehensive driver's license standards to bring their state IDs in line with the requirements of the Real ID Act . According to the letter, if holdout states fail [...]
