Nine defendants, including three former Vietnamese government officials, accused of involvement in organized gambling and bribery went on trial Wednesday before the Hanoi People's Court. Bui Tien Dung, a former project management head in the Ministry of Transportation , allegedly placed bets totaling $760,000 on European soccer matches and subsequently attempted to cover up the [...]
A Saudi Arabian court dismissed charges against three members of the country's religious police force and a police officer implicated in the death of detainee Ahmed al-Bulaiwi, a relative of the deceased said Tuesday. The religious police, also known as the mutaween , are employed by the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the [...]
Nuradin Abdi, a Somali national accused of planning terror attacks on shopping malls in the US, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists Tuesday. Under the plea agreement Abdi will serve 10 years in prison and pay a fine of $100,000. According to the DOJ press release, Abdi traveled abroad in 1999 [...]
EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini is moving forward with plans to create a single European Union prosecutor and strengthen the the EU's prosecutorial body Eurojust , according to an interview with EUobserver published Wednesday. Frattini indicated that once EU leaders agree to the Reform Treaty , the commission will proceed with [...]
Amnesty International Tuesday urged the Mexican government to initiate a probe into alleged abuses by government authorities during the 2006 uprising in the Mexican state of Oaxaca , saying that "ensuring that impunity for human rights violation is not allowed to prevail" will help to deter future abuses and be an opportunity for Mexican President [...]
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said publicly Tuesday that he has accepted the judgment of the judiciary to reinstate Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry , adding that the "four pillars" of democratic society consisting of the judiciary, legislature, executive, and media must be able to "conduct their roles without fear or favor." In July, the Supreme Court [...]
An Egyptian court rejected a petition from jailed opposition leader Ayman Nour for early release on medical grounds Tuesday, saying that evidence submitted by Nour failed to prove that his medical condition was life threatening or that his heart condition will be adversely affected by prison. Nour, who suffers from heart disease and diabetes, was [...]
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell Tuesday defended Attorney General Alberto Gonzales against accusations of lying to Congress during testimony last week. In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last Tuesday, Gonzales insisted that a 2004 disagreement between administration officials concerned another undisclosed intelligence program and not the domestic surveillance program called the "terrorist [...]
The US House voted 225-199 Tuesday to extend the deadline for employees to sue their employer for payment discrimination. The new legislation, the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 , would allow employees to sue within 180 days of their last affected paychecks, effectively reversing the ruling of the US Supreme Court in Ledbetter v. [...]
Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel said Tuesday that Georgia's controversial voter ID law will begin to be enforced during Georgia's September 18 Special Elections. Handel also said that the state is filing a motion to lift a stay of proceedings in a federal challenge , which had been stayed pending a ruling from the [...]
