Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Rwanda to conduct an "independent and impartial" investigation into an increasing number of alleged extrajudicial killings, saying in a report Tuesday that Rwanda National Police officers have killed at least 20 prisoners in the past seven months. HRW said that most of the killings were committed against detainees accused [...]
Jury selection began Tuesday in the court-martial of US Marine Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, charged with murder, kidnapping, larceny, assault, housebreaking, conspiracy, and making a false official statement for his alleged role in the April 2006 kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania . Hutchins, the leader of the squad involved in [...]
Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan said Tuesday that the US Food and Drug Administration is currently unable to handle the responsibility of tobacco regulation. A bill introduced by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) would put the tobacco industry under FDA regulation, something that the FDA itself has previously lobbied for, but McClellan said that the [...]
Three former Vietnamese government officials and six others will face organized gambling and bribery charges in court next month, a Hanoi People's Court official said Tuesday. 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 [...]
US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday denied pressuring then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to give the Department of Justice's reauthorization of the controversial warrantless domestic surveillance program while Ashcroft was hospitalized. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales, who was White House Counsel at the time, said that he and then-White House Chief of [...]
A court in India sentenced three men to death on Tuesday for their involvement in the 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed 257 people and injured more than 700 in India's financial center. The court found Zakir Hussain, Abdul Akhtar Khan and Firoz Akram Amani Malik guilty of throwing grenades at houses during the bombings. A [...]
Lawyers representing former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega Monday filed motions seeking to avert extradition from the US to France on money laundering charges when he is released from federal prison on September 9 . Noriega's lawyers argue that Noriega should remain classified as a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions and therefore should be [...]
An Orleans Parish grand jury Tuesday refused to indict Dr. Anna Pou on charges of killing four patients at the Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina . Pou and two nurses were arrested last year, with prosecutors arguing that they had committed second-degree murder. The charges against the nurses [...]
The United Nations Office of Legal Affairs rejected Taiwan's fifteenth bid for member state status Monday, reiterating the One-China Policy and recognizing the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the legitimate government of China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Jianchao characterized Taiwan's latest effort to join the UN as a "separatist act of the 'Taiwan [...]
US Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) told Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday that he should consider appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the US Attorneys firing scandal . In a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing , Specter said that Gonzales may have to appoint the investigator because the Bush administration has made statements that would [...]
