The constitutional scholars who drafted the interim Palestinian constitution spoke out against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Monday, saying that although Abbas had the right to dismiss former Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh , he acted against the constitution in June by appointing the new "emergency" government excluding Hamas without the legislature's approval and by [...]
An English court Monday found four men guilty for plotting the failed bomb attacks on London's subway and bus systems on July 21, 2005, two weeks after a similar attack killed 52 people. The jury at the Woolrich Crown Court unanimously found Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar, Ramzi Mohammad, and Hussain Osman guilty of conspiracy [...]
Ethiopian prosecutors Monday sought the death penalty against 38 opposition members convicted in June of treason and inciting violence for their roles in mass anti-government demonstrations , saying that the defendants have not demonstrated remorse and therefore should be subjected to the harshest punishment. The opposition members, most of whom belonged to the Coalition for [...]
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have charged two men with murder for their role in the 2005 shooting deaths of four Mounties in an Alberta ambush , the highest death toll suffered by Canada's national police force in over 100 years. Dennis Keegan Rodney Cheeseman and Sean William Hennesey are not believed to have [...]
House Judiciary Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) urged the White House Monday to waive executive privilege concerning its decision to commute the prison sentence for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby , saying that the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday to determine why President Bush commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence . Conyers also expressed [...]
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Monday urged the Filipino government to revisit the controversial 2007 Human Security Act , saying that "many voices are apprehensive" about the anti-terror legislation. Critics say the law defines terrorism too loosely and gives government authorities too much latitude to restrict civil liberties. The law, which was [...]
The White House Monday renewed and elaborated its assertion of executive privilege as regards testimony and materials wanted by Congressional investigators in connection with the US Attorney firings controversy . In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) , White House counsel Fred Fielding [...]
New French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an interview published Sunday by the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche that he will not continue with the tradition of granting mass pardons on Bastille Day, adding that he will not use pardons as a way to reduce overcrowding in the prison system. Sarkozy, who campaigned on a [...]
Thousands of Japanese "war orphans" , children abandoned in China after World War II, have accepted an aid proposal from the Japanese government in exchange for abandoning all compensation claims, government spokesperson Yasuhisa Shiozaki announced Monday. The aid proposal will increase the victims' monthly pension from $178 to $535, and the government will also provide [...]
Indonesian prosecutors filed a civil action against former President Haji Mohammad Suharto Monday, alleging that Suharto embezzled $440 million from the Yayasan Supersemar, a state-funded academic scholarship fund, between 1974 and 1998. The suit, which seeks to recover the $440 million and an additional $1.1 billion in damages, represents the latest effort by the Indonesian [...]
