The transitional government of Somalia has agreed to cooperate with a UN probe into alleged human rights violations that occurred during recent fighting in the country's capital, according to UN emergency relief co-ordinator John Holmes Monday. Despite that, the Somali government maintains that no abuses took place. Recent fighting between warlords and government-backed troops, most [...]
The Ukrainian Constitutional Court announced Monday that it will consider whether a second decree by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to dissolve parliament and hold early June elections was constitutional. The court is already mulling the constitutionality of Yushchenko's first decree dissolving parliament and calling for new elections. He issued a second decree last month, reiterating [...]
US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff met with the European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee Monday in his latest bid to convince the EU to allow the transfer of detailed information regarding passengers on US-bound flights to all relevant US government agencies. The current interim deal , which expires in July, allows up to [...]
The court-martial of the Navy lawyer accused of passing then-undisclosed names of Guantanamo detainees to a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) began Monday. In its opening statement, the prosecution argued that Lt. Cmdr. Matthew M. Diaz, a former staff judge advocate at Guantanamo Bay , endangered the lives of detainees and of [...]
The US District Court for the Southern District of Florida heard opening statements Monday in the federal trial of US citizen and alleged al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla . The government told jurors that Padilla and his two co-defendants were members of a secret terrorist cell based out of the Miami area, while an attorney [...]
The German state court in Darmstadt convicted two former Siemens AG officials on Monday of bribing and assisting in the bribery of two managers at Enel , Italy's largest utilities company. Andreas Kley, a former finance chief, and Horst Vigener, a former employee-consultant, admitted that they provided up to $7.9 million dollars to secure winning [...]
The Connecticut Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in the case of eight gay couples who are unhappy with Connecticut's civil unions law and are seeking full marriage rights. Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) attorney Bennett Klein, representing the couples, argued that the fundamental principles of marriage are not grounded in gender, and [...]
A Syrian court sentenced writer and activist Michel Kilo Monday to a prison term of three years for "speaking false news, weakening national feeling and inciting sectarian sentiments." Kilo was arrested in May 2005 along with nine other Syrians shortly after signing the so-called Beirut-Damascus Declaration of 12 May , which calls for the normalization [...]
Pojaman Shinawatra, wife of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra , her brother Banpot Damapong, and her personal secretary Kanchanapa Honghern, pleaded not guilty Monday to two counts of tax evasion and perjury at the Bangkok Criminal Court. The three allegedly failed to pay taxes on a 1997 transfer of stock in the Shin Corporation [...]
Approximately 1.5 million people descended upon Izmir, Turkey Sunday to demonstrate against the Islamist-rooted government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan , expressing their commitment to the concept of a secular republic. The protesters also denounced the Turkish military for its threat to intervene in presidential elections in order to preserve secularism, calling for [...]
