A Moscow court on Wednesday found Maksim V. Kashulinsky, publisher of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, guilty of defamation for saying publicly that the subject of an upcoming piece had filed a lawsuit to make changes to the story, and that Kashulinsky thought the lawsuit was a violation of media freedom and amounted to [...]

Iram Janjua : "The number of practising Muslims in Britain and Europe is increasing with some women preparing to manifest a more stricter affirmation of their religious identity by choosing to wear the niqab (face veil) as opposed to the more common hijab (headscarf) and this is where the controversy lies. Here, I do not [...]

A third US soldier pleaded guilty Wednesday for his role in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the murder of her family in the Mahmudiya area last March. Pfc. Bryan Howard pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit rape and premeditated murder and conspiracy to obstruct justice in a case that has [...]

Banned Egyptian opposition group the Muslim Brotherhood announced Wednesday that it plans to boycott next week's referendum on controversial constitutional amendments proposed last year by President Hosni Mubarak and recently approved by lawmakers. The Brotherhood, while illegal in Egypt, currently holds 88 seats in the Egyptian Parliament ; Brotherhood members were responsible for the majority [...]

Former Vice President Al Gore testified before US congressional committees Wednesday that global warming is "a crisis that threatens the survival of our civilization and the habitability of the Earth." In his opening statement to a joint session of the House committees on Energy and Commerce and Science and Technology , Gore reviewed new evidence [...]

The Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC) announced Wednesday they will initiate an application with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice alleging that three Canadian criminal offenses are unconstitutional under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms . Prostitution is legal in Canada, but the advocacy group argues that the combined effect of three provisions – [...]

Two independent UN rights experts voiced concern Wednesday over Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's recent suspension of Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry for "misuse of office" and ensuing protests across the country. In a joint statement , UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Leandro Despouy and the Secretary-General's Special Representative on the [...]

Serge Brammertz , the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court who is leading the UN's independent investigation into the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri told the UN Security Council Wednesday that he has made progress in finding the motive behind Hariri's assassination, but also requested an additional year to continue [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Wednesday denied a petition for review of a 2004 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order preempting state regulation over Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, such as Vonage and other Internet phone companies. Several state regulatory commissions had challenged the order as arbitrary and capricious. In [...]

The Canadian government opened an official inquiry Wednesday into allegations by three Canadian citizens that Canadian security forces played a role in their arrest and alleged torture in Syria between 2001 and 2004. Kuwaiti-born Ahmed Al Maati, Syrian-born Abdullah Almalki and Iraqi-born Muayyed Nureddin each claim they were detained and tortured by Syrian military intelligence [...]