The Chinese National People's Congress on Friday approved a landmark law protecting private property by a 2799-52 vote. Chinese lawmakers have been considering the bill for over 13 years, and the final version grants equal protections to both public and private property and states that the "property of the state, the collective, the individual and [...]

International police organization Interpol Thursday agreed to issue arrest notices for six men thought to be connected with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people. Argentina had initially sought to have a number of high ranking Iranian officials, including former Iran President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani arrested, but [...]

Legislators in Mexico City have begun deliberations on a bill that would legalize abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy. The bill, proposed by the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) , would loosen Mexico's strict abortion laws within the boundary of the capital city. Abortion is generally illegal throughout the heavily Roman Catholic country, with exceptions [...]

Spain's Chamber of Deputies , the lower house of the Spanish Parliament, approved a gender equality bill Thursday designed to draw more women into politics and corporate life. The bill had previously been approved by Spain's Senate . The initiative spearheaded by the majority Socialist Party passed the 350-seat body by a 190-0 margin with [...]

White House advisor Karl Rove originally suggested firing all 93 US Attorneys in January 2005, according to an email conversation released by the US Department of Justice Thursday. The e-mails appear to contradict the White House's assertion Tuesday that the idea to comprehensively dismiss US Attorneys first came from former White House counsel Harriet Miers [...]

The German Federal Court of Justice on Thursday ruled Nazi symbols could be used to protest extremism, overturning an October decision by a state court in Stuttgart . The lower court had ordered Juergen Kamm, who began an internet company called Nix Gut , to pay a fine of 3,600 euros (US $4,600) for selling [...]

French President Jacques Chirac will be questioned by a judge this summer regarding his involvement in rigging public works contracts to finance political parties when he was mayor of Paris in the late 1980s and early '90s, according to justice officials Thursday. It is alleged that from 1988 to 1997, companies kicked back money spent [...]

The appeals chamber of the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) on Thursday upheld the death penalty for former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan , rejecting his appeal of the sentence handed down in the Saddam Hussein Dujail crimes against humanity trial. Ramadan was convicted by the IHT alongside Saddam Hussein in November and originally sentenced [...]

The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday upheld an election law prohibiting media outlets from broadcasting final election results in areas where the polls have not yet closed, finding the law a reasonable limit on freedom of expression as it ensures "informational equality among voters." Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act , enacted in [...]

The Supreme Court of Israel should re-organize as an independent body, severing financial and administrative ties with the Israeli Justice Ministry , Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch said in a press conference Wednesday. Beinisch suggested that the Justice Department's influence over the Supreme Court threatens the judicial independence of the Court. Last November, Beinisch suggested [...]