The US Senate voted 51-48 Wednesday to adopt an amendment to a new anti-terror bill , weakening union rights that would be granted to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport screeners under the bill. President Bush said last month that he would veto the anti-terror bill if provisions allowing TSA screeners to unionize were included in [...]

The European Court of Human Rights held a hearing Thursday to determine the admissibility and merits of a case filed in 2003 by 159 children of Norwegian mothers and German fathers born during World War II. Many of these "war children" or "krigsbarn", were officially registered as children of "Lebensborn" , a Nazi plot devised [...]

China accused the US of numerous human rights abuses on Thursday in its Human Rights Record of the US in 2006 , the Chinese state response to US criticism in Tuesday's publication of the 2006 US State Department Country Reports . The Chinese report, its eighth consecutive annual rebuttal to the US report, cites news [...]

The UK House of Commons backed two different proposals Wednesday on reforming the upper house of parliament , the House of Lords . Members of the House of Lords currently are appointed or hold hereditary peerages, but under the proposals at least 80 percent of members would be elected. Under the first plan approved by [...]

Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks will be arraigned before a US military commission on March 20, marking his first commission appearance after over five years in US detention. Australian Prime Minister John Howard confirmed the March 20 hearing in an interview with Southern Cross Broadcasting Thursday, expressing frustration at delays in bringing Hicks to [...]

The French Constitutional Council has upheld a law banning anyone other than professional reporters from filming or broadcasting acts of violence. Violators would face up to five years in prison and a fine of €75,000 (US$98,537). French lawmakers say the ban, proposed by Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy , will help stamp out delinquency, [...]

A Turkish court Wednesday ordered telecom providers in the country to block access to YouTube because of videos insulting the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk . The controversial videos have caused an uproar among Turks and led to prosecutors recommending the website be banned. During the past week, the country's media has been [...]

British Muslim Abdul Muhid was convicted in London Wednesday of two counts of inciting murder at a protest outside outside the Danish embassy in London last year. Muhid and associate Anjem Choudary were charged last May in connection with a February demonstration protesting the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers. Following [...]

A court in East Timor Wednesday found former Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato guilty of promoting violence during the military riots in the country last year. The three judges hearing the case sentenced Lobato to seven-and-a-half years in prison for arming the militias that ravaged the country in April 2006. He was also found guilty of [...]

Judges appointed to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) have begun a 10-day meeting to craft an agreement on judicial rules to govern the anticipated Khmer Rouge genocide trials . The UN-backed ECCC, which cannot begin proceedings until the rules are agreed upon, urged the nine-judge panel to come to a decision; [...]