President Bush Tuesday offered his strongest criticism yet of the Iraqi government's handling of the execution of Saddam Hussein , saying in a PBS Newshour interview with Jim Lehrer that it resembled a “revenge killing:” I was disappointed and felt like they fumbled the – particularly the Saddam Hussein – execution. It reinforced doubts in [...]
Russian Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika confirmed Tuesday that his office is preparing new money laundering and embezzlement charges against former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky . Lawyers for Khodorkovsky first said they expected new charges last month, but Chaika's comments Tuesday are the first official confirmation of the new investigation. Reuters has more. Khodorkovsky was convicted in [...]
A UN human rights expert has received permission from US officials to visit the United States to examine US practices when detaining terror suspects. Martin Scheinin , the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism , issued a statement on the upcoming visit Tuesday: I look forward to having [...]
The former head of the tarnished UN Oil-for-Food Program was indicted by US federal prosecutors in New York Tuesday on charges of bribery and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Benon Sevan resigned from his post last year and fled to his native Cyprus, from where he is unlikely to be extradited . The indictment alleges [...]
The French National Assembly , the lower house of the French parliament, passed by voice vote Tuesday a bill authorizing the impeachment of a French president but otherwise conferring legal immunity on the person holding that office during his or her term. The bill had languished in parliament after being approved by the French cabinet [...]
The Israeli Ministry of Justice said Tuesday the state prosecutor plans to launch an investigation into allegations that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert impermissibly promoted the interests of two business associates in his capacity as minister of finance during the 2005 state sale of Bank Leumi . Olmert supposedly favored his associates in the sell-off of [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in the consolidated cases of Safeco Insurance v. Burr and GEICO General Insurance v. Edo , 06-00084 and 06-00100, cases in which plaintiffs claim the insurance companies GEICO and Safeco breached the dictates of the Fair Credit Reporting Act when they failed to notify customers that poor [...]
Argentine Federal Judge Norberto Oyarbide issued a second international arrest warrant on Tuesday for former Argentine President Isabel Peron , currently living in exile in Spain. The warrant demands that Peron be returned to Argentina for questioning about the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance (Triple A), a government-supported death squad. Prosecutors in Argentina believe the Triple A [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Wednesday overturned the 22-year sentence of Ahmed Ressam , convicted of attempting to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium. The court reversed Ressam's conviction for carrying explosives while committing a felony, one of the nine charges of which he [...]
Attorneys for Marine Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, charged with the killing of Iraqi civilians in Haditha , have asked Marine Lt. Gen. James Mattis to launch an investigation into the leak of a Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) report after the Washington Post earlier this month printed photos of Iraqis allegedly killed by Wuterich [...]
