Lawyers for a business associate of former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma filed an appeal Monday with the South African Constitutional Court asking that the corruption conviction of Schabir Shaik be overturned. Shaik was convicted of paying Zuma for political favors in a case which has left Zuma's name tarnished as a potential presidential [...]
Iraqi authorities are investigating the escape from prison of a former head of the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity . Ayham al-Samaraie , a member of the 2004-2005 interim Iraqi government , was serving a two-year sentence after being convicted on corruption charges brought by Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity . He is so far the [...]
Sudanese Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardhi has indicated that Sudan will cooperate with a UN Human Rights Council mission investigating human rights abuses in Darfur , according to reports Monday in local Sudanese media. The Human Rights Council approved a resolution last week the authorizing the mission. Al-Mardhi has said that the government would "remove [...]
The Turkish government has condemned the passage of legislation in Argentina which refers to the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey around the time of World War I as genocide and establishes a day of annual commemoration on April 24. In a statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Turkey said the bill "is an example [...]
Saddam Hussein's genocide trial resumed Monday at the Iraqi High Tribunal in Baghdad with the prosecution presenting documentary evidence they say links Hussein to chemical weapons used during the 1987-88 "Anfal" campaigns against ethnic Kurds in Northern Iraq. Prosecutors introduced a memorandum from Hussein's office ordering the Iraqi military to initiate a strike against Kurdish [...]
The US Department of Defense announced Sunday that it has transferred 17 more Guantanamo Bay detainees to their home countries for detention or release, bringing the number of detainees released from Guantanamo this year to 114. Seven of the newly-freed detainees have been transferred to Afghanistan, five to Yemen, three to Kazakhstan, one to Libya, [...]
Six leading US and Japanese automakers Friday asked a federal judge to dismissal a California lawsuit alleging that vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases from cars made by the companies have contributed to global warming constituting a 'public nuisance' that has cost the state millions of dollars. California Attorney General filed the suit in September against [...]
US military sources in Iraq announced Saturday that earlier this month the Central Criminal Court of Iraq sentenced 16 security detainees accused of terrorism law breaches, illegal weapons possession and border breaches to punishments ranging from death to a year's imprisonment. The heaviest punishment was imposed on a Libyan accused of being a member of [...]
Organizers and observers of a Moscow rally held Saturday by a coalition of opposition parties protesting Russian President Vladimir Putin's increasingly-restrictive rights record were quoted in press reports Sunday as saying that police pulled hundreds of would-be demonstrators off buses heading for the unusual rally even before it took place. Some 320 protestors were said [...]
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki opened a national reconciliation conference in Baghdad Saturday by signaling a reversal of the ban on former Baath Party members in the Iraqi government that has applied since the days of the US Coalition Provisional Authority. In a speech to delegates Maliki indicated that although he would still "draw a [...]
