A Chinese court Thursday sentenced Yang Xiaoging, a reporter for the state-run China Industrial Economy News , to one year in prison after finding him guilty of extortion. Xiaoging wrote articles about official corruption, accusing local Communist Party official Yang Jianxin of stealing state assets. Xiaoging's wife, Gong Jie, plans to appeal the ruling immediately, [...]
A federal grand jury has handed up another indictment against South Korean lobbyist Tongsun Park , charging him Wednesday with lying to the FBI about his role in the adoption of the 1995 UN Security Council Resolution 986 , which established the now-defunct Iraqi Oil-for-Food Program . The one-sentence indictment accuses Park of making false [...]
Yemeni officials on Thursday called for a second investigation into last week's detainee suicides by one Yemeni and two Saudi Arabians held at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay , saying the deaths exemplify the "inhumane conditions of detainees" at Guantanamo. The three men reportedly hung themselves in their cells with bedsheets and cloths, [...]
Sudanese Justice Minister Mohammed al-Mardi insisted Thursday that the International Criminal Court does not have jurisdiction to investigate war crimes committed in the volatile Darfur region and said that Sudanese officials would not submit to questioning by ICC prosecutors in their investigation into crimes against humanity in Darfur . Mardi said that Sudanese courts are [...]
Responding to public outrage in the UK over the possibility of parole within six years for a sex offender convicted earlier this week, Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer said on Wednesday's BBC TV program Question Time that judges are not to be blamed over the sentencing issue. Lord Falconer [...]
The US Supreme Court handed down four decisions Thursday, including Hudson v. Michigan where the Court held 5-4 that evidence collected under a search warrant is admissible even when police officers failed to knock before entering a home. The Court upheld a Michigan court ruling which determined that evidence seized during a search of Booker [...]
Mexican lawmakers began working this week to revive a bill that will decriminalize personal drug possession – or possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin. Lawmakers hope to override a potential veto by Mexican President Vicente Fox , who announced plans to sign the bill, but then reversed his position after the US [...]
The Russian Duma , the lower house of parliament, on Wednesday voted 359-53 to pass a bill that will shorten the military conscription requirement from two years to one, beginning in January 2008. The bill is expected to gain approval from the Federation Council , Russia's upper house, within the month and be signed into [...]
A court in Japan has ruled that journalists have a right not to disclose the identities of their sources. The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday reversed a district court order that a newspaper reporter testify in an American company's lawsuit against the US government. Presiding Judge Nobuo Akatsuka wrote in the High Court's ruling that [...]
UK Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett said Thursday that Britain will take custody of former Liberian President Charles Taylor if he is convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone , as long as authorizing legislation is passed by parliament. In a statement , Beckett said that as long as parliament passes new legislation to permit [...]
