The Chinese government has postponed the trial against former New York Times researcher Zhao Yan , which was scheduled to begin Thursday, Zhao's lawyer said Wednesday. Zhao was indicted for "providing state secrets to foreigners" following a 2004 New York Times report that revealed the resignation of Jiang Zemin as head of the military before [...]
A Dutch court convicted arms dealer Guus Kouwenhoven of violating the UN embargo against former Liberian President Charles Taylor's government, but found him not guilty of war crimes, saying he did not have direct knowledge of the atrocities committed during the Liberian civil war. Kouwenhoven was generally accused of trading guns for timber to assist [...]
Fourteen European countries collaborated with the US Central Intelligence Agency by taking an active or passive role in a "global spider's web" of secret prisons and rendition flights, Swiss legislator Dick Marty said Wednesday in a report from the Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe , as part of the CoE's investigation into [...]
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that he supports changing a proposed immigration bill now under debate in the French Senate to allow some children of illegal immigrants currently attending French schools to remain in the country. According to administration officials, as many as 800 residency permits will be made available on a case-by-case [...]
American jurists control the court trying Saddam Hussein by directing the judge and controlling meetings between the defense team and Hussein, one of Hussein's lawyers said Tuesday. In a Beirut news conference, Bushra al-Khalil, the controversial defense lawyer who has been thrown out of court twice , said a team of American jurists passes notes [...]
The US Senate Wednesday morning voted 49-48 against holding an up-or-down vote on the Marriage Protection Amendment , rejecting a motion to invoke cloture . Though the Senate voted to continue debate on the resolution, the issue is not expected to remain on the agenda for debate on the Senate floor, so the vote effectively [...]
Over 250 Afghans were arrested, 141 are still in custody, and 52 have confessed to crimes committed during anti-American riots in Kabul last week in response to an incident where a US military vehicle collided with 12 civilian vehicles in northern Kabul, the Afghani national security director said Wednesday. At least seven people were killed [...]
Iraqi officials on Wednesday released nearly 600 detainees who had been in Iraqi and US custody – the first of 2,500 detainees slated to be released under the order of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki . In the interest of national reconciliation, Maliki said Tuesday that detainees without clear evidence against them and without Iraqi [...]
A French trial court has ordered the French government and the state-controlled railway SNCF to pay 60,000 euros, or about $80,000 US, in compensation to a Jewish family for complicity in crimes against humanity. The case was brought by European Parliament member Alain Lipietz and his sister on behalf of their father and relatives who [...]
Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his Cabinet have announced that the federal government will set aside legislation allowing same-sex civil unions in the Australian Capital Territory , the federal district that includes Canberra. Speaking Tuesday at a press conference , the prime minister said: Well I can indicate that the legislation by its own [...]
