A group of survivors of the September 2004 Beslan school siege in the Russia's North Ossetia republic announced Wednesday that they will appeal the guilty verdict against Nurpashi Kulayev , the sole surviving attacker, to the Russian Supreme Court . The survivors, part of the Voice of Beslan (Golos Beslan) , told the Itar-Tass news [...]
US President George W. Bush on Wednesday publicly expressed concern about the alleged killings of 24 Iraqi civilians by US Marines in the city of Haditha in November 2005, declaring that any soldiers found guilty would be punished. Asked about the incident at a White House photo op, Bush said: I am troubled by the [...]
A Spanish judge asked the Spanish Constitutional Court on Wednesday to reopen an investigation into corruption charges against former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stemming from Berlusconi's holdings in Spanish television channel Telecinco , which Spanish prosecutors believe exceeded the 25 percent television channel ownership cap imposed by Spanish law. Prosecutors halted the proceedings, which [...]
The judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) held a plenary session Tuesday to consider revisions to the Tribunal's Rules of Procedure and Evidence in which they "discussed methods to better organise trials, particularly at the pre-trial stage, in order to ensure more expeditious proceedings," according to an ICTY press release [...]
The parliament of Nepal has unanimously adopted a resolution that would guarantee citizenship papers to children in their mother's name only, even if the father is away or divorced, and require more-proportionate representation of women in the state work force. The resolution, passed Tuesday, is not yet law, but women's rights groups nonetheless hailed its [...]
The Thailand Supreme Court on Wednesday stepped up its efforts to pressure Thailand's Election Commission (EC) to resign over failed parliamentary elections in April, which the Constitutional Court annulled in early May, by rejecting two nominees to serve on the panel. Thailand's three principal courts have repeatedly called for the EC to resign amid allegations [...]
Montenegro's referendum commission Wednesday officially confirmed the results of the country's May 21 referendum on independence from Serbia , verifying that 55.5% of the population of Montenegro voting had voted in favor. Because voters met the controversial threshold requirement of 55% approval set by the EU , the referendum will be incorporated into a declaration [...]
The Law Commission , the independent legal reform body of the United Kingdom, has recommended creating limited legal rights for couples who live together but are unmarried, in a consultation paper released Wednesday titled "Cohabitation: The Financial Consequences of Relationship Breakdown." The paper proposes that a limited category of unmarried couples be afforded legal remedies [...]
Lawmakers in Afghanistan have called for the prosecution of US soldiers for a vehicle accident that killed as many as five Afghans and set off deadly riots earlier this week in the capital of Kabul. The nonbinding motion, passed in the Afghan Parliament Tuesday, calls for the soldiers to be handed over to Afghan authorities. [...]
The Conservative Party government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper introduced new legislation in the federal House of Commons Tuesday that would set fixed dates for regular federal elections and would potentially limit members of the country's weak Senate to eight-year terms. Under the legislation, national elections would take place every four years on the [...]
