Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo of the International Criminal Court told the UN Security Council in a statement Wednesday that the ICC's preliminary investigation into the situation in Darfur begun June 1, had already revealed "a significant amount of credible information disclosing the commission of grave crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court having taken [...]
Egypt's Higher Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled that a new law that would have allowed more than one person to run for president is unconstitutional. The proposed change, seen as an important political reform, was ordered by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February 2005, passed by the Egyptian parliament , and finally approved by popular [...]
An Algerian court Wednesday sentenced Mohamed Meguerba to 10 years in prison for masterminding an al-Qaeda plot to execute a bio-terror attack on London using ricin and other agents. Meguerba, an Algerian native, skipped bail in Britain in 2002 and was rearrested in Algeria later that year. Information he gave Algerian interrogators was crucial to [...]
Iranian daily newspaper Etemaad is reporting that the Iranian Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a man, known only as Vahid, sentenced to have his eyes surgically gouged out for throwing battery acid in the face of another man during a fight 12 years ago. The court judged the crime on "Qesas" , a [...]
A proposed amendment to the Russian Constitution that would have allowed President Vladimir Putin to serve a third term fell far short of approval by the State Duma on Wednesday. Only 32 members of Russia's lower house voted for it, with 99 voting against. The measure needed 226 votes to pass. Putin's term expires in [...]
Two US citizens pleaded not guilty to terror-related charges against them in federal court on Tuesday. Tarik Shah, 42, of New York, and Rafik Abdus Sabir, 50, of Boca Raton, Florida, each face a single count of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida . Prosecutors say Shah agreed to teach hand-to-hand combat and that [...]
Former Deputy President of South Africa Jacob Zuma was released on $150 bail Wednesday after prosecution lawyers asked for more time to prepare a corruption case against him and trial was postponed until October 2005. Bail was granted on condition that witnesses "not…be interfered with directly or indirectly". South Africa President Thabo Mbeki fired Zuma [...]
A Serbian court Wednesday sentenced 10 former members of the Slobodan Milosevic regime to jail for their roles in 1999 assassination attempt on then-Yugoslav opposition leader Vuk Draskovic . Draskovic is now the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Serbia-Montenegro. Six individuals were sentenced to 15 years for orchestrating a highway crash intended to kill Draskovic, [...]
The Irish Public Prosecution Service has dropped charges against Anthony Joseph Donegan, suspected of providing the car used in the Omagh car bombing in 1998. A spokesman for the PPS said Wednesday that the "test for prosecution was not met." Twenty-nine people were killed and 220 were injured when a car bomb set by the [...]
A Kuwait court Wednesday cleared Nasser al-Mutairi of committing an act of aggression against a foreign nation. Mutairi, the first Kuwait to be freed from Guantanamo Bay in January, had been charged with endangering Kuwait's foreign relations by taking up arms against a foreign nation. He had been captured by the US in the wake [...]
