A federal jury awarded the father of a fallen Marine almost $11 million in damages Wednesday for harm caused by a Kansas Christian fundamentalist church's protests at his son's funeral. Albert Snyder filed a lawsuit last year against Westboro Baptist Church and three of its leaders after the church staged a protest at the funeral [...]

US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) Wednesday called on the White House to disclose hundreds of documents relating to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff . In a letter to White House counsel Fred Fielding, Waxman said that the the White House has already turned over 3,700 pages of records, but [...]

Former Assistant US Attorney Richard Convertino was acquitted Wednesday on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and making false declarations in connection with a botched 2003 terrorism trial. Convertino was the lead prosecutor in a case against North African immigrants accused of operating a terrorist cell in Detroit. A federal judge later overturned the guilty [...]

Some 100 Buddhist monks marched peacefully in a town in central Myanmar Wednesday, marking a resumption of the pro-democratic protests that stopped after September's violent government crackdown. The monks carried no protest signs and shouted no pro-democracy slogans and dispersed after an hour to their monasteries. A spokesman said their demonstration was only a continuation [...]

The Italian judge presiding over the trial of 26 US CIA agents and two former Italian intelligence officials in the 2003 abduction and rendition of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr on Wednesday suspended the trial until March 12, 2008. Judge Oscar Magi ruled that the trial should not proceed until the Constitutional Court of [...]

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Wednesday rejected the appeal of former Bosnian Serb paramilitary leader Dragan Zelenovic contesting his 15-year sentence on rape and torture charges. Zelenovic had asked the court to reduce his sentence due to his guilty plea and his cooperation with prosecutors, but [...]

The Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) violated a confessed al-Qaeda operative's civil rights, according to the Security Intelligence Review Committee in an oversight report to the Canadian parliament Wednesday. Canadian citizen Mohammed Mansour Jabarah was detained without access to counsel, and his confession amounted to a violation of his right against self-incrimination under the Canadian [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit heard oral arguments Wednesday in an en banc rehearing of its earlier ruling that the military cannot seize and imprison civilians lawfully residing in the United States and detain them as "enemy combatants" . In June, a three-judge panel rejected government arguments that the president was [...]

The chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee announced Wednesday that an executive business meeting will be held November 6 to consider the nomination of Michael Mukasey as US attorney general. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said that the date was selected to allow committee members "an opportunity to consider the recently received written responses" [...]

Sri Lankan Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe Wednesday dismissed claims made earlier this week by UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak that torture was widespread and routine throughout Sri Lanks. Samarasinghe said that in meetings with officials in Sri Lanka , Nowak indicated his use of the phrase "widely practiced" meant that torture allegations [...]