Malaysian police Saturday fired tear gas and water cannons at demonstrators participating in an unauthorised election reform rally held by the electoral rights group Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH) in the face of official warnings. BERSIH said 23 people were arrested. Marchers managed to reach the National Palace of Malaysia , where they [...]

New Jersey Assembly speaker Joseph Roberts, Jr. said Friday that the State Assembly will vote Dec. 13 on a proposal to abolish the death penalty . If the vote passes, New Jersey would be the first state to abolish capital punishment since it was reinstated nationally in 1976. The proposal is divided along party lines, [...]

The Saudi Arabian government said Saturday that 14 Saudi detainees have returned home following their transfers from Guantanamo Bay . Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz said that the ex-detainees would be referred to Saudi courts, but it was unclear what charges, if any, that they would face. The transfer follows a similar transfer [...]

Police blocked former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto from visiting deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry Saturday, despite orders issued Friday lifting her house arrest and allowing her to freely move about the country. Bhutto used a megaphone to chant "He is the chief justice, he is the real chief justice," as she tried to [...]

Nineteen lawmakers in the US House of Representatives have introduced a resolution to support Taiwan's bid for UN membership. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) introduced the bill at a Thursday meeting of the House Foreign Affairs Committee , despite opposition by the Bush administration to a recent push by Taiwanese President Chen Shui-Ban for a Taiwanese [...]

Frank V. Zerunyan, Esq. : "The People's House of the United States of America must follow its tradition and uphold the truth above all else. The speaker of the House of Representatives must bring HR106 to a floor vote because the resolution is morally, intellectually, historically and legally consistent with our American values. We Americans [...]

Manfo Kwaku Asiedu pleaded guilty Friday to a charge of conspiracy to cause explosions over the failed bomb attacks on London's subway and bus systems on June 21, 2005. Six suspects – Asiedu, Hussein Osman, Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar, Ramzi Mohamed, and Adel Yahya – went on trial in 2006. All but Asideu and [...]

Lawyers for Canadian citizen Maher Arar argued before a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that Arar should be allowed to revive his lawsuit against senior officials in the US government. Arar was detained in the US in 2002 after flying to New York from Tunisia on his way [...]

The Parliament of the Georgian Republic voted Friday to approve a 15-day state of emergency imposed by President Mikhail Saakashvili earlier this week. Opposition members boycotted the vote and the measure passed the 235-seat assembly 149-0. The vote follows Saakashvili's statements Thursday that the state of emergency would only last a few days and that [...]

Three Spanish air crew and a Belgian pilot held in Chad in connection with a French charity's attempt to airlift 103 children alleged to be Darfur orphans were released Friday. Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos praised Chadian officials, including President Idriss Deby , for their smooth handling of the situation and said that Spain [...]