Former Venezuelan Defense Minister Raul Baduel spoke out against the constitutional reforms pushed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Monday, claiming that the proposed reforms would deprive the Venezuelan people of their power over the government and result in a virtual coup by the president. The proposed reforms, which were overwhelmingly approved by the Venezuelan [...]

Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang and General Counsel Michael Callahan Tuesday defended Yahoo's behavior in providing information to the Chinese government at a hearing before the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs , saying that the company could not ask local employees in China to refuse to comply with lawful government demands even if [...]

Pakistani police Tuesday arrested more lawyers involved in protesting President Pervez Musharraf's Saturday declaration of emergency, suspension of the constitution, and effective dismissal of Pakistan's Supreme Court. AFP reports that some 50 lawyers were arrested at the Lahore High Court a day after a larger protest there escalated into violence . Police took over the [...]

A federal jury sitting in San Diego Monday convicted former US defense contractor Brent Wilkes of 13 felonies, including money laundering, fraud and conspiracy, in connection with bribes he paid to disgraced former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham . Wilkes pleaded not guilty to all charges, but the jury found that he paid more than $600,000 [...]

The newly-reconstituted Supreme Court of Pakistan officially ruled Tuesday that the order against President Pervez Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule issued Saturday by a seven-person Supreme Court bench led by now-dismissed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was "void, quroum non judice and passed without lawful authority," saying it "shall be deemed never to have been passed [...]

US District Judge Amy St. Eve of the Northern District of Illinois Monday rejected a motion for a new trial or an acquittal filed by Canadian-born financier and former media mogul Conrad Black in August after his conviction on mail fraud and obstruction of justice charges in July. Former Hollinger executives John Boultbee, Peter Atkinson [...]

Wire services are reporting that the US Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-8 Tuesday in favor of the nomination of former federal judge Michael Mukasey to serve as the next US attorney general. Mukasey's nomination now goes to the full US Senate for a final vote. Though most Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted against [...]

A Chadian prosecutor Monday questioned Europeans detained for attempting to airlift 103 children from Chad, including three Spanish flight crew members and five workers from the French charity Zoe's Ark . Six French nationals have been charged with kidnapping , while the flight crew members have been charged with complicity in kidnapping. Four Chadian officials [...]

The Federal Court of Canada ruled Monday that Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association should be granted public interest standing to seek judicial review of the actions or potential actions of Canadian military personnel deployed in Afghanistan, rejecting the Canadian government's motion to strike the rights groups' application on the grounds that [...]

The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe ruled Monday that the Zimbabwean government can legally expropriate the agricultural equipment of white farmers under the Acquisition of Farm Equipment Act , finding that the government expropriated the equipment with the public purpose of advancing the country's farm seizure program , which seeks to redistribute white-owned land. White farmers [...]