Former Ugandan health minister Jim Muhwezi went to trial Monday on charges of embezzlement and abuse of office. Muhwezi is alleged to have misused $4.3 million in grants donated to the government of Uganda by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and the Immunization (GAVI) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria to [...]

Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum admitted during a preliminary hearing Monday to killing Iraqis at Haditha in November 2005 but said he was acting pursuant to proper military protocol. Tatum is charged with unpremeditated murder, negligent homicide, and assault related to the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians . He asserts that his training directed him to [...]

Judge Haley Fromholz of the Los Angeles Superior Court Monday approved a $660 million settlement between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and plaintiffs in 508 outstanding clergy sex abuse lawsuits . Fromholz called the settlement "the right result" and applauded those who had worked to negotiate the deal over the past five years. [...]

Washington, DC Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Attorney General Linda Singer announced Monday that the city will appeal a ruling invalidating the District of Columbia's handgun ban to the US Supreme Court. The city has until August 7th to file an appeal with the high court and will be able to maintain the handgun ban [...]

Lawyers and human rights advocates called for more rigid procedures governing the investigation of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines at a Monday conference organized by the Supreme Court of the Philippines . Edelina dela Paz, chairwoman of human rights group Karapatan , called for a stronger witness protection program, pointing to the murder of a [...]

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan Monday dismissed charges against 13 of 16 defendants in an ongoing criminal tax shelters case against former employees of the accounting firm KPMG , ruling that federal prosecutors violated the constitutional rights of the defendants by pressuring KPMG not to pay for the defendants' legal fees. Kaplan wrote that the [...]

A bipartisan group of 44 former US state attorneys general have asked the US House and Senate Judiciary Committees to investigate whether the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman (D) , was politically motivated, according to Monday reports. Last month, Alabama attorney Jill Simpson, who had worked on the campaign of Siegelman's opponent, current [...]

Pakistani government lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada informed the Supreme Court of Pakistan Monday that prosecutors are dismissing a single charge of judicial misconduct against suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry . Pirzada said that President Pervez Musharraf made the decision, but did not specify the reasons behind it. Other unspecified charges of misconduct are still being [...]

A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Monday confirmed the impending Israeli release of 250 Palestinian prisoners belonging to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Movement and other minor factions. The release, approved by the Israeli cabinet last Sunday and expected to take place Friday, is an effort to strengthen the moderate Fatah against the [...]

An Ethiopian court sentenced 35 opposition members to life in prison Monday for their roles in mass anti-government demonstrations . The opposition members, five of whom were sentenced in absentia were convicted last month of treason and inciting violence. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty . The court also sentenced six opposition members to sentences [...]