The Congress of Guatemala voted to create the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) Wednesday, establishing an independent body to investigate organized crime and official corruption. The CICIG, which will be funded by voluntary international contributions, will be given independent authority to investigate local Guatemalan institutions. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon , who will appoint [...]

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales sent a letter to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday in response to a request that Gonzales clarify testimony provided last week. Gonzales maintained that his testimony was truthful and that apparent contradictions stemmed from confusing language used to distinguish between undisclosed NSA intelligence programs and the domestic [...]

Two men who allege that the CIA detained and tortured them in foreign prisons Wednesday joined a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against San Jose-based Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan . Iraqi citizen Bisher al-Rawi alleges that in 2002 he was detained while on a business trip in Gambia and flown to [...]

A military jury Wednesday found a US Marine corporal guilty of conspiracy to murder, larceny and housebreaking for his role in the April 2006 kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania . Cpl. Marshall Magincalda was also found not guilty of premeditated murder, kidnapping and making a false official statement. A jury continued [...]

A French court of appeals Wednesday released two men accused of involvement in the 1994 Rwanda genocide , finding that the warrants issued for their arrest by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) could not be executed. Catholic priest Wenceslas Munyeshyaka and former civil servant Laurent Bucyibaruta were arrested by French authorities last month. [...]

The US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved a bill Wednesday to allow the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate tobacco. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act , introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and approved 13-8 by the committee, would require the FDA to limit tobacco advertising, enforce warning [...]

Military doctors participating in the force-feeding of hunger-striking detainees at Guantanamo Bay are violating medical ethics, according to commentary published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) . The three authors – Sondra S. Crosby, MD, Caroline M. Apovian, MD, Michael A. Grodin, MD – wrote that military doctors should not force [...]

Getty Museum Director Dr. Michael Brand and the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities Francesco Rutelli Wednesday announced an agreement to return 40 allegedly looted Italian artifacts to Italy over the next several months. They also announced that Italy and the Getty Museum have agreed to a "broad cultural collaboration that will include loans [...]

US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Wednesday that Democrats are willing to expand government surveillance over foreign communications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) , but disagree with the White House over spending and "the involvement of the attorney general." The proposal was made last week [...]

Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Khek Iev , also known as Duch, is willing to testify against other members of the Khmer Rouge, according to information released Wednesday by the tribunal that indicted Duch earlier in the week. Included in Duch's detention order is Duch's admission that he oversaw the S-21 prison and his [...]