US District Judge Reggie B. Walton on Thursday rejected a motion to dismiss criminal charges against former vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in connection with the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Libby had asked that the case be dismissed because Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was improperly appointed to head the CIA [...]

Over one-third of documents held by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) that have been removed from public access since 1999 should not have been reclassified, according to an audit conducted by NARA's Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) . ISOO head J. William Leonard and National Archivist Allen Weinstein said that over 25,000 records [...]

China has not overlooked human rights abuses in its quest to find energy sources for its growing economy, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday. Spokesman Qin Gang said China emphasized peace, cooperation and development and that trade with China actually helps improve conditions in struggling countries. Anti-poverty and human rights activists have accused China [...]

Leading Belarusian opposition figure Alexander Milinkevich was arrested Wednesday along with other demonstrators at a rally in Minsk, according to activists. About 7,000 opposition members gathered for what is traditionally the largest rally of the year in Belarus on the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. At the rally, Milinkevich was reportedly put in a [...]

A US Senate panel conducting an investigation into the federal response to Hurricane Katrina has concluded that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be abolished and replaced with a new federal agency with more authority over emergency preparedness. The bipartisan panel recommended 86 changes, including the creation of the National Preparedness and Response Authority, which [...]

Leading Thursday's international brief, Uganda's chief prosecutor Simon Byabakama Mugenyi told the High Court where opposition leader Kizza Besigye is being tried on treason charges that files detailing the intelligence gathering efforts against Besigye have been "misplaced." Mugenyi was supposed to produce the document Tuesday after state witness Lt. Migadde Ssemakula claimed to have submitted [...]

Israeli activist group Peace Now has condemned Wednesday's directive from Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ehud Omert to top security officials to block the gaps in the controversial security fence around Jerusalem. Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer says that the action was taken before appropriate permission from Israel's High Court was obtained. Olmert made the order ten [...]

At least 600 US troops have been linked to cases of abuse , torture or killing of as many as 460 detainees at various detention facilities around the world, three human rights groups reported Wednesday. According to a report from the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Human Rights First and Human Rights Watch [...]

A US military commission at Guantanamo Bay holding a pre-trial hearing in the case against Algerian detainee Sufyian Barhoumi Wednesday rejected his motion to be moved to a less restrictive detention area. Barhoumi, who suffered wounds, including the loss of four fingers, in a land mine accident in Afghanistan was originally housed in Camp Four [...]

Jurors in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui head into a fourth day of deliberations Thursday after no verdict was reached Wednesday. The jurors, who have been deliberating now for 16 hours over the past three days, asked for a dictionary Tuesday, but that request was denied. Judge Leonie Brinkema said that it would be [...]