US District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled Tuesday that Zacarias Moussaoui will no longer be allowed to be present in the courtroom for jury selection in his sentencing trial after Moussaoui walked out of a pretrial hearing. Moussaoui pleaded guilty last April to conspiring with al Qaeda to use aircraft to target United States buildings and [...]

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has called for abolition of the country's criminal defamation law that was used to jail four government critics in January. Hun Sen said the offense should be made a civil one punishable by fine, continuing a softening of his initial support for the prosecutions . Hun Sen called for the [...]

Kenyan police have placed a travel ban on more than 20 officials as investigations continue into government corruption. Police told some 20 officials allegedly linked to the Goldenberg affair , a multi-million gold and diamond scam, not to leave the country. Among those under the ban is former Education Minister George Saitoti, who resigned Monday [...]

Lawyers for former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy and former state highway director Mack Roberts filed motions Tuesday asking a federal judge to drop charges against them in connection with a racketeering scheme involving former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman . Scrushy faces charges stemming from an incident where he allegedly arranged a $500,000 donation to Siegelman's [...]

Omri Sharon, son of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon , was sentenced Tuesday to a nine month prison term for illegal campaign fundraising. Sharon was indicted in August for setting up false companies as a disguise for more than $1.3 million he received in contributions from several Israeli and overseas corporations for his father's re-election [...]

The Egyptian opposition Muslim Brotherhood has promised to fight legislation backed by President Hosni Mubarak that would delay local elections in Egypt for an another two years and preserve the ruling party's dominance. The legislation, which only requires an expected approval by the lower house of parliament, would delay local council elections originally required within [...]

Sudan police have arrested five Sudanese human rights activists in the Darfur region and beat and arrested several Sudanese students who were rioting on the Juba University campus in Northern Khartoum, according to Amnesty International . The five activists, members of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO) , were arrested during a human rights workshop [...]

Two Iraqis claiming they were beaten by British soldiers following a demonstration that turned violent in 2004 said Tuesday that they would sue the UK military over the incident. According to Bassem Shaker, one of the two, he was among a group of several hundred protesting a lack of work in Amarah in January 2004, [...]

Leading Tuesday's international brief, South Korea has nominated its Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as a candidate for the office of the UN Secretary-General . The office, currently held by Kofi Annan is up for election in the second half of 2006 and its holder is determined by a majority vote of the General Assembly based [...]

The Constitutional Court of Thailand on Tuesday agreed to consider a petition to impeach Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on suspicion that he illegally held shares in the Shin Corporation , a telecommunications giant that he founded. The court secretary-general said that a decision will be made Thursday on whether to accept the case. The petition [...]