World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has promised to target corruption in governments that deal with the bank and in the organization itself during a worldwide staff meeting. As an example, Wolfowitz cited Kenya, from which the World Bank was withholding $250 million in loans due to high-level corruption scandals in the government. Wolfowitz, the former [...]

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday announced proposed new immigration laws that would enable the government to be more selective in allowing newcomers into the country and deciding who can stay, even giving it the right to expel immigrants who do not make efforts to integrate and seek work. Sarkozy's "selected immigration" scheme will [...]

Following angry protests over the Muhammad cartoons by British Muslims in London late last week, UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke Tuesday renewed calls for the inclusion of a "glorifying terrorism" offense in the proposed Terrorism Bill still under consideration by parliament. The glorification offense was recently defeated in the House of Lords , but it [...]

A Canadian judge Monday banned foreign media from the courtroom for a long-awaited criminal trial over the use of HIV-infected blood-clotting medicine by the Canadian Red Cross in the 1980s that led to more than 1000 Canadians testing positive for the AIDS-related virus. Madam Justice Mary Lou Benotto granted the motion of prosecutors to bar [...]

Several hundred Afghan protestors demonstrating against the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Danish, Norwegian and other European papers stormed a NATO ISAF peacekeeping base near Maymana in northwest Afghanistan manned by Norwegian troops Tuesday. Four protestors were killed and 18 were wounded after the troops opened fire. The Norwegians had previously used [...]

Five Turkish journalists went on trial Monday on charges of "insulting state judicial organs" and "trying to influence the judicial process." Prosecutors filed these charges in December for comments regarding the government's attempts to ban a conference on the alleged genocide of 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in World War I. If convicted, [...]

Rival black and Hispanic gangs took part in another racially motivated brawl late Monday evening at a Los Angeles County jail dorm, in a repeat of a similar brawl last weekend which killed one inmate and injured more than 100 others. Sheriff Lee Baca segregated roughly 90 inmates at the minimum security Pitchess Detention Center [...]

CNN is reporting that British-based Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri has been found guilty in the UK of inciting murder. Hamza faced several charges for urging his followers to kill Jews and other non-Muslims and using "threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior" to stir up racial hatred. Hamza is also wanted in the United [...]

Former US President Jimmy Carter said Monday that President Bush overstepped his constitutional powers by authorizing the NSA's domestic surveillance program . The former president was also critical of Monday's testimony from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee in defense of the program. Carter called Gonzales' claims that the program [...]

Leading Tuesday's international brief, Sudanese Minister for Foreign Affairs al-Samani al-Wasiylah has said that Sudan has backed off its initial refusal to allow a UN peacekeeping force into the Darfur region , but would still require consultation by UN officials before they would agree to the mandate. Al-Samani al-Wasiylah clarified that the Sudan government was [...]