French labor and student groups Monday called a day of strikes for March 28 after the French goverment refused to withdraw its recently passed First Employment Contract (CPE) , which allows French employers to hire workers under the age of 26 for a conditional two-year period during which they can be fired without cause. A [...]

The court-appointed advocates for the late Slobodan Milosevic have asked the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to release secret medical files that may provide further information on Milosevic's death. British barristers Steven Kay and Gillian Higgins say they are acting at the behest of Milosevic's son Marko. Milosevic died at The Hague earlier [...]

International Election Observation Mission: Presidential Election, Republic of Belarus, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, March 21, 2006 . Excerpt: It is clear that this election did not meet OSCE commitments and international electoral standards. The arbitrary abuse of state power, obviously designed to protect the incumbent President, went far beyond acceptable practice. The [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday heard oral arguments on whether unsworn non-testimonial statements made by crime victims to 911 operators or to police officers at crime scenes are inadmissible at trials of criminal defendants. In the cases of Davis v. Washington and Hammon v. Indiana , the Court focused on whether the rights of [...]

A Somali advocacy group claimed Monday that the US Navy was illegally present in Somali waters when its ships launched an unprovoked attack on a small vessel over the weekend, taking twelve occupants into custody. The Navy said the vessel was being investigated for suspected piracy when it unexpectedly fired shots at the USS Cape [...]

A federal appeals court has overturned the conviction of Frank Quattrone , one of the dot-com era's most prominent investment bankers, on charges of obstruction of justice and witness tampering on the grounds that the jury instructions were erroneous, court officials said Monday. Quattrone, who made as much as $120 million in a single year [...]

A District Court in Belgrade said Monday it would close an outstanding case against late Yugoslav ex-president Slobodan Milosevic for "organizing the murder" of former Serbian president Ivan Stambolic, according to private news agency BETA . A court spokesman said the case, which opened in 2004 , will be closed as soon as a death [...]

The US Supreme Court declined certiorari in several high-profile appeals Monday but did not agree to consider any new cases. In Tucker v. United States, the Court refused to consider the appeal of former Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker , who wanted to withdraw his 1998 guilty plea to tax conspiracy in connection with the [...]

As anticipated , Thomas Lubanga , founder of the militant Union of Patriotic Congolese , appeared in the International Criminal Court at The Hague Monday, accused of using child soldiers in the violence-plagued Ituri district . In court the defendant confirmed his identity and heard his rights before he refused to hear the charges against [...]

Trial proceedings began Monday in Turkey for Syrian al Qaeda militant Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa , who is charged with masterminding and securing finances for the November 2003 bombings in Istanbul . Security forces say that al-Saqa was a bomb making expert and a top figure in Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network in [...]