The Ohio Supreme Court issued a 4-3 opinion Friday permitting the parents of an unhealthy child born as a result of negligent genetic counseling or negligent failure to diagnose a fetal defect or disease to sue for medical malpractice . The court held that parents can recover damages for the costs related to the pregnancy [...]

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Thursday that the administration is not conducting any additional warrantless domestic surveillance beyond what President Bush acknowledged in December. Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) disclosed the information in an interview with the Washington Post, saying that Gonzales responded to a fax she sent him regarding Gonzales’ February 28 letter to [...]

A Croatian district court in Split has convicted eight former soldiers on charges of torturing and killing Serb prisoners and Yugoslav army officers at the Lora military prison during the Serbo-Croat war in 1991. Of the eight, four were convicted in absentia, with sentences ranging from six to eight years in prison. The former soldiers [...]

Eric Schwartz , the UN's deputy special envoy for tsunami recovery on the protection of vulnerable communities in the tsunami region, concluded his 10-day assessment of the region by urging the countries affected by the 2004 disaster to do more to protect human rights. Schwartz commended the efforts made by the countries to provide the [...]

Lawyers for Army Sgt. Michael Smith, currently facing court-martial for allegedly torturing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison with unmuzzled dogs , have withdrawn a request for testimony from prison commander Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller . Miller's testimony was expected to help Smith's case, based upon findings in the 2004 Fay Jones report and [...]

Chinese police have detained protesters in preparation for the annual ceremonial start of session of the National People's Congress in Beijing and forced them to return to their homes, human rights groups said Friday. Protesters traveled from across the country to air grievances ranging from insufficient health care and redevelopment seizure to strict birth control [...]

Mohammed al-Qahtani, the so-called "20th hijacker" from the Sept. 11 attacks, has disclaimed information he provided about 30 Guantanamo Bay detainees, alleging that the statements were coerced by torture, TIME magazine reported Friday. Qahtani was refused entry into the US in August 2001 and was later captured in Afghanistan; he has since been held at [...]

Prosecutor Douglas Gansler of the Montgomery County State's Attorneys Office in Maryland said Thursday that he will not seek the death penalty for DC sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad , who is charged with six counts of first degree murder related to the three-week series of shootings in the Washington, DC area in October 2002. [...]

The Iraqi government placed Baghdad under a daytime vehicular curfew on Friday in an attempt to quell the sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites that has wracked the country since the bombing of the Askariya shrine on February 22. Similar to the three-day curfew that was lifted on Monday , the traffic ban prohibits Iraqis [...]

Ivory Coast President Lauren Gbagbo has signed an extradition order authorizing Youssef Fofana to be transferred to France where he is wanted in connection with the kidnapping, torture and killing of a Jewish man outside Paris. Ivory Coast Justice Minister Mamadou Kone said Friday that Gbagbo signed the document after a court approved the extradition [...]