The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Wednesday adopted a resolution condemning the human rights situation in Chechnya , citing numerous cases of murder, disappearances, torture, and other human rights abuses . A report accompanying the resolution blames the abuses mostly on the Russian government , Chechen rebels, and the "Kadyrovtsy" forces operating [...]

A British appeals court on Wednesday upheld a lower court's order that the Daily Telegraph pay damages and legal costs to British MP George Galloway after it found the newspaper had libeled Galloway by alleging that he took money from former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein under the now-defunct UN Oil-for-Food program . The appeals court [...]

Lucia Pinochet Hiriart, the eldest daughter of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was detained Wednesday at Dulles International Airport in Washington DC, according to a spokesperson from the Chilean government. Earlier this week, prosecutors in Chile brought tax evasion charges against her and other members of the Pinochet family . Hiriart allegedly owes more than [...]

Two US agencies, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Transportation Security Administration , have agreed to pay the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) $200,000 in attorneys fees to settle a case brought by the civil rights organization in 2003 challenging the government's no-fly list and requesting the disclosure of records . More than 300 [...]

Defense attorneys for admitted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui on Tuesday notified the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia of their plans to call expert witnesses to support their argument that Moussaoui should be spared from the death penalty because he suffers from severe mental illness. In the notice , defense attorneys said they [...]

Efforts to reach an agreement on a long-term renewal of the USA Patriot Act appear stalled as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner , the House's chief negotiator, has said his chamber is finished negotiating. Sixteen key provisions of the Patriot Act were set to expire at the end of last year. Members of [...]

UK rights group Liberty will launch a challenge to the UK Terrorism Act 2000 in the House of Lords Wednesday, arguing that the law violates fundamental human rights. According to a new report from the UK Home Office , almost 36,000 people were stopped and searched last year under Section 44 of the Act, which [...]

An Iraqi Justice Ministry official said Wednesday that 424 prisoners, including five women detainees, have "completed their legal procedures" and will be released from US custody. The US has confirmed that eight women are being held in Abu Ghraib prison and Iraqi officials said last week that six female detainees would be released . The [...]

Leading Wednesday's international brief, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres has called on the UN Security Council to create a UN peacekeeping force for the Darfur region of Sudan . Guterres said that while the 7,000 troop African Union peacekeeping mission was helping enforce the peace throughout Sudan, the Darfur region – where some [...]

The US Supreme Court late Tuesday issued a temporary stay on an execution order for Clarence Hill , a Florida inmate convicted of the 1982 killing of a police officer. Hill had been scheduled to be executed at 6 PM. The Court is currently reviewing three stay requests on his behalf, including one from Hill's [...]