American shareholders of Russian oil company Yukos have filed a civil lawsuit against the Russian government and several Russian oil companies for allegedly conspiring to renationalize Yukos without compensating its owners, the Financial News reported Tuesday. The complaint, filed in a Washington, DC district court, claims that the defendants violated US securities laws by falsely [...]

US District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee ruled Monday that federal prosecutors can use a confession made by Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a US citizen charged with conspiracy to assassinate the president, conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy, providing material support to al Qaeda and various other crimes. Abu Ali has said that he was tortured into [...]

A United Nations human rights investigator declared "massive human rights violations at all levels" in the Democratic Republic of Congo Monday. Titinga Frederic Pacere attacked the nation's justice system, describing the prison system as "deplorable and inhumane" and the justice system as "powerless and lack resources." Pacere's report cites too few judges, an inadequate budget, [...]

Juan Guzman , the retired judge who led efforts to try former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet on human rights charges, told AP Monday that he doubts the dictator will ever be brought to justice. Last week, a court ruled that Pinochet could stand trial on tax evasion charges connected to money held in US [...]

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has requested that a portion of the $60 billion in disaster relief approved by Congress following Hurricane Katrina be redirected to fund the city's court system, jail operations and other critical city functions. Nagin said the city of New Orleans' finances were severely strained and hinted that the city was [...]

The White House has proposed absolving CIA agents working abroad from proposed legislation barring "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" of detainees, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. The exemption introduced by Vice President Dick Cheney and CIA Director Porter Goss, would apply to counter-terrorism operations conducted abroad and operations conducted by "an element of [...]

Despite last week's murder of a defense lawyer involved in the proceedings, Baghdad is still a safe place to hold the trial of Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants, President Bush said Monday in an interview with Al-Arabiya television. Bush dismissed calls for an international trial and stressed the importance of the trial to Iraqis, [...]

US Vice President Dick Cheney was the first person to discuss Valerie Plame with his Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby , lawyers involved in the leak investigation said Monday according to the New York Times. The revelation seems to be inconsistent with Libby's grand jury testimony that he learned the identity of the [...]

British Member of Parliament George Galloway Tuesday rejected fresh accusations from US congressional investigators that he profited from the now defunct UN Oil-for-Food Program in Iraq. The new report from the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will be handed over to the US Justice Department and to British authorities. A hearing before the investigations [...]

At least 21 detainees have been killed while being held in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, many during or after interrogations, according to an ACLU analysis of Defense Department data released Monday. According to autopsy reports, at least eight of the 21 homicides resulted from abusive techniques by US military or intelligence officers, such [...]