The Jordanian government said Tuesday that it is drafting tough new antiterrorism legislation that would allow suspected terrorists to be held indefinitely and, in very broad terms, would impose penalties on any individual who "would expose the lives and properties of citizens to danger inside and outside the country." The new anti-terror legislation is being [...]

Iraq’s government announced plans on Tuesday to investigate allegations that Iraqi security forces abused more than 170 prisoners held in central Baghdad, who were found malnourished and showing evidence of torture. Prompted by the repeated pleadings of a missing teenager's parents, US troops discovered the detainees , most of them Sunnis, during a raid of [...]

France's National Assembly , the lower house of parliament, on Tuesday voted to extend emergency powers originally granted for 12 days on November 8 to combat the civil unrest that started in late October. The extension of emergency powers, approved by the French cabinet Monday will go to the Senate for a vote on Wednesday; [...]

Chief Lebanese investigative judge Elias Eid on Tuesday refused to release two former high ranking Lebanese military officials implicated in the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri . The two former officials – former head of Lebanese intelligence Raymond Azar and presidential guard Mustafa Hamdan – were arrested in August under recommendations of the [...]

Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori lost his appeal in a Chilean court Tuesday in his legal effort to be released from custody as he fights his extradition to Peru on charges of corruption and human rights violations. Chilean officials first arrested Fujimori last week at the request of the current Peruvian government . Fujimori was [...]

Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture , on Tuesday called for unrestricted inspections of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay . The UN plans to send inspectors to Guantanamo on December 6 for a report that Nowak's team is due to complete by the end of the year, but Nowak says "if the [...]

In a meeting Tuesday with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) , Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito distanced himself from a 1985 statement in which he asserted his belief that the constitution does not guarantee a right to an abortion. The statement was made while Alito was applying for a position with the Attorney General's office during [...]

The US Senate on Tuesday passed a compromise amendment to the 2006 Defense Appropriations Bill that would curtail, but not totally cut off, Guantanamo Bay detainees' access to the federal court system to challenge their detentions. The new amendment, passed by a vote of 84-14 , was brokered by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) as a [...]

The only United Nations official to lose his job over the oil-for-food scandal has been reinstated, after an internal appellate body found that he had not violated staff rules . Joseph Stephanides was also issued a letter of apology and awarded $200,000 for emotional suffering and damage to his reputation by the UN's Joint Disciplinary [...]

The German trial of Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel was postponed Tuesday after Judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen fired one of Zundel's lawyers. Judge Meinerzhagen fired Sylvia Stolz because he believed Stolz would not defend Zundel properly, but did not set a date for the trial to reopen because a new lawyer would need sufficient time to prepare. [...]